Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Environmental Studies (ES)

The Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) funds scientific research that supports environmentally responsible management of offshore energy and marine mineral resources on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf under CFDA 15.423, with the most recent grant award made on September 22, 2025.

BOEM's Environmental Studies Program awards funding to investigate marine, coastal, and human environments to inform environmental analyses, leasing decisions, permitting, mitigation measures, and resource management. Recent awards have funded concrete research activities including derelict fishing gear interaction probability modeling offshore California, North Atlantic right whale density forecasting, protected bird monitoring and AI-driven detection algorithms in the Gulf of Mexico, oil spill occurrence rate analysis, acoustic ecology of endangered whales, benthic habitat characterization for deepwater energy development, offshore wind construction impacts on fish behavior and hearing, fisheries ecological knowledge collection, and maritime archaeology in Guam and the Pacific. The program also supports baseline monitoring of rocky intertidal habitats adjacent to oil and gas operations and long-term zooplankton ecology studies in the Gulf of Maine.

The portfolio is overwhelmingly structured as Cooperative Agreements (99 percent of 150 awards) with a single Formula Grant representing the remaining one percent. Funding is almost entirely concentrated within BOEM itself, which obligated $97.8 million across 150 awards; the Department of the Interior obligated an additional $604 thousand across one award. Combined federal and non-federal dollars obligated total $100.7 million across the award base. Award magnitude ranges from $142,908 to $3.43 million, with typical awards falling in the $450 thousand to $1 million range. Recent award activity shows 8–14 awards per year over the past five years, with one award in 2025 year-to-date as of the September snapshot.

Cooperative agreements are normally awarded for 1 to 5 years with incremental funding, with approximately 15 percent provided in the final year. Eligible applicants include state agencies, public universities, and nonprofits in affected states; more than one institution may collaborate, and scientists from other institutions may participate with a principal investigator from a state agency or public university. Applications face 90–270-day review periods using competitive peer review by panels of BOEM and non-BOEM scientists evaluating mission relevance, technical merit, personnel qualifications and past performance, project management and logistics, safety and permits, interagency coordination, budget and matching funds, and impact minimization.

Recent grant opportunities posted in 2024 and early 2025 solicit research on derelict fishing gear interactions with floating offshore wind in California (due August 22, 2025), protected bird monitoring with AI and machine learning in the Gulf of Mexico, North Atlantic right whale population density modeling, underwater cultural heritage mapping in Guam, fisheries ecological knowledge collection in the Gulf of Maine, marine minerals research scale bias, oil spill occurrence rates, and acoustic monitoring at mid-Atlantic offshore wind areas. All recent opportunities offer Cooperative Agreements. State agencies, higher education institutions (public and private), 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) nonprofits, and other eligible entities may apply; some solicitations target specific applicant types or geographic regions.