FY18_Exchange_Network_Solicitation_Notice_Final.pdf

Fiscal Year 2018 National Environmental Information Exchange Network Grant Program

Solicitation Notice

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Environmental Information Office of Information Management

Information Exchange and Services Division Information Exchange Partnership Branch

November 15, 2017 i

Fiscal Year 2018 National Environmental Information Exchange Network Grant Program Solicitation Notice

Table of Contents

I. Funding Opportunity Description

I-A. Background

I-B. Grant Program Funding History and Results

I-C. Assistance Activities

I-D. Environmental Results Supported by Assistance Activities

I-E. Program Priorities

II. Award Information

II-A. General Information

II-B. Types of Assistance

II-C. Funding Restrictions

III. Eligibility Information

III-A. Eligible Applicants

III-B. Threshold Criteria for Funding Goals

III-C. Eligibility Criteria for Partnership Applications

III-D. Cost Sharing or Matching

IV. Application and Submission Information

IV-A. Submission Date and Time

IV-B. Intergovernmental Review

IV-C. Partnership Agreements

IV-D. Additional Provisions For Applicants Incorporated Into the Solicitation

V. Application Review Information

V-A. Evaluation Criteria

V-B. Review and Selection Process

V-C. Anticipated Award Dates

V-D. Additional Provisions For Applicants Incorporated Into the Solicitation

VI. Award Administration Information

VI-A. Award Notices ii

VI-B. Administration and National Policy Requirements

VI-C. Reporting

VI-D. Additional Provisions for Applicants Incorporated into the Solicitation

VII. Agency Contacts

Appendices

Appendix A: Programmatic Data Exchange Opportunities ............................................................. A-1 Appendix B: Foundational EN Shared Services ..................................................................................... B-1 Appendix C: RCS and Reusability ................................................................................................................ C-1 Appendix D: Strengthening Partner Information Management Capabilities............................ D-1 Appendix E: Detailed Instructions for Submitting Applications .................................................... E-1 Appendix F: Sample Project Goals, Outputs and Outcomes ............................................................. F-1 Appendix G: Contracts and Subawards ................................................................................................... G-1 Appendix H: Checklist of Documents to Submit ................................................................................. H-1 Appendix I: Quality Assurance Reporting Form ................................................................................... I-1 Appendix J: Definitions ................................................................................................................................... J-1

Fiscal Year 2018 National Environmental Information Exchange Network Grant Program Solicitation Notice

Overview Information

Agency Name and Office: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Environmental Information (OEI)

Funding Opportunity Title: FY 2018 National Environmental Information Exchange Network Grant Program

Announcement Type: Availability of Funding Solicitation

Notice Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-OEI-18-01

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 66.608

Dates: January 26, 2018 - Deadline for submitting applications to EPA

July 31, 2018 - Tentative expected award of FY 2018 Exchange Network Grants

I. Funding Opportunity Description For the FY 2018 competitive grant process, the EPA Exchange Network Grant Program is soliciting project proposals that use the Environmental Information Exchange Network (EN) to:

• Facilitate sharing environmental data, especially through shared and reusable services.

• Streamline data collection and exchanges to improve its timeliness for decision making.

• Increase the quality and access to environmental data through discovery, publishing, outbound, and analytical services so it is more useful to environmental managers.

• Develop foundational EN shared services (e.g., network security or corporate portals) to reduce burden and avoid costs for co-regulators and the regulated community.

• Expand and improve participation in the EN by strengthening the requisite information management and technology capabilities for interested parties to fully participate in the EN.

Section I-E summarizes specific priorities for the FY 2018 Exchange Network grants and associated activities that are eligible for funding through the EPA EN Grant Program.

I-A. Background The National Environmental Information Exchange Network (EN) is an inter-governmental partnership to foster better environmental management and decision-making through increased access to timely and high quality environmental information. The EN, launched in 2002, uses a standards-based approach to facilitate environmental data sharing among EPA, states, tribes and territories. This framework allows organizations to exchange and share data over the Internet regardless of the specific information technology used. (See http://www.exchangenetwork.net/) The EN is the foundation for the E-Enterprise Initiative, also a joint state, tribal, territory and EPA partnership, launched in 2013. Its goals include expanding access to environmental data, personalizing the access experience through customized portals and re-engineering and http://www.exchangenetwork.net/ streamlining regulatory information collection and reporting processes to achieve burden reduction and cost avoidance.

Phase 1 of EN implementation focused on transforming the regulatory reporting processes of eight national data flows, by moving them from out-of-date reporting methods to standardized electronic reporting approaches based on EN data standards and technology. Phase 2, initiated in 2013, focuses on expanding the availability of published data and making the process of sharing data more efficient. This is done by developing data analysis and display services, making those services available to all partners; implementing innovative data collection, monitoring and analytical systems; and enabling more electronic reporting.

