This page is for the 2017 Biennial Call for Research Proposals.

To access the 2019 Biennial Call for Letters of Intent, visit: https://archive.flseagrant.org/funding/

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Call for Full Proposals for Applied Research Projects

Deadline: Wednesday, May 31, 2017
(3:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time)
This document is in three sections:

A. Funding and Proposal Information
B. Priorities for Applied Research Projects
C. Statement of Interest Guidelines

The PDF of these instructions can be downloaded at the following link: Call for Full Proposals of Applied Research Projects

Criteria to Qualify for a Review

To have your Research Proposal considered in this review process, ALL of the following criteria must be met. Proposals that do not meet ALL of these criteria will be returned without a review and will not be considered in this biennial applied research competition. There will be no exceptions.

1.  All required materials identified in the RFP must be submitted to the online system on or before 3 PM EDT on May 31, 2017.

2. IN THE FULL PROPOSAL THE INVESTIGATORS MUST CLEARLY EXPLAIN THE ROLE THAT END-USERS PLAYED IN DEVELOPING THE PROPOSAL AND SPECIFIC ROLE THAT THEY WILL PLAY IN PROJECT EXECUTION. Professional colleagues are not end-users. An end-user is an industry or agency partner that makes use of a research product to address some coastal or ocean issue. We require information about how the end-user will use the new information, tools, models or other products of the research project. Holding a workshop at the end of the project with end-users or listing end-users as members of an advisory committee without specifying their role in developing and implementing the project are not sufficient.

3. The Principal Investigator must have documented expertise in the specific area of proposed research.

4. The project must include full or partial funding for at least one student who is being mentored by the Principal Investigator, and that student must be actively contributing to the project as part of his/her Thesis, Dissertation, or undergraduate research.

5. The proposed research must clearly address one or more of the priorities identified in section B of this RFP.

6.  Investigators may participate on up to TWO Full Proposals: On ONE Full Proposal as Principal Investigator and on ONE Full Proposal as either Co-Principal Investigator or Associate Investigator. Investigators may not participate as Principal Investigator on more than ONE Full Proposal.

7. ONLY investigators who submitted statements of interest and received review comments back are eligible to submit full proposals. Investigators who were encouraged by the panel to submit full proposals are the main target of this RFP, although, if you had a statement of interest that was reviewed but you were not encouraged, a full proposal can still be submitted. Please note that the same panelists who reviewed statements of interest will be reviewing the full-proposals.

8. In addition to submitting your proposal describe how you responded to the review comments (this will not count towards your page limit total).

Additional Guidance: During the pre-proposal review the panel concluded that many pre-proposals had overly ambitious objectives for two-year projects. Carefully consider your objectives so that they are realistic given the time-period and the funding provided. Keep in mind that only under exceptional circumstances do we now give extensions on research projects.

Overview

This is a solicitation for full proposals for two-year coastal and ocean applied research projects.

• Priorities identified in Section B were developed from the Florida Sea Grant Strategic Plan, and address four focus areas: Healthy Coastal Environments; Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture; Resilient Communities and Economies; and Environmental Literacy and Workforce Development.
• Proposals must be strong in scientific or professional merit, rationale and end-user engagement, and also meet the criteria in sections 1- 8 below.
• The maximum Florida Sea Grant award is $200,000 for two years, with no more than $100,000 in each individual budget year.
• A 50% non-federal dollar match is required – i.e., $100,000 match if $200,000 of federal funds is requested.
• We intend to fund approximately 8 research projects. Projects of the highest scientific merit and strongest end-user engagement will be selected. A review panel of experts from outside of Florida will determine which projects will be funded. Florida Sea Grant does not make this decision.

Purpose

This document describes the process to apply for Florida Sea Grant funding for two-year applied research projects beginning in Spring 2018. It provides an overview of the Florida Sea Grant proposal and review process, defines priority areas, and presents guidelines for the preparation of the full proposal.

