This measure highlights change in jobs that communities or businesses generate or save due to Sea Grant assistance (i.e., providing information to help communities, industries or businesses expand, make better decisions or avoid mistakes). Sea Grant provides the information and training that informs business decisions, and in some Hurricane forecast track error cases firms create or sustain jobs as a result. A job created is a new position created and filled as a result of Sea Grant activities. An existing position that is filled with a Sea Grant-trained applicant should not be reported in this measure. A job sustained is an existing, filled position that is sustained as a direct result of Sea Grant activities. A job cannot be reported as both created and sustained in the same year.

Proposed new indicator for FY 2022. Measure is under development.

Proposed new indicator for FY 2022. Measure is under development.

This measure tracks the number of dives that use imagery/video as well as other sensors that provided a multidisciplinary first-look at an unknown or poorly understood area of the ocean. These data can be collected using a variety of platforms including ROVs, AUVs, ASVs, etc. OER recognizes a distinction between exploration and characterization. Exploration is conducted using a suite of tools and techniques that provides a multidisciplinary first-look at an unknown or poorly understood area of the ocean. The outcome is intended to be sufficient to inform follow-on characterization, which provides comprehensive data for a specific area of interest of the seafloor, sub-bottom, and/or water column that supports specific research, resource management, policymaking, or applied mission objectives (this is not depth dependant unlike the mapping statistics).

This measure captures a range of efforts by NOAA’s Aquaculture Program that together will lead to a more efficient federal permitting process. These efforts include: working with federal partners under the White House/OSTP's Subcommittee on Aquaculture to coordinate and streamline inter-agency permitting, working with industry partners to establish and manage offshore aquaculture pilot projects, conducting spatial analysis and developing siting tools, developing engineering solutions, efforts to assess and reduce risk (e.g., entanglement) from aquaculture operations, conducting programmatic environmental reviews to reduce burden on individual applicants, and drafting/revising guidance to permit applicants to improve application quality. We will also continue to support, as requested, any Congressional initiative to develop aquaculture legislation.

This metric measures the level of customer service provided by the Office of Space Commerce to the U.S. commercial space industry and other external stakeholders in response to specific requests for support. This metric applies only to major requests requiring application of labor hours or other resources towards the investigation, coordination, and resolution of policy/regulatory issues or achievement of activities that promote the interests of U.S. space companies.

The number of existing full time and/or part time employment positions created and/or retained as reported by a MBE client served.

This is a follow up to the previous measure: “Percentage of Trade Adjustment Assistance Center (TAAC) clients taking action as a result of the assistance facilitated by the TAAC.” This measure will determine if the assistance facilitated by the TAACs is market based and results in desired outcomes. The centers conduct client surveys and report findings to EDA.

This measure accounts for annual contributions to the overall percentage of the US Waters that have been mapped to a depth greater than 200 meters. It is based upon the data holdings of the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and reflects reporting from all data sources.