amendment-ccr (4).docx

Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs NOTICE: For New Organizations Currently Not Registered in the Central Contracting Registry (CCR) during the period May 24 – June 4, 2012

SUMMARY:

The United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, announces a revision to the following Request for Grant Proposals (RFGPs) posted on its website and on Grants.gov to allow new organizations that are not currently registered in the CCR to submit proposals electronically via e-mail to the following address: ECAproposalsubmit@state.gov This revision is due to the unexpected migration of CCR to a new System for Award Management (SAM) taking place in the coming weeks. Again, this revision only applies to organizations that are currently not registered in the Central Contracting Registry (CCR) during the period May 24 – June 4, 2012 and applies to the following RFGPs:

1.) U.S. – Poland Parliamentary Youth Exchange Program – Reference number – ECA/PE/C/PY-12-04 – Closing Date: May 24, 2012;

2.) Ngwang Choephel Fellows Program – Reference number- ECA/PE/C/PF-12-54 – Closing Date: May 25, 2012;

3.) FY-2013 Critical Languages Scholarships for Intensive Summer Institutes – Reference number – ECA/A/E–13-01/O-Y– Closing Date: May 25, 2012;

4.) Workshops for Youth Leaders in Teaching English and Social Media and Civil Society – Reference number – ECA/PE/C/PY-12-48 – Closing Date: May 31, 2012;

5.) Youth Leadership Program – Reference number- ECA/PE/C/PY–12-59 – Closing Date: May 31, 2012;

6.) Empower Programs – Reference number – ECA/PE/C-12-52 – Closing Date: May 31, 2012;

7.) International Airport Arrival and Departure Program – Reference Number - ECA/PE/V–13-04-OY-B – Closing Date: June 1, 2012;

8.) Global Connections and Exchange Program: U.S. – Australia Virtual Environmental Partnership – Reference Number ECA/PE/C/PY– 12-55–Closing Date: June 4, 2012;

9.) Global Connections and Exchange Programs: Global Connections 2.0 and Global Connections Afghanistan – Reference Number – ECA/PE/C/PY-12-56–Closing Date: June 4, 2012.

BACKGROUND:

As stated in all RFGPs, a current Central Contractor Registration (CCR) is required in order to apply for all Federal Financial Assistance Awards (grants or cooperative agreements) via the Grants.gov web portal. We have recently been advised that the CCR system will be migrated into a new System for Award Management, or SAM beginning next week. Please note: CCR will stop accepting data at 11:59 pm on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. No new registrations can be submitted after that time. Any registrations in process will be on hold until SAM goes live the morning of Tuesday, May 29, 2012. CCR will not process any new registrations on Thursday (May 24, 2012), Friday (May 25, 2012), over that weekend, or on Memorial Day Monday (May 28, 2012). If a new registrant who is trying to apply for a grant on Grants.gov is not active in CCR by Wednesday (May 23, 2012), their active status will not appear in Grants.gov prior to SAM going live on Tuesday, May 29, 2012.

FOR NEW APPLICANT ORGANIZATIONS ONLY:

Due to the proposed migration of the CCR, if you are a new organization applying for ECA Federal Financial Assistance Awards for the first time you will be temporarily eligible to submit your applications to the following specially-designated mailbox via email in lieu of submitting via Grants.gov at ECAproposalsubmit@state.gov

Please be mindful that all other details outlined in the original RFGPs still apply (deadline date, funding amounts, eligibility, etc.). If you are a currently CCR-registered organization you will NOT be allowed to submit to this email address. You MUST submit through Grants.gov as outlined in the above RFGPs or your application will be deemed ineligible.

HOW WILL THE TRANSITION IMPACT CURRENT REGISTRAINTS?

If a current registrant’s record was set to expire between May 15, 2012 and July 15, 2012, CCR will be extending their expiration date by 90 days. They will receive an e-mail notification from CCR with a new expiration date once the extension is complete. They will receive standard e-mail reminders once SAM goes live to update their record based on this new expiration date. Those e-mail notifications will come from SAM.

For more information on the transition and on SAM in general, please visit the following websites.

https://www.bpn.gov/ccr/NewsDetail.aspx?id=2012&type=N https://www.sam.gov/sam/

You may access additional information on the CCR site here.

Other Information:

Notice:

The terms and conditions in this Notification and the RFGPs referenced in this Notification are binding and may not be modified by any Bureau representative. Explanatory information provided by the Bureau that contradicts published language will not be binding. Issuance of the RFGP does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the Government.