The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium is soliciting proposals by 4 p.m. Central Time, August 7, 2014, for one- or two-year research projects to address Resilient Communities and Economies (RCE) along the Alabama and Mississippi coast. Up to $65,000 of federal funds can be requested per project, and a non-federal match of 1 dollar for every 2 dollars of federal funding is required.

There is NO institutional limit on the number of proposals, but all UM proposals must be submitted through ORSP. Please contact your Research Advocate/Program Development Specialist (Lesha, Ken, or Helen) if you are considering a proposal.

The full RFP may be viewed here: http://masgc.org/assets/uploads/documents/MASGC_2014_special_RCE_RFP.PDF

Proposals are expected to be highly integrated, multidisciplinary projects that must address one or more of the research priorities, goals(s), and outcome(s) specified in the RFP. Bi-state, multi institutional/agency and interdisciplinary projects are strongly encouraged, but not required.

Research Priorities:

1. Integrated assessments of the social, natural, and built environment leading to increased community resilience.
2. Multidisciplinary environmental, social, and economic research to identify internal and external mechanisms to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters and other environmental stressors.
3. Innovative approaches to raise community awareness of the interdependence among the health, economic, ecological, natural, and cultural systems, and approaches that involve communities in the process of strengthening and sustaining resilience.
4. Develop and validate new indicators of resilience for use in in the Coastal Community Resilience Index.

Goals:

1. Communities use comprehensive planning to make informed strategic decisions.
2. Resilient coastal communities adapt to the impacts of hazards and climate change.

Performance Measure: Number of communities that implemented hazard resilience practices as a result of Sea Grant activities to prepare for, respond to or minimize coastal hazardous events.