Grants & RFPs
The Bay Program and its partners offer multiple grant opportunities to help fund restoration projects of all sizes across the Chesapeake watershed.

Open Requests for Proposals
Chesapeake Bay Tidal Water Nutrient Limitation Assessment
The Environmental Protection Agency seeks to support one recipient to conduct a nutrient limitation assessment (nitrogen and phosphorus limitation) on tidal water samples from the surface waters of the mainstem Chesapeake Bay and select major tributaries over a two-year period.
Closing Date: April 18, 2023
View RFPMultiple Tributary Models for the Assessment of 2035 Climate Change Risk and Other Water Quality Challenges
This RFA is seeking insightful, expert, and cost-effective applications from eligible applicants to apply a state-of-the-science unstructured grid model to the tidal waters of the Chesapeake’s tributaries and embayments (hereafter called the Multiple Tributary Model or MTM). The management purpose of the MBM is to assess the Chesapeake tidal water quality standards including dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, suspended solids, water clarity, and SAV under current and future conditions of climate change to 2035 and beyond. The MTM scenarios, as directed by Chesapeake Bay decision-makers, will provide support for management strategies to achieve water quality standards in TMDLs and assessments in the tidal Bay (other than the 2010 Chesapeake TMDL). The 2010 Chesapeake TMDL will be assessed by the Phase 7 Main Bay Model (MBM) now under development. The MTMs and the MBM will be completed and fully operational by December 2025.
Closing Date: April 7, 2023
View RFPNFWF Chesapeake Stewardship Fund
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnership, is soliciting proposals through the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund to protect and restore water quality and habitats of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers and streams.
NFWF is soliciting proposals under two distinct programs through this request. Through the Small Watershed Grants (SWG) Program, delivered in partnership with EPA and the CBP partnership, NFWF is soliciting proposals for projects within the Chesapeake Bay watershed that promote voluntary, community-based efforts to protect and restore the diverse and vital habitats of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers and streams. Through the Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense Grants (WILD) Program, delivered in partnership with FWS, NFWF is soliciting proposals for projects that conserve, steward, and enhance fish and wildlife habitats and related conservation values in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Closing Date: April 20, 2023
View RFPAdditional Opportunities
- The Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund is a partnership between the Bay Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to strategically invest in conservation actions to restore the Bay. Grant opportunities include Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction grants and Small Watershed grants.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Bay Watershed Education and Training grants support Chesapeake watershed environmental education programs and professional development for teachers on Bay-related environmental topics. NOAA also provides funding to restore habitat for coastal and anadromous fisheries.
- The Chesapeake Bay Trust offers individual grant programs to support Chesapeake restoration and protection activities in Maryland.
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides a variety of grant programs and funding opportunities, as well as regional grants.