National Sea Grant College Program: Regional Aquaculture Communications/Literacy Grant

The National Sea Grant College Program champions diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by recruiting, retaining, and preparing a diverse workforce, and proactively engaging and serving the diverse populations of coastal communities. Sea Grant is committed to building inclusive research, extension, communication, and education programs that serve people with unique backgrounds, circumstances, needs, perspectives, and ways of thinking. We encourage Sea Grant program applications to reflect diverse participation with regards to age, race, ethnicities, national origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, disabilities, cultures, religions, citizenship types, marital statuses, education levels, job classifications, veteran status types, income, and socioeconomic status.

The National Sea Grant College Program was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1966 (amended in 2020, Public Law 116-221) to support leveraged federal and state partnerships that harness the intellectual capacity of the nation’s universities and research institutions to solve problems and generate opportunities in coastal communities.

Subject to the availability of funding, Sea Grant anticipates approximately $3,000,000 will be available for research projects and programs to create four Regional Aquaculture Communications/Literacy Collaboratives with up to $750,000 available for each. 

The overall goal of this competition is to support development and expansion of aquaculture communications and literacy approaches applicable to specific regions and aquaculture operations. The four regions in which Collaboratives are sought to be established (including states and territories) are:

• West Coast/Alaska/Pacific (CA, OR, WA, AK, HI, GU, and other Pacific territories)
• Southeast/GOM (TX, LA, MS. AL, FL, PR, US Virgin Islands, GA, SC, NC)
• Northeast/mid-Atlantic (VA, MD, DE, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA, NH, ME)
• Great Lakes (NY, VT, PA, OH, IN, IL, MI, WI, MN) 

While a regional approach is the required mechanism for achieving these goals, it is expected that the individual Collaboratives will interact with one another to support shared National level interests. Proposals are sought that will support collaborative, multi-SG Program efforts within each region to address aquaculture communications and literacy needs, and ensure that efforts benefit the aquaculture community as well as seafood consumers and the general public. These investments are consistent with Sea Grant’s focus area of Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture (SFA) and the Sea Grant Network’s 10-year Aquaculture Vision, both which support NOAA and Department of Commerce aquaculture goals. 

This competition is open to all Sea Grant Programs. A Sea Grant Program may submit or be a part of more than one application. Programs are encouraged to partner with other Sea Grant Programs and/or other entities such as individuals, State and Tribal Agencies/Organizations, HBCUs/MSIs, NGOs, aquaculture industry members and associations, universities, and colleges, including community colleges. Federal agencies and their personnel are not permitted to receive federal funding under this competition; however, federal scientists and other employees can serve as uncompensated partners or co-Principal Investigators on applications. Federal labs and offices can also make available specialized expertise, facilities or equipment to applicants but cannot be compensated under this competition for their use, nor can the value of such assets be used as match. All projects must take place within the United States or territories or their respective waterways.

This document sets out requirements for submitting to NOAA-OAR-SG-2024-24695.