Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia: Request for Proposals

*Update October 1, 2021: The full proposal deadline has been extended to October 26th, 5pm PST. Only applicants who have submitted a letter of intent may submit a full proposal.

*Update August 5, 2021: Matching funds are no longer required for this funding opportunity. See Matching Funds section below.

CA Ocean Protection Council Prop 68 and California Sea Grant Competitive Call for Monitoring, Research, and Synthesis Projects that Support Improved Understanding of Chemical and Ecological Sensitivity and Adaptation to Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia

Deadlines:

Letters of Intent: August 30, 2021 - 5 p.m. PT
Full Proposals*: October 26, 2021 - 5 p.m.  PT
*Only applicants who have submitted a letter of intent may submit a full proposal.

A consequence of increased global carbon dioxide emissions and nutrient loading, ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH) trigger a wide range of marine ecosystem impacts and often co-occur, thus presenting a collective management challenge for the West Coast region. The impacts of ocean acidification disproportionately affect sensitive species, mainly calcifying marine organisms, many of which support important commercial fisheries, though additional evidence indicates that such impacts may extend throughout food webs. Similarly, low dissolved oxygen or hypoxic events are increasing in frequency and extent across the West Coast, threatening the resilience and stability of marine ecosystems. High temperatures can also cause or exacerbate hypoxia, as can high nutrient loadings, the the latter of which occurs independent of greenhouse gas emissions. Further investigation is needed to understand the interactions between such covariates, specifically field-based research and monitoring. The main findings from awarded proposals will be used by the state to support actions on OAH (e.g. establishing water quality objectives and nutrient loading standards) by 2025. 

California Sea Grant and the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) are now soliciting proposals for monitoring, research, and synthesis projects that will enhance our understanding of ocean acidification and hypoxia on biological vulnerability. This funding opportunity will support the collection of new chemical or ecological observations or species response data. Synthesis efforts that promote broad access and sharing of OAH data and information are also eligible.

California Sea Grant and OPC are soliciting proposals for projects of up to 3 years in duration, with a maximum budget of $1,000,000 per project (to include indirect costs, if any).  Two to seven projects will likely be funded and range from a minimum of $200,000 to a maximum of $1,000,000, contingent upon receipt of anticipated funds from NOAA. The anticipated start date of these projects is approximately February 1, 2022. There is a total of $2.2 million available for this research solicitation. California Sea Grant will fund $400,000 worth of projects and OPC will provide an additional $1,800,949. 

Note: There will be no no-cost extensions available for this funding opportunity.

The intent of the planned solicitation is to meet OPC’s Strategic Plan Objective 1.2 to minimize causes and impacts to ocean acidification and hypoxia and Objective 1.3 to improve understanding of climate impacts on California’s coast and ocean. The solicitation will also be aligned with the recommendations made by the California Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (OAH) Science Task Force report “Enhancing California’s Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Monitoring Network”, a joint effort led by the OPC and Ocean Science Trust (OST). The California Ocean Protection Council was established to improve the management and protection of ocean and coastal resources and ecosystems. One of the many ways the OPC achieves this purpose is by supporting innovative research that directly informs and improves the stewardship of ocean and coastal resources.

California Sea Grant will contribute NOAA Sea Grant funds and administer the solicitation which will be focused on projects of up to 3 years in duration that enhance our understanding of OAH impacts to biological, economic, and social vulnerability through enhanced monitoring, research, and synthesis. California Sea Grant will also lead grant administration on behalf of OPC. California Sea Grant’s mission is to provide integrated research, extension, outreach, and education to help Californians balance diverse interests that intersect with the coastal and marine environments, and adapt to changing conditions and needs. California Sea Grant accomplishes this by collaborating with a range of local, state, regional, national, and international partners to further the acquisition and application of relevant scientific knowledge.

California Sea Grant’s Strategic Plan prioritizes opportunities that benefit society through building and maintaining 1) Healthy Coastal Ecosystems, 2) Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture, and 3) Resilient Coastal Communities and Economies. Specifically, the planned solicitation will meet California Sea Grant’s Strategic Plan Healthy Coastal Ecosystems Goal 2: Support research to understand the drivers and impacts of environmental change and anthropogenic impacts and stressors on coastal and marine species, ecosystems, and environments, such as sea-level rise, rising temperatures, ocean acidification, and increasing hypoxia.

