FY2025 Young Fishermen's Career Development Projects

The National Sea Grant College Program was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1966 (amended in 2020, Public Law 116-221) to support leveraged federal and state partnerships that harness the intellectual capacity of the nation's universities and research institutions to solve problems and generate opportunities in coastal communities.

The National Sea Grant Office (NSGO) anticipates approximately $1,000,000 of federal funds will be available to support approximately 2-3 awards in order to develop and execute local, regional, and national programs, workshops, and services to enable fishermen to enter career paths and make a living supplying seafood from our Nation's oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes. Awards will be made for no more than $400,000 in federal funds per project, and may be for one or two years, though for no more than $200,000/year.

Applications require 25% non-federal match.

Successful projects will create and implement training programs that include the following types of programs, workshops, and services:

1. seamanship, navigation, electronics, and safety;
2. vessel and engine care, maintenance, and repair;
3. sustainable fishing practices;
4. other training needs as identified by the community.

All projects must take place within the United States or territories or their respective waterways.

Applicant organizations must complete and maintain three registrations to be eligible to apply for or receive an award. These registrations include SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons. All registrations must be completed prior to the application being submitted. The complete registration process for all three systems can take 4 to 6 weeks, so applicants should begin this activity as soon as possible. If an eligible applicant does not have access to the internet, please contact the Agency Contacts listed in Section VII for submission instructions. NOAA has created a guide to aid applicants format application packages to eRA: Tips and Tricks for Successful eRA Submissions, linked here.

Prior to registering with eRA Commons, applicant organizations must first obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) from SAM.gov, if needed (refer to Section IV. Applications and Submission Information, Section C). Organizations can register with eRA Commons in tandem with completing their full SAM and Grants.gov registrations; however, all registrations must be in place by time of application submission. eRA Commons requires organizations to identify at least one Signing Official (SO) and at least one Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) account in order to submit an application.

This document sets out requirements for submitting to NOAA-OAR-SG-2025-29392