Delaware Sea Grant Research Funding Proposals

The Delaware Sea Grant College Program is soliciting regional proposals for two years of funding for the period Feb. 1, 2012 to Jan. 31, 2014. Proposals should address marine and coastal problems and opportunities that are important to Delaware, the mid-Atlantic region, and the nation. NOTE: only investigators who submitted pre-proposals earlier this year can submit full proposals.

The following changes were made to the Proposal Schedule:

Standard Proposal Schedule

The deadline for the “proposal selection and PI notification” has been extended to August 19th.

Regional Proposal Schedule

Thursday, June 30, 2011 - Regional full proposals are due to the Delaware Sea Grant Office by 5:00 pm. Regional PIs should submit one proposal to the Delaware Sea Grant Office only. The proposal should follow the guidelines provided in the Delaware Sea Grant Full Proposal RFP under “Content and Organization,” and include individual budgets for each program (Yr1, Yr2, and Cumulative).

All regional proposals should describe how the research effort will be coordinated amongst the programs under the partnership section in the main box of the proposal text. The proposal and associated information must be submitted electronically to Lisa Ridenour via email at: lridenou@udel.edu.

No later than September 30, 2011 – Regional proposals are selected and PIs are notified.

The following research areas, along with their companion outreach components, have been identified as priorities for this RFP.

Healthy Coastal Ecosystems
Science and policy research and outreach in support of ecosystem-based approaches to managing coastal environments. Emphasis is on:

• Ecosystem processes including relationships between natural and human induced coastal stressors, such as sea-level rise, eutrophication, hypoxia, and coastal development.
• Coastal and marine spatial planning, particularly the development of habitat mapping and ecosystem assessments.
• Assessments of the potential benefits and impacts for coastal communities and natural ecosystems of coastal and offshore energy development.
• New technologies to help advance the development of regional coastal observation systems to advance our capability to make predictions about human impacts and environmental changes on coastal resources.


Sustainable Coastal Development

Research and outreach that addresses issues important for building sustainable coastal communities. Emphasis is on:

• Development of decision support tools that help stakeholders conceptualize or evaluate the trade-offs of future scenarios in coastal communities.
• Analysis of public values, beliefs, attitudes and behavioral intentions on issues such as sea level rise, marine alternative energy, and coastal land use.
• Socio-economic data and modeling focused on assessing risk and impacts for coastal communities to climate change-related factors such as sea-level rise.

Safe and Sustainable Seafood Supply
Research and outreach that catalyzes innovation around seafood issues related to consumer safety and industry competitiveness. Emphasis is on:

• Research and development of new technologies to enhance the competitiveness and environmental sustainability of the domestic seafood industry.
• Applied research to facilitate the development of new products related to seafood safety.
• Innovative training and educational approaches to propagate best practices related to seafood safety and consumption.

Hazard Resilience in Coastal Communities
Science and policy research and outreach that provide an informed basis for assessing the risks associated with living and working in coastal communities. Emphasis is on:

• Research that is aimed at improving forecasting of coastal hazards (such as storm flooding and inundation, sea-level rise) for decision makers and the coastal communities they serve.
• Development of strategies that will help communities mitigate and adapt to climate change-related issues such as sea-level rise.
• Assessing community risks and vulnerabilities associated with coastal natural hazards.
• Developing and/or making accessible state/regional databases that support hazard-related planning.
• Analyze socio-economic costs and benefits of implementing different adaptation and resilience actions for communities.

In addition, proposals addressing regional research priorities in offshore energy development, land use decisions and water quality impacts, and socioeconomic processes and impacts will be considered. A proposal schedule for regional proposals will be posted at a later date.

Investigators wishing to participate must submit proposals, according to these guidelines, to the Delaware Sea Grant Office by April 29, 2011. 


Please contact Lisa Ridenour at lridenou@udel.edu to obtain Word versions of the Title Page and Budget Justification. PDF versions of these documents may be downloaded below.