Sea Grant Programs Only - FY2025 Enhancing Knowledge of Aquaculture Technologies, Practices, and Businesses | NOAA OAR SG 2025 29573

Opportunity Information: Apply for NOAA OAR SG 2025 29573

The NOAA National Sea Grant Office is offering a FY2025 competitive grant opportunity specifically for Sea Grant Programs to help people in the U.S. aquaculture community learn directly from established aquaculture operations and support services. The program is framed as a professional development and knowledge-transfer effort rather than a research grant. The central idea is to fund targeted travel so participants can visit aquaculture facilities or sites (public or private), learn practical technologies and business or production approaches, and then bring those lessons back to strengthen aquaculture research, extension, production, or business activities that serve U.S. coastal, marine, and Great Lakes communities. This opportunity aligns with Sea Grant's Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture focus area and the Sea Grant Network's 10-year Aquaculture Vision, and it is intended to support broader NOAA and Department of Commerce aquaculture priorities.

Funding is expected to total about $500,000 across the competition, depending on final appropriations, with an anticipated 10 awards. Individual projects may request up to $75,000 in federal funds and may last up to one year. The award instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically means NOAA expects some level of substantial involvement during the project period (for example, coordination, oversight, or participation in certain activities), even though the work is led by the recipient.

Projects must be centered on travel that improves know-how in aquaculture technologies, production practices and systems, and/or aquaculture businesses, with the specific content driven by the needs of the species or species group relevant to the participants. The travel itself has to be purpose-driven: applicants are expected to clearly identify a real-world need or gap (such as a bottleneck in production methods, biosecurity, permitting pathways, hatchery operations, feed systems, gear, workforce training, marketing, or business planning), explain why that need matters, and then lay out a well-documented travel plan showing how site visits will directly address the need. A key expectation is that the learning does not stop with the travelers; proposals should also explain what outreach or information-sharing will happen afterward so the knowledge gained benefits a wider set of stakeholders in the U.S. aquaculture community.

Allowable costs include travel expenses, salary support, and costs tied to outreach activities that occur after travel (for example, workshops, webinars, extension products, guidance documents, or other dissemination methods). A major restriction is that funding cannot be used for research activities under this announcement. In other words, this program is not meant to pay for experimental trials, data collection campaigns, or laboratory studies; it is meant to pay for learning, technology/practice transfer, and follow-on outreach that translates what was learned into practical improvements.

Eligibility is limited to Sea Grant College Programs, Sea Grant Institutional Programs, and Sea Grant Coherent Area Programs, collectively referred to in the announcement as Sea Grant Programs. A Sea Grant Program may submit more than one application. While only Sea Grant Programs can apply as the official applicant, partnerships are strongly encouraged. Proposals can include collaboration with other Sea Grant Programs and a wide range of outside partners such as state and Tribal agencies or organizations, historically Black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions, nongovernmental organizations, aquaculture businesses and industry associations, universities, colleges, and community colleges. Federal agencies cannot receive funding through this competition, but federal scientists and staff may participate as unpaid partners or co-PIs. Federal labs and offices may also share expertise, facilities, or equipment, but they cannot be paid with award funds and the value of those federal contributions cannot be counted as match.

Travel can be domestic or international. If international travel is proposed, it must comply with the Fly America Act requirements, meaning flights generally need to be taken on U.S. flag air carriers unless a documented exception applies. Regardless of destination, travel must be focused on visiting aquaculture sites or facilities rather than attending general meetings that are not tied to facility learning objectives.

Applications are submitted through the federal grants systems and require advance administrative setup. Applicants must have active registrations in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons, and NOAA emphasizes that completing all registrations can take 4 to 6 weeks. An organization typically needs a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) through SAM.gov, and eRA Commons requires at least one Signing Official account and at least one Program Director/Principal Investigator account before submission. The funding opportunity is listed as NOAA-OAR-SG-2025-29573 (NOAA OAR SG 2025 29573), under CFDA 11.417, with the closing date of March 26, 2025. The announcement also notes NOAA's intention to offer a similar opportunity annually if funding remains available, which signals an ongoing commitment to building aquaculture capacity through learning exchanges and structured knowledge transfer rather than stand-alone research awards.

• The DOC NOAA - ERA Production in the education, environment, natural resources, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Sea Grant Programs Only - FY2025 Enhancing Knowledge of Aquaculture Technologies, Practices, and Businesses" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 11.417.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-12-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-03-26. (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 $75,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for NOAA OAR SG 2025 29573

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