For Funded Researchers

Research projects that receive USC Sea Grant funding are subject to the requirements established by the National Sea Grant College Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), or the University of Southern California (USC), which houses USC Sea Grant. This includes funding obtained in partnership with USC Sea Grant. Additionally, you are expected to follow your own university/college’s established rules and regulations governing grant administration.

All grants managed by USC Sea Grant are required to provide accurate and timely information throughout the duration of the funded project, including through submitting progress and final reports. This information will ultimately be synthesized into reports for the National Sea Grant Office, and/or the grantor. Researchers will provide this information through the website, eSeaGrant. We will provide each principal investigator (PI) with a secure project-updating link, including the associated requirements, several weeks before the report is due.

Reporting Over the Duration of the Project Includes:

• Semi-Annual Reports: PIs must submit a semi-annual report, due on July 31st of each year. This can be a brief 1-2 paragraph update on progress towards goals.
• Annual Reports: Progress reports are due annually (covering the period between February 1 and January 31). PIs will be notified to submit annual reports through eSeaGrant in January of each year and will be guided through a reporting template. For projects funded through certain federal or state funds, quarterly reports may also be required.
  • Images and graphics are highly encouraged to better display your valuable work on our website, in articles, social media, etc.
• Final Reports: All PIs must submit a final report describing the project’s progress toward achieving stated objectives and identifying notable accomplishments, outcomes, products, and impacts over the entire grant period.
• Post-Completion Reports: Impacts and publications resulting from projects often appear after a completion report has been submitted. We will send the annual reporting (eSeaGrant) link post completion to capture such changes. We greatly appreciate it if the project team updates this link whenever there are new impacts or publications, or if a supported student has a new place of employment.

For questions or information about a specific grant, please contact Ruth Dudas, USC Sea Grant’s Contracts and Grants Coordinator, at rdudas@usc.edu.

Report information will likely be used to highlight your work on USC Sea Grant’s website, including project summaries, articles, and publications. Publications will also be provided to the Institutional Repository of the NOAA Library. Please keep in mind that the information you provide may be readily available to the public.

Providing Accepted Manuscripts

Any publication resulting from USC Sea Grant-funded research is expected to be provided to our program via annual reporting through eSeaGrant. For Open Access Journal articles, it is important to provide our program with the accepted manuscript version (as shown in Image 1) in order to be eligible for submission into NOAA’s Institutional Repository.

Certain publications must comply with Section 508 of the U.S. Workforce Rehabilitation Act. Section 508 mandates that all federal agencies make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Journal articles (publisher versions and manuscript versions) do not have to be 508 compliant. However, all other publications, such as theses and dissertations, must be 508 compliant to be accepted into the Sea Grant Collection of the NOAA Library.

At a minimum, this means that:

• PDFs must be tagged
• Bookmarks must be used on documents over 20 pages
• Alternative text must be written for figures, photos, charts, maps, and other graphics
• The document must follow a logical reading order
• Title and language must be present in the document properties

Please refer to NOAA’s Section 508 guidance for further instructions on how to ensure that your publications are Section 508 compliant before submitting them to USC Sea Grant.

Acknowledgment Statement

Please include this sentence in the acknowledgments section of your publications. Without it, we cannot submit your publication to the NOAA library or effectively promote your work through our channels.

“This publication has been produced with support from the National Sea Grant College Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Department of Commerce, under Grant Number ####.”

Student Theses

Students receiving USC Sea Grant stipends are required to submit PDF copies of their thesis or dissertation to USC Sea Grant, preferably meeting Section 508 federal accessibility standard as described above.

Logos

With the exception of peer-reviewed publications, the NOAA emblem and Sea Grant logo (or the USC Sea Grant logo) must be placed on all print and digital media funded by Sea Grant, including:

• scientific posters and presentations (by PI or students),
• extension products,
• conference agendas,
• and project websites

This logo placement is in addition to the acknowledgment statement (provided above) that is required for videos and publications. Press releases involving USC Sea Grant-funded work may not include the NOAA or Sea Grant logo without prior approval. Please contact USC Sea Grant for permission.

The following logos can be used:

Download the Black USC Sea Grant Logo here.

Download the White USC Sea Grant Logo here.

Do you have any questions? Please contact our Communications Manager, Leah Shore, at lshore@usc.edu.