2020-NIST-PSIAP-FR3D-01 Amendment.pdf

2020-NIST-PSIAP-FR3D-01 Amended

Notice of Funding Opportunity

December 12, 2019

AMENDED NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY (NOFO) FOR NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – First Responder 3D Indoor Tracking Prize

(PSIAP-FR3D)

NIST is issuing this amendment (Amendment 2) to the NOFO to clarify Application Instructions. Specifically, language has been added to address potential submission errors associated with the Content and Form of Pre-Application Submission section.

Because of the revisions, the submission deadline has been extended to Monday, December 15, 2019.

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1 3 Executive Summary

Extends the application due date as a result of the submission instruction revisions.

Applications must be received at Grants.gov no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday, December 15, 2019.

2 10 IV.2. Pre-Applicants should complete the Pre- Application Package.

Content and Form of Pre-

Application Submission – Pre-

Application Package

3 23 IV.4. Extends the application due date as a result of the submission instruction revisions.

Applications must be received at Grants.gov no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday, December 15, 2019.

NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY (NOFO)

NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – First Responder 3D Indoor Tracking Prize

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Federal Agency Name: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States Department of Commerce (DoC)

• Funding Opportunity Title: NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program - First Responder 3D Indoor Tracking Prize (PSIAP-FR3D) Amended

• Announcement Type: Initial

• Funding Opportunity Number: 2020-NIST-PSIAP-FR3D-01

• Assistance Listings (CFDA Numbers): 11.609, Measurement and Engineering Research and Standards

• Dates: Pre-Applications must be received at Grants.gov no later than 11:59 p.m.

Eastern Time, Monday, December 15, 2019. Full-Applications must be received at grants.gov no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday, April 20, 2020.

Applications received after this deadline will not be reviewed or considered. Paper applications will not be accepted.

Applicants should be aware, and factor in their application submission planning, that the Grants.gov system is expected to be closed for routine maintenance at the following times:

From 12:01 A.M. Eastern Time Saturday

To 6:00 A.M. Eastern Time Monday

December 21, 2019 December 23, 2019

January 18, 2020 January 21, 2020

February 15, 2020 February 18, 2020

March 21, 2020 March 23, 2020

Applications cannot be submitted when Grants.gov is closed.

NIST expects to complete its review, selection of successful applicants, and award processing by June 2020. NIST expects the earliest start date for awards under this NOFO to be July 2020.

https://www.grants.gov/

• Application Submission Address: Applications must be submitted using Grants.gov.

• Funding Opportunity Description: The NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program is seeking applicants with expertise in prize competitions to collaborate with technical experts from NIST, industry/academia, and public safety to serve as Prize Administrator in developing and implementing the First Responder 3D Indoor Tracking (FR3D) Prize. The FR3D Prize competition aims to achieve game-changing performance of sensors and systems for localization and tracking of first responders operating indoors in a variety of building environments without any benefit of pre-deployed dedicated infrastructure. The PSIAP seeks to attract experts and innovators from industry and academia to focus on this difficult challenge by offering a monetary prize purse and unique opportunities for live testing and evaluation. Administration of the FR3D Prize will include all aspects of prize development, project management, and execution.

• Anticipated Amounts: In FY2020, NIST anticipates funding a single award up to $4,000,000 per year with a project period of performance of 2 years. Total funding for this program is anticipated to be approximately $8,000,000. This total includes funds for both competition administration and the prize awards for competitors.

• Funding Instrument: Cooperative Agreement

• Eligibility: This NOFO is open to U.S. institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, and for-profit organizations. NIST will not be accepting proposals from foreign entities. Please note that individuals and unincorporated sole proprietors are not considered “non-Federal entities” and are not eligible to apply under this NOFO. Although Federal entities are not eligible to receive funding under this NOFO, they may participate as unfunded collaborators.

• Cost Sharing Requirements: Non-federal cost share is not required for awards issued pursuant to this NOFO. However, voluntary committed cost-share (e.g., in-kind contributions from partners) may be included in project budgets and will be considered as part of the selection factors in Section V.2.b.(3).(c) of this NOFO.

• Public Website, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Webinar: NIST has a public website (https://www.nist.gov/ctl/pscr/psiap-first-responder-3d-indoor-tracking) that provides a “Frequently Asked Questions” page and other information pertaining to this Funding Opportunity. Any amendments to this NOFO will be announced through Grants.gov.

NIST will host a webinar on October 24, 2019 to provide general information regarding this NOFO, offer general guidance on preparing applications, and answer questions. There is no cost to attend the webinar, but participants must https://www.nist.gov/ctl/pscr/psiap-first-responder-3d-indoor-tracking https://www.nist.gov/ctl/pscr/psiap-first-responder-3d-indoor-tracking register in advance. Participation in the webinar is not required and will not be considered in the application review and selection process.

