ELP grants

Education grants in support of NOAA's mission

Working at national, regional, and local levels, ELP funded projects that educated and inspired people to use Earth systems science to improve ecosystem stewardship and increase resilience to environmental hazards. Education plays a critical role in achieving NOAA’s mission and vision. To make the best social, economic, and environmental decisions, individuals should have the ability to understand scientific processes, consider uncertainty, and reason about the ways human and natural systems interact (NOAA's Education Strategic Plan, 2021–2040). Since 2005, our grants have supported formal (K-12) and informal education projects that cultivated these skillsets among different audiences. See our portfolio of funded awards for details of these projects.

Environmental Literacy Program grants

Starting in 2015, this competition focused on helping communities build the environmental literacy necessary for resilience to extreme weather, climate change, and other environmental hazards.

NOAA's mission is directed toward a vision of the future where communities and their ecosystems are healthy and resilient in the face of sudden or prolonged environmental change. To achieve this vision, NOAA strives to understand current conditions, project future changes, and help people make informed decisions that reduce their vulnerability and increase their ability to cope with environmental hazards. Environmental literacy grants created new models for how education can improve community resilience.

Completed project summaries

All projects funded through the Environmental Literacy Program included an evaluation component. Below you will find the executive summaries of the summative evaluation reports for some projects that have ended. Please note: these summaries were extracted from the PDF files of the full reports so may contain some additional text. We have included a link to the summary of each project from the Environmental Literacy Program awards portfolio.