NOAA-NMFS-HCPO-2024-2008273 NOFO Report (3).pdf

FY2024 Ruth D. Gates Restoration Innovation Grants

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Funding Opportunity Description 4

A. Program Objective 4 B. Program Priorities 5 C. Program Authority 7

II. Award Information 7 A. Funding Availability 7 B. Project/Award Period 8 C. Type of Funding Instrument 8

III. Eligibility Information 9 A. Eligible Applicants 9 B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement 9 C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility 11

IV. Application and Submission Information 11 A. Address to Request Application Package 11 B. Content and Form of Application 11 C. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM) 20 D. Submission Dates and Times 21 E. Intergovernmental Review 21 F. Funding Restrictions 21 G. Other Submission Requirements 22

V. Application Review Information 23 A. Evaluation Criteria 23 B. Review and Selection Process 26 C. Selection Factors 27 D. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates 28

VI. Award Administration Information 29 A. Award Notices 29 B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements 29 C. Reporting 34

VII. Agency Contacts 34 VIII. Other Information 35

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NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Federal Agency Name(s): National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce

Funding Opportunity Title: FY2024 Ruth D. Gates Restoration Innovation Grants

Announcement Type: Initial

Funding Opportunity Number: NOAA-NMFS-HCPO-2024-2008273

Federal Assistance Listings Number: 11.482, Coral Reef Conservation Program

Dates: Applications must be postmarked, provided to a delivery service or received via Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on February 14, 2024

Funding Opportunity Description: The Ruth D. Gates Coral Restoration Innovation Grants competition is a tribute to the work and life of Dr. Ruth Gates and aims to build on her efforts to address the decline in the abundance and health of coral reefs due to climate change, through innovative research. The work funded through this program is aimed at promoting long-term persistence of corals by supporting the science needed to incorporate resilient corals into restoration activities, enhance coral survivorship, and improve restoration methods. The principal objective of this grant program is to move coral intervention and restoration science towards field application in order to increase restoration scalability and coral survivorship and to promote resilient, genetically diverse, and reproductively viable coral populations. Projects funded through the Ruth D. Gates Restoration Innovation Grants are expected to have an overarching goal of bringing coral intervention research or techniques into restoration efforts. These projects should 1) advance the research and development of coral interventions to improve resilience to environmental stressors or 2) research innovations to improve coral restoration practices, survivorship of post larval settlers, and growth/survival of mid-sized corals.

Selected proposals will be funded through cooperative agreements. NOAA will consider applications for one, two, or three funding years. The funding for the second and/or third year (2025 and/or 2026) will be estimated in the 2024 application, with final funding amounts determined in those future years, pending future federal appropriations and progress towards project milestones. Proposals requesting multi-year funding should detail the costs expected for each year separately in this proposal (see Section IV.B for more details about the budget narrative for multi-year awards). NOAA anticipates typical federal funding for awards will range from $100,000-$250,000/year for a total $100,000 to $750,000 over one to three years. NOAA will not accept proposals with a federal funding request of less than $100,000 or more than

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$1,000,000 total over three years. NOAA anticipates approximately $1,000,000 will be available under this announcement in fiscal year 2024. The Office of Habitat Conservation in conjunction with the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) will administer the funds. Funding may be divided among the U.S. Pacific and Atlantic regions to maintain the geographic balance of the Ruth D. Gates Coral Reef Conservation Grant Program as required by the reauthorized Coral Reef Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 6401-15. NOAA anticipated an additional $2,000,000 may be available in the next two years (fiscal year 2025 - fiscal year 2026) to support selected awards.

Awards are dependent upon the amount of federal appropriations made available to NOAA in the fiscal year 2024 through fiscal year 2026 budgets. Applicants must be U.S. based and all NOAA funded in-water work must take place within U.S. jurisdictions (i.e., American Samoa, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or the U.S.

Virgin Islands).

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FULL ANNOUNCEMENT TEXT

I. Funding Opportunity Description

A. Program Objective

The NOAA Ruth D. Gates Coral Restoration Innovation Grants competition supports research needed to apply interventions for restoration that promote and persistence of resilient, genetically diverse, and reproductively viable coral populations. This grant program is intended to promote long-term persistence of corals by not only supporting innovative research and restoration techniques, but also by increasing collaboration between research scientists and management entities to ensure these innovative techniques align with predicted needs of U.S. states and territories in the face of environmental changes and will get integrated into coral restoration activities.

