FFO-2015

Overview of FFO-2015

This federal funding opportunity (full announcement) requests proposals that will provide timely and high-quality scientific results that may be used to develop management strategies to support the sustainability of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem and its fisheries. This opportunity is focused on three short-term priorities and invites the research and management community to compete for funding for 1- to 2-year projects to address these priorities. The projects supported by this federal funding opportunity will synthesize current scientific understanding and management needs and inform the future direction of the NOAA RESTORE Science Program as well as the other science and restoration initiatives in the region. Stakeholders have endorsed these short-term priorities and the concept of distributing funds for them now and the Science Program has responded with this federal funding opportunity.

This federal funding opportunity is an open competition. All applications will be evaluated and scored individually using an independent peer review process. This process is designed to identify the strongest applications based on the merit of the work being proposed.

FFO-2015 Priorities and Topical Areas

This federal funding opportunity requests proposals that address the following short-term priorities:

• comprehensive inventory and assessment (i.e., strengths/weaknesses) of ongoing ecosystem modeling efforts (conceptual and quantitative)
• identification of currently available health/condition indicators of Gulf of Mexico ecosystem components, including humans, followed by comparative analysis of strengths and weaknesses and design/testing of additional indicators
• assessment of monitoring and observation needs and development of recommendations to build off existing assets to establish a Gulf wide monitoring and observation network

in three topical areas

• ecosystem and living marine resources management
• climate change and extreme weather impacts on sustainability of restoration
• integration of social, behavioral, and economic science into restoration and management of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.

Research to Application

The scientific information, syntheses, and strategies resulting from this funding opportunity will help the program determine how to develop information and tools that will be clearly usable by resource managers to make more informed decisions on management and restoration of the Gulf of Mexico. Highest consideration will be given to applications incorporating management-driven research studies involving the natural or social sciences, which includes participation by the resource management community. Applicants must demonstrate clear connections to relevant management and restoration entities that will use the results of their proposed work and define the specific products and steps they will use to achieve this goal.