The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) through the Marine Minerals Program (MMP) is offering a cooperative agreement opportunity to conduct research to serve the public interest in offshore sand resources, coastal restoration, and coastal resiliency.

The overall goal of this study is to

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collaborate on the development of a feasibility study investigating the viability of recovering economically valuable hard minerals from offshore sand deposits during beach nourishment dredging operations.

Although the study will focus on known sand deposits in federal water offshore of the Delmarva Peninsula, methodologies and conclusions should be generally applicable to all nearshore Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) hard minerals.

This Program Announcement describes a cooperative agreement that may be awarded to the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy (DMME).

This is not an open solicitation for proposals.

The OCSLA (43 USC 1345)authorizes the use of cooperative agreements with affected States to meet the requirements of OCSLA, including sharing of information, joint utilization of available expertise, formation of joint monitoring arrangements to carry out applicable Federal and State laws, regulations, and stipulations relevant to outer continental shelf operations both onshore and offshore.

All awards are premised on receipt of an acceptable proposal.