Coral reefs are among the most complex and diverse ecosystems on earth. They support important fishing and tourism industries, protect coasts from wave, storm, and flood damage, create tropical islands, contain an array of potential pharmaceuticals, and provide food security, livelihood, and cultural, among other benefits. As shallow-water, near shore coral reef ecosystems are ecologically linked to adjacent watersheds and are highly vulnerable to human activity. Stressors in the coral reef environment include poor water quality from runoff and inadequate sewage treatment, sedimentation, destructive fishing practices, recreational overuse and misuse, disease outbreaks, and severe impacts from climate change, including frequent and severe bleaching, storm damage, and ocean acidification.

In 2018, the NOAA CRCP established a strategic plan, which uses a resilience-based management approach that focuses on the ability of corals to withstand or recover from stress. The plan focuses NOAA’s efforts in four areas: improving fisheries sustainability, reducing land-based sources of pollution, increasing resilience to climate change impacts, and restoring viable coral populations. This grant competition directly contributes to restoring viable coral populations, particularly focused on the ‘enhance population resilience strategy’. A copy of the Strategic Plan is available at https://www.coris.noaa.gov/activities/strategic_plan2018/.

Building on the 2018 CRCP Strategic Plan, NOAA recognized that conventional management (e.g., fisheries management, marine protected areas, and water quality control) is insufficient to foster coral recovery in the short- to medium-term given the magnitude of environmental change, which is outpacing corals’ natural ability to adapt. As such, NOAA commissioned the National Academy of Sciences to convene a panel of experts to review and evaluate novel ecological and genetic coral intervention strategies, such as stress-

Notice of Federal Funding Page 4 of 35 hardening, translocation of non-native stocks, manipulation of symbiotic partnerships, selective breeding, and genetic modification, that have the potential to enhance recovery and sustainability of corals under near-future environmental scenarios. A copy of the National Academy of Science’s review can be found here: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25279/a-research-review-of-interventionsto-increase-the persistence- and-resilience-of-coral-reefs.

In response to this review, NOAA developed an Action Plan on Coral Interventions (https://www.coris.noaa.gov/activities/coral_interventions/welcome.html). This Action Plan guides NOAA supported research for four intervention action areas: 1) research and test priority interventions; 2) Develop local or regional structured decision support; 3) Review policy implications of coral interventions; 4) Invest in infrastructure, research, and coordination. This grant competition is focused on addressing action area 1 with and bringing these coral interventions closer to being applied in the field.

B. Program Priorities

The aim of the NOAA Ruth D. Gates Coral Restoration Innovation Grant competition is to improve the success of shallow water (generally <30 m [<100 ft] depth) coral reef restoration in an increasingly variable climate. Applicants must be U.S. based, and all U.S.

funded in-water activities must take place within the U.S. coral jurisdictions: American Samoa, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Projects should partner with or collaborate with restoration practitioners and/or local resource management agencies to ensure that the proposed work meets identified needs, supports jurisdictional restoration plans, and/or federal/state large-scale restoration initiatives such as Mission: Iconic Reefs (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/habitat-conservation/restoring-seven-iconic-reefs-mission-recover-coral-reefs-florida-keys).

Furthermore, NOAA is interested in enhancing local scientific and restoration capacity within the U.S. coral jurisdictions, and therefore is prioritizing support for projects that train, educate, or employ students, volunteers, or individuals from the jurisdictions where the in-water work is proposed.

Given the accelerating pace of threats to shallow-water coral reef ecosystems, NOAA recognizes the need to innovate, develop, test, apply and scale-up coral interventions that increase the persistence and resilience of corals and coral reefs. Coral interventions vary in their readiness to be applied in the ocean with some interventions requiring basic biological research and others that are ready to be field tested or applied experimentally.

NOAA is seeking projects that push coral intervention science from the lab into larger

Notice of Federal Funding Page 5 of 35 mesocosm studies, in-water experimentation, pilot/field testing, or expansion of pilot/field testing, while ensuring the science is translated /transferred for management and restoration application. Successful projects will include a collaborative process between the research team and restoration practitioners/resource managers to increase information sharing and the likelihood of application.