A. Florida Sea Grant Funding and Proposal Information 2018 – 2020

1. Sea Grant Funding Cycle
   

   Florida Sea Grant research projects are normally funded for two years. Thus, projects proposed should be for the period February 1, 2018 to January 31, 2020.

Key dates, starting with writing of your full research proposal:

2017   

April 19                  RFP for Full Proposals from Faculty who Submitted a Statement of Interest.

April 19-May 28    Full Proposals Written

May 31                  Full Proposals Due by 3 PM EDT (no late proposals will be accepted)

June-July              Peer Review Conducted

August 8-9             Technical Panel Meets to Review Full Proposals

August 14              Faculty Notified if Proposal is Successful

September 3         Faculty Letter Response to Peer Reviews Due

October 1              Omnibus Florida Sea Grant Proposal Submitted to National Sea Grant Office, NOAA

2018       New projects start. The date when funds are released depends on when they are provided by NOAA.

2. Research Proposal Described

The research proposal clearly identifies a topic relevant to coastal and ocean needs in Florida and the nation and provides sufficient detail for reviewers to discern the technical and practical merits of the project. It describes the need for the research and explains in detail the approach that will be taken to address that need, solve the problem, answer the question. It includes a rationale, approach, end-user participation and expected outcomes and impacts.

The 15 page (maximum) Research Proposal format, the one-page biographical data form for each investigator, and a two-page description of how the proposed work addresses the comments of the review panel are described and included in this document.  The page limit includes tables, figures and references, but does not include budget pages, biographical data forms of investigators. or the description of how the proposed work addresses the comments of the review panel.

3. Participation

Any Principal Investigator who submitted a research statement of interest and meets the aforementioned ‘criteria to qualify for a review’ is eligible to apply. Funded projects will be selected based on the degree to which they address Florida Sea Grant’s stated priorities, their scientific merit and active participation by an end-user in the private sector, a government agency, or a coastal community. Principal Investigators may be employees of universities, agencies, non-profits or private corporations. Regardless of where they are employed, however, they must meet the ‘criteria to qualify for a review.’ Because we are by nature a college program, one of our criteria is support of students. For principal investigators not employed by a university, an effective way to address this criterion is to team up with a faculty member at one of Florida’s many universities.

 Investigators may participate on up to TWO Full Proposals: On ONE Full Proposal as Principal Investigator and on ONE Full-Proposal as either Co-Principal Investigator or Associate Investigator. Investigators may not participate as Principal Investigator on more than ONE Full Proposal.

4. Size of Grant Award

The maximum two-year award that Florida Sea Grant will provide is $200,000, with a maximum of $100,000 in each budget year. For each Sea Grant dollar, a 50% matching fund commitment is required (i.e., if you request $200,000 of federal dollars, you must have $100,000 of non-federal match).

For 2018 and 2020, the anticipated amount (assuming the current federal appropriation) of annual research funding available will be approximately $800,000. At the $100,000 level, this would fund up to 8 regular research projects.

5. Student Involvement Is Essential

Sea Grant is a college program and student participation in Sea Grant funded research is essential. Florida Sea Grant’s goal is to ensure that 25% of its research funding supports students (and their associated costs) who are working within a project.

6. Review Criteria

In order for your Research Proposal to be sent out for a review, ALL eight of the criteria listed on page 2 of this call for proposals must be met. Research Proposals that do not meet ALL of the criteria will be returned without a review and will not be considered in this biennial research competition.

Peer review is the responsibility of the Florida Sea Grant College Program (Director). Oversight of the peer review process is the responsibility of the National Sea Grant Office (Program Monitor). For full Research Proposals, Florida Sea Grant will obtain reviews from three experts outside the state of Florida. These panelists are broadly experienced scientists recognized for both their disciplinary and program leadership experience. They will review and recommend the projects that we will submit for funding to the National Sea Grant Office with our omnibus proposal in October.

The full proposals are more comprehensive and detailed versions of the statements of interest that were reviewed in the first round of this funding cycle. Three equally-weighted criteria will be used by reviewers and panel members to evaluate full proposals (see below).