The EN Phase 2 Goals and associated strategies and action items documented in the Implementation Plan for Phase 2 of the Exchange Network (2013) along with the joint goals shared with the E-Enterprise Initiative, form the basis for the program priorities in Section 1-E. The FY 2018 EN program priorities should be considered by states, tribes and territories when they develop their grant proposals.

I-B. Grant Program Funding History and Results FY 2018 is the seventeenth year EPA will award competitive funding to eligible partners for projects through the Exchange Network Grant Program. Between FY 2002 and FY 2017, EPA provided approximately $219 million for state, tribal and territorial awards and associated program support through the grant program. As of May 2016, all 50 states, 74 tribes and 5 territories have received Exchange Network grants.1 These grants support better environmental decisions by promoting the use of more timely and consistent data which is shareable by partners across the Exchange Network data for environmental professionals and the public.

I-C. Assistance Activities This Solicitation Notice requests that states, tribes, inter-tribal consortia, and territories submit applications with goal(s) that support the Exchange Network priorities in Section I-E and explained further in Appendices A-E). Applicants may propose projects that include activities other than those listed as examples, provided they are consistent with EN priorities and conform to EN technologies, services and specifications.

EPA will determine the eligibility of each applicant (see Section III-A). EPA will then evaluate applications from eligible applicants based on the evaluation criteria in Section V. Applicants are responsible for reading and complying with the instructions and criteria described in this Notice.

I-D. Environmental Results Supported by Assistance Activities It is EPA policy to link work supported by assistance agreements directly to the Agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment as articulated in EPA’s Strategic Plan. EPA’s Strategic Plan is available at https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/strategicplan. The activities to be funded under this announcement will be linked to EPA’s strategic plan consistent with EPA’s current priorities for:

• Improving air quality to ensure more Americans are living and working in areas that meet high air quality standards.

• Ensuring clean and safe water by improving water infrastructure and supporting drinking water, 1 For descriptions of previously awarded Exchange Network Grants, please see:

https://www.epa.gov/exchangenetwork/previous-exchange-network-grant-projects http://www.exchangenetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Phase_2_Implementation_Plan.pdf http://www.exchangenetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Phase_2_Implementation_Plan.pdf https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/strategicplan http://www.epa.gov/exchangenetwork/grants/index.html aquatic ecosystems, and recreational, economic, and subsistence activities.

• Cleaning up contaminated sites and returning land back to communities.

• Ensuring the safety of chemicals in the marketplace.

• Improving permitting and reducing reporting burdens that impede economic growth.

• Improving environmental protection through joint governance, state/tribal primacy efforts, and compliance assistance.

• Increasing transparency, public participation, and collaboration with communities.

• Creating consistency and certainty for the regulated community.

Applicants must explain in their proposal how their project will further these current priorities.

EPA also requires that grant applicants adequately describe environmental outputs and outcomes to be achieved under assistance agreements (see EPA Order 5700.7A1, Environmental Results under Assistance Agreements, https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-03/documents/epa_order_5700_7a1.pdf).

Applicants must include specific statements describing the environmental results of the proposed project in terms of well-defined outputs and, to the maximum extent practicable, well-defined outcomes that will demonstrate how the project will contribute to the goals and objectives described above.

I-E. Program Priorities This section presents specific funding priorities for FY 2018. Each priority is associated with the relevant EN Phase 2 goal and strategy. Details on the purpose, background, available services, and funding ranges for funding opportunities are contained in the appendices listed at the end of the funding opportunity entry.

There are five program priorities for the FY 2018 EPA Exchange Network Grant Program:

1. Integrate foundational EN services into environmental business processes.

2. Increase the number of co-regulator data flows involved in e-reporting.

3. Expand data access and availability.

4. Improve environmental management business processes through advanced data monitoring and transmittal processes.

5. Augment the data and technology management capacity of potential EN partners.

High-level descriptions of FY 2018 funding opportunities associated with each of these 5 program priorities are found in the remaining text of section I-E. Additional information on most opportunities are found in Appendices A and B.

Funding Opportunities under Priority 1: Integrate Foundational EN Services into Environmental Business Processes

The ‘build once, use many times” philosophy of the EN is demonstrated in the services available to all EN users. These services enable each individual organization to avoid costs associated with building, securing and maintaining the data and technology infrastructure that support the implementation of their program missions. Usage of the foundational services related to reference look-up tables and upfront data validation services also result in more consistent and better quality data for use in program implementation. A short summary of each foundational EN service is contained in this section. Additional information to consider before proposing integrating the services into your project, cost estimates for integrating each foundational https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-03/documents/epa_order_5700_7a1.pdf service into a project, and additional activities to consider when proposing projects for this opportunity are found in Appendix B.

