2024 NMFS-Sea Grant Fellowship in Population and Ecosystem Dynamics and Marine Resource Economics

TIMELINE 

November 13, 2023 11:00 AM PT - Informational webinar was hosted by National Sea Grant. To watch the recording, register here.

January 25, 2024, 5:00 PM PT - Application materials submitted by student to California Sea Grant via eSeaGrant

February 8, 2024 2:00PM PT - Letters of Intent submitted by California Sea Grant via email to National Sea Grant Office Fellowship Program Managers

February 22, 2024 8:59PM PT - Selected applications submitted by California Sea Grant via Grants.gov to National Sea Grant Office Fellowship Program Managers

April/May 2024 - National Sea Grant review

June 2024 - Finalists notified by National Sea Grant

August 1, 2024 - Fellowship begins

July 31, 2027 - Fellowship ends

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The National Sea Grant College Program (Sea Grant) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) support Ph.D. graduate fellowships in two specific areas (1) population and ecosystem dynamics (PED) and (2) marine resource economics (MRE). The intent of this opportunity is to award a limited number of fellowships each year to students who are interested in careers related to population and ecosystem dynamics and marine resource economics with applications to living marine resource management, and account for changing conditions using an ecosystem-based fishery management approach.

Student projects will focus on at least one of the following: 1) the population dynamics of living marine resources including protected species and species for which we seek sustainable fisheries; 2) stock assessment methodologies; 3) marine ecosystem modeling; 4) integrated ecosystem assessments; 5) ecosystem-based management of marine ecosystems; 6) economics of the conservation and management of living marine resources; and 7) quantitative survey analytical methodologies. These projects need to have a strong quantitative and applied resource management emphasis.

The fellowship can provide support for up to three years for qualified graduate students working towards a Ph.D. in quantitative programs including ecology, ecosystem ecology, population dynamics or related fields of study such as wildlife biology, fishery biology, marine biology, quantitative ecology, applied mathematics, applied statistics, simulation modeling, marine resource economics, natural resource economics, or environmental economics. 

If selected, each Fellow will be required to work closely with an expert (mentor) from NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) who may provide data for a fellow's thesis, serve on the fellow's committee, and/or host an annual summer internship at the participating NMFS facility. Mentors will be from participating NMFS Science Centers or offices. Staff lists and recent publications for each of the NOAA Fisheries Science Centers are listed on each Center’s website, linked below. Applicants in the Great Lakes region or in an area without a NOAA Fisheries Science Center may contact a potential mentor whose research aligns with their own. 

• Alaska Fisheries Science Center (staff, publications)
• Northwest Fisheries Science Center (staff, publications)
• Southwest Fisheries Science Center (staff, publications)
• Northeast Fisheries Science Center (staff, publications)
• Southeast Fisheries Science Center (staff, publications)
• Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (publications)

For more information, please contact your local Sea Grant Program or OAR.SG.Fellows@noaa.gov / (240) 507-4825.

POPULATION AND ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS

The NMFS-Sea Grant Fellowship Program in Population and Ecosystem Dynamics anticipates funding at least four new Ph.D. fellowships in 2024 to students who are interested in careers related to marine ecosystem and population dynamics. The fellowship covers both population and ecosystem dynamics to ensure support for fellows who conduct research in support of living marine resource assessments as well as conduct broadly-scoped ecosystem assessments, implement ecosystem-based management, and evaluate system-level considerations of living marine resources. The emphasis will be on the research and development of quantitative methods for assessing the status of marine ecosystems; managed fish, invertebrates, and other targeted species; and marine mammals, seabirds, and other protected species. 

MARINE RESOURCE ECONOMICS

The NMFS-Sea Grant Fellowship Program in Marine Resource Economics anticipates funding at least one new Ph.D. fellowship in 2024 to students who are interested in careers related to the development and implementation of quantitative methods for assessing the economics of the conservation and management of living marine resources. The fellowship supports fellows who conduct research evaluating the benefits and costs of alternative management actions for commercial fisheries by analyzing critical fishery management issues; helping to ensure the sustainability and maximization of societal benefits from marine resources.