1. Scientific Merit — 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.
2. Users, Participants and Co-Sponsors — 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.
3. Expected Results, Applications and Benefits — the degree to which the completed project is expected to create new commercial opportunities, improve technological and economic efficiency, promote environmental sustainability, or improve management decisions, in Florida or possibly nationally.

The panel will consider reviews that rate proposals based on these criteria. Panel deliberations ensure that we fund only technically excellent and issue-oriented research that engages end-users AND to ensure (where possible) that projects are distributed across multiple focus areas of our Strategic Plan.

7. NOAA Data Sharing Requirement (effective for all new NOAA funded research projects)

Environmental data and information collected and/or created under NOAA grants and cooperative agreements must be made visible, accessible, and independently understandable to general users, free of charge or at minimal cost, in a timely manner (typically no later than two years after the data are collected or created), except where limited by law, regulation, policy or by security requirements.

The new requirement has two basic parts: (1) environmental data generated by a grant project must be made available after a reasonable period of exclusive use, and (2) the grant application must describe the plan to make the data available.

For the Full Proposal, the Principal Investigator must explain how the data and metadata will be developed, described and archived for public access. Funds may be budgeted in the project full-proposal for this task.

Process for Providing Environmental Data and Information: Upon completion of the Florida Sea Grant funded project, the PI must provide Florida Sea Grant with electronic files containing all environmental field data collected during the project, as well as metadata that provide sufficiently detailed and easily understood information for another person to make use of the data and information. Files can be provided in the most appropriate form (e.g., Excel spreadsheet). Florida Sea Grant will hold the data on a secure server, and only after two years have passed will we provide the data to a third party who provides us with a written request for those specific data. This requirement applies only to routine field data on environmental conditions. It is not presently required in the case of controlled experimental data or models. In the case of those data, publication of the results in a peer-reviewed journal meets the intent of the NOAA data-sharing requirement.

Note: When you publish a research journal article, book or book chapter based on your Sea Grant funding, this statement must be included in the acknowledgements section and a copy of the paper or chapter must be provided to Florida Sea Grant.

This publication was supported by the National Sea Grant College Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Grant No. NA 14OAR4170108. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of these organizations. Additional copies are available by contacting Florida Sea Grant, University of Florida, PO Box 110409, Gainesville, FL, 32611-0409, (352) 392.2801, archive.flseagrant.org.

8. Submitting Your Full Proposal:

Full Proposals must be submitted online through the Florida Sea Grant website http://seagrant.ifas.ufl.edu/CallForProposals/proposalsubmission/. WE DO NOT ACCEPT PROPOSALS SUBMITTED BY EMAIL OR AS HARD COPIES. Please read and follow directions carefully.
Deadline for receipt is May 31, 2017 by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (No extensions.)

9. For Additional Information:

All questions:
Melissa Macarages
Executive Secretary
mmacarages@ufl.edu
(352) 392-5870 – Office
(352) 294-0754 – Direct

B. Florida Sea Grant College Program Priorities for 2017- 2021

Healthy Coastal Environments

⦁ Develop methods, tools or policies to more efficiently and effectively enhance coastal habitats and/or water quality.
⦁ Acquire new actionable information about how altered freshwater flow now and in the future affects coastal ecosystems and their services.
⦁ Acquire new actionable information about the effects of point and non-point source nutrient pollution, for example urban storm water runoff and agricultural runoff, on coastal ecosystems.
⦁ Predict the impacts of climate change on coastal habitats, water quality and human uses, or develop new approaches to more effectively evaluate those impacts.

Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture

⦁ Develop new models, tools and technologies for sustainably managing fisheries resources or more effectively protecting at-risk species.
⦁ Develop and test stakeholder engagement processes to support fisheries management – at local levels and evaluated for use at broader geographic scales.
⦁ Develop new tools, technologies, methods and approaches to support cost-effective, sustainable and environmentally-friendly aquaculture and the harvest, processing and sale of wild aquatic products.
⦁ Develop and test new tools, methods, technologies and approaches to evaluate the source, identity, product quality and safety of seafood products.
⦁ Develop new aquaculture products that can tolerate adverse conditions in coastal waters, for example rising water temperatures that are occurring due to climate change.

