Marine Science Grants

N.C. Resilient Coastal Communities Program (Phases 3 and 4) is sponsored by NC Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Coastal Management (DCM). This program helps coastal communities design and implement projects that strengthen local resilience to coastal hazards. Phase 3 supports engineering, design, and permitting of priority resilience projects. Phase 4 supports construction and implementation of projects that reduce risks to critical assets, people, and property from coastal hazards such as flooding, sea-level rise, and storm surge.

The Autonomous Eradication Technologies Challenge is a Department of Defense prize competition offering up to 550,000 US dollars for autonomous drone, robotics, AI and sensor technologies capable of detecting and controlling Guam's invasive brown tree snake. It is sponsored by Headquarters Marine Corps together with SERDP/ESTCP and DARPA, and administered by Central Florida Tech Grove. The underlying problem is a long-standing one that conventional methods have failed to solve: the brown tree snake has driven most of Guam's native forest bird species to local extinction or severe decline and causes roughly 4,500,000 dollars a year in economic losses through power outages when snakes contact electrical infrastructure, while island-wide eradication is considered close to impossible without new technology. The technical brief is unusually demanding and is where the AI content concentrates. Solutions must operate in dense forest canopy, rugged terrain and night conditions, detect concealed targets, and support large-area autonomous surveillance missions, which means the hard problems are persistent autonomy under canopy where GPS is unreliable, detection of a camouflaged nocturnal target against cluttered natural backgrounds, and mission-level autonomy across wide areas rather than single-platform flight. Priority areas named by the sponsors are drones, autonomous robotics, AI and machine learning, predictive modelling and advanced sensors. The deadline is 1 December 2026 at 21:59 CST. Beyond cash, the challenge offers Other Transaction Authority procurement pathways, field demonstration on Guam with military and federal stakeholders, and transition routes toward deployment at scale.

Environmental & Animal Welfare Fund is sponsored by R Frost Teaching Chair TR UA. This private foundation grant supports environmental and animal welfare initiatives. While broad, a small business with an innovative solution to ocean plastic pollution that also has a direct positive impact on marine animal welfare could be a fit.

Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant, FY2027 is sponsored by NOAA Fisheries. This program supports eligible members of the U.S. National Marine Mammal Stranding Network and the National Entanglement Response Network, along with their collaborators. Funding covers marine mammal rescue, rehabilitation, stranding response, data collection, directly related facility costs, and network capacity building.

Student Scholarship (ORAFS) is sponsored by Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (ORAFS). The ORAFS Student Scholarship is designed to advance fisheries science and support future fisheries professionals in Oregon. It is open to students enrolled or accepted into a college degree program in Oregon, with a degree relevant to fisheries or aquatic sciences.

ONR Long Range Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps Science & Technology (BAA) N00014-25-S-B001 is sponsored by Office of Naval Research (ONR). This broad agency announcement seeks innovative scientific and technological solutions to address current and future Navy and Marine Corps requirements, including ground-breaking ideas, pioneering scientific research, and novel technology developments.

DoW/Navy FY-27 Release 2 SBIR/STTR Broad Agency Announcements (BAA) is sponsored by Department of the Navy. The Department of the Navy issues SBIR/STTR Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) to address Navy and Marine Corps needs. This release features Conventional SBIR Phase I topics, Direct to Phase II topics, and STTR Topics.

AI Research Grants (NOAA) - Climate Program Office FY 2027 - Super Intelligence/Machine Learning Innovation to Advance NOAA's Earth System Science and Support Hazard Resilience is sponsored by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Program Office (CPO). NOAA provides grants for AI research to improve environmental monitoring and prediction, including AI-driven Earth system modeling and publicly available AI code bases and training datasets. This could involve educational components related to AI and technology learning for environmental science. This specific FY 2027 competition invites proposals for Super Intelligence/Machine Learning (SI/ML) research, development, and applications to accelerate innovation in Earth system modeling and prediction, and to support resilience planning for environmental hazards.

FY 2027 - Super Intelligence/Machine Learning Innovation to Advance NOAA's Earth System Science and Support Hazard Resilience is sponsored by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - Climate Program Office. This funding opportunity supports projects focused on Super Intelligence/Machine Learning (SI/ML) innovation to advance NOAA's Earth System Science and support hazard resilience. Projects should aim to enhance partnerships and accelerate progress for SI/ML innovation across NOAA.

Climate Program Office FY 2027 - Super Intelligence/Machine Learning Innovation to Advance NOAA's Earth System Science and Support Hazard Resilience is sponsored by NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) - Climate Program Office (CPO). This funding opportunity supports research applying Super Intelligence/Machine Learning (SI/ML) to advance NOAA’s Earth system predictions, multi-annual to decadal climate projections, hazard resilience decision support, and extreme heat prediction and preparedness. It targets interpretable, reliable SI/ML innovations that improve NOAA operational products, tools, and services.

