NOFO Field: Program Objective
NOFO Location:
Funding Opportunity Description - first field
- Preceding Field:
Funding Opportunity Description
- Subsequent Field:
Program Priorities
OMB Guidance:
I. Funding Opportunity Description —- Required
This section contains
the full programmatic description of the funding opportunity. It may be as long
as needed to adequately communicate to potential applicants the areas in which
funding may be provided. It describes the agency’s funding priorities or the
technical or focus areas in which the agency intends to provide assistance. As
appropriate, it may include any program history (e.g., whether this is a new
program or a new or changed area of program emphasis). This section may
communicate indicators of successful projects (e.g., if the program encourages
collaborative efforts) and may include examples of projects that have been
funded previously. This section also may include other information the agency
deems necessary, such as citations for authorizing statutes and regulations for
the funding opportunity.
Additional Guidance:
Published Examples:
A. Program Objective:
Pursuant to the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 (Act), the Secretary of Commerce
(Secretary), through the NOAA Administrator (Administrator), and subject to the availability
of funds, is authorized to provide matching grants of financial assistance for coral reef
conservation projects through the Coral Reef Conservation Program (Program). As such, the
objective of the Program is to provide financial assistance for coral reef conservation projects
consistent with the Act and “A National Coral Reef Action Strategy” (Strategy). A copy of the
Strategy and the Act can be found at: http://www.coralreef.noaa.gov/.
A. Program Objective:
The EPP/MSI is a competitive program
designed to develop and/or enhance the collaboration between
NOAA and the MSI community to increase the number of students
who pursue coursework and graduate with degrees in NOAA-related
sciences. The program requires graduate student’s participation
in research projects that will promote familiarity with NOAA
sciences in their academic institutions. For the purposes of
this announcement, MSIs are defined as Historically Black
Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Tribal
Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian
Serving Institutions as defined by the Department of Education
2004 list
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/minorityinst2004.pdf.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Educational Partnership Program (EPP) with Minority Serving
Institutions (MSIs) Graduate Sciences Program (GSP) is aimed
primarily at increasing opportunities and available programs for
students in NOAA related fields to pursue entry-level
employment, research, and educational training in atmospheric,
remote sensing technology, environmental, and oceanic sciences
at Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) when possible. GSP
offers at least two years for masters students or four years for
doctoral students of NOAA related hands-on research and training
opportunities. Five students are competitively selected for
full-time employee (FTE) positions in NOAA offices and
facilities.
A. Program Objective:
The NOAA/NASA/DOD Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) is a
distributed center that engages units of NASA: Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Earth-Sun
Exploration Division; NOAA: NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) ,
National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction
(NCEP)/Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Research (OAR); US Navy: Oceanographer of the Navy and the Naval Research Laboratory
(NRL); and US Air Force Air Weather Agency. The Joint Center’s goal is to accelerate the
abilities of NOAA, DOD, and NASA to ingest and effectively use the large volumes of data from
current satellite-based instruments and planned satellite missions over the next 10 years.
JCSDA activities are divided into infrastructure development and proposal-driven scientific
projects. Infrastructure activities will focus initially on the development and maintenance of a
scientific backbone for the JCSDA, including a community-based radiative transfer model, a
community-based surface emissivity model, and numerical prediction systems for performing
assimilation experiments with real and simulated observations from new and future satellite
instruments. The proposal-driven scientific projects are the primary mechanism for accelerating
the transition of research and technological advances in remote sensing and data assimilation
into the operational and product driven weather, ocean, climate, and environmental prediction
systems.
This research is directed toward acceleration of the science of satellite data
assimilation in numerical weather forecast models and in ocean and land surface models used for
climate prediction and operational ocean applications. A primary measure of potential impact in
this solicitation will be the acceleration of satellite data into NOAA, NASA, and DoD forecast
systems, and the improvement of forecasts from those systems. Research supporting
development of the radiative transfer models used in assimilation applications should be in fast
radiative transfer codes such as those used in real-time NWP. Broader research topics in data
assimilation, data impact, and improvement of radiative schemes for data assimilation
applications that do not have the potential for direct application to real-time NWP or other
operational environmental prediction systems are of less interest for this announcement.
A. Program Objective:
A principal objective of the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) is to provide
federal financial and technical assistance to grass-roots, community-based activities that
improve living marine resource habitats through the removal of marine debris and the
prevention of debris entering the marine environment, and that promote stewardship and
a conservation ethic for NOAA trust resources. NOAA trust resources include coastal
habitats, navigational waterways, and living marine resources and their habitats,
including commercial and recreational fishery resources (marine fish and shellfish);
diadromous fish species; endangered and threatened marine species; marine mammals
and marine turtles; marshes, mangroves, seagrass beds, coral reefs, other coastal habitats,
areas identified by NOAA Fisheries as essential fish habitat (EFH) and areas within EFH
identified as Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (HAPC). NOAA trust resources can
also include marine habitats and resources associated with National Marine Sanctuaries,
National Estuarine Research Reserves, and areas under state coastal management
programs.
Successful applications will be those that:
Demonstrate collaboration among entities such as public and nonprofit
organizations, citizen and watershed groups, anglers, boaters, industry,
corporations and businesses, youth conservation corps, students, landowners,
academics, and local government, state, and federal agencies to cooperatively
implement marine debris prevention and removal projects, and
Are able to report the total amount of debris removed and types of debris
encountered, and document volunteer hours involved or a maximization of project
partnerships.
Partnerships that support multiple projects may be developed at national, regional
and local levels and may contribute funding, technical assistance, workforce support or
other in-kind services; promote grass-roots participation in the improvement of locally
important living marine resources through marine debris prevention and removal
activities; and engender local stewardship and monitoring activities to sustain and
evaluate the success of the debris prevention or removal.