The 2003 Cooperative Agreements Program is open for submission of proposals through May 30, 2003. The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) sponsors the Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) to support the implementation of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).

The 2003 CAP will provide seed funds to engage organizations in building the NSDI through metadata implementation, training and outreach, and clearinghouse implementation of OpenGIS web services. In addition, the FGDC and Geoconnections Canada will jointly fund a collaborative cross-border spatial data infrastructure project.

The NSDI consists of the technologies, policies, and people necessary to effectively discover, share, maintain and use digital geographic data throughout all sectors of the geospatial data community in the distributed electronic environment.

The CAP is open to all U.S. organizations and seeks new participants. The CAP program does not support GIS startups, data collection or data purchases.

Application information and instructions can be found on-line by visiting the FGDC website at: www.fgdc.gov