Sea Grant Programs Only - FY2025 Establishing and Supporting Partnerships with Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) in Aquaculture: Regional Collaboratives

The National Sea Grant College Program was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1966 (amended in 2020, Public Law 116-221) to support leveraged federal and state partnerships that harness the intellectual capacity of the nation’s universities and research institutions to solve problems and generate opportunities in coastal communities.

Subject to the availability of funding, Sea Grant anticipates that approximately $4,000,000 will be available for research projects and programs to create up to four Regional Collaboratives (one per region) focused on enhancing engagement of Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) in aquaculture, with up to $1,000,000 available for each. MSIs are defined as institutions of higher education that serve minority populations. For a list of institutions that are considered MSIs, please refer to the following link provided by NASA's MSI Exchange. 

The four regions in which Collaboratives are sought to be established (including states and territories) are:

• West Coast/Alaska/Pacific (CA, OR, WA, AK, HI, GU, and other Pacific territories)

• Southeast/GOM/Caribbean (TX, LA, MS, AL, FL, PR, US Virgin Islands, GA, SC, NC)

• Northeast/mid-Atlantic (VA, MD, DE, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA, NH, ME)

• Great Lakes (NY, VT, PA, OH, IN, IL, MI, WI, MN)

Successful proposals will address topical needs (described below) and integrate research and extension. Proposals are sought that will support collaborative, multi-SG Program efforts to enhance engagement and collaboration of Sea Grant programs and Minority Serving Institutions within each region in direct support of aquaculture activities of MSIs. While a regional approach is the required mechanism for achieving these goals, it is expected that the Regional Collaboratives will interact with one another to support shared National level interests. Proposals will preferably include participation and involvement of Sea Grant extension personnel and aquaculture community stakeholders. These investments are consistent with Sea Grant’s focus area of Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture (SFA) and the Sea Grant Network’s 10-year Aquaculture Vision, both which support NOAA and Department of Commerce aquaculture goals. 

The following entities are eligible to submit to this opportunity: Sea Grant College Programs, Sea Grant Institutional Programs and Sea Grant Coherent Area Programs. For the remainder of this document, these entities are collectively referred to as “Sea Grant Programs”. A Sea Grant Program may submit or be a part of more than one application. Applications involving multiple Sea Grant programs within a given region are strongly preferred. Programs are required to partner with MSIs as part of each Regional Collaborative. While it is the expectation of this competition that Sea Grant programs will partner with MSIs in their respective regions, it should be noted that all partnerships with MSIs need not be solidified by the NOFO deadline. It is envisioned that the Sea Grant program-led Collaboratives will continue to establish relationships/partnerships with MSIs throughout the award.

It should be noted that, in addition to collaborations currently existing between Sea Grant programs and MSIs, Collaboratives should also strive to engage MSIs that have aquaculture programs or are interested in aquaculture, but have not collaborated with a Sea Grant program.  

Programs are encouraged to partner with other Sea Grant Programs as well as entities such as individuals, State and Tribal Agencies/Organizations, NGOs, aquaculture industry members and associations, universities, and colleges, including community colleges.

Federal agencies and their personnel are not permitted to receive federal funding under this competition; however, federal scientists and other employees can serve as uncompensated partners or co-Principal Investigators on applications. Federal labs and offices can also make available specialized expertise, facilities or equipment to applicants but cannot be compensated under this competition for their use, nor can the value of such assets be used as match.

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 guide to aid applicants format application packages to eRA, linked here.

Prior to registering with eRA Commons, applicants 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-SG-2025-29019.