National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is issuing this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for qualified organizations to form and support partnerships that will work collaboratively to support regional economies and their associated workforces by developing training programs that build in-demand skills, offering wraparound services that allow workers to successfully enroll in and complete training, and helping workers enter or advance into good jobs that enhance climate resilience.
Donor Name: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
State: Selected States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/30/2023
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 4 Years
Details:
A climate ready nation requires a climate ready workforce. NOAA will assist communities in coastal and Great Lakes states and territories so they may form partnerships that train workers and place them into jobs that enhance climate resilience. This competition is designed to meet the emerging and existing skills needs of employers while helping workers enter good jobs, so that together they may enhance climate resilience. Wraparound services allow people to overcome barriers to participate in the program, especially individuals in underserved groups. Examples of wraparound services include transportation, childcare, elder care, and housing services.
Successful applicants can receive funding for two types of activities:
- Program design for partnerships to identify the skills needed by industry and workers; develop the skills training curriculum and materials in collaboration with NOAA and secure technical expertise needed to train workers with the skills needed by employers, including providing professional development and capacity-building to trainers.
- Program implementation to deliver workforce training and wraparound services (e.g., childcare, transportation) that place workers into good jobs that enhance climate resilience through one or more sector partnerships.
While not all applications will cover each criterion equally, applicants will likely address each of the following to successfully compete under this program:
- include all necessary partners before workforce solutions are designed;
- cut across traditional economic development, workforce, education, and social services system silos;
- target in-demand climate resilience skills and service delivery within relevant economic sectors;
- create opportunities for workers with barriers to employment;
- lead to good jobs that enhance climate resilience; and
- consider the economic realities of a region, industry, and sector in assessing workforce demand and training needs.
Priorities
- Be consistent with NOAA’s strategic focus to enhance climate resilience, make equity central to our work, and support economic growth and the agency’s mission of science, service, and stewardship
- Support one or more of the following actions from the Ocean Climate Action Plan ○ Promote coastal community resilience strategies that are adaptive, equitable, and based on best practices.
- Support transformational resilience investments in coastal habitat restoration, conservation and in coastal community resilience.
- Advance evaluation and adoption of nature-based solutions, such as living shorelines, to build resilience against climate-driven coastal hazards.
- Reduce climate threats and improve the resiliency of climate-vulnerable protected species, including marine mammals.
- Recruit workers (e.g., 50-1000+ over time) into “good jobs that enhance climate resilience,” and train them for using one or more of the five climate-informed skills.
- Place workers in good jobs within coastal states, tribal nations, and territories or the District of Columbia, with a focus on training workers from the community where the jobs are located.
- Support work in communities with climate justice vulnerabilities and in disadvantaged communities as identified by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST).
- Identify and include relevant climate experts as strategic partners on the project team to inform project definition and skill development.
- Include appropriate wrap-around services (e.g., childcare, transportation) to support training participants in completing the training.
- Work collaboratively to grow regional workforces and their associated economies by
-
- co-developing new or
- enhancing existing training programs that meet the existing and emerging skills needs of employers.
Funding Information
- Under the Inflation Reduction Act, NOAA expects to award approximately $50 million for the Climate Ready Workforce Competition.
- NOAA envisions making between 10-20 awards under this competition, at amounts ranging from $500,000 to $10 million each.
Project/Award Period
Due to the need for recipients to meet identified benchmarks to proceed through project phases, NOAA expects projects to range in duration from 24 months to 48 months.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants for the Climate Ready Workforce Competition must be located in coastal states or territories or in the District of Columbia. They are:
- State governments;
- Tribal governments – the recognized governing body of any Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, community, component band, or component reservation, individually identified (including parenthetically) in the list published most recently as of 2022 pursuant to section 104 of the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List
- Territorial governments;
- Local governments;
- Institutions of higher education of section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a))), including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, other Minority-Serving Institutions, community colleges, and technical colleges;
- Non-profit organizations or associations.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