For full information on this opportunity, please consult the resources below:

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO, see related documents tab)

NMFS-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship Program National Sea Grant Website

2024 NMFS-Sea Grant Fellowship Student Guide

Student Applicant Guide to Sea Grant Fellowships

Eligibility

Award Information

Application Elements

Submission Information

Evaluation Criteria

Deadlines

Contacts

ELIGIBILITY

Full applications submitted to Grants.gov must come from an eligible Sea Grant program. Prospective fellows enrolled towards a degree in a graduate program in a state or territory served by a Sea Grant program must submit to that program. Applications that are not approved and submitted by the student’s state Sea Grant program will not be considered for review. Interested students in states or territories without a Sea Grant program must submit their applications to the Sea Grant program to which they were referred to by the NMFS Fellowship Program Manager (oar.sg.fellows@noaa.gov). Those eligible to submit to a Sea Grant Program:

1. Prospective fellows must be United States citizens.
2. At the time of application, prospective fellows must be admitted to a Ph.D. degree program at a U.S. accredited university in the U.S. in population dynamics, ecosystem dynamics, resource or environmental economics, or a related field such as wildlife biology, fishery biology, natural resource management, marine biology, quantitative ecology, applied mathematics, applied statistics, or simulation modeling at an institution of higher education in the United States or its territories.
3. Alternatively, a prospective fellow may submit a signed letter from the institution indicating provisional acceptance to a Ph.D. degree program conditional on obtaining financial support such as this fellowship. 

The National Sea Grant College Program champions diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by recruiting, retaining, and preparing a diverse workforce, and proactively engaging and serving the diverse populations of coastal communities. Sea Grant is committed to building inclusive research, extension, communication, and education programs that serve people with unique backgrounds, circumstances, needs, perspectives, and ways of thinking. We encourage Sea Grant program applications to reflect diverse participation with regards to age, race, ethnicities, national origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, disabilities, cultures, religions, citizenship types, marital statuses, education levels, job classifications, veteran status types, income, and socioeconomic status.

COST SHARE OR MATCHING REQUIREMENT

Non-federal matching funds equal to at least 20 percent (20%) of the federal funding request must be provided unless a waiver justified by statute is granted, such as the waiver for insular areas granted by the Department of Commerce pursuant to 48 U.S.C. 1469a. The cumulative match at the end of each year of the grant must not fall below 20 percent of the cumulative federal request up to that point. For example, if $62,500 in federal funds is requested (the maximum allowable annual request), matching funds must be at least $12,500. In other words, applicants may not ‘under’ match in year one and ‘over’ match in year two. In-kind contributions directly supporting this application may count towards this matching requirement.

AWARD INFORMATION

Subject to the availability of funding, the fellowship program expects to award at least four new Ph.D. fellowships to students who are interested in careers related to population and ecosystem dynamics of living marine resources and/or marine ecosystem dynamics, and at least one new Ph.D. fellowship to students who are interested in careers related to marine resource economics.

The award for each fellowship will be a multi-year cooperative agreement in an amount not to exceed $62,500 in federal funds per year for up to three years. Matching funds of 20% of the total federal request are required. The award provided to each Fellow is for stipend, tuition, fees, equipment, supplies, and travel necessary to carry out the proposed research and to attend the annual Fellows meeting (at rotating locations). Continued support after the first year will be contingent upon the availability of federal funds and satisfactory performance by the grantee.

The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement to an eligible institution. A cooperative agreement is used when substantial involvement of the federal government during performance of the proposed work is anticipated. The nature of the substantial involvement includes NMFS mentoring and hosting successful fellows. This involvement may include serving for 10-20 days aboard a research or commercial vessel during a scientific survey or experimental activity. Additionally, the fellow may work on their thesis research or related activity at a participating NMFS facility. The fellow's work will be overseen by a NMFS mentor who will provide advice and guidance.