Resilient Communities and Economies

⦁ Develop or apply existing tools and field-test them to evaluate risk and increase resilience of coastal communities to extreme weather, storm surge and sea level rise.
⦁ Determine the potential extent of damage to infrastructure from extreme weather, storm surge and sea level rise.
⦁ Develop new planning tools and policies to promote access and sustainable use of waterfronts and waterways.

Environmental Literacy and Workforce Development

⦁ Develop innovative new immersive learning programs to educate children and young adults about the actions that they can avoid and take to protect the health of the coastal zone, including for example apps and video games with embedded learning attributes.

C. Guidelines for Preparation of Research Proposals

INSTRUCTIONS: Proposals MUST BE SUBMITTED ONLINE using the following link:

http://seagrant.ifas.ufl.edu/CallForProposals/proposalsubmission/

You are allowed a maximum of 15 single-spaced pages for the project narrative including tables, figures and literature citations, but not counting budget forms, the explanation of NOAA data sharing, biodata forms or description of how you have addressed the reviewer comments. Use 11-point font, New Times Roman. Figures, images, mathematical notations and symbols, and tables must be embedded within the proposal narrative. Convert the completed proposal to a PDF file using Adobe Acrobat, and use the “upload” button on the Florida Sea Grant proposal submission link identified above to submit your proposal. NO EMAIL OR PAPER COPIES WILL BE ACCEPTED BY THE FLORIDA SEA GRANT OFFICE. FULL PROPOSALS RECEIVED AFTER 3 PM EDT ON MAY 31, 2017 WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR REVIEW, AND THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS GUIDELINE. We are not responsible for the internet being down or other things happening in the last hours or minutes before the deadline. In the past, researchers have not been able to meet the deadline for these and other unexpected reasons, so we strongly encourage submittal before May 31.

Prior to submitting your Research Proposal you will navigate to the submission process web page and be required to enter the Project Number, Title, the Principal Investigator, the Co-principal Investigator(s), the Associate Investigator(s), and the Proposed Budget into the Sea Grant web site project entry form. The website will also allow you to submit your proposal and biographica data sheets (discussed below).

The following represent elements of a full Research Proposal. Each element should be prepared, proofed and saved. Please combine elements A – H into a single PDF file; I into a separate PDF file; J into a separate PDF file in the order listed below:

A. Signed Title Page
B. Project Record Form
C. Budget Form(s)
D. Budget Justification
E. Proposal Narrative Sections (15 pages including literature cited)
F. Response to Reviewer Comments
G. NOAA Data Sharing Plan
H. Letters of Support, etc.
I. Cost-sharing letter
J. Biographical Data Sheet(s)

A. SIGNED TITLE PAGE: Investigators and the responsible university research or grants office must endorse this.

B. PROJECT RECORD FORM (90-2): The project record form follows the title page and is not numbered. This form is very important in the review process. We suggest completing it as the final step in writing the proposal to concisely summarize what is stated in the text. Please follow the instructions given below.

The Project Record Form is intended to present a concise description in non-technical language of the proposed project in a form useful to a variety of readers not necessarily requiring detailed information. The description must fit on one page. You will need to provide information for each of the following headings:

PROJECT TITLE: Project titles should be carefully constructed to give as much information as possible about the project in not more than two lines (about 16 words, preferably less). Consider always that there will be people who will judge the content of a program from scanning a list of titles. The title should be specific, descriptive of the activity, and clearly indicate subject and anticipated outcome.

DATES: (1) The revision date is the date you prepared this document, (2) initiation date is 2/1/2018, and (3) completion date is 1/31/2020.

PRINCIPAL, CO-PRINCIPAL, ASSOCIATE INVESTIGATORS: Names of the Investigators (last name first, full first name and middle initial) whose efforts are significant to the success of the project.