General questions about this opportunity including eligibility requirements, the review and selection process, and the general characteristics of a competitive application may be addressed during the webinar or by e-mail to pscr@nist.gov with ‘FR3D’ in the subject line.

Table of Contents

Program Description Federal Award Information Eligibility Information

Application and Submission Information

Application Review Information

Federal Award Administration Information Federal Awarding Agency Contacts

Other

FULL ANNOUNCEMENT TEXT

Program Description

The statutory authority for the NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program (PSIAP) is 15 U.S.C. § 3706 and 47 U.S.C. § 1443. This competition also incorporates NIST’s prize competition authority under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, 15 U.S.C. § 3719, as amended (“America COMPETES Act”).

The mission of the NIST Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division is to research, develop, and test technologies to improve first responder communications and operations. PSCR created the PSIAP to stimulate external research and development (R&D) activities addressing critical technology gaps identified by stakeholders and to build a public-safety-focused R&D ecosystem with long-lasting impact.

One of the critical technology gaps identified early on by public safety stakeholders was the inability to locate and track first responders while operating indoors. Every year, firefighters die, are seriously injured, or have a ‘near-miss’ because they become lost, separated, or difficult to locate inside buildings or houses. Every day, law enforcement officers enter buildings, often alone, with their precise whereabouts unknown. Both disciplines rely on a mix of training, intuition, and communication to get them in and out of buildings safely, but the ability to locate and track first responders operating indoors under difficult conditions remains a ‘Holy Grail’ for the public safety community.

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2089485911028761101 mailto:pscr@nist.gov?subject=FR3D

To address this gap, the PSIAP is seeking to enter into a cooperative agreement with an organization possessing expertise in prize competitions to collaborate with technical experts from NIST, industry/academia, and public safety to serve as Prize Administrator (PA) and be responsible for developing and implementing the First Responder 3D Indoor Tracking (FR3D) Prize. The FR3D Prize aims to achieve game-changing performance of sensors and systems for localization and tracking of first responders operating indoors in a variety of building environments without any benefit of pre-deployed dedicated infrastructure. The PSIAP seeks to attract experts and innovators from industry and academia to focus on this difficult challenge by offering a monetary prize purse and unique opportunities for live testing and evaluation. Administration of the FR3D Prize will include all aspects of prize development, project management, and execution.

A. Background and Objectives

The intricately related fields of indoor mapping, localization, and navigation are all experiencing rapid growth as industries like retail, health care, entertainment, logistics, and manufacturing, along with giant technology companies and network operators, seek to understand where people and inventory are at any moment to deliver optimized location-based services. Though people spend an average of 87% of their time indoors, an indoor equivalent to the ubiquitous Global Positioning System (GPS) has yet to emerge. In the meantime, proprietary solutions based on a variety of technologies are emerging in a race to inventory the indoor world and capture market share, resulting in a fractured market.

Even with this growth, a solution that meets the challenging requirements of first responders has yet to arise. First responders need indoor positioning systems that are extremely accurate; ‘infrastructure-free’, i.e. not dependent on pre-deployed infrastructure (e.g., Wi-Fi access points or Bluetooth beacons) or surveys (e.g. RF or geomagnetic fingerprinting); can be readily integrated into daily operations; and will work in any type of building, while having the ability to withstand the harsh environments found in fires and other public safety incidents. Given the constraints of typical public safety budgets, these solutions must also be affordable. Unfortunately, these requirements are far beyond those of current commercial applications.

To initially address this gap, the PSIAP made eight financial assistance awards in 2017 for research and development focused on the first responder use case1.

Through these awards and additional technology scouting a few trends have been identified: 1) inertial-based systems are attracting significantly more attention, largely driven by their pairing with visual sensors for new use cases in augmented and virtual reality, and autonomous systems; 2) while the inertial sensors themselves are improving, new approaches to sensor processing, largely fueled by machine learning, 1 For more information on these awards, see https://www.nist.gov/ctl/pscr/psiap-2017-location-based-services.

https://www.nist.gov/ctl/pscr/psiap-2017-location-based-services https://www.nist.gov/ctl/pscr/psiap-2017-location-based-services are advancing much faster; 3) map-matching techniques optimized for indoor localization (as opposed to GPS-based road navigation) when combined with inertial and other sensors offer a potential 2-10X improvement; and 4) to be successful for public safety applications, systems will need to employ a multi-sensor fusion approach and be highly optimized to take advantage of first responder behavior, equipment, and operations.

Left on it its own, it is possible that industry could eventually produce adequate solutions in 15 – 20 years. However, the PSIAP believes that it can rapidly accelerate this timeline through a prize competition that will incentivize, captivate, and challenge the field to pivot towards developing indoor positioning solutions built for first responders. The ultimate goal for the FR3D Prize is to demonstrate indoor localization and tracking of first responders within 1-meter accuracy in a variety of buildings without any pre-deployed infrastructure. This level of performance, though ambitious, is the requirement given to PSCR by the first responder community and will be considered, along with current state of the art, when establishing thresholds for prize awards.