APPLICATION ELEMENTS

Please make sure to include your last name in the file names for each section of the proposal (e.g., Smith_budget.pdf or Smith_cv.pdf). 

Note: While there are two separate opportunities (Population and Ecosystem Dynamics and Marine Resource Economics) there is only one application, so applicants must indicate which concentration they are applying for on their cover page. 

PROJECT NARRATIVE  

The project proposal narrative must contain nine sub-elements.

The following sub-elements are to be submitted by the student to the eligible Sea Grant program:

Project Narrative Elements:

• Signed Institutional Title Page (not to exceed one page) - The title page should include the name and contact information of the prospective fellow and should specify your project’s focus area (either PED or MRE). The template can be downloaded here.
  • The title of the proposal, depending on the student’s research /concentration, should read either "Last name_PED” or “Last name_MRE” as a prefix.
  • Title page should also include a brief project abstract.
  • Summarize the financial information for the project and include approval signatures from the fellow, faculty advisor, and institutional representative. Acquiring institutional signatures may require at least two weeks prior to the submission deadline, so we recommend working with your faculty advisor on these as early as possible in the application process.
• Project proposal (not to exceed five pages, single spaced) - The project proposal is intended to describe the proposed dissertation or the general intended area of study. If a proposal is longer than five pages, only the first five will be shared with reviewers. References and figures should be included as an appendix and do not count towards the five page limit. It must be written by the prospective fellow and include the following:
  • the number of years for which fellowship support is being sought;
  • a brief summary of the work to be completed;
  • a rationale for the proposed activity;
  • scientific or technical objectives and/or hypotheses to be tested;
  • appropriate details on methodology, and relevance of results.
    Candidate should demonstrate how their project will focus on at least one of the following: 1) the population dynamics of living marine resources; 2) stock assessment and survey methodologies; 3) marine ecosystem modeling; 4) integrated ecosystem assessments; 5) ecosystem-based management of marine ecosystems; and 6) economics of the conservation and management of living marine resources. Interdisciplinary topics are encouraged.
    Bibliography & References Cited Attachment (if applicable): If applicable, provide a bibliography of any references cited in the Project Narrative. Each reference must include the names of all authors (in the same sequence in which they appear in the publication), the article and journal title, book title, volume number, page numbers, and year of publication. Include only bibliographic citations. Applicants should be especially careful to follow scholarly practices in providing citations for source materials relied upon when preparing any section of the application.
• Education and career goal statement (not to exceed two pages, single spaced) - If a career goal statement is longer than two pages, only the first two pages will be shared with reviewers. The statement should discuss the student's interest in the economics of the conservation and management of living marine resources, and/or quantitative marine ecology, with a focus on one or more of the following: 
  • Development and implementation of methods for assessing marine ecosystems and/or stock status of living marine resources;
  • ecosystem-based management; 
  • population dynamics of managed aquatic animals; 
  • quantitative survey methodologies; 
  • commitment to apply scientific expertise to serve society equitably (consider academics, volunteer activities, professional activities or personal experiences).
• Curriculum vitae (CV) - The student, the faculty advisor, and the NMFS mentor must each submit a CV which is not to exceed 2 pages. The CVs should not include personal, contact information or web links to external resources (e.g., LinkedIn, articles, blogs, etc.). If a CV is longer than two pages, only the first two pages will be shared with reviewers.
• Summary of academic training in quantitative methods - The student should provide a one-page maximum single spaced summary describing their academic training in quantitative methods; a listing of your top five classes in quantitative methods already taken; and classes you intend to take over the spring 2024 semester. Class listings should include course name (though course number e.g., MA 551 can be excluded) and a short description of content covered in course.
• Transcripts - Clear copies of all undergraduate and graduate student transcripts. These copies may be either official or unofficial transcripts. For students who have been accepted but not yet enrolled in a current Ph.D. program, the program’s acceptance letter is adequate to fill the requirement of Ph.D. transcripts.
• A minimum of two signed letters of recommendation -  Each letter of recommendation must not exceed two pages single spaced. If a letter is longer than two pages, only the first two will be shared with reviewers. Signed letters of recommendation should be from:
  • The student's faculty advisor. The letters should discuss the following attributes of the student: quantitative skills, self-motivation, response to setbacks, skills and involvement in teamwork, academic and performance and/or potential.
  • The student’s NMFS mentor. In addition to noting the NMFS staff member’s commitment to serve as a mentor, letters from NMFS mentors should briefly address the relevance of the research to NMFS, as well as a statement of broader impacts of the proposal.
  • If multiple advisors or mentors are contributing, each one should provide a separate letter. 
    NOTE: Blinded reviewer comments will be provided to the students, including discussion of the letters of recommendation.

