Who funds river research?

We count 136 funded river projects, active between 2021 and 2031, from 8 funders. The most came from EU · ERC (19 projects), NSF · GEO (18 projects) and EU · MSCA (18 projects). The median award is $935K, across the 132 of 136 projects that list an amount.

Funded projects

136

Funders

8

Median award

$935K

Open calls now

3

Top funders of river research

Projects whose title or summary mentions river. Median award: of the projects that list an amount, in US dollars; “—” when fewer than 3 do.

Open river funding calls

3 open calls mention river today.

• Native American Affairs: Fiscal Year 2025 Colorado River Basin Tribal Drought Resiliency Program
  Bureau of Reclamation$50,000 – $1,000,000Deadline: November 20, 2026 ·
• WaterSMART Enhancing Water Resources Projects
  Bureau of Reclamation$50,000 – $3,000,000Deadline: September 8, 2027 ·
• NPS Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Units (CESU) Master Cooperative Agreements
  National Park Service$30,000,000 – $40,000,000Deadline: December 31, 2027 ·

Funded river projects

A sample, latest start first, at most three per program.

• CAREER: Tracing hydrologic and biogeochemical consequences of multiple disturbances in mountain watersheds
  NSF · GEO · $888,026 · ends 2031
• CAREER: Quantifying the effects of earthquake-induced landslides on mountain erosion and organic carbon mobilization
  NSF · GEO · $682,771 · ends 2031
• Agricultural drainage systems help farmers improve crop production by removing excess water from poorly drained soils
  USDA · $2,940,000 · ends 2031
• Woodchip bioreactors are gaining popularity as a low-cost agricultural best management practice designed to reduce nitrate loading from…
  USDA · $4,151,722 · ends 2031
• CAREER: Tracking carbon cycling dynamics in river networks following terrestrial enhanced weathering
  NSF · GEO · $631,745 · ends 2031
• Collaborative Research: RUI: A longitudinal study of hybridization in Mimulus: revealing the ecological, phenotypic, and genetic determinants of porous species boundaries.
  NSF · BIO · $986,241 · ends 2031
• Nature's Resistance: Quantifying ecological roughness for enhanced flow prediction in rivers
  UKRI · NERC · £799,421 · ends 2031
• The workforce opportunities in regional careers renewal grant program goal is to ensure that local citizens in the savannah river site…
  DOE · $1,000,000 · ends 2031
• WET-RISK: Basin-wide assessment of amazon wetland forests sensitivity to extreme climatic events and its ecological consequences
  UKRI · NERC · £1,077,319 · ends 2031
• Rice is a major crop in the lower mississippi river basin, but traditional flooded production requires large volumes of water and can lead…
  USDA · $591,059 · ends 2030

How we count

Funded projects come from public award records (NIH RePORTER, NSF, EU CORDIS, UKRI Gateway to Research, Wellcome, the Gates Foundation, DOE, NASA and USDA NIFA) whose title or summary matches “river or rivers”. NIH lists each budget year separately; one project counts once. Amounts are as the funder lists them; medians use only projects that list one, in US dollars. Open calls and forecasts are from our listings of October 28, 2026. A project can mention a topic without being mainly about it, so treat the counts as a guide to who funds the area.