Citizen Science Grants

Enabling community organizations, environmental groups and schools to collect, process and, in some cases, interpret environmental data, enables volunteers and students to directly gain knowledge about the health of estuary and its management needs. The skills gained by the community groups carrying out the monitoring empower them to pursue a variety of citizen science projects producing useful and valid environmental data. At the same time, HEP and its public agency partners can obtain valuable datasets that may indicate water quality challenges, the success of habitat restoration efforts, or the impacts of coastal erosion. All grantees must agree to follow Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) procedures detailed in a quality assurance project plan (QAPP).

PREVIOUSLY FUNDED PROJECTS BY HEP

The New York-New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program is currently not accepting proposals.

Requests for Proposals

Requests for Proposals are issued as funds are made available. Non-profit organizations with 501(c)(3) status, public and private primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, counties, and municipalities are eligible. Organizations without 501(c)(3) status may apply, but they must partner with another organization with 501(c)(3) status that can serve as a fiscal agent.

Previous RFPs

HEP generally support programs that:

Raise the visibility level of Citizen Science in the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary.
Improve the data quality of citizen monitoring efforts by training citizen scientists.
Generate high quality data suitable for use by agencies, at their discretion, for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to screening, complementing available data to confirm state findings, enhancing information on sources and extent of impairments, provide early indications of the success and/or failure of habitat restoration and other management efforts, and uncovering areas that require direct action.
Make data publicly available for a wide range of users, from the general public to regulatory agencies.
Foster stewardship of shared waterways by engaging local residents directly in environmental data collection, analysis and management, and by providing access to data in a user-friendly format.