OTHER ATTACHMENTS 

Abbreviated Environmental Compliance Questionnaire (OMB Control No. 0648-0538) 

• Applicants must ensure that the questionnaire is completed in full and includes detailed information regarding project location, methodology, and permits. Copies of all permits required for project activities should be included with application materials. If a permit is pending or planned, please provide this information.
• A separate questionnaire must be completed for each relevant action/project in the proposal. 
• The questionnaire can be found here. 
• Examples of questionnaires can be found here. 

Data Management Plan (not to exceed two pages) 

• Environmental data and information collected or created under NOAA grants or cooperative agreements must be made discoverable by and accessible to the general public, in a timely fashion (typically within two years), free of charge or at no more than the cost of reproduction, unless an exemption is granted by the NOAA Program. Data should be available in at least one machine-readable format, preferably a widely-used or open-standard format, and should also be accompanied by machine-readable documentation (metadata), preferably based on widely used or international standards. 
• Proposals submitted in response to this Announcement must include a Data Management Plan of up to two pages describing how these requirements will be satisfied. The Data Management Plan should be aligned with the Data Management Guidance provided by NOAA in the Announcement. The contents of the Data Management Plan (or absence thereof), and past performance regarding such plans, will be considered as part of proposal review. A typical plan should include descriptions of the types of environmental data and information expected to be created during the course of the project; the tentative date by which data will be shared; the standards to be used for data/metadata format and content; methods for providing data access; approximate total volume of data to be collected; and prior experience in making such data accessible. The costs of data preparation, accessibility, or archiving may be included in the proposal budget unless otherwise stated in the Guidance. Accepted submission of data to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) is one way to satisfy data sharing requirements; however, NCEI is not obligated to accept all submissions and may charge a fee, particularly for large or unusual datasets. 
• NOAA may, at its own discretion, make publicly visible the Data Management Plan from funded proposals, or use information from the Data Management Plan to produce a formal metadata record and include that metadata in a Catalog to indicate the pending availability of new data. 
• Proposal submitters are hereby advised that the final pre-publication manuscripts of scholarly articles produced entirely or primarily with NOAA funding will be required to be submitted to NOAA Institutional Repository after acceptance, and no later than upon publication. Such manuscripts shall be made publicly available by NOAA one year after publication by the journal.
• More information can be found on NOAA’s Data Management Procedures at: https://nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/documents/Data_Sharing_Directive_v3.0_remediated.pdf and at NAO 212-15 Management of Environmental Data and Information: https://www.noaa.gov/organization/administration/nao-212-15-management-of-environmental-data-and-information 

BUDGET NARRATIVE  

We expect budgets to be developed and submitted with significant support from the research mentor and hosting institution. 

Please complete the Excel 90-4 Budget Form (OMB Control No. 0648-0362) and associated budget justification. The Sea Grant 90-4 Form can be found here in the Forms and Templates button (https://seagrant.noaa.gov/insideseagrant/implementation). The Excel version should be used in the creation of the 90-4 and should then be turned into a PDF, combined with the budget justification and uploaded below. Guidance on filling out the form and budget justification is located in the California Sea Grant Budget Guidance Document.

Please ensure that the Sea Grant 90-4 form describes the yearly and total budget of the project (i.e., Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, and Years 1-3). For each year of the project (or each individual project within an application), a budget justification is required. Each budget justification should explain the budget items in sufficient detail to enable review of the appropriateness of the funding requested. The budget should include funds for travel to the annual Fellows Symposium and may include funds for stipend, tuition, fees, equipment, supplies, discretionary travel, and other reasonable and appropriate project costs. Sub-contracts, if any, should have a separate 90-4.

The award for each fellowship will be a multi-year cooperative agreement in an amount not to exceed $62,500 in federal funds per year for up to three years. Non-federal matching funds equal to at least 20 percent (20%) of the federal funding request must be provided unless a waiver justified by statute is granted, such as the waiver for insular areas granted by the Department of Commerce pursuant to 48 U.S.C. 1469a. The cumulative match at the end of each year of the grant must not fall below 20 percent of the cumulative federal request up to that point. For example, if $62,500 in federal funds is requested (the maximum allowable annual request), matching funds must be at least $12,500. In other words, applicants may not 'under' match in year one and 'over' match in year two. In-kind contributions directly supporting this application may count towards this matching requirement.

Overall application forms, such as the SF-424, SF424A, etc., will be completed by California Sea Grant.

For questions related to budgets, contact Carol Bailey-Sumber (sgbudget@ucsd.edu).

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

If you are enrolled towards a degree in a graduate or professional program in California, then your application must come through a California-based Sea Grant program.

If you are enrolled towards a degree in a graduate or professional program in a state or territory not served by a Sea Grant program you must first contact the agency contact listed below to obtain a written referral to an eligible Sea Grant program. This referral must be included in the application package.

Application Deadline: January 25, 2024, 5PM PT

The electronic version of your application, with required signatures, must be submitted as PDFs via eSeaGrant (California Sea Grant's online submission portal). It is recommended that applicants access the system, review submission requirements within it, and start to upload necessary documents well in advance of the submission deadline. This will give users the opportunity to obtain any necessary clarification or assistance before the deadline.

NOTE: We advise not to wait until the last minute to submit your application; when eSeaGrant experiences high user traffic, you may experience page loading delays. It is the applicant’s responsibility to get all required materials submitted before the deadline, and the submission deadline will not be extended. 

APPLY NOW!

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EVALUATION CRITERIA

For the NMFS-Sea Grant Fellowship in Population and Ecosystem Dynamics and Marine Resource Economics the evaluation criteria are summarized below. For more details on the breakdown of evaluation criteria, please see the 2024 NMFS-Sea Grant Fellowship Student Guide.

1. Quality of project and applicability to program priorities (30 points). The project summary should provide evidence of important and innovative research and relate that research to relevant agency priorities.
2. Relevant experience related to diversity of education; extra- curricular activities; honors and awards; and interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills (20 Points). The student should discuss any relevant coursework and their future year activities. The student may discuss any completed or in progress classes that they deem relevant to their success in the Fellowship Program. The student should include a listing of classes and/or plans for spring 2024 and summer 2024. The curriculum vitae, career goal statement, and summary of academic training in quantitative methods will also be considered in the section.
3. Academic record as it relates to quantitative coursework and related fields (20 Points). The academic record is evaluated using student transcripts (undergraduate AND graduate), the summary of academic training in quantitative methods, and the curriculum vitae (CV).
4. Recommendations and/or endorsements of the student (20 points total). For the student's faculty advisor, the letters should discuss the following attributes of the student: self-motivation, response to setbacks, skills and involvement in teamwork, collaborative leadership skills, academic and performance and/or potential. For the student’s NMFS mentor, in addition to noting the NMFS staff member’s commitment to serve as a mentor, letters from NMFS mentors should briefly address the relevance of the research to NMFS, as well as a statement of broader impacts of the proposal. 
5. Overall application cohesion (10 points). All aspects of the application materials (CV, summary of academic training in quantitative methods, project summary, education and career goal statement from the student, letters of recommendation).

REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS

Once a full proposal application has been received by NOAA, an initial administrative review is conducted to determine compliance with requirements and completeness of the application. Applications that are missing required elements listed in the NOFO Section IV. B., or applications coming from ineligible applicants may be rejected without further review.

State Level/Individual Sea Grant Program Review:

An initial administrative review is conducted to determine compliance with requirements and completeness of the application.

National Level Review:

Applications that pass the administrative review will be reviewed by at least three independent reviewers drawn from experts in a range of disciplines that are relevant to the applications. Each proposal will receive at least three written reviews from the reviewers assessing its merits with regard to the evaluation criteria.

After the written review phase, two separate panels will be conducted; one for the population and ecosystem dynamics applications and one for the marine resource economics applications. The panelists will represent a range of technical expertise in disciplines that are relevant to the applications. All panelists will evaluate each application and provide a score based on the evaluation criteria. These scores will be averaged to produce a final rank order. The selecting official shall award in the rank order unless the application is justified to be selected out of rank order based upon any of the selection factors provided in NOFO Section V.C. The selecting official shall make final recommendations for awards to the Grants Officer who is authorized to obligate the funds and execute the award.

NOTE: Blinded reviewer comments will be provided to the students, including discussion of the LORs.

The program manager, NEPA staff lead, or grants specialist may contact the applicants to discuss questions about the merit or administrative correctness of the application and may delay approval of the application, or impose conditions on the award preventing funding or execution of certain activities, until all questions are satisfactorily answered.

Selection Factors

The Selecting Official shall recommend awarding in the rank order unless the proposal is justified to be selected out of rank order based on one or more of the following factors:

1. Availability of funding.
2. Balance/distribution of funds:
   1. geographically
   2. by type of institution
   3. across academic disciplines
3. Program-specific objectives as listed in NOFO Section I.A.
4. Degree in scientific area and type of degree sought

Consequently, awards may not necessarily be made to the highest-scored applications. Investigators may be asked to answer questions; and/or modify objectives, work plans, and/or budgets (including overall funding level) to address the issues raised by the reviewers, the competition manager, the Selecting Official, or the Grants Officer before an award is made. Subsequent administrative processing will be in accordance with current NOAA grants procedures.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

Financial reports are to be submitted semi-annually and performance (technical) reports are to be submitted annually.

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, 31 U.S.C. 6101 note, includes a requirement for awardees of applicable Federal grants to report information about first-tier subawards and executive compensation under Federal assistance awards. All awardees of applicable grants and cooperative agreements are required to report to the FFATA Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) available at https://www.fsrs.gov/ on all subawards over $30,000. Refer to 2 CFR Part 170.

DEADLINES:

For applying students:

January 25, 2024 5:00PM PT - Application materials submitted by student to California Sea Grant via eSeaGrant

For California Sea Grant:

February 8, 2024 2:00PM PT - Letters of Intent submitted by California Sea Grant via email to National Sea Grant Office Fellowship Program Managers

February 22, 2024 8:59PM PT - Selected applications submitted by California Sea Grant via Grants.gov to National Sea Grant Office Fellowship Program Managers

CONTACTS

Proposal Format & eSeaGrant Questions:

Lian Guo, Research Coordinator

sgproposal@ucsd.edu

Budget Questions:

Carol Bailey-Sumber, Grants Analyst

sgbudget@ucsd.edu

Agency Contacts:

The National Sea Grant Office mailing address is: 

NOAA Sea Grant 1315 East-West Highway Silver Spring, MD 20910

Tel: (240) 507-4825

E-mail: oar.sg.fellows@noaa.gov