This October, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO) signed a new two-year cooperative agreement with CRC. The agreement funds a few activities that are mutually beneficial to both organizations. “We are thrilled to continue our relationship with the Chesapeake Research Consortium through this new cooperative agreement. It allows us to expand internship opportunities for college students, fund workshops on topics such as animal telemetry and climate education, and provide backbone support for the maintenance of the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System,” explained Kevin Schabow, currently the Grant Programs Manager and soon to be the Acting Deputy Director of NCBO.

One of the main ways the two groups work together is supporting the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System, which is a system of buoys that takes data on water quality, meteorological data, etc. and provides it to CRC member institutions.

The agreement also funds workshops that are of interest to both groups. For example, in the past the agreement has funded scientific workshops, such as one on telemetry in the spring that will focus on tracking animal movement. It also funds the Chesapeake Community Modeling Program, including its biennial conference, the Chesapeake Community Research and Modeling Symposium.

As part of its renewed agreement with the CRC, NCBO will be supporting CRC’s C-StREAM Fellowship Program to increase the diversity of the environmental workforce. In 2019, the NCBO will be supporting four students from typically under-represented populations through summer employment, including two students who will work directly with the NCBO as summer interns and two who will be offered undergraduate research experiences at CRC member institutions. “It’s exciting that we’re expanding the program to reach more students and bring on some interns from underrepresented populations,” explained Schabow. Stay tuned through the CRC Facebook page and future email notifications for details on the summer 2019 application process, which is scheduled to open by January 1.

Separate internships through NCBO will likely become available in December, and applications will be due in February. Stay tuned to the NCBO internship page for updates.