AFFILIATION: The academic affiliation of each investigators, e.g., FAU Ocean Engineering, FSU Biology.

OBJECTIVES: This section should state concisely what the investigator intends to do. Stated objectives should enable comparison later to project results. NOTE: Be specific and brief. State the overall project goal, and then the individual objectives.

METHODOLOGY: Describe the methods to be used, including the proposed spatial and temporal extent of any field sampling, the modeling approaches to be used, experimental design and statistics. Be specific, concise and limit this section to one paragraph.

RATIONALE: This section should make a concise statement of why the issue or opportunity is being addressed. Research projects need not promise to fully solve a problem, but it should be shown that it is a logical step towards a solution. Long involved background statements should be avoided. End users must be identified.

IMPACTS: Describe the potential benefits/impacts to science, management and/or industry. This can include new products, processes for industry; tools, policies, technologies and information for improved decision-making/ecosystem management.

C. BUDGET FORM(S) (90-4): Complete one budget page per year of the project, and one cumulative budget page for all years of project. Please follow the instructions given below. Note that you also need to prepare a budget justification that explains the budget (see below). Note: budget pages need to be completed for each investigator if at different institutions.

Instructions for Preparing Budget Pages: Please note – the cumulative budget page will summarize Year 1 and Year 2 automatically. Therefore, you should not need to enter any information on the cumulative budget page.

All expenditures listed in the budget must be in compliance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circular A-21 on cost accounting standards. OMB circular A-21 states that administrative and clerical salaries and other general office supplies will be charged as indirect costs. For more information on circular A-21 please contact the contracts and grants office of your institution. Any variation from OMB circular A-21 will be the sole responsibility of the grantee institution.

Please be informed that no budget justification information is to be put on the budget form 90-4. Each line item of your budget needs to be justified in the budget justification narrative that is prepared (See separate instructions, below in this section).

1. The Budget year line should have a number after the word year representing the particular year of the project Budget, i.e. Budget Year 1, Budget Year 2, or Cumulative Budget.

2. The Grantee Institution line – Line 7 Column C – is for the name of the primary principal investigator’s institution, e.g., University of South Florida.

3. Principal Investigators line: Should contain the name of primary principal investigator who is responsible for this project. If there is more than one you may list them as well. e.g., J.C. Porter/T.W. Day.

4. Duration/Months: The number of months this budget period is for. e.g., 02/01/05–07/31/05 = 6 months, the number 6 will go into that space.

5. The Grant Project Number is assigned by Florida Sea Grant.

Lines A1a through line A2h:

6. Column E: The Number of People involved with each line item.

7. Column F: Cumulative Man Months committed by all individuals identified in the line item.

8. Column G: Sea Grant Funds represents the amount of federal funding you are requesting from Sea Grant.

9. Column H: This is the amount of Match Funding that you and your institution will provide. One dollar of matching will need to be provided for every two dollars of federal funding received. Any form of pass-through federal dollars cannot be used as matching funds.

10. Each salary line item will require a justification on the Budget Justification page. (See instructions below.) For line A2h you may type in your own description on the 90-4.

11. Line B: Fringe Benefits, represents the cumulative amount for all employees.

12. Line C: Each item must be separately identified and justified in the budget justification page of the grant.

13. Line D: Expendable Supplies and Equipment. You must break down the cost of your expendable supplies in the budget justification, by category.

14. Line E 1+2: Travel. The cumulative costs for domestic and international travel will need to be shown separately. Make sure in your justification that you identify each trip that will take place and report its cost separately. Identify the cost for each category of expenses for each trip (e.g. flights, hotel, mileage, etc.).

15. Line F: Publications. Make sure that the cumulative cost of this line has been justified in the budget justification page of the grant.

16. Lines G 1-9: Other Cost. Some of the major components of the other cost section have been identified for you. Make sure you justify each line item in the justification section of your proposal. Two lines have been left blank so you may write your own description. Misc. is not considered a valid description; if you use the caption Misc. make sure it is for a small amount and break down the cost of these items in your proposal budget justification section.

