Michigan Sea Grant would like your input to shape our next request for proposals (RFP).
At the heart of the Michigan Sea Grant research program are integrated assessment projects that tackle “wicked problems.” What makes a problem “wicked”? These are particularly complex environmental issues that are challenging to address because we lack a clear understanding of the underlying cause(s). Without a clear understanding of cause, it is impossible to identify the best corrective action.
Our Research Program
Michigan Sea Grant’s research process supports projects that bring stakeholders and a multi-disciplinary research team together to clarify the “wicked” environmental issues, including the history, causes and consequences. Together, research teams and stakeholders identify and evaluate options for addressing the problem. The research teams then develop usable and accessible information and tools to guide decision-making related to the problem.
Your Input Needed
Michigan Sea Grant would like your input. Perhaps you know of a coastal resource issue that has resisted solution for some time? For instance, multiple groups — often with opposing perspectives on an issue — are seeking different solutions to the problem and make it challenging for authoritative agencies to implement a solution. If so, we would like to hear about it.
Michigan Sea Grant is seeking ideas for projects in four focus areas:
- Healthy Coastal Ecosystems: This focus area encompasses fish, wildlife and their habitats.
- Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture: This focus area addresses recreational and commercial fisheries, commercial aquaculture, from an economic and ecological perspective.
- Resilient Communities and Economies: In this focus area, we support sustainable development in coastal communities and community preparedness for coastal hazards that affect both individuals, e.g., dangerous currents, and community infrastructure, e.g., extreme lake levels or coastal storms.
- Environmental Literacy and Workforce Development: Work in this areas focuses on stimulating interest in science, technology and math through the lens of the Great Lakes in order build a literate workforce, a competitive state and region, and a knowledgeable electorate.
Submit Your Ideas
If you have an idea for Michigan Sea Grant, please provide a synopsis and contact information for an agency or organization with decision-making authority related to the issue. Please send the information by Oct. 30 to Jennifer Read, Research Program Coordinator: jenread@umich.edu, 734.936.3622.
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