Funding Opportunities

Below are current research-funding opportunities from Maryland Sea Grant for principal investigators. Expired opportunities are included for reference.

Graduate fellowships: Look here if you are a graduate student seeking information on fellowships.  Principal investigators seeking to fund graduate fellows on their research projects can obtain information in our funding application materials about how to do so.

Current Funding Opportunities

2024 Biennial Research Competition

Maryland Sea Grant is soliciting proposals for its next funding cycle. Two different opportunities are available:

Track 1: Two-year, single or multi-investigator pre-proposals at the $100,000 per year level for research projects within Maryland’s coasts and watersheds focused on three areas: (1) healthy coastal ecosystems; (2) sustainable fisheries and aquaculture; and (3) resilient communities and economies.

Track 2: Proposals that use a co-production approach to address the challenges facing underserved coastal communities in Maryland with a budget of up to $125,000 per year for two to four years. Proposals may focus on any topic relevant to the three Maryland Sea Grant focus areas (e.g. access to coastal resources, food security in the context of fisheries and aquaculture, workforce development). Importantly, Maryland Sea Grant has a special interest in topics that help coastal communities become more resilient to the effects of climate change and extreme events.

Start-up Funding / Program Development Awards

Maryland Sea Grant (MDSG) focuses on supporting translational watershed, coastal, and marine science that can inform broad audiences in the Chesapeake Bay region and Maryland's coastal areas. MDSG has the ability to support small, targeted grants that come under the general category of Program Development awards. These awards are given to help support important start-up efforts or to offer strategic support to emerging areas of importance. Program Development funds are designed to stimulate and foster small-scale innovative projects that will eventually lead to submissions for larger grants from a variety of sources. Also, these funds may be used to support workshops and educational opportunities that connect marine and coastal science to diverse audiences. 

Other Funding Opportunities from Our Partners

National Sea Grant Office

Sea Grant is the primary university-based program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that supports coastal resource use and conservation. Its research and outreach programs promote better understanding, conservation, and use of America’s coastal resources. In short, Sea Grant is “science serving America’s coasts.”

Federal Government Grants 

Grants.gov is the source to find and apply for federal grants. In particular, federal funding opportunities for all grants and fellowships supported by the National Sea Grant College Program can be found through the searchable database at grants.gov.

Expired Funding Opportunities

These past funding opportunities, now closed, resulted in numerous research projects funded by Maryland Sea Grant. We offer these descriptions as a reference about our funding interests, cycles, and history.

2022-2023 Omnibus Research Competition

Marine Finfish Aquaculture: Juvenile Production Technologies - 2022

Early Stage Propagation Strategies for Aquaculture Species - 2022

2020 National Aquaculture Initiative: Addressing Economic and Market Needs of the U.S. Aquaculture Industry

2020-2021 Maryland Sea Grant Omnibus Research Competition

Translating Coastal Research into Application 2022 Competition

Search our database of projects funded through these solicitations.