Year 2007 Work Plan
Florida Sea Grant College Program

The Florida Sea Grant College Program is committed to enhancing the practical use and development of coastal and marine resources while at the same time creating a sustainable economy and environment. Florida Sea Grant’s Strategic Plan sets the four-year stage for program priorities. A competitive research proposal process selects two-year projects twice within the period and program areas are enhanced with additional projects funded through national competitions and other sources of funding. Detailed, peer-reviewed proposals are developed every four years for Extension, Communications and Management activities and they are updated at the middle of the four-year period. An Implementation Plan is developed each two years and detailed work plans and progress reports are written annually. This is the work plan for 2007.

The Florida Sea Grant cycle of strategic planning, implementation of two-year activities, development of a detailed annual work plan and reporting on annual progress is shown in the table on the next page. Florida Sea Grant’s Strategic Plan addresses issues that are important both nationally and in Florida, and reflects the input of hundreds of Floridians representing academia, government, industry and citizens. This 2007 Work Plan defines specific tasks to be carried out under the Florida Sea Grant Strategic Plan: 2006-09. Florida Sea Grant is hosted by the University of Florida, the state’s Land Grant University. This allows Florida Sea Grant priorities to consider land-based actions that affect the coast, activities along the shoreline, bays and estuaries, and ocean priorities in planning its research, education and extension goals.

Every Florida Sea Grant activity outlined in this work plan satisfies three simple but tough criteria: 1) it is based on a strong rationale; 2) it demonstrates scientific or educational merit; and 3) it will produce results that are clearly useful and applicable in industry, management or science. A number of core values allow Florida Sea Grant to deliver results based on these criteria: 1) Excellence; Research is funded on a competitive basis, with scientific merit as the most important criterion. Extension programs are based on reviewed faculty plans of work. Communications efforts use the latest technology to achieve maximum output, visibility and citizen receipt of our science-based information; 2) Participation; High value is placed on the involvement of a large number of participating institutions in research, education and extension programs. Graduate student involvement is high and a diverse male and female faculty are involved, from assistant to full professors; 3) Accountability; both external and internal processes are used to measure a wide range of achievements. These include tracking the scientific publication output of faculty and students, understanding the contribution to society of scientific discovery, measuring the way citizens receiving educational programs change their behavior, and determining the economic impact or level of new business activity resulting from a research project; 4) Connection with Users; A strong advisory process is used to define research priorities, to plan extension programs, and to measure the impact of programs. It is also used to build public and private support for Florida Sea Grant; 5) Partnerships; Faculty, students, and citizens all benefit when functioning in a partnership mode. Scientific results and education projects reach greater success levels and are implemented when partners, from agencies to businesses, provide financial support to an activity. Greater emphasis will be placed on developing partnerships.

The Implementation Plan is the two-year “grants” document containing all project and program activity that is sent to the National Sea Grant Office, NOAA, USDC for processing to provide funds to Florida Sea Grant. The Implementation Plan referred to here is the condensed and programmatic version of that document.

Progress Reports are available at the Florida Sea Grant Website, www.flseagrant.org.

The annual Work Plan includes specific tasks that are planned for each year.