Florida Sea Grant Notes and News, February 24, 2010 

Information for Sea Grant Campus Coordinators at Participating FL Universities and Research Institutes 

A number of exciting things have been going on with the Florida Sea Grant program – please share with your respective faculty. 

1.    In the 2010 budget, the National Sea Grant program has a substantive funding increase (approximately $8M) – nearly all tied to two special initiatives in marine aquaculture and invasive species. A portion of the aquaculture money is going to support enhanced nation-wide extension and outreach, and a considerable amount will support research. All of the invasive species money is aimed at research. Sometime this month or early in March, I expect that the National office will issue calls for research proposals in these areas. At this time we do not have information on the specific research questions that will be identified in the RPFs, nor the funding levels. I will keep you apprised as this information becomes available. As I understand the process, proposals will come to the state Sea Grant program offices, however the reviews will be done centrally by expert panels convened in DC by the National office. 

2.    We received six applications this year for the John D. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. I have conducted face-to-face or telephone interviews with all of the applicants and they are a very strong group, even compared to previous cohorts, which have been outstanding. The selection process to determine which of the applicants will be put forward to the National Sea Grant Office will happen during March and the national review panel will meet in April or early May. My approach in the last two years has been to only forward applicants that I consider to have a high probability of success to compete nationally. So far we have a high ‘batting average’ with 5 of 6 applicants selected at the state level being awarded a Knauss Fellowship. I had the opportunity to serve on the national selection panel last year, and can tell you that based on the interviews and on first look at the files we have on hand, most or perhaps all of this year’s applicants seem to be nationally competitive. We can submit up to six and a maximum of four are awarded to any given state. I will keep you apprised as more details are available. FYI, this year three of the applicants are from U. Miami and three are from U. Florida. This is a less balanced pool than in prior years, where we have had applicants from a broader spectrum of FL universities. Please help us get the word out to your faculty when the call for applications comes out for 2012, because this is an outstanding opportunity for MS or PhD students nearing the end of their degree programs. 

3.    Last week Florida Sea Grant, the USGS, and the FAU Center for Environmental Studies co-hosted a workshop in Boca Raton focused on the effects of sea level rise on Everglades restoration. A total of 31 different universities and agencies were represented at the meeting. From the perspective of Sea Grant, there were two main objectives: (1) to showcase the expertise that exists within our respective universities and institutes for addressing agency research needs; and (2) to have university faculty and agency staff identify priority research needs to support adaptive management in the face of a possible increase in the rate of sea level rise. The meeting went very well, and in addition to these objectives being met, many potential working relationships were established between individual faculty and agency folks – AND – I think that the managers came away with a clearer picture of how they will move forward in an organized manner to incorporate sea level rise into CERP planning. Outputs from this meeting will carry forward into a special session at GEER this summer, where there may be a presentation by one or two conceptual model teams of ‘futures scenarios’ based on specifically linking sea level rise with conceptual ecological models. I will send you all a copy of the summary report from the workshop when it is available in a couple of weeks. 

4.    Florida Sea Grant also co-sponsored an international rip current symposium led by Drs. Stephen Leatherman and Dr. John Fletemeyer of the FIU’s International Hurricane Research Center. They brought together leading experts from around the world – from as far away as Australia – to present and discuss the latest research related to rip current dynamics, predictions, etc. … all aimed at developing more effective information to inform the public about risks associated with these phenomena. The proceedings of the conference will be published as a book in the upcoming year. 

5.    In April we are leading a workshop in cooperation with the three other Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant programs and several NOAA offices, to provide our extension, outreach and education professionals with consistent information from leading experts regarding the projected global rate of sea level rise, the basis for uncertainty in projections, expected regional changes in sea level and impacts to natural and man-made environments in the Gulf, and adaptation strategies for coastal communities. This is the first step in building a ‘community of practice’ among these folks who work with the general public and elected officials around the Gulf, in what certainly will be a challenging and long-term process. The meeting includes case studies by a half dozen local planners or community leaders, training in risk communication and community based social marketing, and development of an outreach ‘toolkit’ related to sea level rise. A similar project is spinning up in the southeast Atlantic region, led by Georgia Sea Grant. 

6.    Please remember that we have program development (PD) funds available at any time of the year, to support small scale research projects that collect preliminary data needed to support larger grant proposals, test novel ideas, or address time sensitive issues. Funds are limited to $9,990, there is no IDC, and we require a 50 cent on a dollar cost share. This has been an under-utilized source of seed money, so if your respective faculty have a project that could benefit from this level of support, please consider applying. Just go on the Florida Sea Grant web site under faculty funding opportunities and click on ‘Program Development Funds’ for the instructions. Please remind the faculty members to first read our strategic plan (http://www.flseagrant.org/images/PDFs/fsg%20strategic%20plan%202009%202013%20final.pdf) because projects need to fall under the scope of this 4-year planning document. A high priority will be given to projects that address the 4-year Planning Objectives identified on pages 19-21. 

7.    Finally, all of your faculty who have ongoing or new research grants from Florida Sea Grant were contacted last month by email and informed about a new online reporting system that was developed by our Associate Director for Research, Charles Sidman. This Online Activity Reporting System (OARS) will make it much easier for your faculty to report the results and impacts of their research than the forms we used in the past. 

Thank you, 

Karl Havens, Director