The 2007 Pioneer Grants Program is designed to help organizations demonstrate, analyze and deliver to users innovative approaches, technologies, techniques and practices that will lead to water quality improvements in local streams, rivers and ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay.  The Trust seeks pre-proposals in the fields of agriculture or environmentally sensitive land development that focus on direct or indirect reduction of nutrient and sediment inputs to the Bay in the following ways: 
 
1) Demonstration of an existing technology or practice.  Many techniques in both agriculture and land development have been developed in recent years but have not been adequately demonstrated to be viable at a convincing scale.  Applicants are encouraged to focus on promising ideas that can be demonstrated to work at an appropriate spatial or temporal scale with the resources available from the Trust.

2) Economic analysis of technology or best management practices.  For viable techniques or practices that have already been demonstrated to work on an appropriately large scale, applicants are encouraged to quantify economic benefits or ramifications in a way that is easily translated to users, identify any barriers to their adoption, and recommend appropriate strategies for their implementation. 

3) Delivery to users.  For techniques or practices for which the demonstration and economic analysis phases have been completed, applicants are encouraged to enhance existing or create new and innovative delivery programs to users in either the agricultural or land development communities.  Users can be defined as groups including farmers, agricultural support businesses, technical service providers, land developers, real estate community members, local governments and others.