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Ecosystem Health and Sustainable Fish Populations
The Great
Lakes Fishery Trust (GLFT) e-Grant
application system will guide you through the process
for accepting pre-proposals. The
GLFT is inviting 3-page electronic preproposals for Great
Lakes fisheries projects. Funding priorities in 2005 reflect
changes in the GLFT strategic plan scheduled for formal adoption
by the Board of Trustees in early 2005. The strategic plan
will be available to the public following its adoption.
Strategic
Plan 2005
To help maintain the focus of the Trust, its strategic plan
was reviewed and updated during 2004. This is the third update
since the Trust's inception in 1996. The 1996 strategic plan
established the mission and vision statement for the organization
as well as grant guidelines. It also established specific
objectives to help reach the Trust's broader goal to enhance
the Great Lakes fishery. While the 1996 strategic plan served
its purpose for a newly developed organization, in 2000 the
plan was updated and adopted new long-and short-term goals
and benchmarks to help measure progress and accomplishments.
These benchmarks were designed to measure objectives through
2005.
The goal
for the 2005 strategic plan will be a simple, clearly organized
and focused picture of where the GLFT would like to go in
a reasonable time frame, with concrete steps for attaining
specific outcomes. It also factors in what other organizations
are doing and provides clear guidance on partnerships to achieve
common objectives. The most significant change is that it
integrates funding categories and explores new themes, including
habitat restoration and invasive species, and articulates
a new policy and standards for land acquisition. The GLFT
will continue to periodically review and update its strategic
plan.
Funding
Priorities
The overarching goal of this RFP is to develop knowledge and
management capability through targeted and adaptive management
research to increase predictability and sustainability of
the Great Lakes fisheries and promote ecosystem health. Proposal
goals within these areas of study should be focused on activities,
based upon the application of science, technology, and policy
that can lead to habitat enhancement and rehabilitation, promote
sustainable fish populations, and help prevent the introduction
of and control invasive species. Moreover, since the GLFT
board and Scientific Advisory Team members represent either
the agencies involved in the development of the Lake
Michigan Fish-Community Objectives or the constituent
organizations that provide advice to state, federal, and provincial
governments (under the auspices of the Great Lakes Fishery
Commission), the GLFT goals and related grant outcomes are
intended to be consistent with those objectives and the accompanying
species plans and research
priorities and support the consensus already achieved.
The GLFT will:
- Provide
funding for projects that have direct management implications
(e.g., applied research or development/enhancement of management
tools) in addition to basic research or for ongoing management
activities (e.g., hatchery production or routine monitoring)
- Support
basic research only when there is a clear consensus that
such efforts are essential to address a critical issue facing
fishery managers
- Encourage
collaborative projects among researchers and between management
organizations to address high-priority issues
The GLFT
recognizes that the goals above represent a wide range of
potential research activities, and highlights the research
themes below to assist in the preparation of preproposals.
Additionally,
applicants are encouraged to focus on:
- Recruitment
- Projects
that describe and clarify mechanisms-such as abiotic
conditions, predation, competition, fish health, or
food-web disruption (see partnership program below)-that
control the recruitment of important Great Lakes fish
species.
- Fish
Health
- Projects
that focus on fish diseases that affect the growth,
survival, reproduction, or use of an important Great
Lakes fish species (e.g., identification of potential
triggers, factors influencing rates of infection and
mortality, transmission mechanisms, potential controls,
etc.)
OR
- Projects
that focus on the diet of an important Great
Lakes fish species and how changes in food supply organisms
may be significantly affecting the growth, survival,
or reproduction of a fish population (see partnership
program below)
- Lake
Sturgeon
Comprehensive lake sturgeon rehabilitation will likely only
be achieved on a basinwide scale, either for one of the
Great Lakes or the entire basin; thus rehabilitation will
require the coordination of multiple research and management
agencies. GLFT lake sturgeon funding should be used in a
basinwide approach and foster the development of new or
existing partnerships among fishery agencies and researchers.
Project proposals should describe how the expected results
would do the following:
- Support
the goals of existing organizations established to coordinate
research and management on a basinwide scale (such as
the Great Lake Fishery Commission lake committee structure)
- Support
the recommendations in the GLFT-sponsored June
2000 and December
2002 lake sturgeon workshops
- Initiate
broad partnership support for the project
- Projects
that explore stocking strategies recommended and endorsed
by the Lake
Michigan Lake Sturgeon Task Group formed under the
auspices of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission
- Synthesis
and Dissemination of Scientific Research
Small grant funding is available for projects that seek
to synthesize and disseminate scientific information to
other researchers, policy makers, and the general public.
Partnership
Program
In 2001 the Great Lakes Fishery Trust entered into a partnership
with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and members of the
Great Lakes Sea Grant Network to focus research efforts on
food-web disruptions caused by ongoing introductions of non-native
aquatic invertebrates. The GLFT will give priority consideration
to proposals that relate to food-web disruptions linked to
nonnative aquatic invertebrates of special concern. The scientific
rationale for the partnership is identified in a white paper,
Exotic invertebrates, food-web disruption, and lost fish production:
understanding impacts of dreissenid and cladoceran invaders
on lower lakes fish communities and forecasting invasion impacts
on upper lakes fish communities. The white paper can be accessed
electronically at: http://www.foodwebdisruption.org.
Project
Size
There are no costs or time constraints on grant requests.
Historically, GLFT projects have ranged in size from $40,000
to $120,000 per year over a 3-year period.
Application
Process
On
Friday, December 17, you will be able to access the GLFT e-Grant
Application System, which will guide you through the pre-proposal
process and ensure you address all pre-proposal
requirements. The Great Lakes Fishery Trust will only
accept pre-proposals submitted via our e-Grant Application
System on or before 5:00 P.M.
January 25, 2005. Proposals that are not submitted using the
GLFT's e-Grant Application System or are submitted after the
January 25 deadline will not be considered for funding.
Note:
You must use a JavaScript-enabled browser and accept cookies
to use the GLFT e-Grant application system. If
you are having trouble accessing the system, please cut and
past the error message you are receiving into an e-mail and
send it to GLFT Tech Support for assistance.
Who
Can Apply?
Proposals
are encouraged from educational, governmental, tribal, and
nonprofit institutions with a 501(c)(3) designation from the
IRS.
Review
Process
The
Scientific Advisory Team (SAT) consisting of 12 members representing
parties to the Settlement Agreement that established the Trust
(and other fisheries scientists designated under the agreement)
will screen the proposals based on GLFT's Guiding
Principles and Funding Criteria. All organizations submitting
pre-proposals will be notified of the decisions of the SAT,
and successful applicants will be provided directions for
preparation of full proposals. If selected, applicants will
have approximately two months to prepare a full proposal.
Full proposals may be subjected to a peer review process.
The SAT will evaluate the full proposals and make its final
recommendations for funding to the GLFT. Grants are targeted
for award in August of 2005.
Supplemental
Information
Projects
that focus on the human health implications of environmental
contaminants will not be considered for funding. However,
projects that consider the consequences of environmental pollutants
on the recruitment or health of a Great Lakes fish species
are eligible
Please
explore our website for further information on the GLFT, descriptions
of projects previously funded by the GLFT, and information
regarding funding opportunities for other Great Lakes fishery-related
projects.
Additional
Questions
If
after reviewing this information you have further questions
about the pre-proposal process, please contact one of the
following GLFT staff members: Mark
Coscarelli, Julie Metty
Bennett , or Jack Bails.
For technical questions related to the e-Grant system, please
contact at GLFT
Tech Support.
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