NOAA Sea Grant has announced its Aquaculture Research Program for 2012. This will likely be NOAA's only aquaculture-specific competition for this fiscal year.
Federal Funding Opportunity Number: NOAA-OAR-SG-2012-2003249 or CDMA Number: 11.417.
This is a two-stage competition, with required preproposals and full proposals. Each has specific guidance and deadlines, stated in the full announcement. Applicants must submit a preproposal in order to be eligible to submit a full proposal. Please pay careful attention to the full instructions, and you are welcome to contact your state Sea Grant Program to discuss pre-proposal ideas or for instructions on submitting full proposals. See www.seagrant.noaa.gov/colleges/index.html for contact information for all 32 Sea Grant programs. For California Sea Grant, contact either Dr. Jim Eckman or Dr. Shauna Oh at 858-534-4440.
1. Preproposal
The deadline for receipt of preproposals via electronic mail to
oar.hq.sg.aquaculture@noaa.gov at the National Sea Grant Office is 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on February 7, 2012. For preproposal requirements, see the full Federal Funding Opportunity at www.csgc.ucsd.edu.
By March 9, 2012, applicants should receive a summary statement that includes whether their preproposal is likely to fare well ("encouraged") or poorly ("discouraged") if submitted as a full proposal.
2. Full Proposal
Only those who submit preproposals that meet the deadline, are responsive to this Federal Funding Opportunity, and meet all other requirements of this notice are eligible to submit full proposals.
Full proposals are due to the state Sea Grant programs by 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (1:00 p.m. Pacific Time) on April 17, 2012. State Sea Grant Programs must forward applications unchanged to Grants.gov by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 9, 2012. Applications received after the closing dates and times will not be accepted.
Funding Opportunity Description
Depending on the availability of funds, NOAA expects to have approximately $3,200,000 available for a national competition to fund marine aquaculture research projects for FY 2012. This is part of the overall plan to support the development of environmentally and economically sustainable ocean, coastal, or Great Lakes aquaculture. Aquaculture that occurs in the Great Lakes or its coastal zone is considered marine aquaculture for this competition. Priorities for this FY 2012 competition include: research to inform specific regulatory decisions; research that supports multi-use spatial planning; and socio-economic research targeted to understand aquaculture in a larger context. Proposals must be able to express how the proposed work will have a high probability of significantly advancing U.S. marine aquaculture development in the short-term (1-2 years) or medium-term (3-5 years).
This Federal Funding Opportunity includes information on application and criteria for aquaculture research projects requesting a total of $50,000 to $500,000 in federal funding for up to two years. Matching funds are required. Given the anticipated amount of funding and the anticipated number and quality of proposals submitted, it is anticipated that at least seven projects will be awarded in FY 2012. Additional proposals from this competition may be selected for funding in the next fiscal year, subject to the availability of funds. Ideally, awards are anticipated to start no later than September 1, 2012.
