FY21 Effects of Sea Level Rise (ESLR) | NOAA NOS NCCOS 2021 2006594

Opportunity Information: Apply for NOAA NOS NCCOS 2021 2006594

The FY21 Effects of Sea Level Rise (ESLR) grant opportunity is a NOAA initiative run through the National Ocean Service (NOS), specifically the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) Competitive Research Program (CRP). This program was previously called the Ecological Effects of Sea Level Rise Program (EESLR) before being renamed and shortened in 2020. The solicitation is aimed at supporting applied, decision-relevant research that helps coastal communities, managers, and planners better understand and respond to sea level rise and coastal inundation. At its core, the opportunity is about producing practical science that improves adaptation planning and coastal management by strengthening the tools and models used to evaluate risk, vulnerability, and resilience.

The program emphasizes multidisciplinary work that links physical and biological processes, rather than treating them separately. NOAA is seeking projects that can improve or evaluate models and that can integrate dynamic coastal processes into scenarios that decision makers actually use. The solicitation highlights targeted research on key technologies, natural and nature-based infrastructure (such as wetlands, living shorelines, dunes, reefs, and other approaches that can reduce hazard impacts while providing ecological benefits), relevant physical and biological mechanisms, and model evaluation. The broader goal is to deliver integrated modeling approaches capable of testing multiple sea level rise, inundation, and management scenarios so that tradeoffs and outcomes can be assessed more realistically at regional and local scales.

This funding opportunity is structured around two separate focal areas that compete independently: (1) Coastal Resilience and (2) Surface Transportation Resilience. The Coastal Resilience focus area centers on understanding and improving resilience strategies for coastal environments and communities, including how natural and nature-based features perform under rising seas and changing inundation patterns, and how coupled ecological and physical changes affect vulnerability. The Surface Transportation Resilience focus area is aimed at the resilience of transportation systems in coastal zones, reflecting the increasing risk that sea level rise and recurrent flooding pose to roads, bridges, rail lines, and related infrastructure that are critical for safety, evacuation, commerce, and daily mobility. While both tracks are connected by sea level rise impacts and modeling needs, they are evaluated as distinct competitions with their own sets of proposed projects.

In terms of funding, NOAA anticipated that about $1.2 million could be available in Fiscal Year 2021 to support first-year costs for some projects in each focus area, with the possibility of an additional $1.2 million in Fiscal Year 2022 for first-year costs of additional projects selected under the same announcement. The agency expected to fund roughly 2 to 4 projects in each focus area, with project durations of about 2 to 4 years. For the Coastal Resilience track, typical funding was projected at about $200,000 to $400,000 per year per project, with a total project budget across all years of less than $1.6 million. For the Surface Transportation Resilience track, typical funding was projected at about $200,000 to $500,000 per year per project, with a total project budget across all years of less than $2.0 million. The listed award ceiling for the opportunity is $500,000, and the announcement anticipated up to 8 total awards across both focal areas. As with many federal opportunities, awards were explicitly contingent on the availability of FY2021 appropriations, and the expected project start dates were September 1, 2021 or September 1, 2022.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity issued by the Department of Commerce, with NOAA using a cooperative agreement as the funding instrument, which typically implies substantial NOAA involvement during the project (for example, coordination, shared technical input, or engagement around deliverables and application). The opportunity falls under CFDA 11.478 and is categorized within environment, natural resources, science and technology, and other research and development. The eligibility category is listed as "Others" with details provided in the full eligibility section of the announcement, meaning applicants need to confirm their status against the specific eligibility language in the official notice.

The application process required a Letter of Intent (LOI) as a gatekeeping step. Applicants had to email the LOI to nccos.grant.awards@noaa.gov, and NOAA stated that full proposals would not be considered if an LOI was not submitted. Full proposals were to be submitted through Grants.gov, and prospective applicants were encouraged to monitor Grants.gov for amendments or updates to the announcement. NOAA also provided a program webpage with background on the ESLR program, additional details about the announcement, and information about an informational webinar and recording: https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/research/coastal-change/ecological-effects-sea-level-rise-program. Key dates included a creation date of September 10, 2020 and an original closing date of January 7, 2021, indicating the window during which applicants were expected to submit required materials.

Overall, this opportunity is designed for teams that can connect coastal science to real-world planning needs by improving the methods used to forecast and manage sea level rise impacts. Competitive proposals would be expected to show strong multidisciplinary integration, clear relevance to adaptation decisions, and credible pathways for producing models, evaluations, or tools that stakeholders can use to examine resilience outcomes under multiple future scenarios.

• The Department of Commerce in the environment, natural resources, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY21 Effects of Sea Level Rise (ESLR)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 11.478.
• This funding opportunity was created on Sep 10, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 07, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 8 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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