Awards will be made for no more than approximately $400,000 in federal funds per project, and may be for one or two years though for no more than $200,000 per year. Applications will require 25% in non-federal match funding. All projects must take place within the United States or territories or their respective waterways.

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

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

There is no guarantee that funds will be available to make awards, or that any application will be selected for funding. If an applicant incurs any costs prior to receiving an award agreement signed by an authorized NOAA official, it does so at its own risk of not being selected or of these costs not being included in a subsequent award. NOAA and DOC will not be responsible for any incurred project costs if a project fails to receive full funding.

To be eligible to receive a grant under this program a recipient shall be a collaborative State, Tribal, local, or regionally based network or partnership of public or private entities, which may include— (A) a Sea Grant Institution; (B) a Federal or State agency or a Tribal organization; (C) a community-based nongovernmental organization; (D) fishermen’s cooperatives or associations; (E) an institution of higher education (including an institution awarding an associate’s degree), or a foundation maintained by an institution of higher education; or (F) any other appropriate entity.

Federal agencies and their personnel are not permitted to receive federal funding under this competition; however, federal scientists and other employees can serve as uncompensated partners or co-Principal Investigators on applications. Federal labs and offices can also make available specialized expertise, facilities or equipment to applicants but cannot be compensated under this competition for their use, nor can the value of such assets be used as match.

Information about current and past funded projects can be found at seagrant.noaa.gov/youngfishermen/.

Please carefully review the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for specific instructions on how to apply for the competition via grants.gov.

Applications must be submitted to Grants.gov by May 2, 2024.

If you have questions please contact Dr. Peter Rowe or [email protected] and specify that your question is related to the Young Fishermen’s Career Development Projects in the subject line.