Mass Maritime Academy

Massachusetts Maritime Academy is a state-controlled institution of higher learning located in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, that has been registered to receive federal awards since 1999. The Academy serves as a leading provider of maritime education and training services to multiple federal agencies, offering specialized expertise in maritime workforce development, seafaring instruction, and shipbuilding industry initiatives. Through its federal contract and grant portfolio, Mass Maritime Academy demonstrates a strong commitment to supporting U.S. maritime operations, workforce development, and infrastructure modernization.

Mass Maritime Academy has received multiple federal contract awards primarily through purchase order vehicles from the Department of Transportation Maritime Administration, the Department of the Navy, the Coast Guard, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. These contracts have funded a diverse range of maritime training and operational services with a combined value exceeding $1.1 million. Notably, the Academy has provided winter training cruise participation for cadets from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy aboard its training vessel, the TS Kennedy, including a $370,101 award in 2022 and a $263,000 award in 2023 under memoranda of agreement between the two maritime academies. The Navy has awarded the Academy purchase orders totaling approximately $387,389 to reimburse costs associated with delivering services to the Navy, including emergency funding for annual training cruises and expenses related to ship's crew members attending dry dock services. The Maritime Administration awarded a $130,103 purchase order for crew member dry dock services, while NOAA funded $35,608 for surfclam research field work. The Coast Guard provided funding for port state control training. All identified contract awards were firm fixed price purchase orders with no set-aside designations and no identified subcontractors, reflecting direct service delivery by the Academy to federal agencies.

Mass Maritime Academy has established itself as a significant federal grant recipient with four major cooperative agreements and project grants totaling over $60.7 million. The most substantial award is a $53.9 million Cooperative Agreement from the Maritime Administration under the State Maritime Schools program to upgrade the Academy's pier and infrastructure to accommodate a new training vessel, with completion targeted for October 2025. The Academy was awarded a $5.8 million, four-year Cooperative Agreement from the Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs to implement the NextSEAS initiative, a comprehensive program addressing the U.S. shipbuilding industry's acute shortage of skilled workers by establishing an international fellowship and training pipeline that blends European expertise from partners SAMK, Winnova, and RMC with U.S. industry adoption led by Bollinger Shipyards. The Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education funded a $1 million Project Grant under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) program to support the Academy's National Maritime Center for Renewable and Responsible Energy and related capital projects from September 2022 through August 2025. The Maritime Administration also awarded a Cooperative Agreement in February 2024 to support the Academy's hosting of the annual Women on the Water Conference, aimed at increasing participation and awareness of women's roles in the maritime industry. Collectively, these grants demonstrate the Academy's role in advancing maritime education infrastructure, workforce development, renewable energy initiatives in maritime contexts, and diversity in the maritime sector.