In the aftermath of Tuesday’s elections, a group of marine-based businesses and institutions is working to apply for $7 million in state bond funding to enhance Maine’s marine industry.

Among the prospective beneficiaries: a new lab facility for the marine sciences program at the University of New England and the renovation of a municipal shed on the Maine State Pier that will be home to a cluster of marine businesses.

The money was approved by voters on Tuesday as part of Question 7.

The measure has several unusual stipulations:

• Only coalitions may apply for the grant, which requires a 100 percent match.

• The coalition must include a marine research entity and a community-based organization.

• It also must include a private business involved with seafood processing or the marketing and development of Maine-based products, commercial fishermen or a business involved in aquaculture.

The effort is being led by the University of New England, which funded the Yes on 7 campaign. UNE is putting together a team that will likely include the Marine Science Program at Southern Maine Community College, the University of Maine’s Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education, the Cobscook Learning Center in Trescott, the Portland kelp harvesting company Ocean Approved and the planned New England Ocean Cluster in Portland.

Officials with the university are reaching out to other groups as well.

“We realize that if you aggregate Maine’s marine institutions, we are world class,” said Barry Costa-Pierce, director of the Marine Sciences Center at University of New England in Biddeford. “If you separate any one of us, we are not as competitive as some of the large institutions in other states.”

The grant must be spent on infrastructure improvements rather than on staff or programs. If awarded, the grant will complement the $20 million in funding the National Science Foundation awarded in August to the University of Maine to establish a network of Maine aquaculture and marine research institutions.

Maine marine-related research institutions are small and scattered along the coast, making cooperation among those institutions necessary, Costa-Pierce said.

The University of New England is considering using the money to build a permanent pier on the Saco River and expand its marine laboratories so it can work with industry partners. Costa-Pierce would not say how much money the university will seek.

One partner would be the New England Ocean Cluster, a new business incubator lead by Thor Sigfusson, an entrepreneur from Iceland, and Patrick Arnold of South Portland.

The partners are talking with Portland officials about leasing the top floor of the former municipal transit shed on the Maine State Pier for their incubator space. Arnold said the New England Ocean Cluster, which is modeled after a similar business in Iceland, has a dozen marine-related businesses that want to move in.

To accommodate them, Arnold said he would like to use $2 million from the grant, which would be matched by another $2 million in private investment, to gut the interior of the second floor of the shed and install new offices. He said the shed needs a new insulated roof and new windows.

The shed would remain under the ownership of the city, Arnold said.

Part of the draw of the Ocean Cluster model is the opportunity to work with students at the laboratories at the University of New England. Those students, in turn, learn skills that will help them get jobs in such businesses after they graduate.

“The New England Ocean Cluster is in a great position to be the thread that binds many of those things,” Arnold said.

The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, with help from the Department of Marine Resources, is in the process of putting together a request for proposals to serve as a guide in determining the bond recipients, said Douglas Ray, spokesman for the department.

The request for proposals will likely be completed by mid-November when it is presented to the Maine Technology Institute board of directors, he said. MTI is administering the bond.