Projects that are complementary and additive to the suite of recently approved projects aligned with the recommendations of the OAH Expert Panel (see below) will be prioritized, with the exception of eDNA efforts. In addition, proposed research should be in line with the following strategic goals and guiding documents: 

• April 2021 Biological and Chemical Monitoring Coordination Recommendations to the Ocean Protection Council from the California Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Monitoring Expert Panel
• Enhancing California’s Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Monitoring Network 
• 2020-2025 Ocean Protection Council Strategic Plan
• 2018-2021 California Sea Grant Strategic Plan
• 2018-2021 National Sea Grant Strategic Plan
• April 2016 Report - The West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Panel: Major Findings, Recommendations, and Actions

California Sea Grant will accept letters of intent via eSeaGrant until 5:00 p.m. PT on August 30, 2021. Full proposals will be due by 5:00 p.m. PT on October 26, 2021 via eSeaGrant. Only applicants who have submitted a letter of intent may submit a full proposal.

Webinar
Timeline
Eligibility
Award Information
Letters of Intent
Full Proposals
How to Submit
Matching Funds
Supporting Coastal Data and Management
NOAA Data Sharing Requirements
Review Process
Evaluation Criteria
Selection Criteria
Contacts

Webinar

California Sea Grant and OPC hosted an informational webinar to answer any questions for interested applicants on Thursday, August 5, 2021 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. PT. View the slides here.

Timeline

August 30, 2021: Letter of Intent due 
September 10, 2021 (approximate): Letter of Intent responses sent to applicants 
October 26, 2021: Proposals due 
October - December 2021: Review of Proposals 
February 2022: Proposal applicants notified of recommendations 
February 14, 2022: Recommended projects brought to February Council meeting for consideration of funding
April 1, 2022: Selected projects can begin

Eligibility

Eligible applicants for this competitive grant program include non-federal public agencies, nonprofit corporations, tribes and Tribal governments, or private entities subject to Public Resources Code Section 35650, as stated in OPC's Proposition 68 Grant Funding Procedures. Projects must benefit the state of California, relatedly, California applicants will be highly prioritized. California Sea Grant is the final arbiter of decisions regarding eligibility.

Applicants may submit more than one Letter of Intent/Full Proposal, but if selected, only one award will be made to the principal investigator (PI). In addition, PIs may be listed as co-PIs on other projects, even if they are lead PI on their own project.

California Sea Grant 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. California Sea Grant encourages applicants of all ages, races, ethnicities, national origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, disabilities, cultures, religions, citizenship types, marital statuses, job classifications, veteran status types, income, and socioeconomic status types.

If you have questions about your institution’s eligibility to apply to this call, please contact Justine Kimball (Justine.Kimball@resources.ca.gov) or sgproposal@ucsd.edu.

Award Information

There is a total of approximately $2.2 million available for this research solicitation. California Sea Grant will fund $400,000 worth of projects and OPC will provide an additional $1,800,949. It is anticipated that 2 to 7 projects will be funded, with a maximum budget of $1,000,000 per project.  The anticipated start date of these projects is approximately April 1, 2022.  For this competition, projects may be up to 3 years in duration.
Note: There will be no no-cost extensions available for this funding opportunity.

All projects are required to consider and describe how findings will be integrated into a broader California and/or west coast OAH monitoring network and information. Efforts will be prioritized that contribute to regional/statewide/west coast status and trends indicator development and/or provide information relevant to the State Water Resources Control Board’s development of OAH water quality objectives. Projects must address how data, protocols, products, and information will be standardized and available. Efforts must have a direct linkage to information that is relevant to a manager, decision-maker, or other stakeholder with an information sharing plan over the course of the project, and if appropriate, beyond the project duration and absorbed into ongoing efforts. Previously established and ongoing data sharing portals, partnerships, and products should be leveraged as appropriate.

