Fisheries Innovation Fund
Forecasted
Fisheries Innovation Fund supports fishermen and coastal communities with fisheries innovation and sustainable-use projects to rebuild fish stocks, sustain livelihoods and preserve working waterfronts.
Funder: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Due Dates (Anticipated): April 2027 (Annual application deadline)
Funding Amounts: Historical funding: $442,603 across eight grants in 2019; more than $10.8 million awarded during 2010–2019
Summary: Supports innovation and fishing-community participation in sustainable U.S. fisheries to rebuild fish stocks and sustain livelihoods and working waterfronts.
Key Information: The fund houses multiple programs with distinct requests for proposals, including electronic monitoring and New England gear innovation.
Description
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) launched the Fisheries Innovation Fund in 2010 to foster innovation in fisheries and seafood production across the United States. Its goals are to rebuild fish stocks while sustaining livelihoods, working waterfronts and sustainable access to fisheries. Priorities include bycatch reduction, recreational fisheries and offshore aquaculture, alongside community capacity building and sustainable-use practices. Most projects originate locally to address fishing communities’ needs, challenges and opportunities.
The fund also houses the Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Grant Program and the New England Gear Innovation Fund. Electronic monitoring projects improve the quality, quantity and timeliness of fisheries-dependent data through catch and compliance monitoring and improved information systems. Gear innovation projects support technologies that reduce lethal and sub-lethal entanglement risks for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.
