NOAA's Unsolicited-Proposal Door Reopened in 13 Days, With New Rules. Two of Six Line Offices Are Back; Four Are Still Dark.

A month ago, the rolling channel for unsolicited NOAA proposals was eleven days from closing with no successor in sight. We wrote at the time that a continuing resolution and an unsettled budget made a long gap the sensible assumption.

The gap was shorter than that. The six FY2024–2026 Broad Agency Announcements stopped taking applications at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern on September 30, 2026. Thirteen days later, on October 13, the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service posted NOAA-NESDIS-NESDISPO-2027-33921. On October 16, NOAA Fisheries posted NOAA-NMFS-FHQ-2027-33600. Both accept applications on a rolling basis until 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern on September 30, 2028.

As of October 19, though, only those two are live. Grants.gov shows no posted or forecasted successor for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the National Ocean Service (NOS), the National Weather Service (NWS), or the Office of Education. Their FY2024–2026 announcements (NOAA-OAR-CPO-2024-28363, NOAA-NWS-2024-28059, NOAA-SEC-OED-2024-28060) are closed. If your project belongs to one of those four offices, there is still no rolling channel for it.

The two new announcements also differ from the ones they replace. Applicants who reuse an old application will hit the differences.

The window is two years, whatever the title says

The Fisheries announcement is titled "FY 2027 – 2029," but it closes September 30, 2028, which is the last day of FY2028. The text confirms this: proposals not funded in the fiscal year they arrive "may be required to revalidate the terms of the original application or resubmit in the next BAA cycle if one is published for FY2029." NESDIS titles its version "FY 2027-2028," which matches the dates.

The window that matters more is shorter than the posted one. Both announcements say awards are expected three to six months after NOAA receives the full application, and both state the consequence: "submissions received after March 31, 2027 may not be able to be awarded in FY27." The same caveat applies to March 31, 2028 for FY28.

In practice each fiscal year has a six-month intake window, from October to March. Applications that arrive in April through September compete for the following year's money, assuming any exists. Neither announcement has dedicated funding. "There are no funds specifically appropriated by Congress for this BAA," both say. Awards come from whatever a line office has left in the relevant year. The government is running on a continuing resolution through December 11, 2026, so FY27 balances are undetermined. Applications that arrive early are seen while that money is still unspent.

The expected start date has also moved. The FY2024–2026 Fisheries text said awards would generally start three to six months after receipt. The new text says six months. Awards still default to a one-year period, and they must start on the first day of a month. If your project needs to start in the summer of 2027, submit by about January.

The submission system changed

The largest practical change is in the instructions. Applicants now need an eRA Commons registration in addition to SAM.gov and Grants.gov. The old Fisheries announcement mentioned only Grants.gov. The new ones send applications through Grants.gov and then eRA Commons for validation, and only applications that pass validation go to NOAA. eRA is also used for post-award management and the semi-annual financial and performance reports.

eRA Commons requires one organizational profile and at least two user accounts: a Signing Official with authority to bind the organization, and a Program Director/Principal Investigator. One person can hold both roles. The PI's eRA Commons username has to appear in item 4 of the SF-424. NOAA says to allow at least three weeks for eRA registration and six weeks or longer for registration overall, and it says plainly that "submission due dates will not be extended because of registration delays."

University sponsored-programs offices that submit to NIH already have eRA accounts. Small nonprofits, tribal governments, consultancies, and independent researchers often do not. These are the groups for whom the BAA's broad eligibility was most useful. If that describes you, start the eRA registration this month, before you have a project ready. Plan to submit at least two business days before you need to, and keep the confirmation messages from both systems.

Same doors, new framing

The basic terms are unchanged. A BAA is for "research, education, outreach, innovative projects, or sponsorships that are not addressed through NOAA's competitive discretionary programs." No cost share is required unless the only applicable funding authority requires one. The project description is limited to 15 pages, and a Data Management Plan of up to two pages is required. Merit review uses at least three reviewers. Each application is scored on its own rather than ranked against others, on five criteria that sum to 100 points, and the program office sets the weights case by case.

What changed is the policy language around those terms. NOAA Fisheries now asks for projects that address its mission "within the context of" three executive orders: EO 14276 (Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness), EO 14303 (Restoring Gold Standard Science), and EO 14213 (Establishing the National Energy Dominance Council). The agency description has also been edited. The 2024 text described NOAA as "delivering valuable weather, climate, and water information and services." The 2026 text says "weather and water." The new NESDIS text uses the same wording.

