NOAA Recommends Almost $9 Million for 38 Projects

For more than 40 years, NOAA has awarded grant funding under the Saltonstall-Kennedy (S-K) program to organizations across the country. Funds address needs of fishing communities, support economic opportunities, and build and maintain resilient and sustainable fisheries.

Demand for innovation, information, service and funding from federal agencies continues to grow. This year, NOAA received 155 applications requesting nearly $40 million. In order to better match research and development proposals with S-K goals and mission needs, this year’s recommended projects fall into four priorities:

• Marine Aquaculture

• Adapting to Environmental Changes and Other Long Term Impacts in Marine Ecosystems

• Promotion, Development and Marketing

• Territorial Science

Proposals underwent a rigorous three-phase evaluation process beginning with Pre-Proposal Review where the 517 pre-proposals received were reviewed by both internal and external subject matter experts. NOAA encouraged 150 of the top scoring applications to submit a full review and accepted 155 full proposals. These moved to the second phase, the Technical Merit Review, where each proposal underwent an extensive technical review by at least three subject matter experts. The top 87 scoring proposals moved on to the Constituent Panel Review, the third phase of the S-K review process. At panel, each proposal was reviewed and scored by 15 subject matter experts from the fishing industry and community and the top 38 have been recommended for funding.

At this point in the selection process, the application approval and recommended funding is not final. Divisions of NOAA and the Department of Commerce, NOAA’s parent agency, must still give final approval before successful applicants receive funding near the end of the fiscal year.

For more information please contact the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office SK Manager, Susan Olsen at 978-281-9330 or at Susan.Olsen@noaa.gov.

(For more information on federal grant funding: http://www.federalgrants.com/FY19-Saltonstall-Kennedy-Competition-71304.html).