All proposals should include information on how activities and project milestones will be assessed for success. In-water pilot testing should include a description of the planned monitoring to assess the effectiveness of the intervention technique, including data on coral survival and/or other physiological and ecological metrics. If appropriate, proposals should provide a short overview of any anticipated monitoring beyond the duration of award as knowledge of potential long-term effectiveness of intervention techniques used is critical.

Proposed projects must align with goals and objectives of the CRCP Strategic Plan and/or action items in the NOAA Action Plan on Coral Interventions, and be consistent with criteria in the authority for this program (16 U.S.C. 6410(f)). NOAA has identified the following two priority areas for this funding announcement:

1.) Collaborate with restoration practitioners to research, develop, and advance the application of innovative intervention techniques in coral restoration to improve coral survivorship by enhancing coral resilience to threats, such as ocean warming or coral disease. Proposals that address one or more of the following issues will be a higher priority:

* Enhance understanding of the role the environment has on the coral holobiont ‘omics in relation to colony fitness (e.g., susceptibility to disease and bleaching) and response trade offs (e.g., disease resistance vs. growth rates) as it applies to resilience and survival of restored corals;

* Advance stress-hardening techniques to understand the longevity of the hardening method, effects of other stressors on hardening memory, dose/treatment, and interspecific/species variation; and

* Research into algal symbiont evolution and physiology, frequency of algal symbiont community shuffling and/or persistence, and algal symbiont manipulation to improve coral holobiont thermal tolerance, with an emphasis on bringing this intervention closer to field-testing.

2.) Collaborate with restoration practitioners to research and develop methods to improve coral restoration practices, survivorship of post larval settlers, and growth/survival of mid-sized corals. Proposals that address one or more of the following issues will be a higher priority:

* Develop cost-effective, scalable techniques that reduce the time needed for coral

Notice of Federal Funding Page 6 of 35 maintenance in nurseries (in-situ and ex-situ) and/or that reduce the time to prepare coral outplanting sites; and

* Develop and test cost-effective, scalable methods, novel devices, and/or technologies that facilitate coral settlement, improve post settlement survival, and/or increase growth and survival of mid-size corals for long-term population enhancement.

Projects that are solely focused on implementing coral outplanting with no scientific component are not appropriate for this funding announcement. Expenditures on large equipment (e.g., boats and coral raceways), real property (e.g., land and buildings), capital expenditures (e.g., improvements, lab development, and general purpose equipment), and/or infrastructure are not a priority for funding under this program. Additionally, travel supported through this program must be directly related to the implementation of activities described in the project narrative.

The amount of funding for each award will depend on the number of eligible applications received, the amount of funds requested for each project, the merit and ranking of the proposals and individual tasks/projects. Federal funds have not yet been appropriated for this program, and there is no guarantee that sufficient funds will be available to make awards for all qualified projects. Publication of this notice does not obligate NOAA to provide any available funds to projects.

C. Program Authority

The Coral Reef Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 6410.

II. Award Information

A. Funding Availability

One-year or multi-year awards up to three funding years will be considered, and recipients of multi-year awards will not need to compete for funding in subsequent years.

NOAA anticipates typical federal funding awards will range from $100,000 to $750,000 over one to three years. NOAA will not accept proposals with a federal funding request of less than $100,000 or more than $1,000,000 over three years. Funding may be divided among the U.S. Pacific and Atlantic regions to maintain the geographic balance of the Ruth D. Gates Coral Reef Conservation Grant Program as required by the reauthorized Coral Reef Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 6401-15.

NOAA anticipates approximately $1,000,000 will be available under this announcement in fiscal year (FY)2024, and may support 3 to 6 new awards. Depending on the level of

Notice of Federal Funding Page 7 of 35 available funding, NOAA anticipates an additional $500,000 to $2,000,000 may be available over the next two years (FY2025 - FY2026) to support selected awards.

Funds will be administered by the NOAA Office of Habitat Conservation in conjunction with the CRCP. The exact amount of funds that may be awarded will be determined in pre-award negotiations between the applicant and NOAA. Any funds provided to successful applicants for subsequent-year funding requests will be determined by progress towards stated milestones, availability of funding, and at the discretion of the NOAA Office of Habitat Conservation, the CRCP, and the NOAA Grants Management Division.