Applicants applying for resources under Priority 1 may propose projects in three categories:

1. Integrate one or all the following foundational EN services, into their business processes:

Virtual Exchange Services (VES) (Individual Opportunity) EPA invites applicants to propose projects with the goal of transitioning a state, tribe or territory from using a physical node on their own servers to using the shared, scalable, cloud-based EN virtual exchange services (VES) for existing data flows or new EN data flows. Applicants may also apply to implement data flows on VES as needed while keeping their existing nodes and flows. Investigating various ways of interconnecting from the partner staging tables or database servers (backend) to the VES in the cloud environment should also be goal of the proposal. A shift to VES decreases resource needs for data exchanges by avoiding the software licensing, procurement, and node administration costs of traditional EN node servers; allowing focus to be on data flow configuration and publishing new services and data. Appendix B contains additional VES information, including systems or services already using VES solutions, implementation costs by system or service, and technological options available for implementation.

Enterprise Security Bridge (Identity Management) (Partnership Opportunity) Applicants are encouraged to propose projects that use the EN Enterprise Security Bridge to integrate enterprise security services into their existing websites, web applications and portals or new ones being implemented as part of the FY 2018 grant cycle. The EN Enterprise Security Bridge is an open standards-based, unified interface that enables access to the hundreds of portals, applications, websites, and services in EN partners’ domains. Use of the EN Enterprise Security Bridge eliminates the need for multiple registrations and identity management processes across user accounts. The standards used by the EN Enterprise Security Bridge are widely supported in almost all platforms. There are also many toolkits available for integrating with the Enterprise Security Bridge allowing identity federation, a process of sharing user identities and user authentication processes between two parties. Appendix B contains additional background information on the Enterprise Identity Management Bridge, types of enterprise security integration permitted with grant funds and cost estimates for the various approaches to Enterprise Security Bridge adoption.

Shared CROMERR Services (Individual Opportunity) EPA’s Cross-Media Electronic Reporting Rule (CROMERR) sets technology-neutral, performance-based standards for systems used by states, tribes, and local governments to receive electronic reports and documents from entities regulated under EPA-authorized programs. These standards cover a variety of system functions (e.g., security, user identification, etc.) designed to make electronic reports as legally defensible as paper submittals. EN Partners with a need to implement CROMERR-compliant systems for their electronic reporting programs may apply to leverage EPA’s centralized shared CROMERR services (SCS) to meet their organizational and system needs. Many standard and advanced

CROMERR services may be independently implemented or combined together, and/or integrated with Virtual Exchange Services (VES) for greater efficiency. Appendix B contains additional background information on information SCS, specific activities that can be supported with grant funds, and cost estimates for SCS activities covered under the grant.

Substance Registry Service (SRS) (Individual Opportunity)

The Substance Registry Service (SRS) is EPA’s centralized resource for sharing basic information about chemicals, biological organisms, and other substances that EPA and/or other organizations (e.g., state agencies, tribal agencies, other federal agencies) track or regulate. FY 2018 grant funds are available to integrate several SRS services into EN partner systems. Web services are available to pull information from SRS and transfer it to an organization’s system for integration into online reporting forms, other tools, or for displaying their substance lists on their websites. States, tribes, and territories also can improve public access to health and safety information by creating direct links from their websites to individual SRS records. SRS also has a widget that states, tribes, and territories can incorporate into their web pages. Appendix B contains additional information on the features of SRS and the types of activities that should be considered when developing a grant proposal for integrating the SRS into an organization’s system.

Facility Registry Services (FRS) (Individual Opportunity) EPA’s FRS integrates facility information from EPA program systems, other federal agencies, and state environmental systems. Applicants for this opportunity should consider integrating FRS data using FacID, FRS query REST services, the FRS front-end integration widget, or error correction services into their data flows or programmatic data to reduce reporting burden and provide more accurate and timely facility information. Additional background information on FRS and suggestions for potential projects are provided in Appendices A and B.

2. Establish partnerships for completing two additional EN foundational services under development

E-Enterprise Portal (Individual or Partnership Opportunity)

As part of the E-Enterprise effort, EPA, states, tribes, and territories are jointly designing and implementing a customer-centric portal that is envisioned as the future e-business entry point for the EN. User profiles will enable co-regulators, regulated entities, or public users to customize pages tailored to information of interest that is integrated across EPA, state and tribal programs, and geographies. This funding opportunity is a chance for applicants to partner with EPA and other states, tribes, or territories to identify and provide new information/data, new functionality or business tools retrievable through the E-Enterprise Portal to improve access to information and reduce access burden for both co-regulators and the regulated community. Applicants are also encouraged to propose projects to develop applications or components within states, tribes, and territories’ portals that publish, visualize and/or exchange data and are designed in a way that can be shared across the entire EN use community. Additional background information on the E-Enterprise Portal, active E-Enterprise projects and suggestions for specific FY 2018 projects activities are in Appendix B.