17. Line TDC: The total direct cost line is the sum of all the direct project costs identified by the Grant Budget Period.

18. Line MTDC: This is the Modified Total Direct Cost line. The amount that goes here is the amount of direct costs that will have University Indirect Costs (IDC) assessed.

19. Line IDC: Indirect Cost – Enter your IDC percent in the appropriate column and on its corresponding line. Multiply the MTDC line for each column by the IDC % that applies to each line in that column. Please note there is a line called “Other IDC” if you feel your IDC calculation does not fit the budget form enter the amount of IDC required for each column and explain it in the Budget Justification. The indirect cost will vary from institution to institution depending on what was negotiated between the federal government and your institution. The amount will not always be the same as the total direct cost line.

D. BUDGET JUSTIFICATION: Instructions for completing the budget justification section of the proposal appear below. Remember, the budget proposed in the Statement of Interest must not be exceeded in the Full Proposal. This section must be detailed enough to satisfy university and federal fiscal staff. Each line item in the budget will need to be justified. Note: Do not over-match; matching funds need be only 50% of the Federal request, no more. Please include a copy of your current IDC rate agreement and the fringe rate amount identifying what is included in the fringe rate.

The proposal Budget Justification should track directly with each line of the 90-4 budget form, giving item-by-item justifications for expenses. It is important to explain the items listed on the budget form. Tell major duties of personnel and percentages of time for graduate students (e.g., “Laboratory Technologist I – This employee will be a 1/3 time appointment and will perform the following duties.) Although students are appropriate and significant components of Sea Grant projects, federal funds cannot be spent on student expenses for class work or thesis manuscript-related activities, such as word processing, after the research is finished.

Each piece of capital or permanent equipment must be listed separately along with the cost, a brief description, and the purpose of each item. Include a lease vs. purchase analysis for each item requested. Capital equipment and office or general equipment must be approved by the federal office before purchasing or leasing. Construction funds and purchase or repair of vessels and vehicles are not eligible for Sea Grant funding but prior approval of rental for vessels or vehicles may be obtained from the agency. Rates per hour or trip and estimated number of hours needed should be given.

For travel, give the formula for deriving the proposed amount (e.g., number of miles X rate per mile to some destination so many times a year). Remember to include estimated airplane fare or mileage allowance rate, per diem, lodging and or food and incidental rates and number of days and personnel. This information is required for each trip, including location if possible.

Do not include costs for reprints or publication page charges. Manuscript, illustration preparation costs are allowable.

Consultants must be justified as essential to the project, not just convenient. The Federal office must also approve them in advance based upon this justification. Rates and estimated number of hours should be stated. Biographical Data Sheets must also be included for consultants. Florida Sea Grant will give preference to projects that make use of students rather than technicians or consultants to conduct the work.

The Budget Justification also should include a description per line of each source of matching funds, particularly from user groups. Institutional matching funds should be distinguished from those obtained from participating users. Institutional matching funds are in-kind items such as faculty salaries and overhead, operating expenses on campus, etc., while extramural funds are so-called hard dollars, represented by actual dollars given to the project, labor supplied, etc. In the review process, extramural matching funds are an advantage as they demonstrate end-user commitment. Note: matching funds on the budget form should not exceed the 2 federal dollars to 1 non-federal dollar ratio.

E. PROPOSAL NARRATIVE SECTIONS: Use no more than 15 pages of single-spaced 11 point New Times Roman font for this narrative, including embedded tables, figures and the list of literature citations.

PROJECT TITLE: Please make this succinct and explicitly reflect both the (1) scientific aim and (2) anticipated application and intent of the project.

INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE: This section needs to address both the scientific rationale for the project, and quantify from a practical standpoint that the issue is a high priority. Identify the specific priority from section B that you are responding to with the research proposal. Describe using quantitative information the issue, the magnitude of the situation or opportunity, and the relevance of the issue or problem to Florida, regional, and national needs. Describe why this topic important and what makes the project innovative. Projects that ultimately contribute to environmental, social and/or economic sustainability of the coast or ocean fare best.

