What is Sea Grant?
Sea Grant Answers Your Questions
What is the National Sea Grant Program?
Sea Grant was created by Congress in 1966 under federal law (PL 89-688) and modeled after the successful Land Grant College concept enacted by Congress in 1863 “to provide education and disseminate research for the common man.” The basic Land Grant concept was applied when Sea Grant was authorized, although while Land Grant focuses on agriculture, Sea Grant places its emphasis on coastal and marine issues. Sea Grant is a partnership consisting of academia, government and industry. The program operates through a university-based network of more than 300 institutions to address environmental and economic issues in the coastal and marine waters of the nation through research, outreach and education. In recent years, Sea Grant has dramatically increased its activities in the areas of coastal communities development and coastal hazards.
What is the mission of the National Sea Grant Program?
Sea Grant promotes and sponsors research, education and outreach programs aimed at the wise utilization and conservation of the nation’s coastal and marine resources in order to develop and maintain a sustainable economy and a healthy environment.
How does the Texas Sea Grant College Program operate?
The Texas Sea Grant College Program is one of 32 such programs, the members of which represent all the coastal states of the continental U.S., Hawaii, the territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the states bordering the Great Lakes. Sea Grant Projects have been developed in Vermont (Lake Champlain), Pennsylvania and Oklahoma (a Sea Grant specialist at the University of Oklahoma working with the National Severe Storms Laboratory, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) facility. The Texas program is housed at Texas A&M University, but works with academic institutions, agencies and industries throughout the state and also supports regional activities, including research, in collaboration with the other Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant Programs. The program involves coastal and marine-related research, marine advisory services and communications. Core support comes from the federal government through NOAA in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Additional support is obtained from the Texas Legislature and the host institution.
Administratively, the Texas Sea Grant College Program reports to the Dean of the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University. The director of Texas Sea Grant is a tenured professor in the Department of Oceanography within that College. The dean reports to the provost, who reports to the president of the university.
How are research priorities set and funds allocated?
Research priorities are established with input from an advisory committee. That committee, made up of persons affiliated with state and federal agencies, academia and the private sector, examines the state’s research, education and outreach needs relative to the Sea Grant mission and establishes a list of priority research areas. Items on the list involve researchable questions or address researchable problems that satisfy a public need; thus, the research is generally problem-oriented. The priority list from the Advisory Committee is utilized to establish programmatic goals for each two-year funding cycle. Requests for pre-proposals are prepared and distributed to academic researchers throughout the state. Each pre-proposal undergoes peer evaluation to determine if it addresses a priority area, is scientifically rigorous and if the results can make a significant contribution to solving a problem or addressing an issue. Texas Sea Grant encourages involvement by at least one graduate student on each research proposal.
Authors of qualifying pre-proposals are encouraged to submit full proposals. Each full proposal is subjected to mail review by several experts in the field covered by the proposal. A committee of experts is then convened to rank the full proposals based on their own reviews and the results of the mail reviews. The committee ranks the proposals and makes its recommendations to Sea Grant’s administration, where the final funding decisions are made. In most cases available funds are exhausted before all proposals that receive very good to excellent reviews and are judged to be of high quality by the final review panel can be incorporated into the final Omnibus Proposal. Recently, one-third to one-half of submitted full proposals have received funding. A typical two-year proposal is funded at a rate of about $80,000 per year.
What process is used to establish budgets for the other Texas Sea Grant activities?
Following the policy of the the National Sea Grant Office in Silver Spring, Maryland, Texas Sea Grant attempts to utilize as close to 50 percent of the federal dollars available as possible in support of research. Texas Sea Grant Extension the Marine Information Service (MIS) and Texas Sea Grant Administration are the other areas that require financial support. Each unit submits proposed budgets that are incorporated into the Omnibus Proposal. \ Budget requests are based upon salary requirements and proposed activities and are revised annually. Texas Sea Grant Extension is involved in educational programs, workshops, demonstrations and related activities, while the MIS produces publications and news releases on Texas Sea Grant and related activities. MIS is also involved in Marine Education, including coordination of the northern Texas regional competition of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB), an event held annually for 15 teams of high school students in the region. The winning team goes to the national NOSB competition, which is held in a different location each year. Texas Sea Grant Administration coordinates all activities involved in proposal development, fiscal management and supervision of Texas Sea Grant personnel. Administration is also charged with interviewing and selecting applicants for the Knauss Fellowship Program (which provides fellowships for students who have completed their M.S. or Ph.D. degree requirements or have recently graduated with the opportunity to spend a year working in Washington, D.C. with a federal agency or Congressional office. Budget supplementation for the NOSB activity comes from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in Washington, D.C., while funding for the Knauss Fellowship Program comes from various federal sources and is distributed to individual Sea Grant programs based on the success of each state program in having its submitted applicants accepted into the program.
What are the current research priorities of the Texas Sea Grant College Program?
