PC-23-03B: Facilitating Resilience and Adaptation in Commercial Fisheries in Response to Offshore Renewable Energy Development and Climate Change | M23AS00374

Opportunity Information: Apply for M23AS00374

PC-23-03B is a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) funding opportunity focused on a very specific problem on the U.S. West Coast: commercial fisheries are being pressured by climate-driven ecosystem change at the same time that offshore renewable energy development (such as offshore wind) is expanding, and decision-makers need practical, place-based guidance on how those stressors may combine and what can be done to reduce harm. The central aim of the project is to improve understanding and predictive capacity around how offshore energy activities and climate change may interact to affect commercial fisheries, and then translate that science into mitigation strategies that strengthen either the adaptive capacity (the ability to adjust and keep operating under new conditions) or the resilience (the ability to absorb disturbance and recover) of the stakeholders most likely to be affected.

The primary intended beneficiaries are the States of California, Oregon, and Washington, along with Tribal governments, local government agencies, and the broader public. The opportunity recognizes that West Coast agencies have already produced climate adaptation and resilience policies, but those policies tend to be high-level and do not always provide the detailed, actionable recommendations managers and fishing communities need when real projects are proposed and real tradeoffs must be made. A major gap the project is meant to fill is guidance for “multiple stressors,” meaning situations where climate impacts (shifting species distributions, changing productivity, marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, altered currents, etc.) may compound or interact with effects associated with offshore energy development (changes in access to fishing grounds, displacement, gear conflicts, safety/navigation issues, altered habitats, construction noise, and other project-related disturbances). The planned output is therefore not just general climate planning language, but concrete alternatives and strategies that are specific enough to support on-the-ground management and near-term decisions.

From a management and regulatory perspective, the products of the study are expected to help state, Tribal, and local governments evaluate future offshore energy proposals more effectively, including reviews conducted under coastal management authorities such as Coastal Zone Management Act consistency certifications. In other words, the project is intended to strengthen agencies’ ability to anticipate impacts, compare mitigation options, and make better-informed determinations about project compatibility with coastal uses and resources. BOEM frames the long-term result as an improved capacity for these governments to manage public trust resources wisely, while also improving public understanding of how climate change and offshore energy development could shape coastal economies and marine ecosystems.

The opportunity is grounded in existing federal policy and legal mandates. It explicitly aligns with Executive Order 13990 (Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis) and Executive Order 14008 (Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad), both of which emphasize using science to build climate resilience and advancing clean energy deployment. It also implements BOEM’s responsibilities under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to conduct environmental studies that predict impacts of offshore resource activities on human, marine, and coastal environments (43 U.S.C. 1346(b)). In practical terms, BOEM is using this cooperative research project to generate the evidence base needed to anticipate and manage consequences of offshore renewable energy activities in a period of rapid climate change.

Administratively, this is not an open, competitive call for proposals. The announcement is an intent-to-award style program announcement describing a specific project anticipated to be funded as a cooperative agreement between BOEM and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The work is proposed under the Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) framework, a partnership model designed to facilitate collaborative projects between federal agencies and member institutions. Because it is a cooperative agreement, BOEM anticipates “substantial involvement” of BOEM scientists in shaping the study and/or participating in the work, rather than simply providing funds and receiving a final report. The CESU umbrella also sets an overhead limitation for UCSB (noted as 17.5%), which is part of how these agreements are structured to support applied research with controlled indirect costs.

Key listed funding details include an award ceiling of $1,100,000, a funding opportunity number of M23AS00374, a CFDA/Assistance Listing number of 15.423, and an original closing date of July 20, 2023. The funding instrument is explicitly a cooperative agreement, and the activity category is environment. While the eligible applicant categories in the source data include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education (and “others”), the narrative makes clear this particular announcement is tied to a UCSB-BOEM cooperative agreement under CESU rather than a broadly open submission process.

On eligibility and project structure, the announcement notes that research projects are expected to have a staff member of the applying organization serving as the Principal Investigator, and it encourages cooperative research with relevant partners such as state agencies, public universities, and non-profits in affected states. It also strongly encourages cost share or matching contributions, which can be cash or in-kind support (for example, staff time, equipment, vessel/ship time), but it places important limits on what can count as match. Matching funds cannot come from other federal sources, and match cannot include the value of collection costs for samples that were previously collected. For equipment and instrumentation, the match value should be prorated to reflect the period of use on the project relative to the item’s full lifecycle. If ship time is offered as match, the documentation must provide a fair assessment of costs relevant to the work. The announcement points applicants to the federal cost-sharing rules at 2 CFR 200.306 and directs all questions to the specific point-of-contact referenced in the announcement.

In plain terms, PC-23-03B is designed to produce decision-ready science and mitigation options for West Coast fisheries management in a future shaped by both climate disruption and offshore renewable energy expansion. Instead of treating those pressures separately, the study is meant to look at how they combine, where risks are likely to concentrate, and what strategies can realistically help fishing communities and resource managers adapt while maintaining sustainable use of marine resources.

• The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "PC-23-03B: Facilitating Resilience and Adaptation in Commercial Fisheries in Response to Offshore Renewable Energy Development and Climate Change" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.423.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-06-20.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-07-20. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,100,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Others.

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