Sea Grant Research Funding: Advancing the Scientific Discourse by Addressing Local Research Priorities

Abstract

Scientific research is often supported by public funds for the public good, and there is a trend toward using public funds to support actionable science that can be integrated into policy or practice. Funding agencies can set research priorities through the focus and timing of their research calls and funding decisions. There is a need to study funding models to better understand the relationship between agency priorities and scientific discourse. We present a case study of the National Sea Grant College Program’s research funding. Sea Grant is a federally funded network of 34 state- or territory-​based programs that fund research and perform education and outreach work on coastal environmental and natural resource issues. Individual Sea Grant programs set research priorities based on local needs, often focusing on actionable science. To assess the contributions of Sea Grant-funded research, we analyzed available citations and abstracts from Web of Science and examined patterns in article authors, journals, citations, keywords, and abstracts. The study shows that Sea Grant has significantly contributed to the scientific literature while being effective on cost-per-​publication and cost-per-citation bases. The results illustrated how targeted funding can address important local issues while substantially contributing to the broader scientific literature.