The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Coral Reef Conservation Fund has released its 2023 Request for Proposals! This grant program is intended to improve the health of coral reef systems. According to the RFP, “grants will be awarded to reduce land-based sources of pollution, advance coral reef fisheries management, increase capacity for reef-scale restoration and to support management in their efforts to increase the natural recovery and resiliency of coral reef systems.”

Of the U.S. coral jurisdictions eligible to apply, the Southeast Conservation Blueprint currently covers Florida and Puerto Rico. Connecting to the Blueprint and SECAS Goal report may help make a more compelling case that projects satisfy the “conservation plan and context” criterion, which calls for advancing an existing conservation plan or strategy, or the “monitoring” criterion, which calls for tracking metrics of project success. With the expansion of the 2023 Blueprint to the U.S. Virgin Islands and updated priorities for Puerto Rico, we hope the Blueprint will be able to help in other areas for next year’s RFP! If you’d like help incorporating the Blueprint into your proposal, please reach out to a member of the user support team.

Here are the key dates for the RFP:

Pre-Proposal Due Date: Thursday, February 9, 2023 by 11:59 PM Eastern Time
Full Proposal Webinar: March 2023
Full Proposal Due Date: Thursday, April 20, 2023 by 11:59 PM Eastern Time