Deadline: 29-Jul-22
The Department of Commerce is soliciting applications from Federally-designated National Estuarine Research Reserves for projects relating to:
- coastal habitat restoration;
- coastal habitat restoration planning, engineering, and design projects, and
- coastal land conservation that are expected to be completed within 3 years of the start date of the award, with the potential of up to 5 years.
This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) supports NOAA’s efforts reduce the impacts of climate change. A key pillar is resilience to climate change and its impacts, throughout the communities and ecosystems. Specifically, this NOFO seeks projects that enhance coastal resilience. Coastal areas support the nation’s largest and often fastest-growing population centers as well as key natural assets.
Categories
There are three categories of projects that are eligible, as follows.
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Habitat Restoration: For habitat restoration priority will be given to projects that:
- Reflect coastal habitat restoration priority areas identified in Reserve-specific management plans, or other state, regional or watershed level plans. However, please note that all projects must be located within the Reserve’s targeted watershed boundary;
- Restore important reserve habitats and connected ecosystem functions/species;
- Restore hydrologic connections between habitats that improve ecosystem function;
- Enhance or restore important ecosystem services that support coastal communities, vulnerable populations or cultural resources (i.e., coastal flood protection, extreme weather resilience, water quality and quantity, food safety & security, and chronic coastal erosion, etc.);
- Include a long-term plan for monitoring specific criteria relevant to achieve project objectives;
- Provide for engineering and design needs, if not already completed.
- Habitat Restoration Planning, Engineering, and Design: Habitat restoration planning, engineering, and design projects will be evaluated using the same criteria for habitat restoration projects, with the exception that monitoring plans are not required for planning, engineering, and design projects. Applicants proposing pre-implementation activities should demonstrate how these efforts will support or catalyze subsequent on-the-ground restoration.
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Land Conservation: For land conservation projects, priority will be given to projects that:
- have significant ecological value, and
- have a demonstrated need for protection; and
- can be effectively managed and protected
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $12,000,000
- Award Ceiling: $4,000,000
- Award Floor: $200,000
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants are NERRS lead state agencies or universities designated to receive NERRS operations funding through a Memorandum of Understanding with NOAA in coastal states and territories including the Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes.
- Eligible applicants should meet requirements as stated in the NERRS regulations codified at 15 CFR 921.32.
- Each applicant may submit no more than three letters of intent for consideration under this competition.
- NOAA may, with concurrence of the NERRS lead state agency or university, make a grant directly to an eligible Reserve partner in order to expedite completion of an approved project.
- Reserve partners must have a signed MOU or MOA in place with the NERRS lead state agency or university in order to be eligible for direct funding under this competition.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=341547