Monitoring Projects
Monitoring projects must enhance the connection between chemical and biological monitoring  to improve understanding of impacts to calcifiers and higher trophic levels from ocean acidification and hypoxia separately and additively. Projects should also improve OAH models as decision-support tools, and/or strengthen continuity, quality, and/or the integration of OAH monitoring programs across the California coast and address spatial and temporal disparities. Examples of ideal monitoring projects include but are not limited to those that apply appropriate methods to monitor OAH and/or biological indicators through space, time, and with depth particularly in regions that represent critical spatial gaps, or utilize moorings along a natural gradient of variable pH or aragonite saturation depths and/or to understand spatially explicit impacts of ocean acidification on calcifying organisms. Outcomes should directly support the management of marine resources.

Research Projects
Research projects must make a direct connection between research findings and interpretation of long-term monitoring efforts and/or other management-relevant applications. Such projects must also meet one or more of the following priorities; quantify sensitivity and adaptive capacity of key species under realistic dynamic ocean acidification exposure regimes, within the context of key multi-stressors (e.g., hypoxia, ocean warming) and/or utilize ocean acidification and other relevant environmental exposure gradients to assess ecological sensitivity, thresholds, and resilience and identify and test predicted ecological impacts using field studies or an ecosystem modeling framework. Examples of ideal research projects include but are not limited to lab trials conducted in conjunction with field experiments and/or ongoing monitoring efforts with the aim of understanding species to ecosystem-level responses to OAH and its many covariates (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen) or a project that utilizes a natural gradient in OAH to test how species respond or have been responding and the ecosystem-level consequences of variable exposure.

Synthesis Projects
Synthesis projects must support the development of shareable information products synthesizing OAH data from ongoing and past efforts and/or support the development of a centralized data portal for submitting and accessing OAH chemical and biological data with associated metadata. Examples of ideal synthesis projects include syntheses of data products across multiple monitoring programs, including cross-validation of various methods utilized within and/or across programs and model-data comparisons deemed necessary for management-driven model advancement beyond water quality management, in an effort to move towards high trophic levels and eventually fishery and management OAH resilience strategies.

Letters of Intent

Letters of Intent (LOI) are due August 30, 2021 by 5:00 p.m. PT, submitted through eSeaGrant (submission instructions below).  

Apply now!

Letters of Intent (2-page limit, 12 pt font, PDF file) will allow California Sea Grant to gauge interest and topics that may be submitted. 
The letter must provide the following basic information: 

• Name of applicant and contact information
• Title of project
• Brief discussion of the focal topic and approach
• Approximate funding to be requested

Program managers will review each LOI to determine whether it is responsive to the goals and priorities of this funding opportunity, as advertised in this notice.

Applicants will be encouraged to submit a full proposal if the proposed work, as demonstrated in the LOI:

• Shows relevance to the program priorities (stated above)
• Clearly articulates the problems being addressed
• Sufficiently links information that is relevant to a manager, decision-maker, or other stakeholders 

Applicants will be discouraged from submitting a full proposal if the proposed work, as demonstrated in the LOI:

• Lacks a clear connection to management/policy (project is not “decision-maker relevant”) 
• Does not clearly identify the end-user 
• Does not make a connection to long-term monitoring data collection efforts
• Is redundant or duplicative of past work
• Does not clearly demonstrate how the proposed work will a) identify OAH status and trends or b) advance or fill existing OAH knowledge gaps.

Full Proposals

Only applicants who have submitted a letter of intent may submit a full proposal. 

Full Proposals are due October 26, 2021 by 5:00 p.m. PT, submitted through eSeaGrant (submission instructions below).  

Adherence to the format requirements is mandatory and ensures fairness across all applications. Applications not meeting the format requirements may be rejected without review. Several application elements have specific page limits and excess pages will not be reviewed. Only the requested materials should be submitted; additional documents (e.g. appendices) will not be reviewed. 

Proposal Format: 

1. Type Fonts: 12 point Arial or Helvetica preferred. 
2. Margins: Side, top and bottom margins should be approximately 1 inch each. 
3. Line Spacing: The narrative of the proposal should be single-spaced. Please do not use 1½ line spacing. 
4. Format Style: 
   • Project Title: centered 
   • Narrative Headings: left justified, bold 
   • Page numbers: recommended 
5. Graphics: Any tables, figures and illustrations must be submitted in final form and appended to or embedded within the narrative. Graphics and tables count toward the 12-page limit of the project narrative. The list of references does not count toward the 12-page limit.