NOAA or the Department of Commerce are not responsible for direct costs of application preparation. Publication of this announcement does not oblige NOAA to award any specific project or to obligate any available funds. There is no guarantee that sufficient funds will be available to make awards for all top-ranked applications. Proposals not funded in the current fiscal period (FY2024) may be considered for funding in a subsequent fiscal period without NOAA repeating the competitive process outlined in this announcement. If proposals not funded in the current fiscal period are considered and selected for funding in the next fiscal year (i.e., FY2025), the applicants will be allowed to revise their requested award period based on the status of the project when funding is offered.

Once funds are awarded, recipients of incrementally funded multi-year awards will not need to compete for funding in subsequent years. NOAA expects, but is not obligated, to provide additional funding to multi-year awards in subsequent years. Adding funds to multi-year awards is at the discretion of NOAA.

B. Project/Award Period

Applications should cover a period of performance between 12 and 36 months. NOAA anticipates that the period of performance for most awards will be for 36 months; however, applicants may select a project where the period of performance extends up to 48 months.

The earliest anticipated start date for awards will be September 1, 2024. Both federal and match pre-award costs, incurred up to 90 days prior to the award start date, may be requested and will be considered during pre-award negotiations between the applicant and NOAA.

Incurring pre-award costs before NOAA Grants Management Division offers a grant is at the applicant's own risk.

C. Type of Funding Instrument

Selected applications will be funded through cooperative agreements, as described in 2 C.F.R. Sec. 200.1, meaning that NOAA expects to be substantially involved in many aspects of the awards. Substantial involvement may include, but is not limited to, collaboration on

Notice of Federal Funding Page 8 of 35 the scope of work; providing assistance with technical aspects of the project; review and comment on in-water plans to pilot restoration innovations; assisting with or helping to facilitate dissemination of results to partners and other stakeholders; and review of procurement materials to the extent authorized by 2 C.F.R. Sec. 200.325. While NOAA determines its substantial involvement, applicants may also specifically suggest anticipated federal roles and responsibilities in their proposals. NOAA will add a term to each funded award describing the substantial federal involvement.

III. Eligibility Information

A. Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants are nongovernmental organizations or research institutions that have demonstrated expertise in coral reef conservation or restoration and/or scientific research;

U.S. states, territories, or local governments with authority over coral reefs; and Native entities with interests in a coral reef ecosystem.

Applications from federal agencies or employees of federal agencies will not be considered.

NOAA employees are not permitted to assist in the preparation of applications. NOAA CRCP staff are available to provide general information on programmatic goals and objectives, ongoing coral reef conservation programs/activities, and regional funding priorities. Federal agencies and employees are not allowed to receive funds under this announcement, but may serve as collaborative project partners. If federal agencies are collaborators, applicants are expected to provide detail on the planned level of federal engagement in the application.

B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement

NOAA CRCP financial assistance awards are subject to statutory and regulatory matching fund policies. Federal funds for any coral conservation project under 16 U.S.C. § 6410(b) may not exceed 50 percent of the total cost of the award. Therefore, projects funded under this Grant Program require a 1:1 contribution of non-Federal matching funds.

Cost sharing or matching is defined by 2 C.F.R. § 200.29 as “the portion of project costs not paid by Federal funds (unless otherwise authorized by Federal statute).” Any shared costs or matching funds and all contributions, including cash and third party in-kind contributions of property and services, will be accepted as part of an applicant’s cost sharing or matching when the contributions meet the criteria listed in 2 C.F.R. § 200.306(b). That is, the contributions: (1) are verifiable from the non-Federal entity's records; (2) are not included as contributions for any other Federal award; (3) are necessary and reasonable for

Notice of Federal Funding Page 9 of 35 accomplishment of project or program objectives; (4) are allowable under Subpart E—Cost Principles of this part; (5) are not paid by the Federal Government under another Federal award, except where the Federal statute authorizing a program specifically provides that Federal funds made available for such a program can be applied to matching or cost sharing requirements of other Federal programs; (6) are provided for in the approved budget when required by the Federal awarding agency; and (7) conform to other provisions of this part, as applicable. Contributions can come from a variety of public and private sources and can include third party in-kind goods and services such as private boat use, lab space or equipment, and volunteer labor. In addition, applicants are permitted to combine contributions for allowable costs from multiple non-Federal partners in order to meet the 1:1 match requirement, consistent with the standards described in 2 C.F.R. § 200.306.

