BOEM FY 2016 Environmental Studies Program | M16AS00002

Opportunity Information: Apply for M16AS00002

The BOEM FY 2016 Environmental Studies Program (ESP) grant opportunity is a discretionary cooperative agreement offered by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to support applied research that helps the federal government manage offshore energy and mineral development in a way that is both safe and environmentally responsible. The work is intended to directly inform BOEM decisions for the nations Outer Continental Shelf, with a geographic focus on the Atlantic corridor from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras. This area is emphasized because offshore renewable energy leasing was already moving forward there at the time, and because an established and robust acoustic telemetry network exists that can be leveraged for fish and habitat research.

A central theme of the opportunity is producing credible, decision-ready environmental information that can be used in environmental reviews and formal consultations required by major federal statutes. BOEM is looking for studies that generate data to support environmental impact assessments and other analyses tied to offshore leasing activities, and that strengthen the evidence base used during consultations under the Endangered Species Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and the Coastal Zone Management Act. In practical terms, this means projects should be designed to answer questions that regulators and resource managers actually face, such as how offshore wind development areas overlap with important habitats, migration corridors, and seasonal distributions of commercially valuable or protected species.

The program strongly encourages, and in effect expects, meaningful involvement from resource users, especially commercial fishermen, in the design and/or execution of the research. BOEM indicates it will evaluate proposals not only for scientific merit and relevance to BOEM information needs, but also for how well they engage stakeholders who work on the water and are directly affected by offshore development decisions. This stakeholder involvement is framed as a way to improve study design, ensure the work reflects real-world conditions, and build trust in the resulting data so that management decisions are more broadly accepted by agencies, academic partners, and fishing communities.

From a technical standpoint, BOEM envisions projects that can characterize both the physical environment and fish use of proposed development sites. On the environmental characterization side, proposals should be able to describe benthic conditions and oceanographic context at the chosen study site. On the fish ecology side, BOEM highlights the use of acoustic telemetry, typically by attaching acoustic transmitters to target species and tracking their presence and movements through receiver arrays. Priority targets include species of high commercial importance and species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The studies may examine patterns at fine spatial scales, such as fish distribution and habitat use around key bottom features within a wind energy area, as well as broader scales, such as how fish occurrence and movement vary across an entire wind energy area or across seasons.

The objectives BOEM lists are broad enough that a single project could address multiple needs, but they generally fall into four categories. First, collecting data that improves consultations and assessments related to potential impacts from Outer Continental Shelf leasing activities while also improving the underlying information used for species management. Second, obtaining information specifically aimed at assessing potential impacts to commercially important and protected fish species in the Mid-Atlantic and New York Bights, where offshore wind projects may be sited. Third, supporting the data management needs of acoustic telemetry networks, which can include handling, standardizing, archiving, and making telemetry detections usable across projects and institutions. Fourth, building on baseline knowledge of how fish use proposed development sites, which is essential for comparing pre-development conditions to conditions during and after construction and operations.

Eligibility for this opportunity is limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, reflecting a focus on research capacity, scientific oversight, and the cooperative nature of the awards. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically signals more substantial federal involvement during the project than a standard grant, such as collaboration on study design details, data standards, or integration of results into BOEM processes. The opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number M16AS00002; CFDA 15.423) anticipated up to four awards, with an award ceiling of $500,000 per award. The original application closing date was January 30, 2016, and the announcement was created on December 16, 2015.

Overall, the BOEM FY 2016 ESP opportunity is aimed at generating practical, defensible science in a region actively planning for offshore wind, using established telemetry infrastructure and strong stakeholder participation to produce information that can withstand scrutiny in regulatory reviews and improve confidence in offshore resource management decisions.

• The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BOEM FY 2016 Environmental Studies Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.423.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2015-12-16.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-01-30. (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 $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 4 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for M16AS00002

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