From the PSIAP’s perspective, a successful FR3D competition would also: a) result in game-changing performance of indoor localization and tracking capabilities for first responders; b) benchmark performance of best-in-class sensors and algorithms and identify the most promising technologies for future investment; c) create valuable datasets to enable follow-on research; and d) increase the visibility of the problem to attract additional investment for top performers to further develop and scale their technology for widespread use.

B. Prize Competition

The PA will, in collaboration with NIST, develop and implement a prize competition that considers the trends identified through PSCR’s initial research activities and meets the objectives described above. While there are many ways to structure the competition, PSCR believes that a prize competition design based on the ‘build prototypes and launch pilots’2 model will be the most effective. Other organizations have run prize challenges related to indoor localization in the past and are typically held in conjunction with technical conferences. These competitions3 are well-run but tend to be more ‘academic’ in nature and offer small prize payouts, e.g. $1,000.

Beyond offering a prize purse several orders of magnitude larger, the FR3D Prize will be unique from these challenges in several other respects, including a focus on: 1) infrastructure-free approaches; 2) realistic first responder movements and scenarios;

2 The craft of incentive prize design: lessons from the public sector. Deloitte University Press.

https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/topics/social-impact/the-craft-of-incentive-prize-design.html 3 Examples include the International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN) and the Microsoft Indoor Localization Competition held in conjunction with the International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN).

https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/topics/social-impact/the-craft-of-incentive-prize-design.html

3) and novel sensor suites and algorithms that are optimized for first responder equipment, behavior, and operations.

The PA will plan and execute live events where active first responders, equipped with the appropriate hardware, will go through different operational scenarios to test an individual competitor’s solution. Note that because PSCR expects many competitors to employ ‘cooperative localization’ techniques, i.e. jointly estimating the position of each user based on data from other users, each scenario will require multiple first responders performing a coordinated scenario at the same time. All test events shall take place in facilities and locations to be arranged for by the PA. Based on PSCR’s research, we believe these facilities should be representative of (at a minimum): 1) a three-story detached home with a full basement completely below-grade; 2) a large commercial/industrial facility; and 3) a large two or three story high-school. The reasoning behind these facilities is that the first two are typical structures where firefighter fatalities and near-misses have occurred due to the lack of an indoor tracking capability, while the third is a high priority for law enforcement responding to active shooter incidents. Effects, props, and actors may be used to heighten the sense of reality during the testing, however their effects on the test methodology should be well understood. In addition, the PA will handle all the logistics planning and management to accommodate all the competitors, event participants, media, and invited guests from government and industry.

In order to study the potential impact that possession of building maps could have on indoor tracking of first responders during an operation, the PA will need to obtain both 2D floorplans and 3D point clouds of each event facility for use by competitors.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to consider a test design that will enable the comparison of performance achieved with and without these maps.

Given the unique opportunity that the FR3D events will present to collect valuable data, applicants are strongly encouraged to consider a test design that will enable or require raw data from each individual sensor and solution to be recorded. This data could be used for future research or possibly as inputs to a second ‘track’ in the competition focused exclusively on identifying the best algorithms that can take advantage of the raw sensor data. The applicant must specifically address how these, or any other datasets created during the competition will be collected, organized, and disseminated to the research community in the Data Management Plan (see Section IV.3.a.11).

PSCR expects the PA to regularly collaborate with subject matter experts from industry, academia, and public safety throughout all phases of the competition. The PA will be responsible for this collaboration, however PSCR may facilitate making connections to key public safety stakeholders who have been actively involved in various efforts related to this topic.

The PA, in collaboration with NIST, will develop competition criteria during the prize design phase. It is PSCR’s intent to rely on the PA’s expertise to partly or completely develop these criteria to ensure a successful outcome from the competition.

Competition criteria are the criteria against which applicants and competitors will be evaluated at various stages to ensure that winners’ solutions will meet the objectives of the FR3D Prize. Competition criteria may be both performance-based and market-based, and examples include accuracy, latency, availability, continuity, size, weight, power, cost, prior performance, potential improvement, feasibility, and potential for scaling the technology. The PA must consult ISO/IEC 18305:2016 Test and Evaluation of Localization and Tracking Systems when developing performance-based criteria.

PSCR expects that budgeted costs for prize administration, i.e. total cost to execute the competition excluding the prize awards, should not exceed 30% of the total of this financial assistance award; however, this is not a strict requirement. Applicants should be sure to justify the balance of administrative vs. award costs in the budget narrative.

