FY2011 Oregon Conservation Innovation Grant

The purpose of CIG is to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies while leveraging the Federal investment in environmental enhancement and protection, in conjunction with agricultural and forestry production. CIG projects are expected to lead to the transfer of conservation technologies, management systems, and innovative approaches (such as market-based systems) into NRCS technical manuals, guides, and references or to the private sector. CIG does not fund research projects. It is a vehicle to stimulate the development and adoption of conservation approaches or technologies that have been studied sufficiently to indicate a likelihood of success, and to be candidates for eventual technology transfer or institutionalization. CIG funds projects targeting innovative on-the ground conservation, including pilot projects and field demonstrations.

Subcategories include energy, climate change, water quality, water quantity, plant health/vigor, grazing, crops, and wildlife habitat.

Amount: $75,000

Date due: March 31, 2011

For more information, click here.

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Invites Applications for Sea Turtle Conservation Projects

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has announced the availability of matching grant funding for sea turtle conservation projects in the Western Hemisphere. Projects of interest will focus on research, assessment, and bycatch reduction.

Conservation grant proposals are invited in the following sea turtle research and conservation priority areas: increase effective usage of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) both domestic and abroad, and implementation of other bycatch reduction methods in areas of high bycatch in the Western Hemisphere that will benefit priority sea turtle populations (targeted grant range is up to $100,000 per year); determine and assess potential bycatch and/or unsustainably managed legal harvest hotspots for the North American loggerhead population and the Caribbean hawksbill population (targeted grant range is up to $50,000 per year); and strategies on priority nesting beaches to reduce adult harvest to zero and nest mortally to less than 10 percent of nests laid for index beaches of priority sea turtle populations (targeted grant range is up to $25,000 each per year.

Date due: April 1, 2011 (Pre-proposals)

For more information, click here.

Oregon Sea Grants

The Oregon Sea Grant Program invites preliminary proposals for research on important marine and coastal issues from researchers who are affiliated with any institution of higher education. Proposals will be entered into a highly competitive review and selection process. Proposed work may begin on either February 1, 2012, or February 1, 2013.

An ideal Sea Grant proposal would apply the best science and an innovative approach to a well-defined coastal or marine problem or opportunity that is important to Oregon, the Pacific Northwest Region, and the nation. The two primary criteria for evaluating proposals are 1) scientific excellence and 2) societal relevance. All proposals must state how they match up with the Oregon Sea Grant Strategic Plan (click here).

Amount: $90,000/year for two years

Date due: February 4, 2011 (Preliminary proposals); May 6, 2011 (Full proposals)

For more information, click here.

Social Science Research coordination with Sea Grants

The California, University of Southern California, Oregon, and Washington Sea Grant programs are jointly interested in coordinated research efforts that bring together researchers from across the region to address specific social science issues of regional priority. Encompassing the shorelines, estuaries and offshore ocean environments from Washington to California, West Coast marine and coastal ecosystems are diverse and rapidly changing. Expanding pressures from population growth, changing land use and large-scale environmental shifts are affecting the natural resources and biogeochemical processes that sustain coastal regions and the communities, businesses and people that rely upon them.

The four West Coast programs are interested in regional proposals that address social science questions related to national Sea Grant goals for healthy coastal ecosystems, sustainable coastal development, safe sustainable seafood supply and hazard resilient coastal communities. Alignment is encouraged with state, regional and national research priorities (see .pdf for links). The range of potential marine and coastal research topics includes, but is not limited to:

• Coastal and marine spatial planning and its application to emerging issues like marine renewable energy
• Use and valuation of coastal and marine resources, including fisheries, and implications for
  management
• Relationships among social, economic and ecological sustainability and resilience of coastal regions
• Patterns, processes and social institutions that underlie changing coastal demographics and economies
• Human roles and responses to regional climate and environmental changes such as severe storms, coastal inundation, ocean acidification, sea level rise and shifting circulation and marine population distributions
• Community and stakeholder engagement, visioning, social learning and other methods to support coastal sustainability and environmental protection

Amount: Varies

Date due: February 22, 2011 (Letter of Intent); May 15, 2011 (Full proposal)

For more information, click here.

Wyss Fellowship Program

The Wyss Foundation, a private charitable foundation dedicated to land conservation in the InterMountain west, is accepting proposals for its 2011 fellowship program.

Nonprofit organizations working on land conservation issues in eastern Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico are encouraged to apply to host a fellow.

The two-year fellowship program is designed to provide training and campaign experience for future conservation leaders. Sponsoring organizations contribute staff time to mentor and monitor the fellow's work and cover overhead expenses as well as 20 percent of the fellow's salary and benefits. The Wyss Foundation will provide host organizations with a grant for project expenses and travel as well as the remaining 80 percent of the fellow's salary and benefits.

Host organizations are responsible for selecting and hiring the fellow in consultation with foundation staff. Current employees of the sponsoring organization are not eligible for the program.

Visit the Wyss Foundation Web site for complete program information and application instructions.

Coral Reef Conservation Fund

Administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in partnership with the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, the Coral Reef Conservation Fund provides grants to public-private partnerships working to reduce and prevent degradation of coral reefs and associated reef habitats (e.g., seagrass beds, mangroves, etc).

Funding is available for conservation projects in Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Projects must implement watershed management plans and local action strategies designed to improve water quality, enhance coral reef ecosystem resilience, and improve the management of protected marine areas that harbor key coral reef ecosystem components and functions.

Funding is also available for activities that support the priority goals and objectives with respect to international coral reef locations identified in NOAA CRCP's International Strategy.

Amount: $20,000 - $70,000 (matching required)

Date due: December 15, 2010

For more information, click here.

NSF Major Research Instrumentation

The Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) serves to increase access to shared scientific and engineering instruments for research and research training in our Nation's institutions of higher education, museums, science centers, and not-for-profit organizations. This program especially seeks to improve the quality and expand the scope of research and research training in science and engineering, by providing shared instrumentation that fosters the integration of research and education in research-intensive learning environments. Development and acquisition of research instrumentation for shared inter- and/or intra-organizational use are encouraged, as are development efforts that leverage the strengths of private sector partners to build instrument development capacity at academic institutions.To accomplish these goals, the MRI program assists with the acquisition or development of shared research instrumentation that is, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs. Instruments are expected to be operational for regular research use by the end of the award period.

For the purposes of the MRI program, proposals must be for either acquisition or development of a single instrument or for equipment that, when combined, serves as an integrated research instrument (physical or virtual). The MRI program does not support the acquisition or development of a suite of instruments to outfit research laboratories/facilities or to conduct independent research activities simultaneously.

Amount: $100,000 - $4m

Due date: January 27, 2011

For more information, click here.