Tidal Basin and Michael Baker International recently hosted a webinar on FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, covering the current funding cycle, application readiness, and how communities can position stronger submissions.
Communities planning infrastructure and hazard mitigation investments have a significant opportunity in the current FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) cycle. Tidal Basin and Michael Baker International recently hosted the webinar “$1B in BRIC Funding: What You Need to Know and How to Be Successful” to help applicants and subapplicants better understand the program, the latest funding priorities, and the steps applicants can take now to strengthen potential submissions.
The session featured panelists: Eric Letvin, Vice President of Resilience at Tidal Basin; Adrienne Sheldon, Planning and Resilience Practice Lead at Tidal Basin; Christine Caggiano, Planning Technical Manager at Michael Baker International, plus Mark Boone, Mitigation Practice Team Lead at Tidal Basin for Q&A, and James K. Joseph, Chief Growth Officer at Tidal Basin, as moderator. Together, the panel shared practical guidance for navigating the current BRIC cycle and discussed how communities can better align project strategy, technical development, and implementation planning.
What is BRIC?
BRIC is FEMA’s pre-disaster mitigation program for projects that reduce risk before disasters happen. As outlined in the webinar, the program is intended to shift investment from reactive recovery to proactive mitigation and supports infrastructure and construction projects that lower future disaster losses. The presentation also notes that BRIC can include natural systems when they directly support infrastructure and that the program rewards measurable risk reduction, implementation readiness, and stronger building codes.
Examples of BRIC-fit work highlighted in the webinar and supporting collateral include flood risk reduction and stormwater resilience; critical facility hardening and public building retrofits; utility and wastewater protection; transportation and public-asset protection; wildfire mitigation tied to infrastructure; and natural systems that directly support infrastructure.
What is different about this BRIC cycle?
A central theme of the webinar was that this year’s BRIC cycle is more infrastructure-focused and more implementation-driven than prior cycles. The current Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) places stronger emphasis on construction-ready projects, measurable risk reduction, and implementation readiness. It also notes that only infrastructure and construction projects with at least a conceptual design are eligible, while phased projects and hazard mitigation plan development or scoping not directly tied to a specific infrastructure project are not eligible.
That shift matters because applicants now need stronger alignment between project scope, design maturity, schedule, budget, and technical documentation earlier in the process. The presentation emphasizes that teams that connect grant strategy with engineering and delivery planning will be better positioned than those that handle each element separately.
What communities should pay attention to now
The webinar and BRIC collateral both underscore that this cycle includes approximately $1 billion in funding across five buckets: State/Territory Allocation, Tribal Set-Aside, State/Territory Building Code Plus-Up, Tribal Building Code Plus-Up, and National Competition. Direct applicants are states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and federally recognized Tribal Nations, while local governments generally participate as subapplicants.
For communities pursuing BRIC funding, readiness is critical. The webinar highlighted several factors that can affect competitiveness, including construction readiness, building code adoption and enforcement, risk-reduction narratives, implementation measures, and documentation quality. It also noted that applicants should begin early on Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA), environmental and historic preservation review, permitting, and other supporting requirements that can affect both eligibility and schedule.
The presentation also identified common pitfalls that can weaken otherwise promising applications, such as incomplete scopes of work, inconsistencies across the application package, budgets that do not align with design assumptions, thin design maturity, and delays in gathering EHP, permitting, procurement, or stakeholder input.
Important timing for the 2026 cycle
FEMA opened applications on March 25, 2026, and the BRIC submission deadline is July 23, 2026, at 3:00 PM ET. Tribal and local government and other sub-applicant deadlines may be earlier, based on your state or the applicant’s deadline. This makes early coordination especially important for communities that need time to confirm project eligibility, strengthen documentation, or refine project readiness.
How Tidal Basin and Michael Baker International support applicants
A major focus of the webinar was the value of bringing grant strategy and technical delivery together from the outset. Tidal Basin and Michael Baker International are one united team for BRIC support. Tidal Basin brings experience in grants, program management, FEMA GO coordination, Benefit-Cost Analysis support, mitigation planning, and recipient/subrecipient administration. Michael Baker International brings infrastructure and mitigation planning, engineering design, environmental services, geospatial support, construction-ready project development, building code support, and construction management.
Before award, the combined team can help screen projects for BRIC fit, support pre-applications and sub-applications, coordinate technical documentation and cost estimating, address mitigation plan consistency, and prepare for EHP and permitting requirements. After selection, the team can assist with scopes, milestones, RFIs, documentation management, engineering design, project management, reimbursement readiness, and closeout support.
Access the on-demand webinar and BRIC resources
The on-demand webinar, presentation materials, and BRIC informational collateral are available by visiting https://www.tidalbasingroup.com/bric/
Communities interested in discussing project readiness, funding strategy, or support for the current BRIC cycle can also connect directly with our resilience team at: [email protected]