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• What's Coming... Research Projects of 2008
• Regional Project Funding
• Featured Publication
• From the Director

Sea Briefs is a report on the results of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.

Editor: Valerie Winn

This newsletter is available in PDF format from:
masgc.org/seabriefs

MASGC supports applied, interdisciplinary marine science research, education and outreach efforts to foster the sustainable development and management of the Mississippi and Alabama coasts and nearshore ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico

Mississippi-Alabama
Sea Grant Consortium
703 East Beach Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
Phone: 228-818-8840
E-mail: seabriefs@masgc.org
MASGP 07-011-02

From the Director

I am delighted to share some good news about our Sea Grant Consortium. For the first time the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium received research funding from the Alabama legislature. The $250,000 for the fiscal year 2008 is being used to fund two two-year research projects from Alabama member schools. If these funds are appropriated annually, then MASGC will be able to fund four additional meritoriously acceptable research projects per year in Alabama. Besides the research projects funded using the Alabama state appropriation, MASGC is funding five other merit reviewed research projects using our NOAA funds, three of which are also in Alabama.

Another first for MASGC is the formal research partnership among the three other Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant programs. The Gulf Sea Grant programs have a long-standing informal agreement to co-fund projects that involve scientists located in multiple states. This year’s arrangement was a more formal process that began with a joint request for proposals and culminated with the selection of two projects for funding. There are a couple of advantages to formalizing this regional partnership. First, by pooling resources, the four Sea Grant programs are able to fund more expensive multi-state research
which would otherwise be impossible with our average per project funding level being approximately $70,000 per year. Second, by addressing regional issues common to all Sea Grant programs, each program is provided with direct and measurable local benefits. During this year’s request, each Sea Grant program set aside $50,000 per year for two years to fund regional projects to answer coastal resiliency questions.