Law and Regulations Service (Partnership Opportunity) EPA is cataloging environmental laws, the regulations that implement those laws, and the EPA programs that oversee those regulations. This Laws and Regulations Service (LRS) will not only help EPA improve information management and discovery, but will also help states and tribes discover which regulations may be applicable to a given substance or industry. This opportunity allows applicants to participate in a cooperative agreement with EPA to compile information about their state, tribal, or territorial laws and regulations, which can help to build a more comprehensive picture of how substances or industry sectors are regulated. EPA will work with co-regulators to catalog their laws and regulations and identify the state programs that manage them. The ultimate goal is to design and develop a single interface, or portal, (which might be the e-enterprise portal) for industry, other communities, and the public to discover potentially applicable regulations whether at the state, tribal, or federal level. More information about this opportunity is in Appendix B.

3. Develop a new e-Permitting or e-Reporting Shared Service (Partnership Opportunity) The focus of this opportunity is to enable states, tribes, or territories to develop and implement a service related to reporting or permitting from the regulated community for use across the entire EN community. This is a partnership opportunity and will be a cooperative agreement with EPA. The application must clearly explain the roles of all partners including EPA. The proposed service should not be duplicative of an existing EPA shared service and demonstrate the inclusion of requirements from multiple EN partners within a same line of business. The applicant must demonstrate the scalability and share-ability of the proposed service.

Potential activities could include but are not limited to:

• Working with Exchange Network partners to identify common processes in e-Reporting and e-Permitting that span across environmental programs and agencies.

• Proposing the establishment of an e-Reporting/e-Permitting team of EPA and partners under the EE/EN governance to address process requirements and common approaches that could result in or inform the development of shared services.

• Develop and test minimally viable products that will automate increments of e-Reporting and e-Permitting processes for both external and internal parties.

• Develop guidance, starter kits, and outreach materials for these shared services to ensure wide adoption as applicable.

This opportunity encompasses the design, development, testing, and at a minimum, limited deployment of the service. Creation of a prototype, pilot, or other limited-type functioning IT product, is an acceptable example of limited deployment of the service. For this proposal to be eligible for funding, applicants must agree to include mechanisms for the maintenance and sustainability of this service and include a Service Level Agreement that outlines what expectations service users can have.

Funding Opportunities under Priority 2: Increase Number of Co-Regulator Data Flows Involved in e- Reporting

Data Flows (Individual Opportunity) Submitting data to priority data systems continues to be an Exchange Network grant priority. This includes many of the original priority systems (prior to 2012) and systems developed since 2012. If you are new to one of the following programs on the EN, proposals are still being considered for many of the original priority systems or building out a new exchange identified more recently by a program. Applicants must commit to putting an exchange into production to receive funding for establishing a new exchange.

The original priority systems still being considered for funding in FY 2018 are as follows:

Air Quality System (AQS) eBeaches Emissions Inventory System (EIS) Facility Registry Service (FRS) Integrated Compliance Information System – National Pollutant Discharge

Elimination System (ICIS-NPDES) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Information (RCRAInfo) Toxic Release Inventory System (TRIS) Underground Injection Control Database (UIC) Water Quality Exchange (WQX)

New priority systems include:

Assessment TMDL Tracking and ImplementatioN System (ATTAINS) Compliance Monitoring Data Portal (CMDP) Electronic Notice of Intent (eNOI) flow to Integrated Compliance Information

System – National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (ICIS-NPDES) Integrated Compliance Information System – Air (ICIS-Air), which replaces the Air

Facility System or AFS Radon Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) Prime

Applicants establishing new data flows should consider reusing existing components where appropriate (i.e., Virtual Exchange Services). Many of these services will reduce the cost and time required to implement a new exchange.

Appendix A provides additional information from EPA Program Offices related to many of these priority systems, including activities grant applicants should consider.

Funding Opportunities under Priority 3: Expand Data Access and Availability

Data Availability Projects (Individual Opportunity) Development of reusable and discoverable (or reuse of existing) tools and applications that deliver automated access to environmental data continues to be a priority in FY 2018. These tools include, but are not limited to:

o Desktop, laptop and tablet/smartphone applications that provide access to and analyze/display environmental data.

o Websites that provide users access to data sets and a range of analytical and display tools.

o Dashboards that provide real time program status information to program managers and executives.

