Pub. Resources Code, § 36990

(a) The Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency may enter into an agreement with an existing nonprofit corporation with broad experience as the trustee of public funds, court-ordered mitigation funds, or other funds used to assist public agencies in carrying out their responsibilities to establish a nongovernmental trust, to be known as the California Ocean Science Trust.

(b) The purposes of the trust shall be all of the following:

(1) To seek funds for California ocean resource science projects, emphasizing the development of new funding sources.

(2) To fund California ocean resource science projects that help fulfill the missions of the state’s ocean resource management agencies.

(3) To encourage coordinated, multiagency, multiinstitution approaches to ocean resource science to deliver actionable science solutions that accelerate equitable climate change adaptation.

(4) To encourage graduate education programs, training, and workforce development opportunities in management-oriented ocean resource science in public and private universities and colleges in California.

(5) To encourage new technologies that reduce the cost, increase the amount, or improve the quality of ocean resource management information.

(6) To promote more effective coordination of California ocean resource science useful to management agencies.

(c) The trust may administer grants and expenditures of the trust for purposes consistent with this chapter from private and public fund sources, including, but not limited to, direct appropriations from the annual Budget Act and block grants from other state agencies with relevant need for coordination and engagement with the trust.

(d) (1) For the purpose of developing and providing peer reviews, technical guidance, or scientific reports and analyses to state agencies and departments with relevant need, the trust may engage with scientific experts through convenings, including panels, workshops, or symposia, to gain knowledge, solutions, and recommendations for topics consistent with subdivision (b).

(2) As funding allows, the trust shall develop an annual list of topics, consistent with subdivision (b), that the trust will undertake to deliver the content pursuant to paragraph (1) to state agencies and departments.

(e) (1) The Natural Resources Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency, or an entity within the Natural Resources Agency or the California Environmental Protection Agency may enter into a direct agreement with the trust for the delivery of peer reviews, technical guidance, or scientific reports and analyses pursuant to subdivision (d).

(2) As used in this subdivision, “entity” includes, but is not limited to, a department, board, commission, or conservancy.