Grants for Great Lakes Habitat Restoration & Fisheries

The objective of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 NOAA Great Lakes Habitat Restoration Partnership Grants solicitation is to provide federal financial and technical assistance to habitat restoration projects that both meet NOAA's mission to restore coastal habitats and support the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) (https://www.glri.us/actionplan/pdfs/glri-action-plan-2.pdf) goal to protect and restore habitats to sustain healthy populations of native fish species in the eight U.S. Great Lakes states (New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota). NOAA delivers funding and technical expertise to restore Great Lakes coastal habitats. These habitats support valuable fisheries and important coastal resources, improve the quality of our water, provide recreational opportunities for the public's use and enjoyment, and increase the resilience of our coastal communities to the effects of changing climatic conditions.

Proposals submitted under this solicitation will be primarily evaluated based on the applicant's ability to demonstrate that they can develop and manage scientifically sound habitat restoration projects, work well with diverse partners, and effectively manage federal awards. Through this solicitation, NOAA seeks to openly compete funding available for multi-year Great Lakes regional habitat restoration partnerships (Partnerships). The NOAA Great Lakes Habitat Restoration Partnership Grant Program will support planning and/or on-the-ground restoration activities. For the purposes of this competition, planning activities are feasibility, engineering and design activities.

Projects can be focused both in U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs) (http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/aoc/) as well as restoration projects outside of AOCs in the Great Lakes Basin (see Section I.B). Applications selected for funding through this solicitation will be implemented through multi-year cooperative agreements. Funds will be administered by the NOAA Restoration Center.

Up to three funding years will be considered for multi-year awards, and additional releases of funds may be used to fund selected proposals through FY22 without further competition. NOAA will not accept proposals with a federal funding request of less than $1 million or more than $40 million over three years. Awards are dependent upon the amount of funds made available to NOAA for this purpose by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

NOAA anticipates approximately $40 million may be available over the next three years to maintain selected awards, dependent upon the level of funding made available through the Federal appropriations process. In the first year, approximately $5 million may be available to initiate approximately two to five partnerships consistent with the Program Objectives and Program Priorities in Section I of this announcement.