Members from all four RWSC Sector Caucuses (federal, state, offshore wind industry, environmental NGOs) developed their first Offshore Wind & Wildlife Research Funding Strategy Action Plan.
The purpose of the Action Plan is to summarize the state of ongoing and planned offshore wind and wildlife research and describe specific objectives for RWSC, funders, and all Sector Caucus members to ensure that data collection and research conducted in the upcoming year is coordinated and results in high quality data that fills current data needs.
Given the current fragmented funding landscape for offshore wind and wildlife research (see infographic above), Sector Caucus members requested that RWSC continue its work assisting with alignment and coordination of individual efforts, funding regional-scale analyses, and facilitating co-investment and pooling of funds into research projects.
To ensure that research conducted in 2025 is coordinated and results in high quality data that fills current data needs, the Sector Caucuses will:
Implement data standardization, data management, and coordination recommendations from RWSC and its Subcommittees – several entities indicated that they had reviewed the recommended coordination language and data standards at https://rwsc.org/research-data and committed to using them in their work. RWSC will follow up with entities that did not make this commitment to understand potential roadblocks and challenges to broad uptake of recommendations and standards.
Coordinate funding goals and pool funding to achieve bigger results – Sector Caucus members are seeking to allocate at least $60M for offshore wind and wildlife research and data collection in 2025 (see page 3 of Action Plan). To coordinate with each other and RWSC to ensure that these allocations maximize opportunities for aligned research, funders and RWSC staff will provide feedback on RFPs and participate in proposal selection committees.
Collaborate with other Caucuses within RWSC – Sector Caucuses identified several topics that they would like to advance together, including federal-state coordination on monitoring and mitigation requirements, and industry-eNGO coordination on advocating for federal funding for RWSC and similar regional collaboratives in other geographies.
Read the full RWSC Annual Funding Strategy Meeting Summary.