GOAL AND OBJECTIVES: In one sentence, concisely state the overall goal of the proposed project. Then, please number and list the objectives. Do not list methods or say the aim is to “get a better understanding.” Proposals must state objectives in a way that enables measurable comparison to expected project results. Be realistic and do not list too many objectives.

PROJECT DESIGN: Describe in detail the overall project design. If a hypothesis is being tested, state the hypothesis. Explain how it will be tested. Describe specific methodology and major aspects such as the spatial and temporal scale, controls, replication, sampling, surveys, selection of models, calibration, validation, etc. If the project involves developing new policies, tools, or technologies explain clearly how their effectiveness will be evaluated. Describe how this work would add to the body of knowledge in your discipline. What is the national significance of this idea? Include literature references.

PARTICIPANTS AND END-USERS: Identify the industry, agency, end-users. Describe their role in developing this proposal and in executing the project. Proposals should explicitly identify extramural co-sponsors and clearly describe their commitment to funding and participation. For all proposals: to be considered for funding, you must specifically identify the end-user and you must include a letter with the proposal from that end-user (one or more) where they explain how they have been involved in the development of the project and how they will ultimately benefit from the results. We understand that it sometimes takes many years for research projects to have impacts – however, the end user can identify that the project is taking an appropriate step towards a defined outcome.

STUDENT PARTICIPATION AND SUPPORT IS MANDATORY: A core element of the Florida Sea Grant mission is education and we expect that research funds will support students. At least one student must be supported (wholly or in part, with a match from your institute) on the grant and we will give preference to projects that support multiple students over those that use funds to pay salary of technical support staff, post-doctoral associates, faculty members, or consultants. In this section briefly explain the role that the student will play in conducting the proposed research.

ROLE OF INVESTIGATORS: For projects with more than one investigator, explain the specific role of each co-PI, associate investigator and collaborator.

EXPECTED RESULTS, APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS: Describe the expected (1) scientific and (2) applied outcomes of the project to the scientific community and end-user. If the objectives are attained, how would the problem to be solved create new commercial opportunities, improve technological and economic efficiency, improve management decisions, etc., and also advance this field of scholarship? What Florida, regional or national impact is envisioned? Letters of reference from END USER(s) detailing how they will apply project results to support a management decision, address a societal need or result in an environmental or economic benefit are required.

LITERATURE CITED: Provide complete reference information, per your disciplinary reviewed literature format but always including title of article (e.g., author, date, title, journal, pages). Up-to-date citations are expected.

F. RESPONSE TO REVIEWER COMMENTS: Two-Page maximum. Describe how the pre-proposal reviewer comments have been addressed in the full proposal (does not count towards the narrative 15-page limit).

G. NOAA DATA SHARING PLAN: Two-Page maximum. This is only necessary if new environmental data are to be collected as part of the project (does not count towards the narrative 15-page limit)

H. LETTERS OF SUPPORT: You may append letters of support or additional materials.

J. COST SHARING LETTER: Letter from project partner(s) and/or your institution agreeing to provide the mandatory cost share.

I. FLORIDA SEA GRANT BIOGRAPHICAL DATA SHEET: Unless there is a change in Investigator status you may attach the biographical data sheet that you completed for the Statement of Interest. Please complete the one-page (maximum) form for each principal and associate investigator. This will help to evaluate qualifications and past performance, consistent with stage of career development.

Submitting the Proposal

Submitting a proposal to Florida Sea Grant can now be accomplished electronically via the following web link: http://seagrant.ifas.ufl.edu/CallForProposals/proposalsubmission/. You must submit your proposal using Florida Sea Grant’s on-line submittal system by 3 PM (EDT) May 31, 2017, or earlier if possible. Please note that none of the proposal preparation expenditures are to be charged to any current Sea Grant project.