Applicants should specify the source(s) of match in the budget narrative and should provide or may be asked to provide letters of commitment to confirm stated match contributions.

Foreign-sourced contributions to overall objectives may be included as part of the match.

Applicants whose proposals are selected for funding will be bound by the percentage of cost sharing reflected in the award document signed by the NOAA Grants Officer. Applicants should be prepared to carefully document matching contributions for each project selected for funding. Valuation of proposed cost sharing is described in 2 C.F.R. § 200.306(d)-(k).

Applicants may choose to designate part or all of their Federally-negotiated indirect costs as match. This may be convenient because the valuation of such costs has already been Federally-approved and documentation is readily available. Refer to the “Indirect Costs” policies in Section IV.B.3. of this funding announcement.

The NOAA Administrator or designee may waive all or part of the matching requirement if the Administrator determines that the project meets two requirements identified in 16 U.S.C.

§ 6410(b)(3):

*No reasonable means are available through which an applicant can meet the matching requirement, and *The probable benefit of such project outweighs the public interest in the matching requirement.

In the case of a waiver request, the applicant must provide a detailed justification explaining the need for the waiver, including attempts to obtain sources of matching funds, how the benefit of the project outweighs the public interest in providing match, and any other extenuating circumstances preventing the availability of match. Match waiver requests including the appropriate justification should be submitted as part of the final application package. Please address all waiver requests to Jennifer Koss, CRCP Manager, NOAA National Ocean Service, 1305 East West Highway, 10th Floor, SSMC4, N/ORM, Silver

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Spring, MD 20910.

C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility

Full applications submitted through Grants.gov should be submitted by the due date and time provided in Section IV.D. Late applications will not be considered for funding.

The following information describes ineligible project proposal types and activities:

1) Activities that alleviate the liability associated with legally required mitigation for the adverse environmental impacts of an activity regulated or otherwise governed by local, state, or federal law are ineligible.

2) Activities that constitute compensatory restoration for natural resource damages under federal, state, or local law are ineligible.

3) Activities that are required by a separate consent decree, court order, statute, or regulation are ineligible. Applicants planning to combine grant or matching funds with mitigation should review the Compensatory Mitigation for Losses of Aquatic Resources; Final Rule at 73 Fed. Reg. 19594 (April 10, 2008). NOAA plans to follow the approach adopted by some other Federal agencies on Page 19,636 that describes scenarios where mitigation credits may or may not be obtained in association with federal financial incentives.

IV. Application and Submission Information

A. Address to Request Application Package

Complete application packages, including required federal forms and instructions, can be found on www.Grants.gov. If a prospective applicant is having difficulty downloading the application forms from www.Grants.gov, contact www.Grants.gov Customer Support at 1- 800-518-4726 or support@Grants.gov. Instructions for these forms are available at https://www.grants.gov. Information about the recommended format for full applications is contained in Section IV.B.

B. Content and Form of Application

Applicants should apply through the www.Grants.gov website. A complete standard NOAA financial assistance application package should be submitted, as described below.

Each full proposal must include the following Federal application forms:

1) Standard Form (SF)-424: Application for Federal Assistance. The SF-424 form family may be downloaded from the form section on https://www.grants.gov.

2) SF-424A: Budget Information for Non-construction Programs. Selected applications will require an SF-424A for each funding year.

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3) SF-424B: Assurances for Non-construction Programs.

4) CD-511: Certification Regarding Lobbying.

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

In addition to the Federal application forms, NOAA recommends the following components as part of a complete application package. All application materials should use a legible 11-or 12-point font with 1-inch margins on all sides. For each application, the information provided in elements 1-4 (described below) may not exceed 45 pages total; the 45-page limit does not apply to required federal forms (listed above), data management plan (element 5 below), and negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (element 6). Applications that exceed the 45-page limit will be shortened by removing pages before it is forwarded to merit and panel reviewers. Pages excised from lengthy applications will not be reviewed and any activities described therein will not be eligible for funding consideration.

