APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS for 2018-NIST-DR.pdf

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS for

2018-NIST-DR

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, follow the directions found at this link, https://go.usa.gov/xQqeh in the Grants.gov Online Users Guide.

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 https://go.usa.gov/xQqeh 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 submissions in the Grants.gov system by following the procedures at the Grants.gov site (http://go.usa.gov/cjamz). It can take up to two business days for an application to fully move through the Grants.gov system to NIST; however, applicants can immediately check that they properly submitted the application in Grants.gov by following the Grants.gov procedures cited above.

This document consists of seven important sections:

1) Overview;

2) Required Application Forms and Documents;

3) Application Format;

4) Grants.gov Application Submission Process;

5) Attachment of Required Documents;

6) Verifying the Submission and Tracking the Application; and

7) Submission Date and Time.

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1) Overview

We strongly recommend that applicants do not wait until the last minute to submit an application. Allowances will not make for any late submissions. To avoid any potential processing backlogs due to last minute Grants.gov registrations, applicants are highly encouraged to begin their Grants.gov registration process early.

When developing your submission timeline, please keep in mind that (1) all applicants are required to have a current registration in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov); (2) the free annual registration process in the electronic System for Award Management (SAM.gov) may take between three and five business days or as long as more than two weeks; and (3) electronic applicants are required to have a current registration in Grants.gov; and (4) 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.

Please note that a federal assistance award cannot be issued if the designated recipient’s registration in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) is not current at the time of the award.

Applicants will find instructions on registering with SAM.gov as part of the Grants.gov process at:

http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/organization-registration.html .

All applicants should be aware that adequate time must be factored into an applicant’s schedule for delivery of the application.

Submitters are advised that volume on Grants.gov may be extremely heavy leading up to the deadline date.

2) Required Application Forms and Documents

NIST will disqualify any applications that do not contain the documents required, exceed the page limitation of 11 pages for the Proposal, or fail to indicate to which of the four program areas they are applying, as specified below.

All documents must be in English, including but not limited to the initial application, any additional documents submitted in response to a NIST request, all reports, and any correspondence with NIST.

Required Forms and Documents http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/organization-registration.html

The Application must contain the following elements:

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

• “SF-424, Item 8.d. Zip/Postal Code field, should reflect the Zip code + 4 (#####-####) format.”

• SF-424, Item 12, should list the NOFO number 2018-NIST-DR.

• SF-424, Item 18, should list the total budget information for the duration of the project.

• The list of certifications and assurances referenced in Item 21 of the SF-

424 is contained in the SF-424B.

(2) SF-424A, Budget Information - Non-Construction Programs. The budget should reflect anticipated expenses for the project, considering all potential cost increases, including cost of living adjustments.

• The Grant Program Function or Activity on Line 1 under Column (a) should be entered as “Measurement and Engineering Research and Standards.” The Assistance Listing Number on Line 1 under Column (b) should be entered as “11.609”.

• Section A, line 1., column (e) should reflect the full budget request for the project.

• Use Section B – Budget Categories to reflect the budget breakdown by year. Column (1) should be used for the first year; Column (2) should be used for the second year; and Column (3) should be used for the third year.

• Section C is for matching funds. Matching funds are not required for this

NOFO.

• Section D, line 13 should reflect the breakdown of the first year’s budget by quarter.

• The budget estimate for the second year of the award should be entered in Section E, field 16, column (b). Section E, field 16, column (c) should reflect the third year’s budget estimate.

(3) SF-424B, Assurances - Non-Construction Programs

(4) CD-511, Certification Regarding Lobbying. Enter “2018-NIST-DR” in the

Award Number field. Enter the title of the application used in field 15 of the SF- 424, or an abbreviation of that title, in the Project Name field.

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

(6) Proposal. The Proposal is a document of no more than eleven (11) pages responsive to the program description (see Section I. of this NOFO) and the evaluation criteria (see Section V.1. of this NOFO). The Proposal must contain the following elements: the Cover Page, the Executive Summary, and the Technical Proposal. Page limits for these components are cited below.

Note: references and bibliographies count against the page limits.

a) The Cover Page

The Cover Page consists of four (4) elements:

i. The name and address of the applicant institution, and the name, address, and contact information for the application’s Principal Investigator.

ii. The specific component Disaster Resilience research grant program to which the application is being submitted, using the following choices:

1) Structural Performance under Multi-Hazard Program;

2) the Disaster and Failure Studies Program;

3) Wildland Urban Interface Fire Program; or

4) the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

iii. Statement of Relevance and Benefit to the General Public.

Using no more than two or three sentences, describe the relevance and benefit of the research proposed in this application to the public. This statement should be succinct and use plain language that can be understood by a general audience.

iv. Statement of Collaboration with NIST Employees.

Indicate if` the application proposes collaborations with specific NIST employees, and cite the Technical Proposal page or pages where the collaboration is detailed.

Applicants proposing collaborations with specific NIST employees should carefully read Section VI.2.e) of this NOFO.

The Cover Page must not exceed one (1) single-sided page and counts toward the eleven (11) page limit of the Proposal.

b) Executive Summary.

The Executive Summary is a concise summary/abstract of the proposed project that contains a summary of the proposed activity and is suitable for dissemination to the public. The Executive Summary should be a self-contained document that identifies the name of the applicant, the project director/principal investigator(s), the project title, the objectives of the project, a description of the project, including methods to be employed, the potential impact of the project (i.e., benefits, outcomes), and major participants (for collaborative projects). This document must not include any proprietary or sensitive business information as NIST may make the Executive Summary available to the public after awards are issued.

The Executive Summary must not exceed one (1) single-sided page and counts toward the 11-page limit of the Proposal.

c) Technical Proposal

The Technical Proposal consists of three (3) components: (i) Problems, Solutions and Technical Approach; (ii) Statement of Work and Potential Impact of the Results; and (iii) Qualifications and Experience of Key Personnel and Resources Availability.

i. Problems, Solutions and Technical Approach. This is a description of the problems proposed to be solved, why the problems are difficult, and the alignment with existing NIST Engineering Laboratory Disaster Resilience programs. This section should explain what solutions are needed to overcome the problems, who would benefit from the solutions, and what the anticipated impacts are if the problems are solved. This section should also include a description of the technical approach that the applicant plans to employ to solve the identified problems and to achieve the anticipated impacts.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Problems, Solutions and Technical Approach evaluation criteria (see Section V.1.a). of this NOFO).

ii. Statement of Work and Potential Impact of the Results. This is a complete statement of work to meet the technical approach that directly addresses the problems described in the Problems, Solutions and Technical Approach. The statement of work must include a schedule of milestones for the overall project, the applicant’s plan to manage the project tasks, and metrics for measuring the success of the proposed efforts and potential impact of the results. This section should include plans for publication in professional literature and for technology transfer. Refer to Sections VI.2.g.

and h. for application requirements for proposals involving human subjects and/or live vertebrate animals, as applicable.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Statement of Work and Potential Impact of the Results evaluation criteria (see Section V.1.b). of this

NOFO).

iii. Qualifications and Experience of Key Personnel and Resources

Availability. This is a description of the qualifications, proposed roles, and level of planned effort of the project participants, including the proposed role of the project leader, key personnel and staff. A resume of the project leader is required (see Section IV.2.a.9). of this NOFO). A description of the applicant’s access to the necessary equipment and facilities to accomplish the proposed objectives should be included.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Qualifications and

Experience of Key Personnel and Resources Availability evaluation criteria (see Section V.1.c). of this NOFO).

The Technical Proposal must not exceed nine (9) single-sided pages and counts toward the eleven (11) page limit of the Proposal.

