Sec. 1002. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Research Programs
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The Administrator shall carry out an extramural competitively awarded grants program (referred to in this section as the Program ) focused on interdisciplinary coastal resilience and sustainability in accordance with subsection (b). The objective of the Program shall be to develop scalable, best practices— to prepare more resilient, sustainable coastal communities; and to reduce disaster recovery costs. The Secretary shall conduct the Program in collaboration with business and industry, government agencies, academic institutions, and coastal community stakeholders.
To be eligible for a grant under the Program, an applicant must be an institution of higher education, nonprofit organization, State, local, or Tribal government, for-profit organization, United States territory, or Federal agency that has statutory authority to receive transfers of funds. The Administrator shall establish an annual competitive grants program that gives priority to coastal resilience research projects that focus on— protecting life and critical infrastructure; developing decision-support tools useful to coastal communities; determining societal, ecological, and resiliency benefits of coastal restoration and natural, nature-based, and man-made infrastructure, and how these benefits affect the sustainability of coastal ecosystems; volunteer and community-science monitoring of coastal and marine resources as part of efforts to protect coastal communities from sea level rise; monitoring and developing ecosystem-based approaches to managing coastal ecosystems to promote sustainability; assessing and enhancing the capacity of human communities to adapt to coastal natural disasters; assessing coastal vulnerability and risk; evaluating adaptation and restoration approaches to reduce risk, including through the use of natural, nature-based, and man-made features; minimizing costs associated with damages incurred from natural disasters, flooding, and sea level rise; and developing curriculum for new programs in coastal restoration at public community colleges and within college Sea Grant programs to train the new coastal restoration workforce.
In this paragraph, the term critical infrastructure means infrastructure, including natural or nature-based infrastructure, the destruction or damaging of which would have a debilitating impact on national security or economic security, undermine community resiliency and adaptation, or threaten public health or safety. The term natural or nature-based features means coastal wetlands, beaches, dunes, marshes, mangrove forests, municipal green infrastructure, and living shorelines.
The Administrator may accept and use donations of funds to implement this section.