Cooperative Institute Fostering Aquaculture Research and Marketing (CIFARM)

The NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) in collaboration with the National Marine Fisheries Service invites applications for the establishment of a Cooperative Institute Fostering Aquaculture Research and Marketing (CIFARM) that will: directly support NOAA’s Research and Development Vision Areas by advancing key goals in aquaculture, fostering innovation, promoting environmental stewardship, and building strong coastal economies; support the robust development of aquaculture in the United States to address the seafood import deficit and benefit the economy; and help the agency fulfill the tenets of the NOAA Aquaculture Strategic Plan. This Cooperative Institute (CI) will facilitate a long-term collaborative relationship between NOAA and the recipient within which broad-based research, technology innovation, and education and outreach capabilities that focus on NOAA's priorities for the US aquaculture sector can be developed and sustained. The CI may consist of one or more research institutions with expertise and capabilities in the NOAA priority areas that contribute to the areas of research described as research themes later in this announcement.

Applicants to this Notice of Funding Opportunity will submit one overarching application that seeks to establish the CIFARM at an eligible institution or group of institutions. This application should speak to high level research themes (See I.B.) that future projects could fall under, but should not include detailed projects at this time. This overarching application will be identified as a T1 award.

Following the selection of the CI host institution, the awardee will then be requested to submit an additional application for approximately $9,000,000 detailing the proposed projects that fall under the research themes. Not every applicant will be asked to submit this second application, only the institution recommended for funding. Once awarded, this second application will be identified as a T3. The host institution will continue to submit T3 detailed project applications at various funding levels throughout the life of the five year award.

All projects must take place within the United States or territories or their respective waterways.

Applicants 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 access to the internet, please contact the Agency Contacts listed in Section VII for submission instructions. NOAA has created a website to aid applicants in understanding Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs), the application process, and how to properly format application packages to eRA, linked here.

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.

This document sets out requirements for submitting to NOAA-OAR-CIPO-2025-31269.