Applicants should consider opportunities to share data across programs within their organization, across agencies within a state or tribe, across states, or with EPA. EPA is especially interested in applications/websites that support cross-program data integration and support more efficient environmental business processes such as permit writing, compliance inspections, cross-jurisdictional data comparisons, analyses or integration.

Applicants should also consider opportunities to build applications/websites that support EPA’s open data and transparency goals https://www.epa.gov/open and that serve interested non-governmental organizations, research institutions, other communities of interest and the public.

Choosing the appropriate technology approach for a data availability project is one of the key decisions in preparing a grant application. The project narrative should explain how the project and technology choice (e.g., RESTful services or SOAP) meet the applicant’s business needs and how the project complies with Exchange Network guidance and standards. Applicants should review governance-developed guidance and standards for an explanation of RESTful web services, APIs and other options available for building EN-compliant services (www.exchangenetwork.net/rest-guidance).

Grantees should make data available in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format or, as business needs dictate, another machine-readable format such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) or Comma Separated Values (CSV or flat file). Additionally, the data should be of regional and/or national interest. Example datasets of interest include institutional controls at contamination sites, data on cleanup sites, data sets of national significance to tribes (such as open dumps), Underground Storage Tank data, and data that support environmental management of multi-state or regional airsheds, watersheds, and water bodies of priority concern. See Appendix A for more detail on specific project opportunities. Information on the Exchange Network’s technical standards and design guidance are available on the Exchange Network website (http://www.exchangenetwork.net/knowledge-base).

Enabling Geospatial Data: Open Data Services (Individual Opportunity) Applicants should consider opportunities to publish geospatial data sets critical to their missions, including, but not limited to administrative boundaries such as those at Superfund national priority list sites, cadastral data, and facility and compliance related data that are regularly updated and can be integrated with the Facility Registry Service. In addition, applicants are encouraged to review the list of 176 geospatial datasets designated as National Geospatial Data Assets by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Steering Committee (https://www.fgdc.gov/ngda-reports/NGDA_Datasets.html) to ascertain if there are any additional publishing opportunities for these data sets that support the mission goals of multiple federal, state, and local agencies. Data should be published as open, standards compliant data services that are accessible through REST APIs and can be easily integrated into applications by EPA, state, tribal or territorial partners, and the public, and can be registered in EPA’s Environmental Dataset Gateway (EDG), data.gov, and geoplatform.gov.

https://www.epa.gov/open http://www.exchangenetwork.net/rest-guidance http://www.exchangenetwork.net/knowledge-base https://www.fgdc.gov/ngda-reports/NGDA_Datasets.html https://www.fgdc.gov/ngda-reports/NGDA_Datasets.html

Funding Opportunities under Priority 4: Improve Environmental Management Business Processes

Continuous Water Quality Monitoring (Partnership Opportunity) Continuous water quality monitoring (monitoring performed with a sensor that measures a particular parameter or suite of parameters automatically at set intervals) is becoming more common. This project takes advantage of current thinking on the publishing approaches defined under Phase 2 of the Exchange Network, and makes use of the Exchange Network REST specification. As a Phase 2 project, partners should consider approaches to make water quality sensor data available via a publishing service and make it searchable from a central portal that would be operated by EPA or by a project partner. The EPA Office of Water (OW) completed a pilot to enable this type of data exchange (outcomes from the pilot are available here:

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017- 01/documents/iwn_lessonslearned_final_201612.pdf).

The pilot projects developed a demonstration portal that is integrating data from 8 different partners, and adding additional partners is straight forward, but does require partners to be able to publish data using the approved Open Geospatial Consortium WaterML 2.0 standard and the Sensor Observation Service. More information on this opportunity can be found in Appendix A.

Field Data Collection Collaborative Pilots (Partnership Opportunity)

Proposals are requested to develop mobile applications built on technology-neutral services that leverage Facility Registry Service (FRS) and Substance Registry Service (SRS) API’s for field data collection, review and correction of locations, sub-facility features, facility details, and substance identities. Through cooperative agreements, pilot partners will work with EPA to develop standard data templates and data formats.

Funding Opportunities under Priority 5: Augment the Data and Technology Management Capacity of Potential EN Partners

Territory and Tribal Capacity Building o Individual Capacity Building Proposals- Territories, tribes, and inter-tribal consortia are eligible to apply for individual capacity building grants that will enhance the applicant’s environmental programs and the applicant’s ability to share environmental data electronically with EN partners. Proposals must identify outputs that will increase the applicant’s ability to share environmental information electronically with EPA or other EN partners, (for example, developing a backend database for a priority data system or implementing an intra-tribal data exchange).

