The Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) Culture and Restoration component of the Chesapeake Bay Integrated Science Program is competitively-based and designed to enhance and increase this important fisheries habitat in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. This program focuses on program areas including large-scale SAV planting, site assessments for future SAV planting, applied research on SAV seed ecology, enhanced capacity for SAV propagation, and integrated restoration (e.g., with oysters).

• The Request for Proposal period for the Submerged Aquatic Vegetation restoration program closed on March 26. More information can be found in the Federal Register Notice.
• The full Federal Funding Opportunity Announcement is also available for more details.

Anticipated Timeline:  Availability of funding for this program is included in the December NOAA Omnibus notice published in the Federal Register. Pre-proposals are typically due in January or February. Full proposals and a complete application package are typically due in March.

Eligibility:  Eligible applicants are institutions of higher education, other nonprofits, commercial organizations, foreign governments, organizations under the jurisdiction of foreign governments, international organizations, state, local and Indian tribal governments. Federal agencies or institutions are not eligible to receive federal assistance under this program.

Drivers:  Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) SAV Strategy & CBP commitment to plant 1,000 acres Bay-wide by 2008

Current Priorities:  The main focus of this program is on large-scale SAV planting due to the CBP commitment, but projects in all of the other program areas (see above) have been funded as well.

• An independent peer panel review (including researchers and/or managers, and for B-WET Chesapeake Bay environmental education experts) is also conducted for all announcements (except Submerged Aquatic Vegetation, which has very limited funding and a small number of proposals submitted). Both federal and nonfederal experts in the field are used in this process.
• Notice and Announcement:  A public notice of this funding program is included in the NOAA omnibus notice published in the Federal Register. More detailed information about the program can be found in the announcement of federal funding opportunity (FFO), which is posted on the NCBO web site and on www.grants.gov .
• Submitting Applications:  Application packages must be submitted electronically through www.grants.gov . Although previously optional, electronic submission is now mandatory.
• Initial Screening:  The Federal Program Officer responsible for this program conducts an initial screening to determine compliance with all application requirements.
• Evaluating Proposals:  Proposals are evaluated based on importance and relevance and applicability of the proposed project to: 1) program goals; 2) technical/scientific merit; 3) overall qualifications of applicants; 4) project costs, and 5) outreach and education components. All proposals are evaluated and scored individually in accordance with the assigned weights of the above evaluation criteria and any additional criteria published in the FFO by an independent technical mail review. The technical mail reviewers are individuals with expertise in the subjects addressed by particular proposals, but who do not have a conflict of interests with the applicant. Each mail reviewer sees only certain individual proposals within their area of expertise. In addition to their review narrative, reviewers are required to comment on each of the five review criteria (listed above), to obtain an overall score for the proposal.

  A panel review is usually not required for this program due to limited funding and a small number of proposals submitted.

• Selection: The program officer (a) selects the proposals to be recommended for funding based upon the averaged technical mail review scores, and/or any specific objectives published in the FFO; and (b) determines the amount of funds available for each proposal subject to the availability of fiscal year funds. Most proposals are funded in order of descending mean score, except in a few cases where proposals are funded out of rank order because they meet program priorities more closely than proposals that had higher mean scores. Recommendations for funding are then forwarded to the selecting official, the Director of NCBO, for the final funding decision. The Director makes final funding decisions based upon the program officials’ recommendations, project funding priorities, and availability of funds.