Award: From $25,000 to $500,000
The Alliance for Maine’s Marine Economy, in partnership with MTI, is responsible for a coordinating a Capital Grants Program to assist traditional fisheries, aquaculture and other seafood-related businesses to grow, become profitable, and create jobs by providing up to 50% of the costs of capital equipment related projects and/or to advance the standards and practices in these marine industries. Capital grants will be awarded on a competitive basis to sustain and advance Maine’s marine economy through business expansion and new product development.
The Capital Grants program is designed to integrate with the many other funding sources available in Maine so that complete projects leverage many of the currently available programs that may not directly fund capital and equipment. The program is a complementary strategy to the other granting programs of MTI, Maine Sea Grant and the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center. The program is a part of a larger strategy proposed by the Alliance and approved by the State of Maine through the Marine Economy and Jobs Bond approved by voters in November 2014. Because funds available are publicly-approved bond monies, the expectation is that program results will be of benefit not just to the individual award recipient but also the marine, and by extension, the Maine economy.
Critical Links:
Request for Proposals (RFP) (PDF)
Budget Form (Excel)
Q&A/FAQs (PDF)
Application Portal (Link) (Please do not submit multiple drafts of a proposal through the portal, but the final version of the proposal only)
Grant Application Process:
Q&A: All applicants may submit questions in writing about the program up until 5:00 PM on May 12, 2017. Substantive questions and answers will be posted on MTI’s website on a rolling basis. Applicants are not required to submit questions, but all questions should be submitted in writing so all applicants have access to the same questions and answers. Submit all questions to Martha Bentley at mbentley@mainetechnology.org. All FAQs and responses will be posted by May 13, 2017. MTI reserves the right to edit questions to provide brevity, clarity, and to cover the same general question from several potential applicants.
Prescreening letter of intent opportunity: Any applicant may submit a 2-page letter of intent via email to Martha Bentley at mbentley@mainetechnology.org by 5:00 PM on June 9, 2017 to gauge appropriateness of project for this funding opportunity. Please see the RFP (coming soon) for what the letter should include.
MTI, in consultation with the Alliance, will provide feedback for each letter of intent submitted, either encouraging or discouraging a full proposal within two weeks of letter of intent submission deadline. Regardless of the recommendation, applicants may still choose to apply for funding. Applicants are not required to submit a prescreening inquiry.
Proposal submission: All applicants should submit their proposal via MTI’s online application submission portal (coming soon).