(7) Budget Narrative. (This does not count toward the page limit). The Budget Narrative must provide a detailed breakdown of each of the object class categories as reflected on the SF-424A. The budget justification should address all the budget categories (personnel, fringe benefits, equipment, travel, supplies, other direct costs and indirect costs) for which Federal funds are requested. 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. 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 (http://go.usa.gov/SBYh), which apply to awards in this program. Information needed for each category is as follows:

a) Personnel – At a minimum, the budget justification for all personnel 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.

b) Fringe Benefits – 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.

c) Travel – For travel costs required by the recipient to complete the project, the budget justification for travel should include the following: destination; names and 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. Applicants must budget for http://go.usa.gov/SBYh the participation in the NIST yearly Disaster Resilience Symposium in addition to any other travel (see Section I.3).

d) Equipment – 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. Any items that do not meet the threshold for equipment can be included under the supplies line item. 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.

e) Supplies – Supplies are defined as all tangible personal property other than that described as equipment. Provide a list of each supply, 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.

f) Contractual (i.e. Contracts or Subawards) – Each contract or subaward should be treated as a separate item. Describe the services provided and the necessity of the subaward or contract to the successful performance of the proposed project. Contracts are for obtaining normal 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.

g) Construction - Not an allowable cost under this NOFO.

h) 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.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Budget Narrative evaluation criteria (see Section V.1. d). of this NOFO).

(8) Indirect Cost Rate Agreement. (This does not count toward the page limit).

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 https://go.usa.gov/xXRxK.

https://go.usa.gov/xXRxK

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 and budget narrative portion of the application.

(9) Resumes of Key Personnel. A resume for the project leader is required.

This individual is considered key personnel to the project. Resumes of additional key personnel may be supplied. Resumes are limited to two pages per individual.

(10) Data Management Plan. Consistent with the NIST Policy 5700.001, Managing

Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research, and NIST Order 5701.002, 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 two 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 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 Foundation7 or the National Institutes of Health8).

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 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) (available at http://go.usa.gov/3sZvQ).

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

The sufficiency of the DMP will be considered as part of the administrative review (see Section V.3.a). of this NOFO); however, the DMP will not be evaluated against any evaluation criteria.

1 https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017/05/09/Final-P-5700.pdf 2 https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017/05/09/Final-O-5701_0.pdf 7 http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp 2 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_sharing/data_sharing_guidance.htm http://go.usa.gov/3sZvQ 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 http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_sharing/data_sharing_guidance.htm

Please pay close attention to the guidance in Section 5) of this document, “Attachment of Required Documents”.

3) Application Format

1) Paper, E-mail and Facsimile (fax) Submissions. Will not be accepted.

2) Figures, Graphs, Images, and Pictures. Should be of a size that is easily readable or viewable and may be landscape orientation and will count toward the overall 11- page limit of the proposal.

3) Font. Easy to read font (12-point minimum). Smaller type may be used in figures and tables but must be clearly legible.

4) Page Limit. The Proposal for Applications is limited to eleven (11) pages.

Resumes are also excluded from the Proposal page count. Resumes are limited to two (2) pages each. The Data Management Plan, limited to two (2) pages, is also excluded from the Proposal page count.

5) Page size. 21.6 centimeters by 27.9 centimeters (8 ½ inches by 11 inches).

6) Application language. English.

4) Grants.gov Application Submission Process

(1) Applications must be submitted via Grants.gov at www.grants.gov, under announcement 2018-NIST-DR.

(a) Applicants submitting applications through Grants.gov should carefully follow specific Grants.gov instructions to ensure the attachments will be accepted by the Grants.gov system. A receipt from Grants.gov indicating an application is received does not provide information about whether attachments have been received. For further information or questions regarding applying electronically for the 2018-NIST-DR announcement, contact Christopher Hunton by phone at 301-975-5718 or by e-mail at grants@nist.gov.

