[Coral-List] Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Pre-proposal Submission Now Open

Victoria Barker victoria.barker03 at gmail.com
Fri Feb 5 20:07:22 UTC 2021


Hello Coral List members,

Pre-proposals are now being accepted for this year's stony coral tissue
loss (SCTLD) disease research review process. This year we have strict
deadlines for pre-proposal and full proposal submission so that we can
consider all FY21-22 projects simultaneously. As with past years, projects
that want to be considered for State of Florida funding will need to
complete this process.

The proposal development and review process will involve three main steps:

(1) *A pre-proposal stage*: Pre-proposals will be considered by our
Steering Committee and Research Team co-leads. This group will
evaluate pre-proposals
for how well they address priority research questions (see below) and their
management implications. A select group of these pre-proposals will be
chosen for development into full proposals.
(2) *Full proposal stage*: Full proposals will be developed by applicants,
with a requirement that they engage with a resource manager during full
proposal development. Full proposals will be evaluated for technical merit
by unbiased, anonymous reviewers and for management application and
priority by Steering Committee members. Both groups will provide
recommendations to applicants on areas to improve or refine their projects.
(3) *Final proposal stage*:  Applicants will incorporate recommendations
(or provide justification for why they did not) and submit a final proposal
for prioritization by leadership. Projects awarded the highest priority may
be supported by partner organizations with funding. Coordinators may work
with projects that are not immediately supported to identify funding
opportunities.


*The FY 21-22 SCTLD Priority Research Questions are:*

*1) Is SCTLD a biotic, abiotic, or combination disease?*

[For example, projects may investigate specific causative agents.]



*2) What factors (genotypic, colony-specific, or environmental) drive
resistance and/or resilience to SCTLD?*

[For example, projects may investigate locations with high survivorship or
why certain corals do/do not respond to treatments.]



*3) What conditions (environmental, ecological, anthropogenic, and/or in
the coral populations) have allowed the outbreak to persist and spread? *

[For example, projects may investigate why certain reefs may be more likely
to experience disease. To note, projects that solely involve environmental
monitoring or modeling will not be prioritized.]



*4) Are there effective intervention options other than antibiotics?*

[For example, projects may investigate the efficacy of non-antibiotic,
antimicrobial treatments
or symbiont swapping.]



*5) Will antibiotics remain a viable treatment in the future?*

a) Does treatment efficacy decline through time?

b) Does application of multiple treatments impact treatment efficacy?

c) Are there adverse effects of our SCTLD amoxicillin treatment (on the
target or nearby organisms)?


*The deadline for pre-proposal submission is Monday, March 1, 2021 @ 5:00pm
EST. *Please reach out to Victoria Barker (victoria.barker at noaa.gov) and
Maurizio Martinelli (mmartinelli1 at ufl.edu) if you are interested in
submitting a pre-proposal so that they can provide you with the appropriate
template. Further,* the review process will be discussed on this week's
Disease Advisory Committee (DAC) call, to be held Wednesday, February 10
from 1:30-3:00 pm ET.* If you would like to attend, please reach out to
Victoria Barker for the access link.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions and feel free
to distribute this information widely.

Thank you,
Victoria Barker


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