FY 2025-2029 Reef Research Coordinating Institute Designation and Cooperative Agreements

The NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) invites applications for the establishment of two Reef Research Coordination Institutes (RRCIs) through cooperative agreements to support the research, restoration, and management of shallow-water coral reef ecosystems within the U.S. states and territories. The two RRCIs will be to be known as the “Atlantic Reef Research Coordination Institute'' and the “Pacific Reef Research Coordination Institute'' and will hold this designation for an initial five (5) year period of performance and may be renewed for up to another five (5) years without competition. Applicants must be previously designated as a Coral Reef Research Center by the CRCP in 2024.

The selected RRCIs must be able to work across a variety of areas including conducting research, supporting ecological research and monitoring, building capacity within jurisdictional resource management agencies, translating research findings to management and restoration practices, and conducting public education and awareness programs. Building capacity in the jurisdictions may include a variety of actions such as supporting personnel, providing training on jurisdictional driven topics, and/or managing a national fellowship program.

NOAA CRCP anticipates that up to $4,500,000 may be available annually for distribution between the two RRCIs. The actual annual funding will be based on 1) CRCP annual appropriations, 2) current and future national and state priorities, 3) the quality of projects proposed and selected during the negotiations, and 4) the satisfactory progress in achieving the stated goals described in project proposals.

Applicant organizations must complete and maintain three registrations to be eligible to apply for or receive an award. These registrations include SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons. All registrations must be completed prior to the application being submitted. The complete registration process for all three systems can take 4 to 6 weeks, so applicants should begin this activity as soon as possible. If an eligible applicant does not have effective access to the internet, please contact the Agency Contacts listed in Section VII for submission instructions.

Prior to registering with eRA Commons, applicant organizations must first obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) from SAM.gov, if needed (refer to Section IV. Applications and Submission Information, Section C). Organizations can register with eRA Commons in tandem with completing their full SAM and Grants.gov registrations; however, all registrations must be in place by time of application submission. eRA Commons requires organizations to identify at least one Signing Official (SO) and at least one Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) account in order to submit an application.