The award terms add the same Department of Commerce conditions now found in Commerce NOFOs: a certification under EO 14173 that the recipient "does not operate any programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws," a ban on using awards to promote disparate-impact theories, a Gold Standard Science commitment, and a termination clause. That clause lets Commerce end an award "if the award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities." Performance will be judged on "alignment with administration priorities, including but not limited to, domestic economic expansion, infrastructure modernization, capacity building, and national food security."

The performance-measures paragraph lists "fishery economic optimization, domestic seafood utilization, infrastructure capacity, supply chain resilience, and national maritime strategy." It appears word for word in the NESDIS announcement, whose subject is satellite data. That looks like boilerplate copied between documents, not a statement that satellite projects will be scored on seafood. Still, it shows what the reviewers' framework rewards: work that can be described in terms of economic output, infrastructure, and domestic capacity.

Parts of the Fisheries content are unchanged. Strategic Goal 1 still talks about "rapidly changing ocean conditions," stocks shifting "poleward or offshore," and building resilience among "underrepresented communities." Strategic Goal 2, on protected species, is also intact. The research priorities did not change much. The emphasis around them did. A bycatch-reduction or stock-assessment proposal can honestly say it supports seafood competitiveness, because it does. Say so in the one-page synopsis, which NOAA calls the place where "it is imperative that potential applicants tie their applications to NOAA's mission."

Two eligibility changes to read closely

Individuals are no longer listed for NESDIS. The Fisheries announcement still names "individuals" with universities, nonprofits, businesses, foreign organizations and governments, and state, local, and tribal governments. The NESDIS announcement drops individuals. The other categories remain, including foreign entities. An independent researcher with a satellite-data project should email the NESDIS grants contact (nesdis.grants@noaa.gov) before writing, not after an administrative rejection.

Both announcements add a CESU track. They now solicit projects through the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit network, which funds "applied environmental and cultural resource research, technical assistance, and education to support effective stewardship and decision-making for public lands and trust resources." Only non-federal partners of eleven regional CESUs may apply on this track: California, Chesapeake Watershed, Great Lakes Northern Forests, Great Plains, Gulf Coast, Hawaii & Pacific Islands, North and West Alaska, North Atlantic Coast, Pacific Northwest, Piedmont & South Atlantic Coast, and South Florida & Caribbean. The benefit is a fixed 17.5% indirect cost rate with no rate agreement attached. Applicants outside CESU who want more than the 15% de minimis rate must attach a signed federal rate agreement.

If your university is a CESU partner (check the NPS CESU directory), the CESU track is the simpler route for applied stewardship work. If it is not, joining a regional CESU takes time but may be worthwhile for a coastal research group planning several years of NOAA work.

What to do now

If your work fits Fisheries or NESDIS: submit between now and March 31, 2027. Applications in that window are reviewed while FY27 money is still available, on a six-month start clock that allows summer 2027 projects. Before you submit, confirm the work is not covered by a current competition. The administrative screen rejects anything "within the scope of an existing NOAA competitive announcement" or duplicating a non-discretionary project from FY24 through FY28. Fisheries has several open now, including the Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue grants (December 1), BREP FY2026/27 (January 22, 2027), and the DARRP restoration implementation grants (November 18). A project that fits any of these will be rejected from the BAA.

If your work belongs to OAR, NOS, NWS, or Education: do not submit to the Fisheries or NESDIS BAA. NOAA requires you to apply to the line office that fits the work. You may send one application to more than one office if you disclose it, but an off-topic submission does not get forwarded. Use the time to register in eRA Commons, check the OAR, NOS, NWS, and Education BAA contacts listed in Section VII of the new NOFOs, and watch Grants.gov. In 2024 the six announcements went up over about ten weeks, from July 29 (Fisheries and the Weather Service) to October 9 (OAR). The identical CESU and eRA language in both new texts suggests the rest are being built from the same template. When the remaining announcements post, the March 31 cutoff will make the first weeks the most valuable part of their windows too.

If you have a declined proposal from elsewhere: the advice from September still applies. A well-reviewed NSF or foundation proposal that missed the payline but fits a NOAA mission is a good BAA candidate, after you rewrite the synopsis in the new language and limit the description to 15 pages.

The rolling channel is open again for Fisheries and NESDIS, with more registration requirements and less time per year than the old one. Granted can help you find which NOAA competitions already cover your idea, so you know whether a BAA application would pass the administrative screen before you write it.