CASG letter of intent deadline: April 7, 2025 by 5:00 PM PT
CASG full proposal deadline: June 2, 2025 by 5:00 PM PT
Only applicants who have submitted a letter of intent may submit a full proposal.
Overview of California Sea Grant Funding Opportunity
California Sea Grant (CASG) is offering
Graduate Research Fellowships beginning in 2026. Contingent upon receipt of federal funding, the fellowships are available for one or two years for full-time master's and Ph.D. students who are engaged in coastal and marine research relevant to California at any California academic institution. Each fellowship provides an award of up to $50,000 per year to support student academic expenses and professional development opportunities during the fellowship period, focused on natural resources or environmental sciences, environmental policy and management, engineering, social sciences, or coastal, aquatic or related sciences. CASG anticipates funding nine (9) fellowships.
CASG’s Request for Proposals (RFP) focuses on proposals that respond to and target objectives specific to the Resilient Communities and Economies (RCE) and Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture (SFA) focus areas of their
strategic plan (please note that projects that primarily address the Healthy Coastal Ecosystems (HCE) focus area are not eligible for this opportunity). The start date for the fellowships is February 1, 2026.
Applicants are required to provide 25% in matching funds from non-federal sources. To facilitate CSU applications, COAST will commit up to $25,000 per CSU applicant (not to exceed total match required).
Process for requesting matching funds from COAST
CASG has a two-phase application process consisting of the submission of a letter of intent followed by full proposals. Letters of intent are due by 5:00 p.m. Pacific time on April 7, 2025. Full proposals are due by 5:00 p.m. Pacific time on June 2, 2025. You must submit a letter of intent in order to submit a full proposal.
Please submit the LOI to COAST ([email protected]) within 24 hours of submitting it to CASG (no later than 5:00 PM PT on April 8, 2025).
No feedback will be provided by CASG, unless a letter of intent appears to fall outside the scope of the request of proposals. Anyone who submits a letter of intent is eligible to submit a full proposal. Please notify COAST of your decision to submit a full proposal by May 12, 2025. COAST staff will provide a letter of commitment to the student/PI. The student/PI will then submit a full proposal to CASG and will include the letter of commitment from COAST. The proposal will then be evaluated consistent with the proposal review and selection process described on the CASG website. Please note that COAST will not be involved in this process.
CSU students/faculty who have received provisional match commitment from COAST must submit the following items to COAST by
5:00 pm on June 3, 2025:
- An exact and complete copy of the full proposal submitted to CASG on June 2, 2025.
- A line-item budget and justification for the provisional match (see Budget guidelines section below).
These materials must be submitted through the campus’ pre-award offices as a single PDF file emailed to
[email protected] by the stated deadline.
Proposals recommended for funding by CASG
CASG will select proposals for funding and notify COAST as needed. COAST will send a notice of award to the student's campus and will transfer the entirety of the matching funds via Interagency Financial Transactions (IFT). The campus will designate the location for the award financial management. This location may include an auxiliary, research foundation, and/or corporation (hereafter referred to as auxiliary). If an auxiliary is designated for award financial management, the auxiliary will incur project expenses and then invoice the state side.
Budget guidelines
COAST match funding may be used only for CSU expenses. Use the
Budget Templateand
follow the instructions below.
The funding for the COAST match originates from legislatively appropriated funds and is subject to CSU Executive Order 753/1000. As such, indirect costs are not allowed. Direct administrative costs are not allowed either.
Instructions for completing Budget Template
COAST match funding for the California Sea GrantGraduate Research Fellowship Program may be used only for proposals led by a CSU Principal Investigator (PI) and only for CSU expenses. PIs may not request support. Support for justified and normally allowable expenses may be requested as long as they clearly contribute to the completion of the project. Because all funding must stay within the CSU, subawards are not allowed.
The budget justification must be no more than two pages. The amounts for each budget line item requested must be included in the budget justification as specified below. Indirect costs are not allowed. Contact COAST staff with any questions.
- Stipends, salaries and wages: Stipends, salaries and wages may be requested for the graduate student applicant, student assistants, and other personnel who will assist the graduate student.
- Fringe benefit: Fringe benefit costs for the graduate student applicant, student assistants, or other personnel may be included.
- Student tuition and fees: Tuition and fees for the graduate student applicant may be requested.
- Equipment: Support for tangible, nonexpendable items with a useful life of more than one year and acquisition cost of $5,000 or more per unit is allowable if the item is necessary to conduct the proposed activities and not otherwise reasonably available and accessible. Equipment must be of the type normally charged as a direct cost to sponsored agreements and acquired in accordance with organizational practice.
- Please provide a cost estimate for any piece of equipment costing more than $5,000. Cost estimate should be on letterhead from the vendor.
- Travel: Support for transportation, lodging, subsistence and other travel related expenses incurred by the graduate student applicant, student assistants, and other personnel may be requested.
- Materials and supplies: Support for tangible, expendable items other than equipment necessary to carry out the project.
- Publication costs: Support for article publishing charges.
- Other: Support for other direct costs such as sample analysis costs, consultant fees, etc. Other direct costs are considered part of the award to a CSU PI, even if funds are spent on services outside the CSU.
- No indirect costs or direct administrative costs are allowed.
Amounts and expenses budgeted also must be consistent with the proposing organization's policies and procedures and cost accounting practices used in accumulating and reporting costs.
Costs may not be incurred prior to the award start date. All funds awarded must be used for the specific purposes requested and approved and may not be converted to other uses without prior authorization.
For questions, please contact: