Species Recovery Grants to States (Section 6 Program): NOAA NMFS FY 2026 Round — Historical Reference

Species Recovery Grants to States (Section 6 Program): NOAA NMFS FY 2026 Round — Historical Reference

The FY 2026 Species Recovery Grants to States (Section 6 Program) solicitation is closed. NOAA Fisheries listed the submission period as April 21 through June 20, 2026, with applications due through Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on June 20, 2026. This page is therefore a historical reference for the closed federal opportunity, not an open application listing. The official NOAA Fisheries program page currently describes the FY 2026 round and does not announce a later cycle.

Key details

What the program funds

The program is authorized under section 6 of the Endangered Species Act and is designed for conservation programs led by eligible state agencies. NOAA describes eligible work as management, scientific research, monitoring, education, and outreach that has a direct conservation benefit for species under NMFS jurisdiction. The species focus is not limited to animals that are already listed as threatened or endangered. The FY 2026 notice also allows monitoring of candidate species, species proposed for listing, and certain recently delisted species.

The proposal should connect activities to the recovery of a particular species or to a clearly defined conservation problem. NOAA’s notice asks applicants to address priority actions in an ESA Recovery Plan or Recovery Outline where possible. The project description should explain the threat or management need, identify quantitative objectives, describe the work plan and milestones, and show how the expected results will improve management or recovery. Research and monitoring can be eligible, but a proposal still needs to explain the conservation decision or action that the work will inform.

The program is not a general environmental grant. Projects focused on Pacific salmonids are excluded from this competition and may instead fit the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. Projects focused on marine mammal stranding response or rehabilitation are also excluded and may fit the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program. The NOFO further says that related stranding work supported through another dedicated NOAA program may not be considered here. Species under the sole jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are outside this NMFS solicitation.

Projects also cannot request funds merely to satisfy federal regulatory requirements. The FY 2026 notice excludes work whose purpose is compliance with an ESA section 7 biological opinion, fulfillment of federal mitigation requirements for an ESA section 10 incidental take permit, or mitigation required by another federal permit such as a Clean Water Act permit. The notice recognizes a limited exception for section 10 conservation plans that include conservation obligations imposed by state or local law beyond the federal mitigation requirement. That distinction should be addressed directly in any future proposal.

Eligibility and cost share

The direct applicant must be a state agency that has entered into an agreement with NMFS under section 6(c) of the ESA. NOAA’s program page also says that a state agency can become eligible by entering the agreement within 30 days of the grant proposal deadline. For listed-species work, the FY 2026 NOFO says the species must already be included in the state’s section 6 agreement or be added within 60 days after the application deadline. A proposed or candidate species can be addressed if it meets the notice’s conditions. Post-delisting monitoring is limited to species delisted within the past five years.

Federal agencies and institutions are not eligible recipients under the notice. Tribes may participate in a state-led proposal as a contractor or subgrantee, but direct funding for federally recognized Tribes is handled through the separate Species Recovery Grants to Tribes Program. A university, nonprofit, consultant, or private conservation group therefore cannot use this opportunity as the direct applicant. Those organizations would need to work through an eligible state agency if the state chooses to include them in the project structure.

The FY 2026 notice requires non-federal cost share based on total project costs. A single-state proposal must provide at least 25 percent non-federal cost share. When two or more state natural resources agencies cooperate meaningfully on the work, the required share decreases to 10 percent. The cooperating states must have specific responsibilities described in the methods and project structure; simply naming an out-of-state university or another non-state partner does not create the reduced rate. Cash and qualifying in-kind contributions may be used, and the sources and valuation must be shown in the budget and narrative. Other federal funds cannot be counted as the non-federal match.

The cost-share requirement does not apply to Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the U.S. Virgin Islands under the exception identified in the notice. Puerto Rico is not included in that exception and must provide matching funds. Match is expected to be spent during the award period at approximately the same rate as the federal share, unless a NOAA Grants Officer approves a documented exception.

Award amount and project period

The NOFO does not promise a fixed award amount. It says that new awards should range up to about $250,000 in federal funding per year, while also stating that there is no required minimum or maximum. Final funding depends on congressional funding, the proposal, and pre-award negotiations. NOAA can determine the final federal amount, scope, project duration, and degree of cooperative involvement during those negotiations. The federal listing shows an award maximum of $250,000 and seven expected awards, but applicants should rely on the NOFO language rather than treat either figure as a guaranteed allocation.

Projects may be new or ongoing. A continuation proposal must describe accomplishments to date and explain why additional work is needed. For a multi-year request, the applicant must provide a plan and separate budget for each year. NOAA may fund a multi-year award in one-year increments, subject to satisfactory performance and available funds. The FY 2026 notice says project start dates should be no earlier than July 1, 2026 unless the program office approves an earlier date. A funded project does not automatically receive additional money after the approved period; a team needing further support would need a later competitive cycle or another funding source.

Application requirements for a future round

The FY 2026 application required registration in three federal systems before submission: SAM.gov, eRA Commons, and Grants.gov. The organization first needed a SAM.gov registration and a Unique Entity Identifier, then could complete the eRA Commons and Grants.gov registrations. The notice warns that registration can take six weeks or longer and that a deadline is not extended because of registration delays. eRA Commons requires an organizational profile and active Signing Official and Program Director/Principal Investigator accounts. The SAM registration must remain active while an application or award is under consideration.

The required federal forms were the Application for Federal Assistance (SF-424), Budget Information for Non-Construction Programs (SF-424A), Assurances for Non-Construction Programs (SF-424B), and Certifications Regarding Lobbying (CD-511). The application also needed a title page, a project summary with a 300-word limit, a project description limited to 15 pages, a budget table, a budget justification, and appendices limited to 15 pages. The summary should identify the purpose, activities, geographic area, recovery objectives or regional priority, and expected benefits.

The project description needed clear goals and objectives, methods and milestones for each budget period, expected benefits or results, outreach and education, the need for government assistance, related federal/state/local activities, environmental impacts, and project management qualifications. The expected-benefits section had a 300-word limit. The application also needed a Data Management Plan of up to two pages. Any required ESA research permit or evidence that a permit application had been submitted had to be included, along with relevant permit information for other federal, state, or local approvals.

Formatting rules were part of the submission requirements. Proposal documents and attachments had to fit letter-sized paper, use at least 10-point text, use one-inch margins, and number every page. NOAA asked applicants to submit proposal documents as PDF files and not duplicate the same file or application section. Pages beyond the project-description and appendix limits would not be reviewed. Letters of support or endorsement from NMFS, NOAA, or Department of Commerce personnel or offices were not accepted.

Submission was not complete merely because files were uploaded. Grants.gov and eRA Commons had to validate the application, and only validated applications were sent to NOAA for review. The NOFO recommended submitting at least two business days before the deadline because validation can take that long. Applicants were expected to resolve eRA Commons errors before the due date and retain the acceptance messages from both systems. A late application would not be considered.

Status of the FY 2026 round

The FY 2026 round cannot be submitted now because its June 20, 2026 deadline has passed. NOAA’s target schedule described eligibility screening and panel review in early summer, a program review panel in mid-summer, final selection and pre-award negotiations in late summer, environmental and legal review in late summer or early fall, and award finalization in early fall. The official NOAA page says notifications would begin in fall 2026 after funding decisions and required approvals were complete. Those are schedule descriptions for the closed round, not a promise that a new application window is open.

The NOAA page remains useful for future planning because it links to the section 6 cooperation information, frequently asked questions, regional priorities, Grants.gov application materials, registration instructions, and recipient reporting guidance. Before treating this page as an active listing, applicants should check NOAA Fisheries for a new funding opportunity number and a new deadline. No later fiscal-year solicitation is announced on the official program page checked for this reference.

Practical planning checklist

For a future cycle, a state agency should first confirm its section 6(c) agreement and the species covered by that agreement. It should then confirm that the proposed species and activities are within NMFS jurisdiction and outside the listed exclusions. Next, the team should identify the recovery-plan action or management priority, define measurable outcomes, and decide whether another state will have enough responsibility to justify the 10 percent multi-state cost-share rate.

The team should begin SAM.gov, eRA Commons, and Grants.gov registration well before the next deadline. It should gather permit numbers or permit-application evidence, prepare a project schedule for each budget period, and build a budget that separates federal and non-federal costs. Before submission, the applicant should check page limits, PDF conversion, UEI and eRA identifiers, Congressional District formatting, and the validation status in both systems. The final record should include the Grants.gov and eRA Commons acceptance messages.

Official sources

• NOAA Fisheries program page: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/grant/species-recovery-grants-states
• FY 2026 NOAA-NMFS-PRPO-2026-31825 Notice of Funding Opportunity: https://apply07.grants.gov/grantsws/rest/opportunity/att/download/351411
• NOAA Fisheries frequently asked questions: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/funding-financial-services/frequent-questions-species-recovery-grants-states
• NOAA Fisheries section 6 cooperation information: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/endangered-species-act-section-6-program-cooperation

The bottom line is simple: this was a real FY 2026 NOAA Fisheries competition for eligible state agencies, but it is no longer open. Keep the June 20, 2026 date as the historical deadline, do not present the page as accepting late applications, and verify a newly posted NOAA or Grants.gov solicitation before preparing a new submission.