(b) Applicants are strongly encouraged to start early and not wait until the approaching due date before logging on and reviewing the instructions for submitting an application through Grants.gov. The Grants.gov registration process must be completed before a new registrant can apply electronically. If all goes well, the registration process takes three (3) to five (5) business days. If problems are encountered, the registration process can take up to two (2) weeks or more. Applicants must have a unique entity identifier number and must maintain a current registration in http://www.grants.gov/ mailto:grants@nist.gov the Federal government’s primary registrant database, the System for Award Management (https://www.sam.gov/), as explained on the Grants.gov Web site. See also Section IV.3. of this NOFO. After registering, it may take several days or longer from the initial log-on before a new Grants.gov system user can submit an application. Only authorized individual(s) will be able to submit the application, and the system may need time to process a submitted application. Applicants should save and print the proof of submission they receive from Grants.gov. If problems occur while using Grants.gov, the applicant is advised to (a) print any error message received and (b) call Grants.gov directly for immediate assistance. If calling from within the United States or from a U. S.

territory, please call 800-518-4726. If calling from a place other than the United States or a U. S. territory, please call 606-545-5035. 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. For assistance using Grants.gov, you may also contact support@grants.gov.

(c) To find instructions on submitting an application on Grants.gov, Applicants should refer to the “Applicants” tab in the banner just below the top of the www.grants.gov home page. Clicking on the “Applicants” tab produces two exceptionally useful sources of information, Grant Applications and Applicant Resources, which applicants are advised to review.

Applicants 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. Closely following the detailed information in these subcategories will increase the likelihood of acceptance of the application by the Federal agency’s electronic system.

Applicants should pay close attention to the guidance under “Applicant FAQs,” as it contains information important to successful submission on Grants.gov, including essential details on the naming conventions for attachments to Grants.gov applications.

The application must be both received and validated by Grants.gov. The application is “received” when Grants.gov provides the applicant a confirmation of receipt and an application tracking number. If an applicant does not see this confirmation and tracking number, the application has not been received. After the application has been received, it must still be validated. During this process, it may be “validated” or “rejected with errors.” To know whether the application was rejected with errors and the reasons why, the applicant must log in to Grants.gov, select “Applicants” from the top navigation, and select “Track my application” from the drop-down list. If the status is “rejected with errors,” the applicant may still seek to correct the errors and resubmit your application before the deadline. If the applicant does not correct the errors, the application will not be forwarded to NIST by Grants.gov.

https://www.sam.gov/

All applicants, both electronic and paper submitters, should be aware that adequate time must be factored into applicants’ schedules for delivery of their application.

Applicants submitting applications through Grant.gov are advised that volume on Grants.gov may be extremely heavy on the deadline date, and if Grants.gov is unable to accept applications electronically in a timely fashion, applicants are encouraged to exercise their option to submit applications in paper format.

Submitters of paper applications should allow adequate time to ensure a paper application will be received on time, taking into account that Federal Government security screening for U.S. Postal Service mail may delay receipt of mail for up to two (2) weeks and that guaranteed express mailings and/or couriers are not always able to fulfill their guarantees.

5) Attachment of Required Documents

Items (1) through (5) in Section 2) above, Required Application Forms and Documents, are part of the standard application package in Grants.gov and can be completed through the download application process.

Items (6) through (10) in Section 2) above, Required Application Forms and Documents, must be completed and attached by clicking on “Add Attachments” found in item 15 of the SF-424, Application for Federal Assistance. This will create a zip file that allows for 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.

6) Verifying the Submission and Tracking the Application

The Grants.gov Online Users Guide available at the Grants.gov site (http://go.usa.gov/cjaEh) provides vital information on application process.

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, follow the directions found at this link, https://go.usa.gov/xQqeh in the Grants.gov Online Users Guide.

http://go.usa.gov/cjaEh

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 https://go.usa.gov/xQqeh 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 site (http://go.usa.gov/cjamz). It can take up to two business days for an application to fully move through the Grants.gov system to

NIST.

NIST uses the Tracking Numbers assigned by Grants.gov, and does not issue its own Agency Tracking Numbers.

7) Submission Date and Time

Applications must be received at Grants.gov no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday, August 27, 2018. Applications received after this deadline will not be reviewed or considered. 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 these times: from 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time, Saturday, July 21, 2018 until Monday, July 23, 2018 at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time; and again from 12:01 a.m.

Eastern Time, Saturday, August 18, 2018 until 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time Monday, August 20, 2018. Applications cannot be submitted when Grants.gov is closed.

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