Ocean Exploration Fiscal Year 2024 Funding Opportunity | NOAA OAR OER 2024 2007964

Opportunity Information: Apply for NOAA OAR OER 2024 2007964

The NOAA Ocean Exploration Fiscal Year 2024 Funding Opportunity (NOAA OAR OER 2024 2007964; CFDA 11.011) is a discretionary federal funding program from the U.S. Department of Commerce that supports ocean exploration projects through grants and cooperative agreements. The core goal is to expand basic understanding of the ocean through exploration, defined here as discovery driven by disciplined and diverse observations. NOAA is aiming these funds at work that strengthens knowledge of waters under U.S. jurisdiction, especially when projects align with national priorities laid out in the Strategic Priorities for Ocean Exploration and Characterization of the United States Exclusive Economic Zone, developed under the broader National Strategy for Mapping, Exploring, and Characterizing the U.S. EEZ (NOMEC). While much of the opportunity is focused on U.S. waters, one of the three themes (maritime heritage) can extend beyond U.S. jurisdiction.

Projects must fit within one of three themes, and each theme comes with its own geographic and technical expectations. The first theme, Ocean Exploration and Discovery, is geared toward exploring unknown or poorly known ocean areas, processes, and resources, with an emphasis on waters deeper than 200 meters. NOAA signals particular interest in investigating physical, chemical, and biological environments and processes in the deep ocean water column. Work in shallower waters can still be competitive if it targets tropical mesophotic environments. For this theme, proposals are restricted to waters under U.S. jurisdiction and are expected to clearly connect the proposed work to the thematic and geographic priorities identified in the federal strategic priorities document for EEZ exploration and characterization.

The second theme, Technology, focuses on developing or applying ocean technologies in new ways, or using innovative methods that expand the scale, efficiency, and usability of ocean exploration data. NOAA highlights interest in platform-agnostic technologies (those that can operate across multiple platforms) and in approaches that use machine learning or artificial intelligence to analyze large, publicly accessible datasets. Technologies proposed under this theme must be applicable to depths of 200 meters or more, with full-ocean-depth capability preferred, although laboratory testing or trials in shallower waters are explicitly allowed. Proposals must also address at least one of NOAA Ocean Exploration's defined "ocean exploration variables" (as referenced in the NOAA technical memorandum on Exploration Variables) and, like the first theme, must be tied to the thematic and geographic priorities for EEZ exploration and characterization in the federal strategic priorities report. Technology projects are also restricted to waters under U.S. jurisdiction in terms of the exploration relevance and priority alignment.

The third theme, Maritime Heritage, supports exploration and discovery of significant maritime heritage resources in ways that improve archaeological knowledge and inform preservation, management, and potential seafloor use decisions. Unlike the first two themes, maritime heritage proposals are not restricted to waters under U.S. jurisdiction and can occur at any depth. Projects may address prehistoric or historic-period topics, but they must produce data products that are useful beyond a single niche, meaning they should benefit other academic fields and resource management communities. NOAA indicates a preference for maritime heritage projects that incorporate innovative or advanced technology and methods, consistent with the program's broader emphasis on modern exploration capability.

Across all three themes, NOAA expects projects to support at least one of the agency's science and technology focus areas: uncrewed systems, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, 'omics, data, and citizen science. In other words, even if the project is primarily about discovery or archaeology, it should still connect to at least one of these cross-cutting priorities, such as using autonomous systems for data collection, cloud-based workflows for data processing and sharing, AI-enabled analysis, or citizen-science-based engagement and data use.

Funding details included in the notice indicate an award ceiling of $1,000,000, with approximately 10 expected awards. The opportunity uses grant and cooperative agreement instruments, which typically means NOAA may be more substantially involved in some projects (as is common with cooperative agreements). Eligibility is listed broadly as "Others" with additional clarification expected in the full eligibility language in the official notice, so applicants generally need to check the specific eligibility section to confirm organizational fit.

The application process is staged, beginning with a required or strongly encouraged pre-proposal step and then invitation or progression to full proposals. Pre-proposals were due May 30, 2023 at 4:59 p.m. ET and required a NOAA cover sheet, a short narrative (maximum 2 pages), and demographic information, submitted by email to oer.nofo2024@noaa.gov. Full proposals were due October 5, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. ET and required a more complete package including an updated cover sheet, a one-page executive summary, a project narrative up to 15 pages, a data and information sharing plan (up to 2 pages), an outreach and education plan (up to 1 page), a DEIA statement (up to 1 page), documentation of previous significant results, current and pending support information, short CVs (2 pages max per PI and co-PI), a detailed budget and justification, an indirect cost rate agreement if applicable, a NEPA questionnaire, and optional letters of support. Maritime heritage proposals may also require a letter from State Historic Preservation Office staff addressing potential effects on historic resources, when applicable. Federal applicants submit full proposals by email to the program inbox, while non-federal applicants must submit required full proposal documents individually through Grants.gov using the standard federal forms (SF-424, SF-424A, SF-424B, SF-LLL, CD-511).

A notable budgeting rule in this opportunity concerns ship time and major data-collection platforms. NOAA treats costs for ship time and/or platforms such as remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles as rental costs, and therefore these costs are not included in the modified total direct cost when calculating indirect costs. The stated exception is for organizations that have a federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement explicitly covering those charges. Applicants planning fieldwork-heavy exploration should pay close attention to this detail because it can materially affect the indirect cost calculation and the overall budget structure.

For additional guidance, NOAA points applicants to informational materials hosted on the NOAA Ocean Exploration funding opportunities webpage, and provides an email contact (oer.nofo2024@noaa.gov) for updated links or questions, noting that web links were valid as of the publication date of the announcement.

• The Department of Commerce in the business and commerce, education, environment, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Ocean Exploration Fiscal Year 2024 Funding Opportunity" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 11.011.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 10, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 30, 2023. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for NOAA OAR OER 2024 2007964

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