NOAA Great Lakes Fish Habitat Restoration Partnership Grants | NOAA NMFS HCPO 2022 2007109

Opportunity Information: Apply for NOAA NMFS HCPO 2022 2007109

The NOAA Great Lakes Fish Habitat Restoration Partnership Grants program is a competitive federal funding opportunity designed to support on-the-ground habitat work that helps rebuild and sustain native fish populations across the eight U.S. Great Lakes states. Run through the NOAA Restoration Center, the program provides both financial and technical assistance for projects that restore coastal and nearshore habitats in ways that align with NOAA's habitat restoration mission and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Action Plan. The overall emphasis is on practical restoration outcomes that improve fish habitat quality and address long-standing degradation issues that have reduced native fish productivity and diversity.

Project proposals are mainly judged on how well they match two core GLRI priority areas. First, NOAA is looking for projects that advance GLRI Focus Area 1, which targets toxic substances and the cleanup of Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs). In this context, competitive proposals typically implement specific management actions identified for select AOCs, supporting progress toward delisting or measurable ecological improvements. Second, NOAA is prioritizing projects that support GLRI Focus Area 4, which focuses on habitats and species, especially restoration actions that directly improve habitat for native Great Lakes fish whose populations have been harmed by habitat loss, fragmentation, altered shorelines, sediment issues, barriers to movement, or other forms of degradation.

A key feature of this opportunity is that NOAA intends to focus Focus Area 4 work on a subset of habitat restoration projects that have already been identified as Environmental Priorities by Great Lakes Lake Committees. These Lake Committees are made up of senior officials from state, provincial, and U.S. intertribal fishery agencies and are convened by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. They help set fish community objectives and guide fishery management across the Lakes, so their priority lists signal projects that are broadly supported by fishery managers and are considered high value for achieving lake-wide fish community goals. Applicants are strongly encouraged to propose projects that appear on either (1) an AOC management list and/or (2) a Lake Committee Environmental Priorities list, as referenced in the funding opportunity materials.

The solicitation supports a range of restoration stages and allows applicants to propose feasibility and design work, construction and implementation (on-the-ground restoration), or a combination of planning and construction. Because projects can be complex and span multiple field seasons, NOAA also evaluates whether applicants can manage multiple restoration efforts at the same time over several years, and whether they have a clear plan to work with local stakeholders and communities to successfully deliver results. NOAA also notes that it may choose to fund some, all, or none of the projects included in a proposal depending on alignment with program priorities and the funds available.

Awards are issued as cooperative agreements, which generally means NOAA expects to have substantial involvement during the project, such as coordination, technical input, or oversight consistent with federal cooperative agreement rules. Awards can be one year or multi-year. Multi-year awards may run up to three years, but funding is provided in annual increments and depends on future appropriations and acceptable progress toward milestones. Applicants are expected to estimate out-year funding needs in the first year, with final year-two and year-three amounts determined later based on budgets and performance.

In terms of funding size, NOAA expects typical federal awards to fall roughly between $500,000 and $5 million over one to three years. Proposals requesting less than $300,000 in federal funds are not accepted, and NOAA sets an upper limit of $30 million total federal funding over three years. For the FY22 cycle referenced in the notice, NOAA anticipated up to $10 million available under the announcement, with an expectation of about six awards. The opportunity is supported by GLRI funds provided to NOAA via the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, so actual award levels ultimately depend on what is made available in FY22 through FY24 budgets. The opportunity is listed under the Department of Commerce and carries CFDA number 11.463, with the funding instrument categorized as a discretionary cooperative agreement.

• The Department of Commerce in the environment, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NOAA Great Lakes Fish Habitat Restoration Partnership Grants" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 11.463.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 05, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 12, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $5,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 6 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for NOAA NMFS HCPO 2022 2007109

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