The National Sea Grant Office is offering Aquaculture Technologies and Education Travel Grants

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, the National Sea Grant Office (NSGO) anticipates that up to $500,000 in FY 2024 federal funds will be available to Sea Grant programs to support approximately 10-20 projects for a duration of up to one year. Awards will be made for no more than $50,000 in federal funds per project. Proposals are sought that provide an opportunity for researchers (faculty, graduate students, post-doctoral), Sea Grant extension personnel, and industry members, or a mixture of participants, to enhance knowledge of aquaculture technologies, production practices and systems, and associated topics pertinent to the species or species group of interest to participants. The goal of this opportunity is that participants will utilize the knowledge and expertise gained through their travel experiences in their approach to improve aquaculture research, extension, or aquaculture production and/or business activities that will benefit the U.S. aquaculture industry. Available funding can be used to support travel costs, salary, and costs associated with outreach activities following travel. Travel must be focused on visiting aquaculture sites or facilities, either public or private. Funding for research activities is not permitted through this announcement. Successful applications will: identify, justify, and describe the need or needs to be addressed regarding improvement of aquaculture research, extension, or production activities, describe and document the proposed plan regarding how the proposed travel activities will address the identified need or needs, describe how the proposed activities will enhance aquaculture-related activities of project participants, and describe how the proposed activities will benefit the U.S. aquaculture industry and associated stakeholders. Applications require the standard 50% non-federal match for Sea Grant projects. Please note that it is envisioned that this funding opportunity, with potential variation in total funding available, will be reinstated annually, contingent on available funding. 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, and support NOAA and Department of Commerce aquaculture goals. 

This competition is open to all Sea Grant Programs. A Sea Grant Program may submit 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. International travel is permitted, however international travel must conform to guidelines specified by the Fly America Act.

This document sets out requirements for submitting to NOAA-OAR-SG-2024-24700.