NOAA’s Climate Ready Workforce Funding Opportunity Now Open

The United States Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has opened a competitive funding opportunity for the Climate Ready Workforce for Coastal States, Tribes, and Territories Initiative to connect people across the country to good-paying jobs, such as landscape technicians, heat health outreach specialists and climate equity officers, that tackle the climate crisis and boost local resilience. NOAA will invest $60 million total from the Inflation Reduction Act for the initiative — a $50 million competitive funding opportunity and $10 million for technical assistance to support applicants and grantees.

“A climate-resilient nation requires a climate-ready workforce,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said. “Thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, we’re launching the Climate-Ready Workforce Initiative to provide major funding and assistance to qualified public, private and other organizations so they can train workers and help them find good paying jobs that will strengthen climate resilience and enhance their local economies.”

NOAA aims to grant between 10-20 awards under this competition, at amounts ranging from $500,000 to $10 million each. NOAA is seeking qualified state, tribal, territorial and local governments, institutions of higher education, and non-profit organizations in coastal states or territories to lead partnerships to train and place workers in quality jobs that enhance climate resilience. This opportunity is open to state, tribal, territorial and local governments, institutions of higher education, and non-profit organizations in coastal states or territories.

Resources from NOAA’s Climate Program Office, Office for Coastal Management, and National Sea Grant Office and its partners will be available to provide technical assistance to applicants and recipients to support these innovative efforts.

Learn more about this opportunity from the initiative web page, https://www.seagrant.noaa.gov/crw

The complete Notice of Funding Opportunity provides detailed information about the goals of the Climate-Ready Workforce program, application requirements, eligible applicants, and other important information. Access the notice and apply at grants.gov (PDF). Questions may be directed to sg.grants@noaa.gov.

Important Dates:
Letters of Intent are due at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on November 30, 2023.
The deadline for application submission is 11:59 p.m. Eastern on February 13, 2024.

Informational Webinars:

• Informational webinar #1 – July 11 at 3 pm Eastern
• Definition of “resilience” webinar – July 12 at 3 pm Eastern
• Informational webinar #2 -Q&A focus- July 20 at 3 pm Eastern
• How to leverage partnerships webinar – July 21 at 3 pm Eastern
• Tips for first time applicants webinar – August 2 at 3 pm Eastern

This competition is one component of NOAA’s $3.3 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funds, which will further NOAA’s efforts to build a Climate-Ready Nation. NOAA’s other Inflation Reduction Act funded initiatives include:

• NOAA Climate Resilience Regional Challenge (Letters of intent due August 21, 2023)
• NOAA Climate Resilience Accelerators (Opened July 10, 2023)

##