NEWBURYPORT - Two groups are vying for a $10,000 grant - one wants to explore the possibility of expanding commercial fishing on the waterfront and the other wants to investigate luring a "green science" research institute to Newburyport.

The Newburyport Waterfront Trust and the Newburyport Education Business Coalition are preparing the respective applications for the money, provided by a city program set up with state money given to Newburyport.

City Economic Development Director Peter Abair administers the Emerging Futures Fund, along with a three-member advisory committee composed of City Councilor-at-Large Gary Roberts; real estate developer and Tannery Mall owner David Hall; and Fred Lucey, district director of state Rep. Michael Costello's office.

The two applicants want to conduct feasibility studies of their respective projects. Abair said the committee would probably meet within two weeks after the final application deadline of July 10. He said the committee could opt to fund both studies, or choose only one, or reject both final applications.

The Waterfront Trust and Newburyport Education Business Coalition were invited to apply based on letters of intent they filed in April.

Abair said any studies that are funded must address not only what the programs expect to accomplish but how the organizations plan to pay for their projects.

"We don't want to fund a study just to have it sit on a shelf somewhere," he said.

The Waterfront Trust wants to take a look at developing a small fish market where fishing boats tie up east of the end of the boardwalk. The area, behind Oldies Marketplace, was specifically built for the city's minuscule fishing fleet. According to the Waterfront Trust's letter of intent, only five commercial fishing vessels currently work out of Newburyport.

The trust, which has stewardship of the waterfront boardwalk, said the ability to sell part of their catch right off the boat will help fishing boats financially.

"Seafood can fetch a substantial premium if it can be marketed as fresh off the boat," the letter of intent says. "By co-locating the landing facility and a retail market, this added value would be captured."

The proposal also says the market would attract more vessels, creating an "eco-tourism" element, in which the working boats themselves become attractions.

A second component of the trust's proposal is to employ Newburyport High School students as environmental science interns. The trust envisions a collaboration with the Newburyport Education Business Coalition, in which the interns would monitor the catch and other biological and environmental information. Their data would be provided to regulatory agencies such as the New England Fisheries Management Council to aid their decision-making.

"The project we propose is intended to re-establish Newburyport as a player in the fishing industry in a unique and sustainable way," trust Co-Chairmen Tom Lochhaas and Cliff Goudey wrote in their letter of intent.

Abair called the Newburyport Education Business Coalition's proposal to lure a "green science" institute to the city "very bold, very ambitious."

The coalition envisions the creation of what it calls a "niche university," a specialized institution of higher learning in Newburyport.

In its letter of intent, the Newburyport Education Business Coalition says it would partner with the Green Science Collaborative of the Seacoast Energy and Environmental Design (SEED) Coalition. The Green Science Collaborative is an organization "whose goal is to promote environmental science study and eduation on the Merrimack River, the Great Marsh and Ipswich Bay," according to its Web site.

The Newburyport Education Business Coalition's letter of intent says there are "dozens" of scientific and environmental research projects in the Newburyport area. The coalition wants to coordinate the projects "to create a bustling hub of collaboration that will elevate each individual project's success and ultimately brand Newburyport as a center of excellence in the world's quest for enviro-science knowledge and business."

The feasibility study would be conducted by Tripp Umbach, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based consulting firm.