The PA, in collaboration with NIST, will determine the distribution and amount of prize awards. PSCR anticipates that the awards will be structured in a way that encourages competitors to continue developing their solutions as they advance through multiple phases for a chance to compete for a grand prize. In addition, the PSIAP anticipates the PA will successfully pursue supplementary financial/resource support and non-monetary incentives to attract high-quality competitors. Examples of non-monetary incentives could include mentorship, collaboration, and exposure to potential investors.

The PA will be responsible for administering the monetary awards to competitors. If any budgeted funding is not needed or used, or no competition participant is eligible for grand prize award(s) (e.g., no competitor exceeds a performance metric threshold(s) during the final test and evaluation stage), the unused funds will not be considered reimbursable costs and will be de-obligated from this financial assistance award and returned to NIST.

The PA, in collaboration with NIST, will develop the competition rules. The PA will publish the rules and will be responsible for any updates to the rules. The PA will secure, coordinate, and compensate (if applicable) the judging panels for evaluation;

the PA may propose using NIST personnel to participate in the judging panels where appropriate. If necessary, NIST will facilitate invitations for key public safety stakeholders who have been actively involved in various efforts related to this topic to participate as judges.

The PA will determine the schedule and serve as project manager of the entire competition and all associated tasks. The PA will develop a marketing and outreach plan to attract competitors and create exposure for the event.

The PA will provide the necessary qualified personnel, facilities planning, on-site coordination and logistics, supplementary equipment and supplies, services, subcontractors, and related administrative and information technology to support the implementation of the competition stages.

The PA will be responsible for ensuring that all aspects of the competition are conducted in accordance with the prize authority established in the America COMPETES Act.

The PA will be required to attend the annual Public Safety Broadband Stakeholder Meetings held each year during the term of the award to meet with stakeholders and present key plans, results, and outcomes to date.

Federal Award Information

Funding Instrument The funding instruments used in this program will be a cooperative agreement.

The nature of NIST’s “substantial involvement” will generally include collaboration with the recipient in developing and executing the approved scope of work, in accordance with 2 CFR § 200.24.

Multi-Year Funding Policy When an application for a multi-year award is approved, funding will usually be provided for only the first year of the project. If a project is selected for funding, NIST has no obligation to provide any additional funding in connection with that award. Continuation of an award to increase funding or extend the period of performance is at the sole discretion of NIST. Continued funding will be contingent upon satisfactory performance, continued relevance to the mission and priorities of the Public Safety Communications Research Division, and the availability of funds.

Under this NOFO, NIST may elect to fully fund awards or to fund awards in accordance with the Multi-Year Funding Policy.

Funding Availability In FY2020, NIST anticipates funding a single award up to $4,000,000 per year with a project period of performance of 2 years. Total funding for this program is anticipated to be approximately $8,000,000. This total includes funds for both competition administration and the prize awards for competitors.

Eligibility Information

Eligible Applicants This NOFO is open to U.S. institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, and for-profit organizations. NIST will not be accepting proposals from foreign entities. Please note that individuals and unincorporated sole proprietors are not considered “non-Federal entities” and are not eligible to apply under this NOFO. Although Federal entities are not eligible to receive funding under this NOFO, they may participate as unfunded collaborators.

Cost Sharing or Matching

Non-federal cost share is not required for awards issued pursuant to this NOFO.

However, voluntary committed cost-share (e.g., in-kind contributions from partners) may be included in project budgets and will be considered as part of the selection factors in Section V.2.b.(3)(c) of this NOFO.

Application and Submission Information

Address to Request Application Package The application package is available at grants.gov under Funding Opportunity Number 2020-NIST-PSIAP-FR3D-01.

Content and Form of Pre-Application Submission – Pre-Application

Package

SF-424 (R&R), Application for Federal Assistance The SF-424 (R&R) must be signed by an authorized representative of the applicant organization.

For SF-424 (R&R), Items 5, 14, and 19, use the Zip Code + 4 format (##### - ####) when addresses are called for.

For SF-424 (R&R), Item 17, the list of certifications and assurances is contained in the SF-424B (item b.(3) below).

SF-424 (R&R), Item 18. If the SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities form (item b.(6) below) is applicable, attach it to field 18.

SF-424 (R&R), Item 20. Attach the Pre-Application Narrative to this item.

Instructions for filling in the SF-424 (R&R) can be found in the 2020-NIST- PSIAP-FR3D-01 Application Instructions document found on Grants.gov, as well as at Instructions SF-424 (R&R), Application for Federal Assistance.

http://www.grants.gov/ https://w3auth.nist.gov/file/365086

Pre-Application Narrative A word-processed document of no more than five (5) pages including graphs, charts, or other data. The Pre-Application Narrative should describe the proposed project and degree of alignment with the goals of this NOFO. Enough information should be provided to address the Pre-Application evaluation criteria (see Section V.1.b. of this NOFO). Applicants are required to describe succinctly:

The proposed approach to developing and implementing the prize competition to meet the goals of this NOFO;

The key shortcomings, limitations, and challenges associated with the proposed approach;

The potential impact that the proposed project would have on indoor localization for first responders, as well as stimulating additional R&D and market investment; and

The qualifications, experience, and capabilities of the applicant as it applies to executing prize competitions or technology demonstrations similar in magnitude, complexity, and risk.

Content and Form of Full Application Submission

Required Forms and Documents

SF-424 Research & Related (R&R), Application for Federal Assistance

The SF-424 (R&R) must be signed by an authorized representative of the applicant organization.

For SF-424 (R&R), Items 5, 14, and 19, use the Zip Code + 4 format (##### -####) when addresses are called for.

For SF-424 (R&R), Item 17, the list of certifications and assurances is contained in the SF-424B (item 3 below).

SF-424 (R&R), Item 18. If the SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities form (item (6) below) is applicable, attach it to field 18.

Instructions for filling in the SF-424 (R&R) can be found in the 2020-NIST- PSIAP-FR3D-01 Application Instructions document found on Grants.gov, as well as at Instructions SF-424 (R&R), Application for Federal Assistance.

Research & Related Budget (Total Fed + Non-Fed)

The budget should reflect anticipated expenses for the full term of the project, considering all potential cost increases, including cost of living https://w3auth.nist.gov/file/365086 adjustments.

The budget should be detailed in these categories:

A. Senior/Key Person;

B. Other Personnel;

C. Equipment Description;

D. Travel;

E. Participant/Trainee Support Costs;

F. Other Direct Costs;

G. Direct Costs (automatically generated);

H. Indirect Costs;

I. Total Direct and Indirect Costs (automatically generated);

J. Fee (not relevant to this competition);

K. Total Costs and Fee (automatically generated);

L. Budget Narrative and Justification document (item (8) below) should be attached to field L.

A separate detailed R&R Budget must be completed for each budget period during the proposed award (e.g. annual basis). To add additional budget periods (e.g. year 2), click “Add Period” embedded at the end of the form.

Instructions for completing the Research & Related Budget (Total Fed + Non- Fed) form can be found in the 2020-NIST-PSIAP-FR3D-01 Application Instructions document on Grants.gov.

SF-424B, Assurances – Non-Construction Programs

The SF-424B is required for all applicants that have not updated their System for Award Management (SAM.gov) entity registration since February 2, 2019 to include the Federal financial assistance certifications and representations (certs and reps). If an applicant has updated their SAM.gov entity registration since February 2, 2019 to include the certifications and representations, then the SF-424B is not required.

CD-511, Certification Regarding Lobbying

Enter “2020-NIST-PSIAP-FR3D-01” in the Award Number field. Enter the title of the application, or an abbreviation of that title, in the Project Name field.

Research and Related Other Project Information

Answer the highlighted questions and use this form to attach the Project Narrative (item (7) below), the Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (item (9) below), and the Data Management Plan (item (11) below). Instructions for completing the Research and Related Other Project Information can be found in the 2020-NIST-PSIAP-FR3D-01 Application Instructions document on Grants.gov, as well as at Instructions Research and Related Other Project Information.

https://w3auth.nist.gov/file/365096 https://w3auth.nist.gov/file/365096

Please note that the Project Summary/Abstract field (line #7), which has a place to attach an optional Project Summary/Abstract, is not relevant to this competition. However, to avoid getting a validation error in grants.gov, applicants will be required to attach a blank page to this field. Applicants are not required to write or provide a Project Summary/Abstract, but they will be required to attach a blank form for the submission or else the application will be rejected by grants.gov.

SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities (if applicable)

Project Narrative

The Project Narrative is a document that is responsive to the program description (see Section I. of this NOFO) and the evaluation criteria (see Section V.2.b. of this NOFO). Any material provided beyond the specified page limits (see Section IV.3.c.(4) of this NOFO) will be redacted and not provided to the reviewers. The page limits include all tables, charts, graphs, figures, maps, photos, graphics, and citations. Resumes and CVs do not count toward page limits. Applicants should consider the weighting of each of the evaluation criteria (see Section V.2.b. of this NOFO) when preparing the Project Narrative. The Project Narrative must contain the following three sections:

Cover page The cover page must include:

(i) The name, address, and contact information of the applicant institution, partner organizations, and the principal investigator;

(ii) The project title; and

(iii) Any statements regarding confidentiality.

Table of contents

Project Description This is a detailed description of the proposed prize competition and potential impacts. This section should include a detailed description of the:

(i) Approach to developing and implementing the prize competition to meet the goals of this NOFO. This description should include details related to competition design and rules, competition criteria and performance metrics, monetary awards, marketing and outreach, event management, information sharing and management, and close-out.

(ii) Approach to collaborating with NIST and subject matter experts from both industry/academia and public safety to develop and implement the prize competition to meet the goals of this NOFO.

