AT-23-04: Baseline Tourism and Recreation Along the Gulf of Maine | M23AS00359

Opportunity Information: Apply for M23AS00359

AT-23-04, titled "Baseline Tourism and Recreation Along the Gulf of Maine," is a discretionary funding opportunity from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) that supports a multi-year, longitudinal research effort focused on the human-environment side of offshore wind development. The project is grounded in BOEMs responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires federal agencies to evaluate environmental impacts before taking actions that could significantly affect the quality of the human environment. In NEPAs framing, that "human environment" includes not just ecological conditions, but also aesthetic, historic, cultural, economic, social, and health-related effects (referenced in 40 CFR 1508.1). In practical terms, this opportunity is about building credible, empirical evidence on how offshore wind activity in the Gulf of Maine could intersect with coastal communities and coastal economies, particularly around tourism and recreation.

The central purpose of the work is to establish a clear baseline of tourism, recreation, and related socioeconomic conditions in the areas surrounding the Gulf of Maine before offshore wind construction begins, and then track how those conditions change over time as projects move into construction and operations. BOEM is explicitly aiming for data that can inform decision-making and public engagement, especially in response to questions and concerns raised by state and local governments, residents, and stakeholder groups like property owners, small business owners, and boaters. The opportunity highlights a range of resource areas that could be affected and therefore need to be measured, including recreation patterns, employment tied to visitor activity, small business performance, property values, and heritage tourism. The big idea is that without a strong baseline and consistent measurement through time, it becomes difficult to separate real project-related impacts from normal year-to-year fluctuations, broader economic cycles, or longer-term regional tourism trends.

The project is structured into three major phases. First is the study design phase, which is not treated as a quick upfront step but as an integrated and iterative process. This phase includes selecting the sites or communities to be studied, conducting stakeholder engagement to understand local concerns and priorities, identifying indicators that can represent changes in tourism and recreation (and testing and refining those indicators), and developing a sensitivity assessment. The sensitivity assessment is essentially a way to check whether the chosen measures are accurate, reliable, and capable of detecting meaningful changes, so the study is not just collecting data but collecting the right data at the right level of precision.

Second is the data collection and analysis phase, where the study gathers both primary and secondary data to document baseline conditions prior to construction and then conditions during construction and operations. This would typically mean combining on-the-ground observation and documentation with existing datasets where appropriate, then analyzing trends over time. A key point in the announcement is that analysis is paired with continued sensitivity testing, suggesting BOEM wants the study to keep validating and improving its measurement approach as the work progresses, rather than waiting until the end to discover that a metric was not sensitive enough or a method was inconsistent across sites or years.

Third is the closeout phase, which focuses on final analysis and synthesis and culminates in report writing. The emphasis on synthesis matters because the expected outcome is not just raw datasets, but decision-useful findings that BOEM and stakeholders can interpret in the context of offshore wind planning, permitting, and public communication. The baseline and longitudinal results are intended to support more informed responses to public concerns and to improve BOEMs understanding of how offshore renewable energy development may affect coastal human environments in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is offered as a cooperative agreement, which generally indicates substantial involvement by the federal agency during the project compared with a standard grant. The Funding Opportunity Number is M23AS00359, and the opportunity is categorized under Environment with CFDA (now commonly referred to as Assistance Listing) number 15.423. The award ceiling is $800,000. The original closing date listed is 2023-08-24, and the posting (creation) date is 2023-06-16. The expected number of awards is not clearly stated in the provided text (it appears incomplete), so applicants typically would confirm that detail in the full announcement package.

Eligibility is constrained by statute. In accordance with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1345(e)), eligible applicants are affected coastal states and public and state-controlled institutions of higher education. The eligible applicant types listed include state governments and public/state-controlled universities, with "others" also appearing in the source data, but the narrative language emphasizes the OCSLA limitation, so any prospective applicant would need to ensure they fit within those defined categories or are otherwise explicitly allowed under the full funding announcement. The announcement also points applicants to the "Related Documents" tab for the full instructions and requirements (referenced as FoaContentofM23AS00359), which would contain the detailed application package, evaluation criteria, required deliverables, and any specific methodological expectations.

Overall, this grant opportunity is about creating a defensible, multi-year evidence base on tourism and recreation conditions in Gulf of Maine coastal communities, so BOEM can better anticipate, evaluate, and explain potential human-environment impacts associated with offshore wind development and incorporate that information into NEPA reviews and related decision processes.

• The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "AT-23-04: Baseline Tourism and Recreation Along the Gulf of Maine" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.423.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-06-16.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-08-24. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $800,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Others.

Apply for M23AS00359

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: