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The Ocean Protection Council has announced a funding opportunity for projects focused on outreach and education to improve compliance with marine protected area (MPA) regulations in California:

2020 Marine Protected Area (MPA) Outreach and Education Small Grants Program

The MPA Outreach and Education Small Grants Program, funded by the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) through the Once-Through Cooling (OTC) Interim Mitigation Program and administered by Coastal Quest, is a competitive grant program providing support for projects focused on outreach and education to improve compliance with MPA regulations statewide. Applicants may submit proposals for $25,000 – $100,000. A minimum total of $750,000 will be distributed under the MPA Outreach and Education Small Grants Program’s request for proposals (RFP).

For more information on this funding opportunity, please join an optional webinar on December 19, 2019 at 10 am – 11:30 am PSTor January 14, 2020 at 5:30 pm – 7 pm PST.

This announcement invites the submission of proposals for projects that:

• Increase outreach and education to improve compliance with MPA regulations locally, regionally, and/or statewide;
• Can have significant value for the state, such as developing replicable methods and increasing local capacity through project implementation;
• Impact geographic scales of 1) statewide and/or 2) from San Diego to Big Sur (near Lucia), including waters around the Channel Islands. A small amount of funds provided by matching philanthropic donors will be available for projects north of Big Sur (near Lucia), with priority given to underserved communities;
• Show relevance with the OTC Program’s award guidelines and other key resources such as the California MPA Education and Outreach Needs Assessment, the California MPA Network Outreach and Education Guide, the MPA Statewide Leadership Team Work Plan; and
• Demonstrate a lasting impact on communities targeted through these projects.

Please see the full RFP for additional details.   

For successful applicants, work is expected to begin approximately on June 1, 2020 and must end no later than December 1, 2021.

Applications must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. PST, January 27, 2020 using the SOAR electronic proposal submission system.

Submit RFP and underserved community technical assistance questions to Coastal Quest: Tegan Hoffmann, tegan@coastal-quest.org

Submit questions about state priorities within the MPA Management Program to CA Ocean Protection Council: Scott Shatto, Scott.Shatto@resources.ca.gov