The National Sea Grant Law Center’s funding opportunities seek to promote the growth and development of Sea Grant legal programming and build the capacity of individual Sea Grant programs to address legal issues in their states.
2025 Coastal Resilience Program Competition Results
The National Sea Law Grant Center awarded two institutions a two-year research grant through its 2025 Coastal Resilience Program competition. The Law Center received eleven full proposals that went through a rigorous evaluation process involving written peer reviewers and technical review panelists. Out of the eleven full proposals received, the following were awarded:
Institution: University of Virginia
Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Andrews
Project Title: Fighting the Good Fight: An Evaluation of the “Fight the Flood” Program’s Efficacy in Increasing Coastal Resilience for Property Owners and Businesses in Virginia’s Middle Peninsula
Project Description: This project will provide a retrospective, mixed-methods evaluation of the effectiveness of the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission's "Fight the Flood" Program, with particular attention to participant outcomes, policy context, and public understanding of resilience practices. It will also explore the regulatory challenges that were overcome in building the program to better understand how legal constraints were navigated. The research team will conduct a retrospective policy analysis, economic evaluation, community survey, and stakeholder interviews to assess policy effectiveness and legal hurdles encountered in establishing the program. The evaluation will produce a publicly accessible summary report, policy briefs, and direct presentations to target audiences.
Institution: Cornell University
Principal Investigator: Brian Rahm
Project Title: Strengthening Flood Resilience Through Local Policy: Assessing Adoption and Barriers to Enhanced Floodplain Standards in Lake Ontario and Lake Erie Communities
Project Description: The project will assess how shoreline municipalities along Lake Ontario and Lake Erie are adopting and implementing the NYSDEC Model Local Law for Flood Damage Prevention, and evaluate the extent to which these laws incorporate enhanced flood resilience measures. Guided by two central research questions focused on adoption patterns and the factors influencing effectiveness, the project will establish a comprehensive baseline of floodplain management laws across approximately 70 municipalities, identifying strengths, gaps, and deviations. Using a two-phase approach, Phase I will apply a refined assessment framework to systematically evaluate local ordinances, while Phase II will conduct in-depth reviews and interviews in 10 selected communities to better understand implementation challenges, enabling factors, and real-world impacts. The project will also analyze related ordinances, such as stormwater and erosion control, and incorporate zoning data to provide a more holistic view of local flood resilience strategies. Findings will be synthesized into actionable insights, GIS-based visualizations, and practical tools to support state agencies and regional partners, while also contributing to academic research and policy guidance aimed at strengthening local flood risk reduction efforts.
2024-2027 Program Development Funds
The National Sea Grant Law Center (Law Center) is accepting proposals for small-scale research projects that seek to address timely or pressing legal questions related to ocean, coastal, or Great Lakes law. This funding is intended to support emerging research needs or innovative pilot research projects that may eventually develop into larger, full scale research projects. They are also intended to help a Sea Grant program build legal capacity by generating legal research findings that can be incorporated into extension, education, and communication programming. Requests for Program Development (PD) funds are limited to a maximum request of $10,000 and a one-year project period. Matching funds are not required.
Timetable: LOIs for one-year projects will be accepted on a rolling basis through August 1, 2026. Full proposals for one-year projects will be accepted on a rolling basis through October 1, 2026. Currently, the latest possible end date for any proposed project is January 31, 2028. Applicants must take this into consideration in their proposal timelines and allow for at least two months for full proposal review and award prior to implementation. For example, the recommended project period for a full proposal submitted on July 1, 2024 would be September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2025.
Eligibility: The Law Center is accepting applications from Sea Grant programs, institutes of higher education, or legal research organizations. Institutes of higher education and legal research organizations must have documented partnerships with Sea Grant Programs. Eligible applicants may request PD funds for small-scale research projects that seek to address timely or pressing legal questions related to ocean, coastal, or Great Lakes law, and have the potential to develop into larger research efforts or collaborations among institutes of higher education, legal research organizations, and Sea Grant partners.
If funding is available, Letters of Intent (LOI) that align with funding objectives will be encouraged to submit a full proposal. Applicants who submit LOIs for projects that are not aligned with funding objectives may not submit full proposals.
For More Information
General questions about NSGLC Competitions and the scope of projects considered should be directed to:
Stephanie Otts
Director of the National Sea Grant Law Center
sshowalt@olemiss.edu
General questions about the application process should be directed to:
Lauren Fremin
Project Coordinator for the National Sea Grant Law Center
lrfremin@olemiss.edu
View our current and past projects: