ERGI Academy Q&A Batch 4.docx

ERGI Academy Funding Opportunity No. SFOP0007190 Questions and Answers Batch 4 Updated 8/3/2020

Question #1 - First, your proposal submission due date, August 9, falls on a Sunday and grants.gov submissions are handled by university staff that are off during weekends. Will it be possible to move the deadline to a weekday, maybe August 10 or later?

Answer #1 - Unfortunately, there will be no extensions on the due date for this Funding Opportunity.

Question #2 - Your NOFO currently asks for a minimum of 6 training sessions per year. We will have a few consultants from outside our university to participate in this project along with a few of our faculty experts. To prepare a meaningful budget, we will need a few important pieces of information.

Answer #2 - Please review the Notice of Funding carefully - it specifies 6 training sessions over the entire Period of Performance, not annually.

Question #3 - How many days of a short course you are expecting for each batch of delegates? Short-course duration will decide the number of weeks we have to have the Consultants and our university subject matter experts to be budgeted each year. Is 2 to 4 days of short-course per topic reasonable duration for the training?

Question #3 - Per the Notice of Funding, the length of the short courses is not specified beyond that they will be tailored to each delegation and are intended to be short. It will be necessary for the applicant to estimate a duration for budgeting purposes.

Question #4 - How much should we budget for the foreign delegates' travel to the US? Any indication of the number of visitors and their countries would be of tremendous help in determining a specific amount for the travel budget. I learned from your ERGI.tools website that ERGI consists of governments of Australia, Botswana, Canada and Peru. Can we expect one delegate group from each country? The cost for visitors from Canada vs. Australia and similarly delegates of 5 or 10 would be very different. I am not trying to ask you the same question that I had asked you before. But if you cannot share how many people are expected, which country they are coming from and for how many days they will be here for the project, please let me know how much funds we should allocate each year in the project budget for their travel/hotel. We assume all foreign travel will be economy class

Answer #4 - Per U.S. law, yes, all foreign travel will be economy class. The countries you highlighted are the ERGI Founding Partner countries and not the countries that will be attending the ERGI Academy (especially, as intended, there is no need for these countries to undertake capacity building in extractives governance - they all have advanced mining sectors; additionally, several are high income countries that are not foreign assistance eligible). Per the Notice of Funding, the specific delegations will be determined in consultation with ENR once the project starts. Therefore, I'm unable to discuss what countries will attend the ERGI Academy at this point. I suggest applicants think through what countries might benefit and use those as estimates for travel budgeting purposes, to include a range of low to high travel costs. In terms of delegation size, the Notice of Funding does not stipulate a size, but for budgeting purposes, applicants will need to estimate a group size. For educational purposes, these groups are not intended to be large.

Question #5 - ERGI lists lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite as the energy resource minerals. We don't have any nickel or graphite mines in the US. So can we plan for mine visits for Cobalt and Lithium mines only?? We can show them gold/silver/copper mines, in addition, if those are acceptable mines for you.

Answer #5 - ERGI's list of energy resource minerals is more expansive than what you've indicated, and I encourage applicants to think broadly, as the Notice of Funding mentions, about all commodities that will be necessary for the energy transition (for example, supply chains for solar panels, EVs, batteries, wind turbines, etc.). Additionally, not all mining processes are commodity specific, and capacity building in certain subjects will be able at the mines you specify (though, of course, per the Notice of Funding, the site visits should be tailored to the geology and goals of the visiting delegations).

Question #6 - The NOFO for training lists the following nine (but not limited) topics. Do we need to arrange a training program covering all the topics listed?

1. data acquisition,

2. management,

3. mine reclamation and environmental management,

4. workforce development,

5. fiscal terms and contracts,

6. mineral licensing and leasing,

7. regulatory enforcement,

8. health and safety standards,

9. social license to operate

Answer #6 - Yes, applicants will need to demonstrate expertise and staffing in all of the above topics, so that delegation visits can be tailored accordingly.

We are also happy to consider additional topic areas.