Proposals may include developing a data management plan, provided they are part of a broader proposal that leads to the development of, at a minimum, a test, pilot, or prototype system/IT product. Applicants may apply for an individual capacity building grant up to $200,000.

o Collaborative Capacity Building Proposals- Additionally, territories, tribes and inter-tribal consortia are eligible to apply for partnership grants. These proposals must include multiple partners and identify an experienced EN partner that can serve as a mentor. Collaborative capacity building proposals may include funding requests for the mentoring partner’s personnel costs and travel. To serve as a mentor for a capacity building application, an experienced partner must currently report or https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-01/documents/iwn_lessonslearned_final_201612.pdf https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-01/documents/iwn_lessonslearned_final_201612.pdf publish data for one or more environmental programs using its own node or Virtual Exchange Services. A proposal must include a commitment letter from the mentor tribe, intertribal consortium, territory, or state. In the case that a territory, tribe, or intertribal consortium applying for a capacity-building grant can demonstrate past experience implementing an Exchange Network data flow, the requirements for identifying a mentor will be waived. Applicants may apply for a collaborative capacity building grant up to $400,000.

II. Award Information The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number for the Exchange Network Grant Program is

66.608 (http://www.cfda.gov).

II-A. General Information In FY 2018, EPA expects to award about $6,000,000 for 20-25 assistance agreements of up to $400,000 each. The exact number of grants will depend on the final amount of EPA’s appropriation for the grant program, the number of applications submitted to EPA by the application deadline, the amounts of proposed budgets, and the outcome of application reviews.

Most awards will be in the $50,000 to $300,000 range. Awards for an individual assistance agreement cannot exceed $200,000. EPA may make a limited number of awards to collaborative, partnership assistance agreements. Budgets for these projects cannot exceed $400,000. EPA remains committed to, at a minimum, awarding tribal assistance agreements equal to approximately 10 percent of the appropriated funds. The amount awarded to tribes may be greater than this minimum level, depending on the merit of tribal applications and on the competitive review of all applications. The standard period of performance for each project is three years. EPA tentatively expects to announce the FY 2018 Exchange Network Grant program selections in June 2018 and award the grants by July 31, 2018.

Additional Awards. EPA reserves the right to make additional awards under this announcement, consistent with Agency policy, if additional funding becomes available after the original selections.

EPA will make any additional selections for awards no later than six months from the date of the original selections.

Partial Funding. In appropriate circumstances, EPA reserves the right to fund applications partially by funding discrete portions or phases of proposed projects. If EPA decides to partially fund a proposal/application, it will do so in a manner that does not prejudice any applicants or affect the basis upon which the application, or portion thereof, was evaluated and selected for award, and therefore maintains the integrity of the competition and selection process.

II-B. Types of Assistance EPA may award assistance agreements funded through the Exchange Network Grant Program as grants or cooperative agreements, in-kind services or performance partnership grants. EPA will consider an applicant’s preferences when the Agency decides what type of assistance to award.

EPA uses assistance agreement vehicles to transfer funding and services to a recipient to accomplish a public purpose. Unlike contracts, grants are structured and managed to ensure the project primarily benefits http://www.cfda.gov/ the recipient toward the identified public purpose. Exchange Network assistance agreements allow recipients to develop infrastructure, systems and capacity to electronically report environmental information and participate fully on the Network. Applicants should identify and justify requests for the various structural elements available within their assistance agreement to best achieve their project goals. EPA will consider the following options for awarding EN resources:

Grant or Cooperative Agreement. Grants represent direct funding to a recipient to support an identified project with defined environmental results. A cooperative agreement anticipates substantial involvement from EPA, in collaboration with the recipient, to achieve project results. EPA will negotiate the precise terms and conditions of “substantial involvement” as part of the award process.

If the recipient does not identify a preference, EPA’s default award will be a grant.

Direct Funding or In-Kind Services. EPA will consider grantee requests to use all or a portion of awarded grant funds to provide in-kind services to the recipient through an EPA contract vehicle.

Applicants should request and justify project efficiencies they expect from this approach.

Single Grant or Performance Partnership/Consolidated Grants. An applicant whose organization has an existing Performance Partnership Grant (PPG) with EPA may request any new grant recommended for funding be incorporated into the PPG. Similarly, a territorial applicant whose territory has a Consolidated Grant (CG) with EPA may request that new awards be incorporated into the CG. Absent a request from the recipient for inclusion within a PPG or CG, EPA will award the grant in a stand-alone vehicle.

II-C. Funding Restrictions Applicants may propose EN project funding for costs associated with personnel salaries and fringe benefits, Intergovernmental Personnel Act Agreements (IPAs) travel, travel related to Exchange Network activities, equipment, supplies, contractual costs, in-kind services provided by EPA, and indirect costs. Applicants may propose EN project funding for development, modernization, and enhancement activities. Applicants may not use EN funding for the following functions (see Appendix J for definitions):

Construction costs.

