The NOAA Office of Education has issued a competitive funding opportunity for education projects designed to strengthen the public’s and/or K-12 students’ environmental literacy to enable informed decision-making necessary for community resilience to extreme weather events and other environmental hazards.  Successful projects will advance NOAA’s mission and build the environmental literacy necessary for community resilience by focusing on geographic awareness and an understanding of Earth systems and the threats and vulnerabilities that are associated with a community’s location.  Eligible applicants are limited to institutions of higher education; other nonprofits, including informal education institutions such as museums, zoos, and aquariums; K-12 public and independent schools and school systems; and state, local and Indian tribal governments in the United States.  Proposed projects should be between two and five years in duration and have total budget requests of $250,000 to $500,000 for all years of the project.

DEADLINE

The deadline for applications to this funding opportunity is 11:59:59 pm EST on February 8, 2016. Applications must be submitted online via www.grants.gov. It is anticipated that awards under this announcement will be made by September 30, 2016 and that the projects funded under this announcement will have a start date no earlier than October 1, 2016.

INFORMATIONAL TELECONFERENCES

Two informational teleconferences with the program officers will occur on Thursday, December 10, 2015 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm EST and Tuesday, January 5, 2016 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm EST.  Whenever possible, individuals from the same institution should try to join the teleconference from the same phone line.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

To read the full funding announcement (NOAA-SEC-OED-2016-2004737), please visit www.grants.gov. To learn more about this funding opportunity, please visit the NOAA Office of Education’s Environmental Literacy Grants web page.