Listed below are the requirements for a complete application package. Please use this as an inventory checklist to aid you in preparing the application.

1. Title Page
2. Project Summary
3. CVs and Additional Personnel
4. Project Narrative
5. Budget and Budget Justification 
6. Environmental Compliance Questionnaire
7. Data Management Plan
8. Current and Pending Support
9. Letters of Support
10. Diversity Statement
11. Diversity Questionnaire (Optional)

1. Title Page
   • The title page provides basic summary information regarding the project and identifies which goal(s) and objective(s) of the strategic plan the project addresses. Proposers should download and use the fillable Excel spreadsheet found in the eSeaGrant application portal to enter this information and then upload it as a PDF in. *Please provide all requested information and obtain the required signatures. If you are applying from an academic institution, send your original proposal to your campus research office for local campus approval.
2. Project Summary
   • The Project Summary is fillable on-line in eSeaGrant. Proposers will need to prepare separate sections for objectives, methodology and rationale to complete the project summary form. The project summary presents a concise description of the proposed research in a form useful to a variety of readers not requiring detailed information. Instructions are available in eSeaGrant that should help applicants to accurately complete the form. Please follow them carefully - the project summary is the most widely consulted description of your project. 
3. CVs and Additional Personnel
   • CVs (maximum 2 pages for each person) of all key personnel (PIs, co-PIs, Associate PIs) must be included in the submission. Each investigator (PI or co-PI) record created in eSeaGrant should have a CV associated with it.
   • Listing “Additional Personnel” is optional and this section is to be used at your discretion. You might include all additional personnel who are NOT listed as investigators (e.g. Postdoc, key graduate student). If there are additional personnel who are not the PI or co-PI’s their CV’s should be attached to the Project Narrative file. These will not count toward the 12-page limit. 
   • Note: If a CV that is longer than 2 pages is submitted, Sea Grant will provide reviewers only with the first 2 pages of CV for each PI and co-PI.
4. Project Narrative
   • The project narrative is a single PDF file that includes multiple components. The format may vary;  however, proposals should include the information listed below. The project narrative MUST NOT exceed 12 pages (INCLUDING illustrations, charts, tables and figures). Proposals exceeding this size limit will not be reviewed.
   • Introduction and Background – Provide the rationale for your project (a well-defined problem or important opportunity). Show a clear relationship between the problem statement and the project objectives. Merit, rationale, innovativeness and utilization for the research proposed are criteria by which proposals are evaluated. Thus, a clear, concise statement of the “real world” need for your research (rationale) and a description of who might use the results and how they might use them (utilization) should be addressed.
   • Objectives – In number or “bullet” format, list the Objectives or Goals of the research project.
   • Approach (Plan of Work) – Present the scientific/technical approach, experiments, procedures, etc. Identify and discuss any new approaches (innovativeness) to solving problems and exploiting opportunities in resource management or development, including public outreach. Please make clear what other sources of support (fiscal, personnel or logistical), if any, will be used to help support the work proposed. 
   • Outcomes and Deliverables – Project outcomes should be clearly related to the project objectives and should be briefly described. Any planned interactions with relevant management personnel should be described.
   • References – List all included references alphabetically. (The list of References does NOT count toward the 12-page limit of the Narrative, but must be included in the narrative PDF file.)
5. Budgets and Budget Justification
   • The maximum budget is $1,000,000 per project, to include indirect costs. 
   • Be prepared to enter any salaries, wages, and fringe benefits for all personnel associated with the project. Also, if applicable, indicate expected costs for equipment, expendable supplies, publication costs, and travel.All budget sections will require justification. Review the online help section to see what is expected as justification for each section.
   • If recommended for funding, California Sea Grant may ask you to work with staff to revise your budget to make sure that the project budget, indirect costs, etc. is correct. Note that both federal and state funds will be used to support projects approved for funding. Please use the state negotiated rate (25% MTDC) when completing your budget, and if your project is approved for funding using federal funds, you will be asked to revise your budget to your institution's federal negotiated rate.
   • Note: There will be no no-cost extensions for this funding opportunity.
6. Environmental Compliance Questionnaire
   • An Abbreviated Environmental Questionnaire is required with each application. Applicants can download a fillable questionnaire form here. Only one questionnaire is to be submitted per project/proposal, even if there are to be sub-awards issued to multiple institutions. For questions not applicable to the proposed research, please note N/A on the form. Leave blank the question about Grant/Project Number. This is an “abbreviated” form, so question numbers are not continuous. Please note that the NEPA questionnaire should be completed in detail, including project location, and include copies of all relevant permits such as lease documents and collection permits, as applicable.
7. Data Management/Sharing Plan
   • Because funds for our Core research program are provided by NOAA, all new Sea Grant awards that generate environmental data (see below) will have to conform to NOAA’s Data Sharing Directive. Describe how data and other information generated by the project will be handled, stored, and shared, i.e., disseminated to the public, participants, stakeholders, and the State.If your proposed project will generate environmental data your proposal must address the following to be eligible for support (text supplied by NOAA).
   • 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.
   • It is the investigator’s responsibility to conform to this directive and no award can be issued absent an acceptable data management plan. The data management plan can be uploaded as a separate PDF in eSeaGrant or, at the PI’s discretion, can be appended to the project narrative as a separate statement after the references. In the latter case, it will not count toward the 12-page narrative limit. If the proposed research will not generate environmental data then a data management plan is not required, but this must be stated in eSeaGrant.
8. Current and Pending Support
   • Using the section online in eSeaGrant, please list other current and pending projects associated with investigators.
9. Support Letters (Optional)
   • Support letters are optional. However, if they are to be included in the application, please consolidate all letters into one PDF for uploading to eSeaGrant.
10. Diversity Statement (suggested 1 page)
    • California Sea Grant and OPC have a unique opportunity to support our commitment to diversity and inclusion by taking an intentional step that encourages applicants to consider diversity and inclusion as part of their scientific projects. 
    • In this section, describe how well the proposed activity broadens the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, geography, etc.) and how these groups are given a voice in the community of practice. Examples could include (but are not limited to) the full participation of women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities in conducting this work or benefiting from its outcomes.
11. Diversity Questionnaire (Optional)
    • This questionnaire is voluntary and answers will be anonymous. Any data provided assists California Sea Grant in its commitment to equal opportunities. This questionnaire will be separated from the application and will not be used in any review decisions. This data will be used internally for statistical data gathering and reporting purposes in evaluating the extent to which California Sea Grant is achieving its equal opportunity goals. 