(iii) Expected outcomes and short-term impacts of the prize competition.

(iv) Expected long-term impacts beyond the prize competition to include stimulating additional R&D and market investment.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Technical Merit evaluation criteria (see Section V.2.b.(1).(a) of this NOFO).

Project Execution This is a detailed description of the plan to execute the prize competition.

Applicants should note that all information regarding costs are to be addressed in the Budget Narrative (see Section IV.3.a.(8) of this NOFO).

This section should include:

(i) A summary of the overall approach to executing the prize competition and how the schedule, deliverables, milestones, and risk management will maximize the applicant's chances of achieving the goals of this NOFO.

(ii) A detailed project schedule (Gantt chart of similar) for the entire prize competition.

(iii) A deliverable summary table identifying all deliverables, a description of each, and due dates.

(iv) A milestone summary table identifying all milestones, a description of each, due dates, and clear, measurable criteria to verify milestone completion.

(v) A risk management table identifying major risks and key performance indicators during each phase of the prize competition, and their corresponding mitigation strategies.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Project Execution evaluation criteria: (see Section V.2.b.(1).(b) of this NOFO).

Qualifications This is a detailed description of the applicant's relevant qualifications and experience for successfully designing and implementing the proposed prize competition. This section should include:

(i) Qualifications of the individuals, teams, and organizations that will be executing or supporting the proposed prize competition relative to the program goals, including access to the equipment, facilities, and resources necessary to accomplish the proposed objectives.

(ii) Demonstrated success executing prize competitions or technology demonstrations similar in scope and magnitude to the proposed project, including any examples of working with a diverse cross-section of experts from across academia, industry, and the public sector to create a clear and concise plan that achieved high-reaching goals.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Qualifications evaluation criteria (see Section V.2.b.(1).(c) of this NOFO).

Budget Narrative and Justification There is no set format for the Budget Narrative and Justification; however, further explanation must be provided for the specific cost categories and line items identified in the Instructions Research & Related Budget (Total Fed + Non-Fed) – Budget, as well as any other information you deem necessary for NIST’s consideration. The Budget Justification or Budget Narrative must be attached to the Research & Related Budget (Total Fed + Non-Fed).

The written justification should include the necessity and the basis for the cost. Proposed funding levels must be consistent with the project scope, and only allowable costs should be included in the budget. Applicants should use the Budget Narrative and Justification section to clearly indicate the cost effectiveness and value of the proposal in terms of meeting the goals of this NOFO. Information on cost allowability is available in the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards at 2 C.F.R. Part 200, which will apply to awards in this program.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Project Execution evaluation criteria (see Section V.2.b.(1).(b) of this NOFO).

Information needed for each category is as follows:

Senior/Key Person At a minimum, the budget justification should include the following: name, job title, commitment of effort on the proposed project in terms of average number of hours per week or percentage of time, salary rate, total direct charges on the proposed project, description of the role of the individual on the proposed project and the work to be performed. Resumes or CVs may be included for Senior/Key Persons.

Fringe benefits should be identified separately from salaries and wages and based on rates determined by organizational policy. The items included in the fringe benefit rate (e.g. health insurance, parking, etc.)

https://w3auth.nist.gov/file/365091 https://w3auth.nist.gov/file/365091 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=bd58a13de66200ce25c4fa5f6fdbf197&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=bd58a13de66200ce25c4fa5f6fdbf197&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=bd58a13de66200ce25c4fa5f6fdbf197&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5 should not be charged under another cost category.

Other Personnel Data is requested at the project role level, and not at the individual level for Other Personnel. The budget justification should include the following:

job title, commitment of effort on the proposed project in terms of average number of hours per week or percentage of time, salary rate, total direct charges on the proposed project, description the role of the position on the proposed project and the work to be performed. Resumes or CVs may be included for Other Personnel.

Fringe benefits should be identified separately from salaries and wages and based on rates determined by organizational policy. The items included in the fringe benefit rate (e.g. health insurance, parking, etc.)

should not be charged under another cost category.

Equipment Description Equipment is defined as an item of property that has an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more (unless the organization has established lower levels) and an expected service life of more than one year. The budget justification should list each piece of equipment, the cost, and a description of how it will be used and why it is necessary to the successful completion of the proposed project. Please note that any general use equipment (computers, etc.) charged directly to the award should be allocated to the award according to expected usage on the project. Applicants should provide at least two (2) quotes, if available, for equipment costing $25,000 or more. If two (2) quotes are not available, please provide a statement as to why two (2) quotes are not available. Any items that do not meet the threshold for equipment can be included under the Other Direct Costs section, in the Research & Related Budget (Total Fed + Non-Fed) form (see Section IV.3.a.(2)).