Climate Program Office FY 2027 - Super Intelligence/Machine Learning Innovation to Advance NOAA's Earth System Science and Support Hazard Resilience is sponsored by NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). This grant supports research applying Super Intelligence/Machine Learning to advance NOAA's Earth system science and hazard resilience, focusing on multi-annual to decadal prediction, hazard resilience decision-support information, and extreme heat predictions and preparedness.

NCCOS Competitive Research Program Notice of Funding Opportunity: Advancing Coastal Flood Protection is sponsored by NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS). Focuses on multidisciplinary research teams providing critical predictive capabilities and coastal management tools regarding coastal flooding, climate stressors, and resilience planning. Leverages spatial modeling and geographic data mapping.

Environmental Protection Pollution Prevention Reimbursement Grant (Pump & Plug) is sponsored by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. This Pennsylvania state grant focuses on pollution prevention. While the 'Pump & Plug' suggests a specific type of pollution prevention, a small business innovating in broader pollution prevention methods that could indirectly impact ocean plastic pollution might find this relevant.

Alaska Marine Education and Training Mini-Grant Program is sponsored by Department of Commerce / National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (DOC NOAA - NMFS). Supports projects conducted in Alaska focused on marine-related education, workforce development in marine science and aquaculture/mariculture, technological innovation in fishing practices, seafood safety, and strengthening community-based research and relationships across the marine community.

A description of NOAA Line and Staff Offices is found at https://www.noaa.gov/about/organization, and applicants may contact the Agency Contacts in Section VII. below for more information. If you submit the same application to more than one Line or Staff Office, mention this in your application and notify the relevant contacts in Section VII. so that NOAA may coordinate internally. This notice also solicits proposals that are part of the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) program. CESU is a U.S. federal partnership network that connects agencies with universities, tribes, nonprofits, and other partners to address natural and cultural resource challenges. Each CESU is structured as a working collaborative with participation from numerous federal and nonfederal institutional partners. CESUs are based at host universities and focused on a particular biogeographic region of the country. Submission Validation When you submit an application to this competition you will receive notification of submission validation from Grants.gov and eRA Commons. Only validated applications are sent to NOAA to review. To ensure successful submission of an application, we strongly recommend that you submit a final and complete application at least two business days prior to the submission deadline. In addition to the Grants.gov automated notification messages, once an electronic application is accepted in eRA Commons, you will receive an automated notification from eRA Commons that the completed application was received and that an application number will be assigned. If there are errors in the application, eRA Commons will send an automated email notification(s) of any errors or warnings identified by eRA Commons. You must resolve all eRA Commons errors prior to the application due date in order for the application to be processed. You should save and print the proof of submission messages from both Grants.gov and eRA Commons. If you do not receive an acceptance message from both Grants.gov and eRA Commons, you should follow up with the eRA Helpdesk at 1-866-504-9552 and the agency contact listed in Section VII to confirm NOAA’s receipt of the complete submission. See Section IV(G) for detailed instructions on submission validation requirements. Registration Requirements NOTE: We strongly encourage all prospective applicants to begin the required registration as early as possible. Completing the required registration can take six weeks or longer. Submission due dates will not be extended because of registration delays. Submissions received after the due date will be considered late and will not be accepted. Applicant organizations and individuals must register for three different Federal systems prior to submitting an application through Grants.gov (SAM.gov, eRA Commons, and Grants.gov). Applicant organizations and individuals must first register with SAM.gov and obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). After you obtain your UEI, you can complete your Grants.gov and eRA Commons registrations concurrently. See Section IV(G) for detailed instructions on registration requirements. If you do not have access to the internet, please contact the Agency Contacts listed in this NOFO for submission instructions. Funding Opportunity Number: NOAA-OAR-BAA-2027-33939. Assistance Listing: 11.015. Funding Instrument: CA,G. Category: NR,ST.

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is sponsored by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA's SBIR program is a highly competitive, merit-based grant program that encourages U.S. small businesses to engage in federal research and development (R&D) to develop innovative and commercially-viable products or services that align with NOAA's mission areas, including healthy oceans, climate adaptation, and resilient coastal communities.

The Infrastructure Capacity for Biological Research (Capacity) Program supports the implementation of, scaling of, or major improvements to research tools, products, and services that advance contemporary biology in any research area supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences at NSF. The Capacity Program focuses on building capacity in research infrastructure that is broadly applicable to a wide range of researchers in three programmatic areas: Cyberinfrastructure, Biological Collections, and Biological Field Stations and Marine Laboratories. This program will also accept proposals for planning activities or workshops to facilitate coordination that may be necessary in building capacity in infrastructure that meets the needs of a research community. Areas not included in this program are instrumentation (PIs should submit to the MRI program) and, projects that develop infrastructure for a specific research project, laboratory, or institution (PIs should submitted to the relevant BIO programs that would normally support that research). Projects are expected to produce quality products, result in important science outcomes that will be achieved by the users of the resource, be openly accessible to a broad scientific and education community, and serve a community of researchers beyond a single research team. Funding Opportunity Number: 23-580. Assistance Listing: 47.074. Funding Instrument: G. Category: ST. Award Amount: $25K – $1.2M per award.