How to Submit

Applicants are required to use the eSeaGrant online system for proposal submission. If you have not registered in eSeaGrant, you will need to register via the online submission “portal” (http://eseagrant2.ucsd.edu).

Once you login, you can change your password by clicking on your name in the upper-right corner of the screen, and select “My Profile”.

To start a proposal, or revisit/edit an existing proposal, click on “RFP (Request for Proposals)” on the banner head. Then click on “Add Proposal” under “2022 Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (Letter of Intent)”. Only applicants who have submitted a letter of intent may submit a full proposal and will receive an invitation to eSeaGrant for their full proposals. 

In order to submit a proposal, you must work down the sequence of sections (“Start Here” through “Submission Preview”) listed on the left side of the proposal window. eSeaGrant provides sections to upload or fill out all of the required application components. Some of these pages may require additional calculations and pop-up pages, so please allow your browser to display pop-up windows and enable JavaScript. Most of the required files must be converted to PDFs before uploading to eSeaGrant. Multiple documents must be consolidated into one PDF for each section (except for CVs).

It is recommended that eSeaGrant users 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. The submission deadline will not be extended.

For questions regarding use of eSeaGrant, please contact sgproposal@ucsd.edu.

Matching Funds

No matching funds will be required for this funding opportunity. However, PIs are encouraged to point out related research and collaborations that would complement the submitted proposal.

Supporting Coastal Data and Management

Proposers whose projects could benefit from access to coastal oceanographic data should be aware that a wide variety of data on the physical, biological, and chemical properties of California coastal waters are collected by and made available by the two integrated ocean observing systems that cover the entire California coast: the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS -http://www.sccoos.org/) and the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS -http://www.cencoos.org/ ). These two programs also are potential recipients and managers of environmental data collected by researchers, so may aid researchers in fulfilling data accessibility requirements (see section labeled NOAA Data Sharing Requirement, below). Proposers are encouraged to contact staff at SCCOOS or CeNCOOS, as appropriate, to discuss availability and access to data, and data management that might bear on the proposed research program.

