Grants

The Environmental Literacy Program offers competitive grant funding.

Education grants in support of NOAA's mission

Working at national, regional, and local levels, our funded projects educate and inspire 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 cultivate these skillsets among diverse audiences.

Environmental Literacy Program grants

NOAA's Office of Education regularly offers the environmental literacy grants competition. Since 2015, this competition has focused on helping communities build the environmental literacy necessary for resilience to extreme weather, climate change, and other environmental hazards. Read about our 2015-2022 awards.

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 are creating new models for how education can improve community resilience. Read more about the theory behind these approaches in NOAA's Community Resilience Education Theory of Change.

ELP competition status

All deadlines for the Fiscal Year 2022 Environmental Literacy Program (ELP) Funding Opportunity have passed. This funding opportunity solicited projects that develop the collective environmental literacy necessary for communities to take actions that build resilience to extreme weather and climate change in ways that contribute to community health, social cohesion, and socio-economic equity. We are currently assessing when our next competition would be issued, but it would most likely not be until the fall of 2024.

Please check the Apply page for more information.