SECTION II: FY06-08 PROGRAM AREA PRIORITY NEEDS

The Consortium is interested in receiving Concept Letters on innovative research, education, and extension activities that seek to address major issues, problems, and/or opportunities, or increase the knowledge and understanding of ocean and coastal resources and their management and use. Ideally, each Concept Letter should address a well-defined problem or opportunity with which society is currently faced or will have to face in the future. It is important that (a) the issue being addressed by the proposal is adequately described, (b) the information to be generated will improve the current situation, and (c) there is a clear and well-thought out plan for delivering project results to targeted audiences.

Thus, Concept Letters should have the support of the targeted audience(s) by means of an endorsement, a commitment to collaborate, and/or in-kind or financial support. Finally, the proposed activity must have sufficient intellectual content to make it an appropriate university (research, extension, and/or education) function.

Consortium program priorities for FY06-08 were developed and refined through an intensive strategic planning process that brought academic, agency, business, industry and citizen group representatives together in a series of workshops, resulting in the development of the Consortium’s 2000-2004 Strategic Plan. These priorities have been updated through continual contact with these groups, as well as from formal input received from stakeholders directly and through the Consortium’s Sea Grant Extension Program advisory committees.

The following research and outreach priorities focus on problems and opportunities associated with coastal and estuarine resources, especially with respect to increasing pressures due to rapid growth occurring in coastal South Carolina. While the following needs reflect the Consortium’s current research and outreach priorities, they do not preclude rigorously conceived projects that fall outside these guidelines. All interested investigators are encouraged to contact the Consortium office about their ideas before submitting a Concept Letter.

The following research and outreach priority areas contain within them a diversity of natural and social science elements that represent a variety of opportunities for faculty and staff from a wide range of disciplines. Prospective investigators are encouraged to peruse each of the priority areas for possible areas of interest. Concept Letters may address one or more of the priorities identified below.