NOAA Data Sharing Requirements

Effective for all NOAA funded research projects.

Data and information collected and/or created under NOAA grants and cooperative agreements must be made visible, accessible, and independently understandable to general users, free of charge or at minimal cost, in a timely manner (typically no later than two years after the data are collected or created), except where limited by law, regulation, policy or by security requirements. The requirement has two basic parts: (1) environmental data generated by a grant project must be made available after a reasonable period of exclusive use, and (2) the grant application must describe the plan to make the data available (Principal Investigators are expected to execute the plan).

If your project produces environmental data, it must conform to NOAA’s Data Sharing Directive for Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Contracts. For detailed guidance, you can view the current version of the policy, including a definition of environmental data (which can include socioeconomic and model data), download any updates and access additional implementation resources at the following permanent URL (Appendix B outlines requirements): https://nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/documents/Data_Sharing_Directive_v3.0.pdf.

Review Process

Proposals will undergo a structured review process led by California Sea Grant and OPC. Each proposal will be subjected to at least three external written reviews. Reviewers/panelists will all be external to California Sea Grant and all reviewers will be asked to complete a Conflict of Interest (COI) form prior to conducting their review.  The review panel(s) will include subject matter experts, scientists, and agency representatives. At their discretion, California Sea Grant and/or OPC may request additional review by likely user groups of the research findings or suggest coordination of complementary proposals. 

Projects recommended for funding through this review process will be presented at the OPC meeting on February 14, 2021 for consideration of final approval of awards. In mid-February, applicants will be notified of the final award selection and can begin projects on or after April 1, 2022.

Evaluation Criteria

To be funded, research must be consistent with the missions of California Sea Grant and OPC, and consistent with this request for proposals.

In addition, evaluation of proposals will be based on the following criteria:

Project Rationale and Relevance (25%): The degree to which the proposed activity addresses an important issue, problem or opportunity in the health, development, use or management of marine or coastal resources and ecosystems. The degree to which the proposed activity addresses the needs of important state, regional or national constituencies. The degree to which the proposed project will enhance our understanding of OAH biological vulnerability and impacts through enhanced monitoring, research, and/or synthesis in California.

Technical/Scientific Merit (30%): The degree to which the activity will advance the state of the science or discipline through use of state-of-the-art methods.

Management/User Relationships (15%): The degree to which the users or potential users of the proposed project’s results have been brought into the planning of the proposed project, will be brought into the execution of the proposed project or will be kept appraised of progress and results.  The degree to which the proposed project has a direct linkage to information that is relevant to a manager, decision-maker, or other stakeholder.

Project costs (5%)

Qualifications of Investigators (15%): The degree to which investigators are qualified by education, training and/or experience to execute the proposed project. Evidence of any record of achievement with previous funding.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (10%): The degree to which the proposed activity broadens the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., based on gender, race & ethnicity, disability, geographic, socio-economic class, etc) in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Selection Criteria

California Sea Grant and OPC shall award 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: 
   • Geographically 
   • By type of institution 
   • By type of partners 
   • By research priority 
   • By project types 
3. Duplication of other projects funded or considered for funding by California Sea Grant and OPC.
4. Program priorities and policy factors.
5. Applicant’s prior award performance.
6. Partnerships with/participation of diverse groups, mentors and underrepresented communities.

Contacts

Proposal Content Questions:

Justine Kimball, Ocean Protection Council - Senior Climate Change Program Manager
Justine.Kimball@resources.ca.gov

Proposal Format & eSeaGrant Questions:

Madelyn Roycroft, Program Analyst
sgproposal@ucsd.edu

Lian Guo, Research Coordinator
sgproposal@ucsd.edu

Carol Bailey-Sumber, Grants Analyst
sgproposal@ucsd.edu

Budget & Matching Funds Questions:
Rose Madson, Assistant Director
sgbudget@ucsd.edu