For the past several years, Texas Sea Grant has placed high priority on (1) Coastal Ecosystem Health and (2) Coastal Communities and Economies. Texas Sea Grant also accepts proposals that deal with (3) Marine Education. Examples of the latter has included curriculum development for K-12 students as well as materials such as maps, posters, and information sheets to help educate the public. At the National level, Sea Grant has priorities similar to Texas’ priorities (1) and (2), plus priorities in Seafood Science and Safety and in Coastal Hazards. Texas Sea Grant’s activities with respect to Seafood reside largely in the activities of the extension and MIS areas of the program. Coastal Hazards are incorporated in the Coastal Ecosystem Health and the Coastal Communities and Economies priorities.
How are Texas Sea Grant Extension and the Marine Information Service organized?
Texas Sea Grant Extension is headed by the Associate Director and Extension Program Leader. The Extension Program Leader supervises specialists who work in the areas of aquaculture, coastal community development, education, environmental quality, fisheries, marine business, and seafood safety and technology. The Extension Program Leader and two specialists are funded entirely by Sea Grant, while the remaining specialists are supported through joint appointments with Sea Grant and Texas AgriLife Extension. The education specialist is responsible for coordinating the Floating Classroom Program, which involves operation of a 57-foot converted shrimp trawler that is Coast Guard-certified to carry up to 30 passengers. The vessel provides on-water educational opportunities, primarily for K-12 students. It is operated out of Corpus Christi and sometimes provides limited opportunities in other Texas coastal locations. While specialists work state-wide, Texas Sea Grant Extension’s county coastal and marine resources agents spend most of their time on local issues in the county or counties to which they area assigned. Six agents cover seven coastal counties in Texas. They have various split appointments with funding by Texas Sea Grant, AgriLife Extension and County Commissioners’ Courts.
MIS is the publications and communications arm of Texas Sea Grant, and also coordinates the NOSB program. MIS is led by a communications coordinator and has a staff that includes an editor, graphic designer, educator and webmaster. Working with the program’s fiscal officer, MIS prepares the program’s Omnibus Proposals. MIS also collects information and, working with Texas Sea Grant administration, prepares and submits the program’s annual reports to the National Sea Grant Office. MIS maintains several websites (links to which can be found on the Texas Sea Grant website) and produces a variety of publications, including maps, curricula, posters, informal education materials such as coloring books that can be used as teaching tools, symposium proceedings, calendars, and beach safety and hurricane preparedness materials, to mention but a few.
Highlights of Texas Sea Grant’s activities can be found on the website: http://texas-sea-grant.tamu.edu/. The website also has links to the research grant proposal process, NOSB, the Floating Classroom Program, available publications, and a great deal of other information.
What is the average annual budget for the Texas Sea Grant College Program?
Funding varies from year to year. The federal contribution to the core budget is nearly $2 million, with another approximately $500,000 coming from the state legislature and Texas A&M University. The core is typically augmented by one or more Knauss Fellowships of $38,000 per year, and grants and contracts obtained through national competitions plus those obtained by Texas Sea Grant personnel from other agencies.
Does the Texas Sea Grant Program ever have resources in addition to the core funding?
Yes. Most of the problems that researchers, as well as Texas Sea Grant Extension agents and specialists, work on require more resources than are available from the core grant. There are, in addition, annual calls for proposals from the National Sea Grant Office to fund various national initiatives for which researchers in the state can submit proposals. Extension personnel also have been successful in obtaining monetary support, goods and services for their activities from a variety of state and federal agencies as well as foundations and industry. Sea Grant investigators, county-based agents and specialists are encouraged to develop interdisciplinary teams and to meld resources as a means of enhancing the quality and productivity of their programs.
Who are the clientele served by Texas Sea Grant?
The Texas Sea Grant College Program serves a diverse array of clients. Examples include federal, state and local governments and agencies; environmental and industry trade organizations; institutions of higher education; K-12 teachers and students; numerous special interest groups involved with coastal issues; 4-H groups; tourists; senior citizens; and the general public. Any individuals or groups with an interest in the marine and coastal environment are viewed as stakeholders by the program. Texas Sea Grant has some level of contact with more than 100,000 people annually through telephone conversations, attendance at meetings, distribution of materials, individuals who take advantage of the Floating Classroom program, and other venues. These numbers do not include individuals who use the program’s website to access information about Texas Sea Grant, its programs and the materials it has available for the public.
How can I obtain additional information on the Texas Sea Grant College Program?
You can call us at (979) 845-3854, fax us at (979) 845-7525, go to the website: http://texas-sea-grant.tamu.edu/, or mail your requests or questions to:
Texas Sea Grant College Program
2700 Earl Rudder Freeway South, Suite 1800
College Station, Texas 77845
Coastal Science Serving Texans
http://texas-sea-grant.tamu.edu
Publication supported in part by Institutional Grant NA06OAR4170076 to Texas A&M University by the National Sea Grant Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.
TAMU-SG-09-105 September 2009 10,000 NA16RG1078 C/A/F-1
