We are pleased to announce the 2017 NOAA Sea Grant Marine, Coastal and Great Lakes National Aquaculture Initiative a federal funding opportunity (FFO) from NOAA that is intended to support research and outreach to address issues affecting aquaculture in the United States.

The FFO explains two separate aquaculture competitions:
1. Integrated Projects to Increase Aquaculture Production
2. Addressing Impediments to Aquaculture Opportunities.

Note that the FFO mandates that projects addressing either of the two NSI be collaborations between a state Sea Grant program, researchers and industry partners. The degree of Florida Sea Grant involvement in proposed projects will be defined through mutual agreement among the project investigators and Florida Sea Grant. Minimally, Florida Sea Grant can provide the following services to the project collaborators:

1. Florida Sea Grant will submit letters of intent (LOI) and proposals on behalf of the project teams.

2. The Florida Sea Grant Director:

• will be the Principal Investigator and the project manager, with aquaculture researchers affiliated with state agencies, universities or businesses assuming the role of co-PI’s;
• will convene quarterly video-conference meetings between project investigators to discuss progress, issues and upcoming actions;
• will convene annual meetings with project investigators, starting with an initial meeting in the first month of the project; and
• in collaboration with the researcher(s) and industry partners(s) will organize and facilitate a workshop to disseminate project results to the broader industry.

3. Florida Sea Grant also will provide communications support to ensure broad dissemination of the research results. Projects of regional or national importance to the aquaculture industry are highly valued by NOAA so this communication component is critical.

We have been informed by NOAA that success in obtaining funding hinges on the relevance and technical merits of the project, experience, collaboration and past work of the research team, and on two additional things.

First, the project must address a critical issue that is keeping a new aquaculture product from being commercially produced within the next two to four years. In other words, there is an established long-term relationship of working with the industry and conducting research towards this end, and the new money will complete that process. The evaluation panel at NOAA will look at proposals and fund those where they are convinced that a commercial outcome will happen within two years of the end of the project.

Second, the evaluation panel at NOAA will look at projects and fund those that have clearly defined and significant team work between the state Sea Grant program, the researcher(s) and the industry partner(s). The researcher therefore must work closely with the Director of Florida Sea Grant in developing their proposal. It may be that we can determine additional strategies for teamwork beyond those noted above.

Florida Sea Grant submits the proposal and the master budget, and it will include costs for yearly travel of the project manager, costs for the organization and facilitation of the final workshop, costs for the team members to travel to and present results at the Florida Sea Grant Coastal Science Symposium and communication costs – in addition to the IDC mentioned below.

Due dates (to Florida Sea Grant) are:

NSI: (1) Integrated Projects to Increase Aquaculture Production
FFO: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=291881

• Letters of Intent must be submitted to the Florida Sea Grant program by 4 pm EST, March 20, 2017. Letters of intent are due by Sea Grant Programs to NSGO by March 28, 2017.

• Submittal of a LOI is a required pre-requisite for submitting a Full Proposal.
• Before submitting a LOI, the investigator must contact the Director of Florida Sea Grant and discuss the project that is being proposed contact Melissa Macarages to setup a telephone meeting (mmacarages@ufl.edu)
• Submit Letters of Intent to Melissa Macarages (mmacarages@ufl.edu) as a Word file. The Director may adjust the LOI to make sure it is clear how Florida Sea Grant will be involved in the project and will work with the investigator on the edits before the LOI is submitted.There is no set format for LOI. However, investigators are encouraged to use the template for the LOI ‘Title Page’ that is available at the following link: http://seagrant.noaa.gov/Portals/0/Documents/funding_fellowship/nsi/aquaculture/Aquaculture2017NSITitlePage02.23.2017.pdf

FORMS

Sea Grant Aquaculture Competition 90-2 Form (zipped Excel spreadsheet)

Form 90-4

• Full Proposals must be submitted to the Florida Sea Grant program by 4 p.m. EST, April 24, 2017.

• Investigators must work with the Director of Florida Sea Grant in developing proposals and budgets. Budgets will include relevant costs of Florida Sea Grant participation and University of Florida overhead costs (see a and b below). 
• Full Proposals will be submitted by Florida Sea Grant to the NSGO by May 9, 2017.
• Full Proposals will be reviewed by the National Sea Grant Office.
• The University of Florida will assess Indirect Costs for projects that are not conducted by UF faculty or affiliates.
  a. For NON-UF-based proposals, investigators will be charged IDC by UF on the first $25,000 of the contract amount to their university, business or other institution.
  b. UF IDC Rates:
  52.5% of the first $25,000 = $13,125 for the research projects.
  32.6% of the first $25,000 = $8,150 for non-research extension projects.
• University of Florida-affiliated investigators must submit their proposals and budgets using the UFirst System. University of Florida investigators must contact Ed Harvey ejh@ufl.edu (352) 392-5870 no later than April 3, 2017 for guidance about budgets.

NSI: (2) Addressing Impediments to Aquaculture Opportunities
FFO: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=291894

1. Full Proposals must be submitted to the Florida Sea Grant program by 4 pm EST, March 20, 2017.

• Contact the Director and work with him in developing the proposal and budget. Setup appointments to do this with his executive assistant Melissa Macarages (mmacarages@ufl.edu)
• Submit the proposal to Melissa Macarages (mmacarages@ufl.edu). The proposal may be modified as needed by the Director to make sure that Florida Sea Grant’s role in the project is clear, and he will work with the investigator in this editing process before the review happens.
• Full proposals will be reviewed by subject experts outside of the Florida Sea Grant program during March 20 through April 10, 2017. Experts will score proposals based set criteria:
  • Scientific Merit (30%) — the degree to which the proposed project is innovative and will advance the state of the science or discipline through rigorous state-of-the-art research or highly relevant workshop or other activity.
  • Users, Participants and Co-Sponsors (30%) — the degree to which users or potential users of the results of the proposed project have been brought into the planning of the project, will be brought into the execution of the project, and will use results. Researchers must work with end-users to develop relevant proposals.
  • Expected Results, Applications and Benefits (40%) — the degree to which the completed project is expected to create new commercial aquaculture opportunities, improve technological and economic efficiency, promote environmental sustainability, or improve management decisions, in Florida or possibly nationally.
• A tally of the three expert scores will determine the three projects that receive the overall highest score, and those will be submitted for national competition. Florida Sea Grant will not be involved in the scoring process.
• The top three (3) Full Proposals reviewed will be submitted by the Florida Sea Grant Program to the National Sea Grant Office by April 18, 2017.
• The University of Florida will assess Indirect Costs for projects that are not conducted by UF faculty or affiliates.
  a. For NON-UF-based proposals, investigators will be charged IDC by UF on the first $25,000 of the contract amount to their university, business or other institution.
  b. UF IDC Rates:
  52.5% of the first $25,000 = $13,125 for the research projects.
  32.6% of the first $25,000 = $8,150 for non-research extension projects.
• University of Florida-affiliated investigators must submit their proposals and budgets using the UFirst System. University of Florida investigators should contact Ed Harvey ejh@ufl.edu (352) 392-5870 f no later than March 10, 2017 for guidance about budgets.