Sea Grant Programs Only - FY2025 Enhancing Knowledge of Aquaculture Technologies, Practices, and Businesses

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, the National Sea Grant Office (NSGO) anticipates that approximately $500,000 will be available to Sea Grant Programs to provide opportunities for researchers (faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral individuals), Sea Grant extension personnel, and aquaculture community members, or a mixture of participants, to enhance knowledge of aquaculture technologies, production practices and systems, businesses, or other associated topics pertinent to the species or species group of interest to participants. The goal of this opportunity is that participants will utilize the knowledge and expertise gained through their travel experiences in their approach to improve aquaculture research, extension, or aquaculture production, or business activities that will benefit the U.S. coastal, marine, and Great Lakes aquaculture communities. Awards will be made for no more than $75,000 in federal funds per project for a duration of up to one year. Available funding can be used to support travel costs, salary, and costs associated with outreach activities following travel. Travel must be focused on visiting aquaculture sites or facilities, either public or private. Funding for research activities is not permitted through this announcement. Successful applications will: identify, justify, and describe the need or needs to be addressed regarding improvement of aquaculture research, extension, production, or business activities, describe and document the proposed plan regarding how the proposed travel activities will address the identified need or needs, describe how the proposed activities will enhance aquaculture-related activities of project participants, and describe how the proposed activities will benefit the U.S. aquaculture community. Please note that it is envisioned that this funding opportunity, with potential variation in total funding available, will be reinstated annually, contingent on available funding. 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, and 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 more than one application. Programs are encouraged to partner with other Sea Grant Programs and/or other entities such as individuals, State and Tribal Agencies/Organizations, HBCUs/MSIs, 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. International travel is permitted, however international travel must conform to guidelines specified by the Fly America Act. 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-2025-29573.