Travel For all travel costs, required by the recipient to complete the project, including attendance at any relevant conferences, the budget justification for travel should include the following: destination; names or number of people traveling; dates and/or duration; mode of transportation, lodging and subsistence rates; and description of how the travel is directly related to the proposed project. For travel that is yet to be determined, please provide best estimates based on prior experience. If a destination is not known, an approximate amount may be used with the assumptions given for the location of the meeting.

As described in the Program Description (see Section I. of this NOFO), the PA will be required to attend the PSCR Public Safety Broadband Stakeholder Meetings (PSBSM) to meet with stakeholders and present key plans, results, and outcomes of their work to date. The PSBSM are held each summer in the continental United States and are typically three days in length. The dates and locations of the PSBSM for 2020 – 2022 have not been determined at this time. Applicants should factor in the cost for attending this event in their budget narrative and SF-424A form.

Participant/Trainee Support Costs Participant support costs are stipends, subsistence allowances, travel, and registration fees paid to or on behalf of participants or trainees, who are not employees of your organization, for conferences or training projects.

The budget justification should indicate the names or number of participants or trainees, a description and calculation of costs per person, a description and date of the event, and a description of why the cost is necessary for the successful completion of the proposed project.

Other Direct Costs For costs that do not easily fit into the other cost categories, please list the cost, and the breakdown of the total costs by quantity or unit of cost.

Include the necessity of the cost for the completion of the proposed project. Only allowable costs can be charged to the award.

Each subaward or contractual cost should be treated as a separate item in the Other Direct Costs category. Describe the services to be provided and the necessity of the subaward or contract to the successful performance of the proposed project. Contracts are for obtaining goods and services.

Subawardees perform part of the project scope of work. For each subaward, applicants must provide budget detail justifying the cost of the work performed on the project.

Prize awards to be given to the competition winners are considered Other Direct Costs. Please provide amount of each proposed prize and justification of the amounts being proposed in this section.

Indirect Costs Commonly referred to as Facilities & Administrative Costs, Indirect Costs are defined as costs incurred by the applicant organization that cannot otherwise be directly assigned or attributed to a specific project. For more details, see Section IV.3.a.(9) of this NOFO.

Indirect Cost Rate Agreement

If indirect costs are included in the proposed budget, provide a copy of the approved negotiated agreement if this rate was negotiated with a cognizant Federal audit agency. If the rate was not established by a cognizant Federal audit agency, provide a statement to this effect. If the successful applicant includes indirect costs in the budget and has not established an indirect cost rate with a cognizant Federal audit agency, the applicant will be required to obtain such a rate in accordance with the Department of Commerce Financial Assistance Standard Terms and Conditions dated April 30, 2019.

Alternatively, in accordance with 2 C.F.R. § 200.414(f), applicants that have never received a negotiated indirect cost rate may elect to charge indirect costs to an award pursuant to a de minimis rate of 10 percent of modified total direct costs (MTDC), in which case a negotiated indirect cost rate agreement is not required. Applicants proposing a 10 percent de minimis rate pursuant to 2 C.F.R. § 200.414(f) should note this election as part of the budget portion of the application.

Letters of Commitment Letters of Commitment must be submitted by all funded and unfunded entities that will have an active role in executing the activities outlined in the Project Narrative. Letters of Commitment must address the level of participation, qualifications of the personnel who will be actively involved, and how successful completion of this project would positively impact their profession or community. Letters of Commitment must also specify any voluntary committed cost-share, including the specific services and/or products to be used in the project. Letters of Commitment must be signed by an individual with authority to legally bind the organization to its commitment.

Letters of Commitment will be evaluated in accordance with the Qualifications evaluation criteria (see Section V.2.b.(1).(c) of this NOFO).

Letters of commitment do not count against the specified page limits.

Data Management Plan

Consistent with NIST Policy 5700.004, Managing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research, and NIST Order 5701.005, Managing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research, applicants must include a Data Management Plan (DMP).

The DMP is a supplementary document of not more than four pages that must include, at a minimum, a summary of proposed activities that are expected to generate data, a summary of the types of data expected to be generated by the identified activities, a plan for storage and maintenance of

4 https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017/05/09/Final-P-5700.pdf 5 https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017/05/09/Final-O-5701_0.pdf http://www.osec.doc.gov/oam/grants_management/policy/documents/Department%20of%20Commerce%20Standard%20Terms%20Conditions%2030%20April%202019.pdf http://www.osec.doc.gov/oam/grants_management/policy/documents/Department%20of%20Commerce%20Standard%20Terms%20Conditions%2030%20April%202019.pdf https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017/05/09/Final-P-5700.pdf https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017/05/09/Final-O-5701_0.pdf the data expected to be generated by the identified activities, and a plan describing whether and how data generated by the identified activities will be reviewed and made available to the public. As long as the DMP meets these NIST requirements, it may take the form specified by the applicant’s institution or some other entity (e.g., the National Science Foundation6 or the National Institutes of Health7).