Operations and maintenance including previously developed and implemented EN projects.

Workshops and Conferences that are not initiated, advertised, and conducted for the benefit of the recipient and other state, tribal, territorial, or local representatives or public participants or are conducted primarily for EPA’s benefit.

Pre-Award Costs not previously requested to cover pre-award costs incurred 90 days or less before the award date.

Management Fees in excess of the direct costs and indirect costs at the rate approved by the applicant’s cognizant audit agency, or at the rate provided for by the terms of the agreement negotiated with EPA.

Development and deployment of partner nodes – Instead, EPA makes available and encourages all applicants to request funds to configure/use the Agency’s new Virtual Exchange Services.

Operations and maintenance of flows, including minor updates to schema for an existing flow.

Expansion of existing data flows to include historical data or new geographic regions.

III. Eligibility Information

III-A. Eligible Applicants Eligible applicants for the Exchange Network Grant program include states, U.S. Territories (i.e., American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the District of Columbia, Guam, Palau, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands), federally recognized Indian tribes and native Alaska villages, and inter-tribal consortia of federally recognized tribes (e.g., the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission).

Other entities, such as regional air pollution control districts and some public universities may apply for assistance if they are agencies or instrumentalities2 of a state under applicable state laws. These entities, as well as other entities that submit applications asserting they are agencies or instrumentalities of a state, must provide with the application a letter from the appropriate state Attorney General certifying that the applicant is an agency or instrumentality of the state. EPA will not consider an application that does not contain the required documentation.

EPA recognizes that the delegation for some programs extends to local governments, which are responsible for reporting data to EPA. Local governments that can demonstrate that they are instrumentalities of the state by providing the documentation described in the preceding paragraph are eligible to apply for Exchange Network Grants. Most local governments that implement EPA programs, however, are not agencies or instrumentalities of the state (i.e., a true agency or instrumentality is under the direct control of the state and the management of a state agency or instrumentality may generally be changed by the state executive or other state officials) and, therefore, are not eligible to apply. EPA encourages such entities to partner with a state applicant to allow for their data to be reported and shared through the Exchange Network. Interstate commissions and other interstate entities, likewise, are not eligible to apply and are encouraged to partner with a state applicant.

EPA will only evaluate applications from eligible entities (see above). EPA will notify applicants that are ineligible for funding within 15 calendar days of the ineligibility determination. Applicants with questions about eligibility can contact Salena Reynolds, Exchange Network Grants Program Manager, at (202) 566- 0466 or reynolds.salena@epa.gov. They may also attend Exchange Network User meetings to learn about and discuss Exchange Network projects and technology. Applicants not meeting the eligibility criteria may consider collaborative work with eligible organizations. EPA will only evaluate applications with eligible entities identified as the lead implementing agency for the project.

III-B. Threshold Criteria for Funding Goals Applications are only eligible for Exchange Network funding if they meet the following requirements:

1. Application includes goal(s) that lead to completion of activities listed in the Priorities Section

(I-E), additional activities identified in Appendix A and B, or others that are consistent with

2 A true agency or instrumentality is under the direct control of the state, and the state executive or other state officials may generally determine or change its management.

Examples of Eligible Project Leads:

State Department of Environmental

Quality

Territorial Environment Division

Tribal Council on behalf of two or more tribal environmental and/or health agencies

State Department of Public Health

Tribal Water Quality Administration

State Office of the Chief Information

Officer

Regional Air Quality Board delegated authority for the air program

State university where the university or the university system is formally designated as an instrumentality of the state mailto:reynolds.salena@epa.gov

EN priorities. Completion in the context of the Exchange Network means placing a data flow, data publishing, web service, or other eligible projects into production. Applicants should demonstrate their commitment to complete projects as one or more specific outputs.

2. a. Applications must substantially comply with the application submission instructions and requirements set forth in Section IV of this announcement or else they will be rejected.

However, where a page limit is expressed in Section IV with respect to application, pages in excess of the page limitation will not be reviewed.

b. In addition, initial applications must be submitted through Grants.gov as stated in Section IV of this announcement (except in the limited circumstances where another mode of submission is specifically allowed for as explained in Section IV) on or before the application submission deadline published in Section IV of this announcement. Applicants are responsible for following the submission instructions in Section IV of this announcement to ensure that their application is timely submitted.

c. Applications submitted after the submission deadline will be considered late and deemed ineligible without further consideration unless the applicant can clearly demonstrate that it was late due to EPA mishandling or because of technical problems associated with Grants.gov or relevant SAM.gov system issues. An applicant’s failure to timely submit their application through Grants.gov because they did not timely or properly register in SAM.gov or Grants.gov will not be considered an acceptable reason to consider a late submission. Applicants should confirm receipt of their or application with Salena Reynolds at 202-566-0466 or reynolds.salena@epa.gov. as soon as possible after the submission deadline—failure to do so may result in your application not being reviewed.

