Five for Friday: August 22, 2025

Five for Friday: Grant Opportunities and More!

Curated by: The Western Nevada Development District
This edition of Five for Friday features opportunities ranging from wildfire resilience research to infrastructure support, critical minerals innovation, and community-strengthening initiatives. From federal research funding and technical assistance for rural and Tribal projects, to orchard donations and nonprofit support programs, there are resources available to help communities thrive, adapt, and grow.
Grant Opportunities & More

Improving Resilience to Wildland Fire

The Fire Science Innovations through Research and Education (FIRE) program invites innovative multidisciplinary and multisector investigations focused on convergent research and education activities in wildland fire. All areas of science, engineering, and education supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation are included in this program. Projects developed by a wide array of groups including, for example, academics, educators, scientists, community members, students, industry partners, practitioners, resource managers, and Tribal representatives, working together to generate new knowledge of the interactions among biological, social, geoscientific, and engineering processes encompassing multiple fields, scales, and perspectives on wildland fire are encouraged.

FIRE-WUI awards will support research that may for example:

  • Inform community adaptation and governance relevant to wildland fire.
  • Investigate public perceptions and understanding of wildland fire as well as decision making and communication and the resultant impact on livelihoods and cultural heritage.
  • Promote better understanding of the socioeconomic disparities related to the impacts of wildfire on remote rural communities.
  • Test and model behaviors of building materials, structures, and infrastructures under wildfire loads;
  • Create robust wildfire risk scenarios and algorithms for evaluating cascading failures and community-scale vulnerability.
Proposals are due Feb. 10, 2026
NOFO
More Information

Department of Transportation: Rural and Tribal Assistance (RTA) Pilot Program

The Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program (RTA) provides up to $54.2 million in no-match grants on a first-come, first-serve basis to support legal, technical, and financial advisors to help advance infrastructure projects in rural and tribal communities.

Eligible project sponsors may receive grant funds to select advisors to assist with pre-development-phase activities, including:

  • Feasibility studies
  • Project planning
  • Revenue forecasting, funding and financing options analyses
  • Preliminary engineering and design work
  • Environmental review
  • Economic assessments and cost-benefit analyses
  • Public benefits studies
  • Statutory and regulatory framework analyses
  • Value-for-money (VFM) studies
  • Evaluations of costs to sustain the project
  • Evaluation opportunities for private financing and project bundling
This amended NOFO combines Fiscal Years (FY) 2024 and 2025 program funds, with a $20 million set-aside for Tribes.

Applications will be accepted beginning on Sept. 8, 2025, at 2 p.m. ET

Applicants are not required to submit materials on grants.gov.

Application
NOFO

Building Critical Minerals and Materials Supply Chains

The U.S. Department of Energy announced its intent to issue notices of funding opportunities totaling nearly $1 billion to advance and scale mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies across key stages of the critical minerals and materials supply chains.

Proposed NOFOs announced today include:

  • Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office expects to release a NOFO of up to $50 million early this fall through the Critical Minerals and Materials (CMM) Accelerator program
  • Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion – Piloting Byproduct Critical Minerals and Materials Recovery at Domestic Industrial Facilities The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management is announcing its intent to issue a NOFO to support approximately $250 million of financial assistance for American industrial facilities that have the potential to produce valuable mineral byproducts from existing industrial processes
  • Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program
  • The Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) is announcing its intent to issue a NOFO of up to $500 million to expand U.S. Critical Mineral and Materials processing and derivative battery manufacturing and recycling
Critical Materials and Manufacturing Technologies NOFO
Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion NOFO
The Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) Intent
Announcement

Creating Fruitful Communities

The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) is an award-winning international nonprofit charity dedicated to planting fruitful trees and plants to alleviate world hunger, combat global warming, strengthen communities, and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water. FTPF programs strategically donate orchards where the harvest will best serve communities for generations, at places such as community gardens, public schools, city/state parks, low-income neighborhoods, Native American reservations, international hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries.

Orchard donations are available for recipients who pledge to care for their trees and utilize them for a charitable purpose. If selected for an orchard donation, FTPF provides high-quality fruit trees and shrubs, equipment, on-site orchard design expertise and oversight, horticultural workshops, and aftercare training and manuals.

Rolling application.

More Information
Nourishing People and the Planet

The Whole Foods Market Store Giving program is led by a network of their team members across the company who are empowered to address the needs within their local communities. The program aligns to Whole Foods Market’s higher purpose of nourishing people and the planet.

Whole Foods provides financial support biannually for 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations focused on food access, environmental stewardship, or other closely related needs.

Organizations can apply for consideration through Whole Foods Market’s Community Engagement Portal.

The next application period ends Oct. 12, 2025

Engagement Portal
More Information