Marine Debris Program

To provide grants and cooperative agreements to help identify, determine sources of, assess, reduce, and prevent marine debris and its adverse impacts on the marine environment and navigation safety within the coastal United States, territories, and

In 2006, Congress authorized the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) as the U.S. Federal government's lead for addressing marine debris. The MDP achieves its mission through six main pillars: Prevention, Removal, Research, Monitoring and Detection, Response, and Coordination. The NOAA Marine Debris Program envisions the global ocean and its coasts free from the impacts of marine debris. The mission of the NOAA Marine Debris Program is to investigate and prevent the adverse impacts of marine debris.

Eligible applicants for assistance typically include 1) state and local governments including public universities and colleges; 2) U.S. territorial agencies and organizations; 3) federally and State-recognized Indian Tribal governments; 4) private universities and colleges; 5) private / commercial for-profit organizations; and 6) nonprofit research and conservation organizations.

This program benefits Federal, State, and interstate marine resource conservation and management agencies; U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States; U.S. and foreign commercial and recreational fishing industries; conservation organizations, academic institutions; international and Indian Tribal treaties; private and public research groups; consumers; and the general public.

Financial assistance can be used to support the implementation of locally-driven marine debris projects that achieve the objectives of the program listed above. These generally include prevention, identification and assessment, research, and removal projects including reducing and preventing fishing gear loss that will benefit coastal habitat, waterways, and NOAA trust resources. Funds must be spent to carry out the purpose of the program and the award in accordance with the Marine Debris Act or other relevant authorities.

Award periods are normally for 12-24 months, but may vary depending on funding opportunity. Award funds must be spent in the indicated budget period and expended in accordance with DOC/NOAA finance and reporting procedures. See the following for information on how assistance is awarded / released.

Preapplication coordination is often required. An environmental impact statement is required for this listing. This program is eligible for coverage under E.O. 12372, "Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs." An applicant should consult the office or official designated as the single point of contact in his or her State for more information on the process the State requires to be followed in applying for assistance, if the State has selected the program for review.

Applications for marine debris removal projects are funded through competitive solicitations for proposals, non-competitive awards, or unsolicited applications for which no competition exists. Proposals are evaluated by at least three individual technical reviewers and scored according to the criteria and weights described in the specific funding opportunity description. These criteria are consistent across Notices of Funding Opportunity, and address such things as the importance and applicability of a proposal to agency priorities; the technical and scientific merit of a proposal; the overall qualifications of an applicant; and project costs, among others. Reviewer comments, composite project scores, and a rank order of reviewed proposals are presented to the NOAA Marine Debris Program Selecting Official. The Selecting Official, in consultation with NOAA Marine Debris Program staff, will identify the proposals to be recommended to the NOAA Grants Management Division for funding and will determine the amount of funds available for each approved proposal.

Proposals are evaluated by the appropriate NOAA subject matter experts, and are subject to review for technical merit, soundness of design, competency of the applicant to perform the proposed work, potential contribution of the project to national or regional goals, and appropriateness and reasonableness of proposed costs. Projects approved for funding will be submitted to the NOAA Grants Management Division and through any other agency or Departmental review processes that may be deemed necessary.

Refer to the federal funding opportunities posted on www.grants.gov for specific submission and deadline information.

Grants and cooperative agreements are approved on an annual basis. Financial assistance may be continued beyond the original project period, but cannot exceed 5 years. Such extensions depend on NOAA approval of the project's scope of work, satisfactory progress toward project goals, and availability of agency funds. Renewal of an award to increase funding or extend the period of performance is at the sole discretion of the Department.