3. Applications must not have:

a. project periods longer than three years.

b. budgets greater than $200,000 for single applicant applications.

c. budgets greater than $400,000 for partnership applications.

4. Applicants may not have more than four active Exchange Network assistance agreements with the Agency. EPA will determine whether an applicant meets this threshold criterion on December 31, 2017, prior to the final scoring of applications. EPA considers an assistance agreement active if the Agency has not yet approved the final technical report. EPA will consider an agreement closed if the Regional Project Officer approves the applicant’s final technical report on or before December 31, 2017.

5. Applications must not request funds for activities or deliverables for which the applicant has previously received funds. If a proposed goal is similar to one previously funded, the application must describe how previously funded activities differ from those currently proposed or how the current application will complement past or ongoing work.

Additionally, if an application includes any ineligible tasks or activities (e.g., is not a priority, previously funded), that portion of the application will be ineligible for funding and may, depending on the extent to which it affects the application, render the entire application ineligible for funding.

http://www.grants.gov/ http://grants.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/ http://grants.gov/ mailto:reynolds.salena@epa.gov.

III-C. Eligibility Criteria for Partnership Applications EPA will consider the higher funding limit ($400,000) for projects that include more than one Exchange Network partner. The lead partner for a partnership application must demonstrate the project’s support for the identified Exchange Network priorities and explain how the partnership components justify additional funding. EPA will not consider partnerships formed from within a single state, territorial, or tribal government as eligible. For instance, a partnership between an environment and a health department within a state is not an eligible partnership. EPA will limit funding for intrastate projects to the maximum funding for a single-jurisdiction grant for an Exchange Network application, which in FY 2018 is $200,000.

III-D. Cost Sharing or Matching Grants for Exchange Network projects do not require applicants to share cost or match funds.

IV. Application and Submission Information Applicants for the FY 2018 Exchange Network Grant program must submit an application package to EPA through the grants.gov website by January 26, 2018. Application package requirements are available in Appendix E, including format requirements for the project narrative (10-page limit), detailed application instructions, and procedures for obtaining a waiver for the requirement to submit applications through grants.gov. Appendix H provides a checklist of required documents to submit. Fillable versions of these forms are available at https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-grantee-forms.

EPA may require applicants to submit additional or updated documents if the project is selected for funding to complete the funding package. EPA will provide further instructions for submittal of additional or updated documents at that time.

IV-A. Submission Date and Time Signed and completed application packages as described in Appendix E must be sent electronically via grants.gov (or by an alternative method for those applicants with an approved waiver) no later than 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time, January 26, 2018. EPA will return application packages to the sender without further consideration if they are submitted after the published closing date and time.

IV-B. Intergovernmental Review Executive Order 12372, Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs, may be applicable to awards resulting from this announcement. EPA implemented the Executive Order in 40 CFR Part

29. EPA may require applicants selected for funding to provide a copy of their application to their State Point of Contact (SPOC) for review as provided at 40 CFR 29.7 and 40 CFR 29.8 as applicable.

The SPOC list can be found at https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants_spoc/ EPA may require successful applicants from states that do not have a SPOC to provide a copy of their application for review to directly affected state, area-wide, regional and local government entities as provided at 40 CFR 29.7 and 40 CFR 29.8 as applicable. These reviews are not required before submitting an application.

IV-C. Partnership Agreements EPA awards funds to one eligible applicant as the recipient even if other eligible applicants are partners or members of a coalition or consortium. The awardee is accountable to EPA for the proper expenditure of https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-grantee-forms file://Dccx100-oei04/oei-oic-USERS$/sreynold/FY%202014%20SN/Draft%20SN/grants.gov https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants_spoc/ funds, programmatic and administrative reporting and attainment of program and environmental results.

Grantees may provide subgrants or subawards to fund partner work within the overall project, provided the recipient complies with applicable requirements for subawards or subgrants including those contained in 2 CFR Part 200. Successful applicants cannot use subgrants or subawards to avoid requirements in EPA grant regulations for competitive procurement by using these instruments to acquire commercial services or products from for-profit organizations to carry out its assistance agreement. For more detailed information on partnership agreements, contracts and subawards, please see Appendix G.

EPA panels will review applicants’ qualifications, past performance and reporting history and will consider, as appropriate and relevant, the qualifications, expertise and experience of formal partners.