The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC) is asking stakeholders, partners and others to take about 15 minutes to share where they think Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant should focus its resources over the next five years.
A seven-question survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RD2K689 through Friday, Aug. 21. Input will be used to guide the development of the program's next federally approved strategic plan. MASGC's current 2018-2021 Strategic Plan can be found here.
MASGC is a federal and state partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and public universities in the two-state region. MASGC implements its programs through an integrated process and strong partnerships with the public and the private sector.
MASGC focuses its investments in the following areas:
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Environmental literacy and workforce development
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Healthy coastal ecosystems
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Resilient communities and economies
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Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
MASGC implements its strategic plan through five functional areas:
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Research: Supports relevant university-based coastal and social science research to solve the real world problems affecting the coastal region. A secondary benefit is workforce development through undergraduate and graduate education.
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Education: Offers formal and informal experiences and training to improve marine science literacy among students, teachers and the public.
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Legal: Conducts research on marine laws and policies to inform coastal and ocean policy-makers.
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Extension: Works with residents, scientists, community leaders, businesses, resource managers and others to increase the use of research discovery to improve the economic, environmental and sociopolitical sustainability of our region and to increase community resilience to natural and human-caused disasters.
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Communications: Provides communications support for all MASGC programs and helps inform users of MASGC's research, extension, legal and education programs.