To:  SECOORA Membership
 
From: Debra Hernandez, Executive Director
 
Date:  October 12, 2010
 
Subject: Solicitation of Mini Proposals
 
SECOORA has funds available to support Education and Outreach and Product Development efforts in the organization.   It is critical to have a process by which funds are distributed throughout our network in a fair and transparent manner. The most equitable mechanism to make these decisions is through a proposal process.  The following describes the project focus areas and proposal process SECOORA will use to distribute the currently available funds.
 
FOCUS AREAS 

 

FUNDING CATEGORIES
There are funds available in the following categories.  Initial estimates of total funding available for each category are presented to provide guidelines and are subject to change during the review and finalization process.  NOTE:  At least one partner must be clearly identified for each project through a signed letter of commitment.  
 
Support to SECOORA's Basic Observation Buoy (BOB) Efforts 

1) Product development and/or outreach for BOB (10k)  
 
Education and Outreach Products - targeting specific stakeholders
2) Informal Education Audiences: Develop a means of engaging informal education audiences (for example, aquaria and/or marine science centers).  This could be through an innovative product using SECOORA member data, creating new visualizations, developing an interactive component to display, or hosting an outreach meeting for informal educators to discern how to more effectively partner with SECOORA. (12K)
 
3) Formal Education Audiences:  Develop a product that highlights the value (either economic or social) of SECOORA member data that can be integrated into the SECOORA web site.  This could be an inquiry-based lesson plan or an activity to demonstrate value.  Examples of education products can be found on SECOORA's web site under "Classroom".  (12K)
 
4) Stakeholders other than K-12 and informal learning centers (non education stakeholders): Develop an HF radar-focused product that highlights applications and value of the data to an identified partner, such as the Coast Guard, emergency managers, community planners, etc. (13k)

2) SECOORA will develop a review panel.  Ideally, this will be comprised of SECOORA staff and a National Federation of Regional Associations (NFRA) Education and Outreach Council representative.
August 2010

3) Solicitation for mini-proposals will be sent to SECOORA Membership.  NOTE:  Only current SECOORA members will be considered for funding.
October 2010

4) The review panel will review the proposals and meet via conference call to determine how available funding should be distributed among those proposing. 
November 2010      

5) Funding will be allocated to awardees via contracts between SECOORA and the awardee.
November/December 2010

6) Awardees will prepare presentations for the Annual Meeting in May 2011 regarding progress to date and timeline for final deliverables.
May 2011

 

SUBMISSION OF MINI PROPOSALS
The project summary should be 3 pages of 12-point text and must include the following elements. 

You must also demonstrate stakeholder need for all activities and address at least one of SECOORA's theme areas (Ecosystems, Living Marine Resources, and Water Quality; Safe and Efficient Marine Operations; Coastal Hazards; and Climate Change).
 
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
Submissions will be reviewed and ranked based on:

1) Addresses one of SECOORA priority theme areas.

2) Regional focus or contributions to a regional-scale enterprise.

3) Inclusion of tangible stakeholder/end-user engagement in development process through a signed commitment letter.

 
Please submit the completed proposal to Susannah Sheldon by 5:00 p.m. November 2, 2010.
If you have any questions please contact either me (debra@secoora.org; 843-906-8686) or Susannah Sheldon (susannah@secoora.org; 843-727-6497).
 
 
Thank you.