FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

FY2022 MIT SEA GRANT PROPOSAL PROCESS

MIT Sea Grant provides competitive funding opportunities for Massachusetts university-based research scientists who seek to address marine issues in ways that benefit the Commonwealth. Lead scientists on a proposal must have Principal Investigator standing at their own institutions to be eligible for funding, and must not be the recipient of other MIT Sea Grant funding during the period of the grant (2/1/2022 to 1/31/2024).

Each year, MIT Sea Grant selects certain topic areas to focus on in the RFP that are high priority research topics to Massachusetts and take advantage of MIT Sea Grant’s unique abilities to address issues impacting coastal and marine waters through the development of tools, platforms and technologies; conduct innovative research to increase the capabilities of industry and resource managers; and ensure communities have access to science, tools, and technologies to support informed decision-making for the conservation of sustainable marine resources. The specific topics for this year are as follows:

1. Offshore aquaculture: The focus is on novel technologies to enable offshore installation and operation. We particularly encourage submissions within three topic areas:
   a) “Intelligent nets” capable of sensing changing environmental parameters, controlling water flow, and monitoring fish movements for monitoring at-sea conditions, infrastructure, and operations.
   b) Autonomy for surface and underwater craft for inspection and maintenance of offshore farms – autonomy algorithms should be open, extensible, and applicable to a wide variety of platforms and missions
   c) Very low power physical, chemical, or biological sensors for farm monitoring
2. Ocean acidification: The focus is on ocean monitoring using physics-based data inference, fusing diverse sources of data with a focus on, but not limited to, computer monitoring systems for Boston Harbor or the Gulf of Maine. Data from drifters, buoys, and satellite sources are all of interest.
3. Technology for observation and underwater manipulation: Focusing particularly on shallow water applications, this area builds on past topics in underwater re-charging, wireless power transmission, and data communication. Principal obstacles in underwater monitoring and manipulation include:
   a) Re-charging rapidly and effectively, and re-charging using renewable energy devices
   b) Transferring data reliably at high rates
   c) Equipping underwater and surface vehicles with manipulation capabilities targeting aquaculture applications
4. Machine Learning for Fisheries Management: Monitoring and assessment of fisheries resources is a timely, costly, and resource intensive process. Advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning for computer assisted image recognition, quantification, and real-time monitoring of target species is a need expressed by a variety of stakeholders, including local, state, and federal resource managers, industry participants, and local communities. Research that supports and/or leads to the development of user-friendly systems for commercial, recreational, and species of concern to assist in monitoring and assessments would support the MIT Sea Grant Focus Area, Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture. This technology can be applied to both wild and aquaculture fisheries.

An informational Open House for the FY2022 Core RFP was held virtually on January 14, 2021 (presentation slides) to provide guidance for interested applicants.

Pre-proposals are due by Tuesday, February 22, 2021 by 5:00 pm through MIT Sea Grant’s online portal, eSeaGrant.

Full proposals are DUE by May 18, 2021 by 5:00 pm through MIT Sea Grant’s online portal, eSeaGrant.

Please contact our Research Coordinator, Mary Newton Lima (mnewlim@mit.edu), with any questions you may have.

Once you have decided on your topic, you are STRONGLY encouraged to contact MIT Research Program Coordinator Mary Newton Lima (mnewlim@mit.edu) with any questions you have about selecting a topic and access to MIT Sea Grant’s proposal system, eSeaGrant. Both Preliminary and Full Proposals must be submitted through our online proposal system, eSeaGrant. For more information about deadlines, see the current schedule in the Full RFP.

Funding and Duration

Core Research Projects for FY2022

The maximum annual research project budget request that will be considered is $100,000 for a total of $200,000 for a two-year project. This does not include the required matching funds provided by the PI, which amount to at least 50% of the figure requested from Sea Grant. Matching funds must be from non-federal sources and can include cash, salaries, equipment, supplies, ship-time, etc.

Projects last for up to two years. The PI will submit a project timeline as part of their full proposal.

Proposal Process and Instructions

The proposal process is initiated in January of each year when the Request for Preliminary Proposals (RFP) is announced. Project work begins on February 1 of the following year. The rules governing NOAA/Sea Grant deadlines are strictly enforced and the contents of proposals must be complete by the dates and times given in the Full RFP (schedule).

Basic Rules and Assumptions:

• The Principal Investigator is eligible to submit an external proposal according to his/her home institution
• The appropriate authorities at the home institution approve budget figures, including matching fund estimates, prior to submittal of the full proposal to MIT Sea Grant
• The Principal Investigator agrees to the review process described
• The Sea Grant Director may, at his/her discretion, remove a proposal from further consideration at any point in the process if an investigator has overdue obligations to the MIT Sea Grant College Program under a previous research contract

Additional steps have been established for evaluating and selecting proposals:

Preliminary Proposal Submission

Preliminary proposals submitted by the deadline are reviewed by the MIT Sea Grant Advisory Committee and MIT Sea Grant Director.

Instructions for submitting a preliminary proposal can be found in the Full RFP.

Full Proposal Submission

Principal Investigators whose projects are scientifically sound and are aligned with the goals of the MIT SG Program will be encouraged to write a full proposal.

Instructions for submitting a full proposal can be found in the Full RFP.

Full Proposal Review

Full proposals are distributed for extensive peer review. The reviewers’ comments (blinded) are made available to the Principal Investigators for response and rebuttal. The full proposal, reviewers’ critiques, and the Principal Investigators’ responses (if provided) are submitted to a Technical Review Panel which meets in September to engage in extensive discussion and make final recommendations. The Director, with the advice of the MIT Sea Grant Advisory Committee and the Program Officer, and giving due consideration to the peer technical reviewers’ recommendations and the relevance of the proposed work to the Program’s strategic goals, selects proposals to be included in the MIT Sea Grant College Program Omnibus Proposal. The Omnibus is submitted in October to the NOAA National Sea Grant Office for review and acceptance. Funding authorization is finalized within 60 days, and Principal Investigators are informed of the result.