Deadline: 17-Mar-22
The Department of Commerce is inviting applications for the Environmental Literacy Program: Increasing community resilience to extreme weather & climate change.
Goals
The goal of this funding opportunity is for communities to have sufficient collective environmental literacy to take actions that build resilience to extreme weather and climate change in ways that contribute to community health, social cohesion, and socio-economic equity. These communities will be composed of children, youth, and adults who participate in formal and/or informal education experiences that develop their knowledge, skills, and confidence to:
- reason about the ways that human and natural systems interact globally and locally, including the acknowledgement of disproportionately distributed vulnerabilities;
- participate in civic processes; and
- incorporate scientific information, cultural knowledge, and diverse community values. Efforts to build environmental literacy should ultimately aim to reduce risks from current and future environmental hazards through climate-smart and inclusive decision making and long-term stewardship of healthy ecosystems, all the while promoting a low-carbon economy.
Projects should demonstrate how they will engage children, youth, and/or adults to build these capabilities, particularly through active and social learning, during the award period. Projects should leverage and incorporate relevant state and local resilience plans and collaborate with individuals and institutions that are involved in efforts to develop or implement those plans. Projects may focus on a single location or multiple locations and a single type of environmental hazard or a range of hazards that impact a community or communities. Projects will be based on the established scientific evidence about current and future extreme weather and climate change hazards facing communities and should consider relevant socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological factors in the targeted location(s). Particular attention should be paid to community members that have greater exposure to, and fewer resources to deal with, extreme weather and/or climate change impacts. Projects should support diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate justice in all aspects of the project.
Funding Information
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) anticipates that approximately $5,000,000 may be available in fiscal year (FY) 2022 for this announcement. Approximately 7 to 12 awards among both priorities, in the form of cooperative agreements, will be made in FY 2022.
- All projects in both priorities must be between 2 and 5 years in duration and the total federal amount requested from NOAA for each project must be no less than $250,000 and no more than $500,000 for all years of the project, including direct and indirect costs.
Eligibility Criteria
- For both priorities of this funding opportunity, eligible applicants are limited to institutions of higher education; K-12 public and independent schools and school systems; other nonprofits, including community-based organizations and informal education institutions, such as museums, zoos, and aquariums; state and local government agencies; and Indian tribal governments in the United States. For-profit organizations, foreign institutions, and individuals are not eligible to apply; however, for-profit organizations, foreign institutions, and individuals may participate as project partners. Likewise, federal agencies are not eligible to receive federal assistance under this announcement, but may be project partners.
- This funding opportunity has two priorities, numbered without regard to importance for funding:
- Priority 1 awards will support new projects taking place in the Central and Eastern Regions of the United States. These regions include the following states: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
- Priority 2 awards will support the evolution of projects funded under the 2015-2018 funding opportunities from this program. Project impacts do need to occur in a specific region or regions of the United States.
- It is strongly encouraged that an individual serve as a Principal Investigator (PI) on only one application submitted to this funding opportunity. Institutions may submit more than one application and individuals may serve as co-PIs or key personnel on more than one application. Federal employees may not serve as PIs or co-PIs on any application, although they may be included as key personnel.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=335699