noaa.gov
Home > Conservation Approach > Financial Assistance

Coral Reef Conservation Financial Assistance

The Coral Reef Conservation Program provides financial awards (grants and cooperative agreements) to support conservation projects and scientific studies that benefit coral reef management across seven U.S. states and territories, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.

Each year, we strive to award at least $8 million in grants and cooperative agreements, which are matched by nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, regional fishery management councils, commercial entities, community groups, and state and territorial natural resource management agencies. All projects focus on the reduction of primary threats to coral reefs—global climate change, land-based sources of pollution, and unsustainable fishing practices— and coral reef restoration as outlined in the Coral Reef Conservation Program's Strategic Plan. Funded projects also focus on priority coral reef regions and watersheds.

Funding Oppurtunities
Funding
Opportunities

Interested in learning more about a specific funding competition?


Find a summary of all of our funding programs here.

Funded Projects
Funded
Projects

Interested in what CRCP has funded in the past?

Take a look at a list of past projects or search through the CoRIS project database.

How to Apply
How to
Apply

Ready to apply?


Learn the steps and find the tools and tips to write a successful grant application to the CRCP program.

Manage the Award
Manage your
Award

Already have an award?


Learn the steps and find the tools and tips to successfully manage your CRCP grant.

Program Highlight

Acknowledging CRCP with Logo and Text

This memo outlines how to appropriately acknowledge the Coral Reef Conservation Program (the Coral Program) in your work. The Coral Program supports a variety of projects internal and external to NOAA to conserve and protect coral reef ecosystems. We want to make sure all our partners, stakeholders, and Congress are aware of program contributions to maximize funding support for this important work. Most common acknowledgements include:
  • If you are writing a peer-reviewed publication, include "This work was funded by NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program, project # xxx.” Please also note that grantees shall be required to specify funding sources using the Funder Registry when papers are submitted for publication, per the NOAA plan to increase Public Access to Research Results.
  • If you are writing a technical memorandum or internal report, make sure you also indicate the Coral Reef Conservation Program project number, and/or consider getting a tech memo number from CoRIS.
  • If you are giving a presentation where the work was funded by the Coral Program or you want to acknowledge the Coral Program for its contributions, make sure to insert the identifier on the Acknowledgements slide.
For more information, read the full memo.

NOAA Coral Emergency Response Fund

Coral Treatment

A reef manager treats a diseased coral in the Dry Tortugas. Funding for this effort was provided through the Coral Emergency Response Fund. Credit: Sydney Gallagher.


The Coral Emergency Response Fund, a partnership between NOAA and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), was created in 2020 to rapidly respond to damage, disease, and stressors to corals and coral reefs that could not otherwise have been reasonably anticipated or avoided. This funding program is the first of its kind and allows NOAA and NFWF to respond to emergency events far more quickly than a traditional grant program can, enabling prompt damage assessment, triage, and initial response actions.

Since 2021, eight grants have been awarded to five recipients for emergency response to Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease in the Caribbean, relocation of corals to prevent damage from dredging in Hawaii, and vessel removal and sea urchin resilience in Puerto Rico. In 2023, NOAA and NFWF entered into a new five-year agreement to continue this partnership and administration of the fund.