All applications for activities that will generate scientific data using NIST funding are required to adhere to a DMP or explain why data sharing and/or preservation are not within the scope of the project.

For the purposes of the DMP, NIST adopted the definition of “research data” at 2 C.F.R. § 200.315(e)(3).

Reasonable costs for data preservation and access may be included in the application.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Project Execution evaluation criteria (see Section V.2.b.(1).(b) of this NOFO).

Subaward Budget Form

The Research & Related Subaward Budget Attachment Form is required if sub-recipients and contractors are included in the application budget.

Instructions for completing subaward budget forms are available by visiting the R&R Family Section of the Grants.gov Forms Repository and scrolling down to the R & R Subaward Budget Attachment(s) Form and selecting “Instructions.”

Current and Pending Support Form

Any application that includes investigators, researchers, and key personnel must identify all sources of current and potential funding, including this proposal. Any current project support (e.g. Federal, state, local, public or private foundations, etc.) must be listed on this form. The proposed project and all other projects or activities requiring a portion of time of the Principal Investigator (PI), co-PI, and key personnel must be included, even if no salary support is received. The total award amount for the entire award period covered, including indirect costs, must be shown as well as the number of person-months per year to be devoted to the project, regardless of the source of support. Similar information must be provided for all proposals already submitted or that are being submitted concurrently to other potential funders.

6 http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp 7 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_sharing/data_sharing_guidance.htm https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=596eacc8657a4ad6ab53952d9c674bc4&mc=true&node=se2.1.200_1315&rgn=div8 https://www.grants.gov/forms/r-r-family.html https://www.grants.gov/forms/forms-repository.html http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_sharing/data_sharing_guidance.htm

Applicants must complete the Current and Pending Support Form, using multiple forms as necessary to account for all activity for each individual identified in the PI, co-PI and key personnel roles. A separate form should be used for each identified individual.

Applicants must download the Current and Pending Support Form from the NIST website. Reference the guidance provided as it contains information to assist with accurately completing the form.

Attachment of Required Documents

Items IV.3.a.(1) through IV.3.a.(5) above are part of the standard application package in Grants.gov and can be completed through the download application process.

Item IV.3.a.(6), the SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities form, is an optional application form which is part of the standard application package in Grants.gov. If item IV.3.a.(6), the SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities form is applicable to this proposal, attach it to field 18 of the SF-424 (R&R), Application for Federal Assistance.

Item IV.3.a.(7), the Project Narrative, should be attached to field 8 (Project Narrative) of the Research and Related Other Project Information form by clicking on “Add Attachment”.

Item IV.3.a.(8), the Budget Narrative and Justification, should be attached to field L (Budget Justification) of the Research and Related Budget (Total Fed + Total Non-Fed) form by clicking on “Add Attachment”.

Items IV.3.a.(9), the Indirect Cost Rate Agreement; IV.3.a.(10), Letters of Commitment; and IV.3.a.(11), the Data Management Plan, must be completed and attached by clicking on “Add Attachments” found in item 12 (Other Attachments) of the Research and Related Other Project Information form.

Item IV.3.a.(12), the Subaward Budget Form(s), if applicable to the submission, should be attached to the Research & Related Subaward Budget (Total Fed + Non-Fed) Attachment(s) Form in the application package.

Item IV.3.a.(13), the Current and Pending Support Form, multiple forms as necessary to account for all activity for each individual identified in the PI, co-PI and key personnel roles. A separate form should be used for each identified individual.

https://www.nist.gov/oaam/grants-management-division/current-and-pending-support

Following these directions will create zip files which permit transmittal of the documents electronically via Grants.gov.

Applicants should carefully follow specific Grants.gov instructions at www.grants.gov to ensure the attachments will be accepted by the Grants.gov system. A receipt from Grants.gov indicates only that an application was transferred to a system. It does not provide details concerning whether all attachments (or how many attachments) transferred successfully. Applicants using Grants.gov will receive a series of e-mail messages over a period of up to two business days before learning whether a Federal agency’s electronic system has received its application.

Applicants are strongly advised to use Grants.gov’s “Download Submitted Forms and Applications” option to check that their application’s required attachments were contained in their submission.

After submitting the application, check the status of your application here: check application status.

If any, or all, of the required attachments are absent from the submission, follow the attachment directions found above, resubmit the application, and check again for the presence of the required attachments.

If the directions found at the Grants.gov help page are not effective, please contact the Grants.gov Help Desk immediately. If calling from within the United States or from a U.S. territory, please call 800-518-4726. If calling from a place outside the United States or a U.S. territory, please call 606-545-5035. E-mails should be addressed to support@grants.gov. Assistance from the Grants.gov Help Desk will be available around the clock every day, with the exception of Federal holidays. Help Desk service will resume at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time the day after Federal holidays.

Applicants can track their submission in the Grants.gov system by following the procedures at the Grants.gov…