2008 Request For Proposals
Deadline was March 24, 2008. Thank to all those that submitted proposals.
The Large Pelagics Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the National Marine Fisheries Service has established a Competitive Extramural Grants Program. This Program supports the development of essential research, new technologies, and tools to advance the science and conservation of economically and socially important pelagic fish and fisheries, leading to improved fisheries and oceans management policies.
The goals of the extramural grants program are:
• To improve the understanding of the habitats, migration routes, potential spawning areas, behavior, and environmental associations of large pelagic species (tunas, sharks, swordfish, billfish, molas, and sea turtles).
• To foster an understanding of the role that the ocean's top predators play in Atlantic ecosystems and the possible impacts of climate shifts and human activities i.e., ecosystems research.
• To fund research and development leading to the production of improved fishery independent data collection methods, such as electronic tags and sensors, and/or utilization of remote sensing technologies and ocean observing systems.
• To promote the integration of fishermen's knowledge into fisheries science in order to improve current management paradigms and help produce sustainable outcomes.
The Center is soliciting proposals to conduct research on large pelagic species in the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas. Up to $400,000 is available to fund projects through this solicitation (average budget between $100,000 to $200,000). Proposals should be designed with realistic and achievable milestones than can be reached within a one year time frame. Based on the reduced amount of funding available under this RFP, the LPRC will consider proposals that address the following priority research areas :
- Identification of the relationships between top fish predators and their prey, as well as oceanographic or physical forcing mechanisms that may underlay ecosystem dynamics of these food webs. Proposals addressing current management issues involving commercially fished species will receive higher priority.
- Early life history, and/or factors influencing recruitment processes of large pelagic species.
- Modeling approaches that have the potential to improve operations models or stock assessments for large pelagic species.
APPLICATION PROCESS
- Download pre-proposal form (no longer available)and reviews the guidelines.
- Completed pre-proposals must be submitted electronically by March 24th, 2008 .
- The Center's Advisory Board will screen pre-proposals for relevance to the Center's research priorities.
- The Center's Program Manager will notify applicants of the results of the screening process in the middle of March. Applicant's whose preliminary proposals are approved in the initial screening process will be invited to submit full research proposals.
- Inivited Full proposal are due June 11 th , 2008 .
- Full research proposals will be sent out for external peer review.
- Full proposals and their corresponding peer reviews will be evaluated and ranked by a technical panel that will be convened in January. This panel will make funding recommendations to the Center Director.
- Final decisions on awards will be made in August.
- The anticipated project start date is September 1st, 2008.
This is a tentative schedule, dates and deadlines maybe changed without prior notice.
Questions regarding this solicitation should be addressed to the Center's Program Manger, Nuno Fragoso at 603-862-2473 or nuno.fragoso@unh.edu .
