Coastal Habitat Restoration and Resilience Grants for Tribes and Underserved Communities, Under the BIL Round 3

The principal objective of this funding opportunity is to support opportunities for tribes, and/or tribal entities, and underserved communities to meaningfully engage in coastal habitat restoration activities. NOAA anticipates up to $20 million will be available under this opportunity, of which up to 15% will specifically be available as direct awards and subawards to Indian tribes (as defined in 25 U.S.C. Section 5304 (e)) and Native American organizations that represent Indian tribes through formal legal agreements (e.g. tribal commissions, tribal consortia, tribal conservation districts, and tribal cooperatives). The remaining funding will be available to all eligible applicants. Funding will prioritize capacity building, meaningful engagement, and restoration project activities that enhance resilience of tribes, tribal entities, and underserved communities and have the greatest potential to lead to habitat restoration in coastal, estuarine, marine, and Great Lakes areas. This funding opportunity is authorized under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) (BIL, Public Law 117-58), 135 STAT. 1356 (Nov. 15, 2021). This funding opportunity does not have a formal matching requirement. Projects that are most responsive to the program priorities will be more competitive. Potential activities include: 1) capacity building, which may include (but is not limited to) participation in municipal or regional-scale resilience planning, project planning and feasibility studies, stakeholder engagement, proposal development for future funding, and outreach and education, as well as hiring of staff to increase capacity to support the planning, design and implementation of restoration actions, as well as capacity to support overall award management including tracking, reporting, and project coordination/development; 2) meaningful engagement, which may include (but is not limited to) engaging the community through educational opportunities, community discussions, and/or paid experiences that support the successful execution of the proposed project activities; 3) restoration project activities, including for demonstration projects, which may include engineering and design, permitting, on-the-ground restoration, and pre- and post project implementation monitoring. Competitive applications will directly benefit tribes or underserved communities. Applicants may apply for funding to support one or more of these activities. This funding opportunity supports NOAA’s efforts to enhance coastal resilience. Coastal areas support the nation’s largest and often fastest-growing population centers, as well as key natural assets. Strengthening coastal resilience means preparing and adapting coastal communities to mitigate the impacts of and more quickly recover after extreme events such as hurricanes, coastal storms, flooding, and sea level rise. Habitat restoration and natural and nature-based solutions are critical to doing so by: protecting lives and property; sustaining commercial, recreational, and subsistence fishing; recovering threatened and endangered species; and maintaining and fostering vibrant coastal economies and lifestyles. This funding opportunity – along with those for National Oceans and Coastal Security Fund Grants, Climate Resilience Regional Challenge Grants, Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience Grants, Coastal Zone Management, and National Estuarine Research Reserves – aims to fund projects that enhance coastal resilience. This funding opportunity in particular focuses on building organizational and technical capacity and/or supporting restoration activities that benefit tribes, tribal entities, and/or underserved communities and enhance their resilience to climate hazards. Through this funding opportunity, NOAA offers funding for tribes, tribal entities, and/or underserved community applicants to meaningfully engage their communities through outreach and education throughout the project. Meaningful engagement ensures community members are integral to the visioning, decision-making, and leadership for coastal habitat restoration projects that may affect their environment, and/or health and well-being. For applicants demonstrating a connection to tribes, tribal entities, and/or underserved communities, meaningful engagement of tribes, tribal entities, and/or underserved communities is intended to ensure that community members are integral to the visioning, decision-making, and leadership for coastal habitat restoration projects; to ensure that the scope of such projects are inclusive of the priorities and needs of communities; and/or to ensure that the benefits of such projects flow back to tribes, tribal entities, or underserved communities. NOAA is committed to the goals of advancing equity and support for underserved communities. NOAA encourages applicants to include and demonstrate principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility through proactive, meaningful, and equitable community engagement in the identification, design, and/or implementation of proposed projects. NOAA also encourages applicants to appropriately consider and elevate local or Indigenous knowledge in project design, implementation, and evaluation. Applicants should identify if the project is located within tribal or underserved communities and/or whether a portion of the resilience benefits from the proposed work will flow to tribes, tribal entities, or underserved communities. This program will advance the Biden/Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative. Established by Executive Order 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, the Justice40 Initiative set the goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments, such as climate, clean energy, and other areas, flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment. Proposals selected for funding through this opportunity will be funded through cooperative agreements. NOAA encourages a period of performance of up to three years, with the potential for up to five years, if necessary and approved by NOAA. NOAA anticipates typical federal funding for awards will range from $250,000 to $1 million over three years. NOAA will not accept proposals with a total federal funding request of less than $75,000 or more than $2 million for the entire award. Projects requesting the upper limit of funding are expected to implement restoration actions in addition to capacity-building and meaningful engagement, versus being solely focused on capacity-building and/or meaningful engagement activities. Priority will be given to activities with the highest certainty to occur within a 2-3 year award period. Funds will be administered by the NOAA Office of Habitat Conservation, as directed by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.