News

Sea Grant Offering $1 Million in Funding

By: Melissa Schneider / Published: Jan 26, 2005

Dauphin Island, AL/Ocean Springs, MS — One month remains in the first round notice for $1 million in federal funding that the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium will offer to qualified applicants who present projects to address the decline of our coastal habitats, better management of our coastal resources, and improvement in the quality and competitiveness of the fisheries industry. The roughly year-long application process for marine science research projects will provide $500,000 in funding for qualified projects that start February 1, 2006, as well as $500,000 for the following year.

Though, typically in the past, university scientists have garnered the lion’s share of the funding for research, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Director LaDon Swann clarified that Sea Grant is welcoming preproposals from individuals, non-profit organizations, commercial enterprises or state, local and tribal governments in Mississippi and Alabama that are qualified and tackle the strategic areas the organization has identified as most critical in 2005-2010. Sea Grant has also restructured the grants program to narrow the focus and raise the award levels so the projects will have an even greater positive impact on our coastal environment. Though there will likely be fewer numbers of awardees this fall, the award levels have been raised to $70,000 per project, per year in federal funding. For $2 received in federal funding, the grantee is required to provide a $1 non-federal match. Another way that Sea Grant is making the greatest impact with this federal funding is by encouraging applications submitted by partnerships that are interdisciplinary and/or multi-institutional. Such applications may exceed the funding level if the need and rationale is demonstrated.

The deadline for submitting preproposals is Friday, February 25, 2005. The full Request for Preproposals is posted on the MASGC website. Contact Diane Butler at (228) 818-8835 for questions or assistance.

Comments

comments powered by Disqus