NOAA Offering Ruth D. Gates Grants for Coral Restoration Innovation

The Ruth D. Gates Coral Restoration Innovation Grants competition is a tribute to the work and life of Dr. Ruth Gates and aims to build on her efforts to address the decline in the abundance and health of coral reefs due to climate change, through innovative research. The work funded through this program is aimed at promoting long-term persistence of corals by supporting the science needed to incorporate resilient corals into restoration activities, enhance coral survivorship, and improve restoration methods. The principal objective of this grant program is to move coral intervention and restoration science towards field application in order to increase restoration scalability and coral survivorship and to promote resilient, genetically diverse, and reproductively viable coral populations. Projects funded through the Ruth D. Gates Restoration Innovation Grants are expected to have an overarching goal of bringing coral intervention research or techniques into restoration efforts. These projects should 1) advance the research and development of coral interventions to improve resilience to environmental stressors or 2) research innovations to improve coral restoration practices, survivorship of post larval settlers, and growth/survival of mid-sized corals. Selected proposals will be funded through cooperative agreements. NOAA will consider applications for one, two, or three funding years. The funding for the second and/or third year (2025 and/or 2026) will be estimated in the 2024 application, with final funding amounts determined in those future years, pending future federal appropriations and progress towards project milestones. Proposals requesting multi-year funding should detail the costs expected for each year separately in this proposal (see Section IV.B for more details about the budget narrative for multi-year awards). NOAA anticipates typical federal funding for awards will range from $100,000-$250,000/year for a total $100,000 to $750,000 over one to three years. NOAA will not accept proposals with a federal funding request of less than $100,000 or more than $1,000,000 total over three years. NOAA anticipates approximately $1,000,000 will be available under this announcement in fiscal year 2024. The Office of Habitat Conservation in conjunction with the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) will administer the funds. Funding may be divided among the U.S. Pacific and Atlantic regions to maintain the geographic balance of the Ruth D. Gates Coral Reef Conservation Grant Program as required by the reauthorized Coral Reef Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 6401-15. NOAA anticipated an additional $2,000,000 may be available in the next two years (fiscal year 2025 – fiscal year 2026) to support selected awards. Awards are dependent upon the amount of federal appropriations made available to NOAA in the fiscal year 2024 through fiscal year 2026 budgets. Applicants must be U.S. based and all NOAA funded in-water work must take place within U.S. jurisdictions (i.e., American Samoa, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands). 

The Ruth D. Gates Coral Restoration Innovation Grants competition is a tribute to the work and life of Dr. Ruth Gates and aims to build on her efforts to address the decline in the abundance and health of coral reefs due to climate change, through innovative research. The work funded through this program is aimed at promoting long-term persistence of corals by supporting the science needed to incorporate resilient corals into restoration activities, enhance coral survivorship, and improve restoration methods. The principal objective of this grant program is to move coral intervention and restoration science towards field application in order to increase restoration scalability and coral survivorship and to promote resilient, genetically diverse, and reproductively viable coral populations. Projects funded through the Ruth D. Gates Restoration Innovation Grants are expected to have an overarching goal of bringing coral intervention research or techniques into restoration efforts. These projects should 1) advance the research and development of coral interventions to improve resilience to environmental stressors or 2) research innovations to improve coral restoration practices, survivorship of post larval settlers, and growth/survival of mid-sized corals. Selected proposals will be funded through cooperative agreements. NOAA will consider applications for one, two, or three funding years. The funding for the second and/or third year (2025 and/or 2026) will be estimated in the 2024 application, with final funding amounts determined in those future years, pending future federal appropriations and progress towards project milestones. Proposals requesting multi-year funding should detail the costs expected for each year separately in this proposal (see Section IV.B for more details about the budget narrative for multi-year awards). NOAA anticipates typical federal funding for awards will range from $100,000-$250,000/year for a total $100,000 to $750,000 over one to three years. NOAA will not accept proposals with a federal funding request of less than $100,000 or more than $1,000,000 total over three years. NOAA anticipates approximately $1,000,000 will be available under this announcement in fiscal year 2024. The Office of Habitat Conservation in conjunction with the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) will administer the funds. Funding may be divided among the U.S. Pacific and Atlantic regions to maintain the geographic balance of the Ruth D. Gates Coral Reef Conservation Grant Program as required by the reauthorized Coral Reef Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 6401-15. NOAA anticipated an additional $2,000,000 may be available in the next two years (fiscal year 2025 – fiscal year 2026) to support selected awards. Awards are dependent upon the amount of federal appropriations made available to NOAA in the fiscal year 2024 through fiscal year 2026 budgets. Applicants must be U.S. based and all NOAA funded in-water work must take place within U.S. jurisdictions (i.e., American Samoa, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands).