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
The California Sea Grant (CASG) Indigenous Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Awards support research projects that address Indigenous goals and objectives specific to the Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture (SFA) section of the CASG 2024-2027 Strategic Plan. This research track seeks to center Indigenous methodologies, protocols, and values in research. Research projects could address but are not limited to: supporting food sovereignty with a particular focus on marine or coastal resources, restoring or building upon Indigenous stewardship practices, and fostering intergenerational transfer of knowledge and skills.
This research track requires the participation of at least one California Native American tribe or tribally-led entity with research needs and/or knowledge that is central to the proposed project, including serving as project leads. Projects should result in deliverable(s) that will directly benefit the tribal partner. Tribal applicants or partners do not need to be federally-recognized.
CASG anticipates funding two to three projects contingent upon receipt of funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The duration of a project request is typically two years, though requests for a 1-year award will also be considered. Project extramural budgets may not exceed $150,000 per year.
For this solicitation, CASG requires a 25% funding match from non-federal funds. COAST is interested in facilitating CSU faculty members’ ability to apply to and be awarded funds from CASG. The non-federal match requirement has long been identified as a significant barrier to CSU faculty members applying to CASG. To reduce this barrier, COAST intends to provide up to $25,000 (not to exceed half of total match required) in match for CSU PIs who
- Serve as lead PI on a proposal or co-PI on a proposal led by a CSU PI (COAST will NOT provide match to CSU PIs on proposals led by non-CSU institutions); and
- Otherwise meet the eligibility requirements of the solicitation (COAST is unable to answer questions regarding eligibility; please contact CASG directly).
Process for requesting matching funds from COAST
CASG has a two-phase application process consisting of the submission of Letters of Intent (LOIs) followed by full proposals. Applicants are required to submit the LOI to CASG by April 7, 2025 by 5:00 PM PT. 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).
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 PI. The 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 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 PI’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. Eligible expenses include, but are not limited to, CSU faculty member reassigned time funding, academic year additional employment or summer salary; support for CSU students; equipment retained and controlled by CSU; and travel. Use the
Budget Template and
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, awards are not subject to campus indirect costs (facilities and administrative fees). Justified direct administrative costs are allowed. This value cannot exceed 10% of modified total direct costs (MTDC). The recipient campus assumes all responsibility for compliance with this provision.
Instructions for completing Budget Template
COAST match funding for the California Sea Grant Indigenous Fisheries and Aquaculture Program and the University of Southern California Sea Grant 2026 Biennial Funding Opportunity may be used only for proposals led by a CSU Principal Investigator (PI) and only for CSU expenses. Proposals can involve more than one CSU campus, and match may be distributed among them. 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. If more than one campus is involved, COAST will provide the funding to each campus directly.
The budget justification must be no more than two pages per campus. The amounts for each budget line item requested must be included in the budget justification as specified below. Indirect costs are not allowed, but direct administrative costs are. Contact COAST staff with any questions.
- CSU Senior Personnel: Unit 3 members may request support for academic year reassigned time, academic year additional employment, and/or summer salary. A request may include a combination of these categories.
- To request support for reassigned time (REASSN), use WTUs as the unit.
- To request support for academic year additional employment (ACAD) or summer salary (SUMR), use months as the unit.
- Non-Unit 3 members should request support in the ACAD column of the budget template and use months as the unit.
- Reassigned time funding is provided based on the system-wide Minimum Annual Rate for Assistant Professor/Lecturer B. For budgeting purposes, this rate is projected to be $2,563 per semester weighted teaching unit (WTU) and $1,709 per quarter WTU as of July 1, 2025. For academic years 2026-27 and beyond, use the rate listed here plus 3% per year. Budgets can be adjusted once the actual rate is determined.
- Reassigned time funding, if awarded, may not be deferred for use beyond the end of the initial award period. If CA/USC Sea Grant allows a no-cost extension (NCE), academic year additional employment and summer salary funding from COAST may be used during the NCE.
- Other CSU Personnel: Support for post-doctoral scholars, technical staff, students and other personnel may be requested. Use an hourly or monthly basis as appropriate.
- Fringe benefits: Fringe benefit costs may be included. For Unit 3 members, support for benefits associated with academic year reassigned time may not be requested. Support for benefits associated with academic year additional employment or summer salary may be requested.
- Student tuition and fees: Tuition and fees for students involved in the project may be requested. This amount is excluded from the calculation of modified total direct costs.
- 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. Equipment is excluded from the calculation of modified total direct costs.
- 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 PIs, students and other personnel to conduct the proposed activities.
- 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.
- Direct administrative costs: Up to 10% of modified total direct costs may be budgeted as direct administrative costs. Indirect costs are not 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: