Sea Grant Offers Funds for Marine Debris Prevention and Removal

Sea Grant announces $19 million in federal funding opportunities to address the prevention and removal of marine debris.

These opportunities are a component of nearly $3 billion in targeted investments for NOAA in the areas of habitat restoration, coastal resilience, and weather forecasting infrastructure through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provides $50 million over five years to Sea Grant to support marine debris prevention and removal. The two funding opportunities represent funding for the first two fiscal years of this appropriation (FY 2022 and 2023). Sea Grant’s funding opportunities include:

• Marine Debris Challenge Competition(click for details): Approximately $16,000,000 will be available to support innovative research to application projects that will address the prevention and removal of marine debris.
• Marine Debris Community Action Coalitions: Approximately $3,000,000 will be available to support the creation of coalitions and partnerships to address marine debris prevention and removal.

Letters of intent and applications for both opportunities must be submitted through a Sea Grant Program and interested partners should contact a Sea Grant Program.

Both opportunities encourage applicants and awardees to support the principles of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility when writing their proposals and performing their work. The work completed under these opportunities will place an emphasis on engagement with communities, groups and localities, especially those that have been traditionally underrepresented and underserved.

To learn more about these opportunities, Sea Grant invites you to join an informational webinar on July 12 at 4:30 pm ET (register here).

Sea Grant’s funding opportunities complement a $56 million funding opportunity from NOAA’s Marine Debris Program that will fund large scale marine debris removal and interception projects. To learn more about the Marine Debris Removal Grants, please join an informational webinar on July 14 at 4:00 pm ET.

Additional funding opportunities from NOAA through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act include: Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience Grants, Coastal Habitat Restoration and Resilience Grants for Underserved Communities, Coastal Zone Management Habitat Protection and Restoration Grants, and National Estuarine Research Reserve System Habitat Protection and Restoration Grants.