Applications submitted through www.Grants.gov should have no more than three attachments in addition to the Federal Forms: 1) Cover page and project narrative (elements 1-2 below), 2) Budget table and budget narrative (element 3), and 3) all additional information (elements 4-6) combined into one file. Applications should be either submitted as either Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) or Microsoft Word files; however, PDF is the preferred format. The total electronic file size of the proposal narrative and appendices combined should not exceed five megabytes in storage space. Files that are larger than five megabytes may not be properly downloaded, uploaded, or received by the agency or the reviewers. Files that cannot be opened or downloaded will not be reviewed.

Each application should include the following information:

Element 1: Cover Sheet and Project Summary - A one-page cover sheet that includes:

a) Short title of the proposed cooperative agreement project;

b) Requested start date and end date;

c) Applicant organization name, address, phone number;

d) Principal investigator responsible for conducting the project and their contact information;

e) Geographic locations of the project and the site names;

f) Amount of grant funds requested per year (2024, 2025, and 2026);

g) Amount of matching funds provided per year (2024, 2025, and 2026);

h) Funding priority application addresses; and

1) One to two paragraph project summary emphasizing the project objectives and activities.

Element 2: Project Narrative Provide sufficient background and contextual information for reviewers to independently

Notice of Federal Funding Page 12 of 35 assess the significance of the proposed project.

a) Importance and Applicability. The applicant should provide a brief summary of relevant background information that justifies the need for the proposed project or task. This information should identify the problem/issue the project intends to address; describe how the project is expected to improve the resilience of corals/coral populations, or enhance survivorship, and/or improve restoration methods; and the overall collaboration with restoration practitioners/resource managers. Narratives should also include information on state of the intervention science and how the proposed work will advance the science (e.g., filling key gaps needed to move the forward, lab to mesocosm, lab to small pilot/field test, mesocosm to pilot test, or small pilot/field test to a slightly larger application) to allow for its application in coral reef restoration efforts. Identify the specific priority, listed under Section I.B., to which the project's objective(s) corresponds. Project objectives should be simple and understandable, as specific and quantitative as possible, and attainable within the proposed time frame, the described budget, and the human resources available. Projects should be accomplishment-oriented and identify attainable goals, outcomes, and products.

b) Technical/Scientific Merit. Proposals should describe in detail the actions to be undertaken to resolve the problem(s)/issue(s).The project narrative is the scientific or technical plan of the task(s) that are to be accomplished to meet the project objectives, and must be written with sufficient detail to allow a review of suitability of the proposed work and the likelihood of successful completion in the stated time frame. Please ensure your project narrative includes detailed descriptions of each task, including the rationale for the task, how it will be accomplished, specific milestones, project evaluation and assessment (i.e., how success will be measured for each task/phase of the project), and you may troubleshoot problems or issues that arise.

For activities involving pilot/field testing intervention methods, testing methods to enhance coral survivorship, or testing novel restoration methods, applicants need to describe collaboration efforts with restoration practitioners or resources managers to ensure the work is feasible and the areas where in-water efforts are to take place are appropriate to test the application. The applicant should also include information on how any pilot activities will be monitored for effectiveness.

If the work is a component of a larger project (or the activity is a pilot project for a larger initiative) and proposed activities will continue after the end of the grant period, provide a short description of any future activities including monitoring, and if known, potential future funding sources (and other mechanisms) to continue the work.

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The applications should also note the use of Endangered Species Act listed corals;

anticipated impacts to other Endangered Species Act listed species and any designated and/or proposed critical habitat; any National Historic Preservation Act resources in the action area, as well as a commitment to quickly provide information needed by NOAA to analyze project impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA, see Section IV.B.4.f. below).

c) Timeline and Milestone Schedule. The project narrative should include a timeline (i.e., monthly or quarterly) with key milestones outlining the distinct phases of the project), expected implementation of each phase, major activities related to each phase, and frequency of these activities (e.g., daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly). The timeline should also account for all consultation and permitting requirements for in-water activities. As described in Section II.A, NOAA will consider progress towards identified milestones when making funding decisions for multi-year awards in subsequent years.

d) Outreach and Education. The project narrative should describe specific outreach goals and activities. This includes collaboration with restoration practitioners, resource managers or other user groups on planning of activity and/or the involvement in the execution of the activity either through information sharing and/or through a subaward or sharing of resources as part of implementation of work. The applicant should also include information on how project outcomes will be disseminated to the wider coral restoration community so that it can be incorporated into restoration practices. Whether there is a plan to disseminate the results to other user groups or the public (e.g., dive groups, fishing communities, or local communities). The narrative should describe any involvement of students from the local jurisdictions in order to support those students in future Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers and build capacity within these jurisdictions.

e) Table of Anticipated Products/Outputs and Outcomes. Please provide a table to summarize the anticipated products/outputs and outcomes that will be produced under the award. All products developed under Federally-funded awards must be provided to NOAA within 120 days of the end of the award period, must be of publishable quality, and must be Sec. 508 compliant (https://www.gsa.gov/policy-regulations/policy/information-technology-policy/it-accessibilitysection-508). Except where limited by law, regulation, policy or security, recipients are requested to include a statement on the front page of all products to indicate the material is "Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited." If the applicant has requested publication costs, resulting journal publications should be made available to the public free of charge. NOAA may make award products available to the public, so recipients are encouraged to omit sensitive information (e.g., budget or salary information) from products submitted to NOAA.

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The information in the table must include all anticipated products and outputs that will be developed in conjunction with the award. For each entry, please provide a description of the product, a working title for the product, the type or format of the product (e.g., journal publication, public service announcement, presentation, newsletter, metadata record, monitoring data), and the expected date(s) when the product will be submitted to NOAA.

NOAA will use this information to ensure that products are submitted to the agency in a timely manner and made available to the public as soon as possible.

Element 3: Budget Justification Reviewers will evaluate project costs by reviewing your budget justification. The budget justification narrative must include a detailed breakdown by category of applicable costs (i.e., object class) separated into federal and non-federal shares as they relate to specific aspects of the award, with a detailed narrative justification for both the federal and non-federal (if applicable) shares. The object classes should match those found in the SF-424A.

If requesting funds for a multi-year proposal, award costs should be broken into annual/interim funding requests up to three years in duration. One, two, or three-year proposals will be accepted. If funding will be used to complete part of a larger project, a budget overview for the entire project to demonstrate how the NOAA request relates to the overall project budget and outcomes should be provided.

If the project has been submitted for funding consideration elsewhere, the amount(s) requested or secured from other sources, and whether the funds requested/secured are federal or non-federal should be included. If the proposed project includes a monitoring component, the applicant should provide an estimate of all monitoring-related costs within the proposed budget.

The NOAA Habitat Conservation and NOAA Grants Management Division staff will review budget information in recommended applications to determine if costs are allowable, allocable, reasonable, and realistic. The narrative budget justification should be sufficiently detailed to enable a clear understanding of the cost breakdown and calculations used to derive the line item subtotals in each object class of the SF-424A budget form. An SF-424A for each year of requested funding will be required prior to an award offer, but not as part of the initial application. Additional budget development guidance is available at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/s3/2023-08/Supplemental-Application-Instructions-and- Budget-Guidance.pdf#page=11 or https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/about/funding-opportunities/requirements/.

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Element 4: Supplemental Information All supplemental attachments should be combined into one file which includes a list of the documents and associated page numbers.

a) Project Location. For in-water activities, include a site location map such as a U.S.

Geographic Survey topographic quadrangle map or aerial photo with site location(s) highlighted.

b) Key Personnel Qualifications. Include brief resumes or curriculum vitae for key personnel and any examples of projects similar in scope and nature that have been successfully completed by the project team.

c) Supporting Materials. Include any other relevant supporting materials, such as letters of support (including those from jurisdictional resource management agencies, restoration practitioners, and other partners documenting collaboration and/or financial and in-kind support), monitoring plans, etc. NOAA CRCP requires evidence of support from appropriate representatives of States or other government jurisdictions prior to final selection and encourages applicants to provide such evidence in their applications. Note: Letters of support from NOAA employees are not allowable and will not be included among the application materials considered by merit reviewers. For proposals that involve collaboration with current NOAA projects or staff or take place within a National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA employees may provide a limited statement verifying the nature and extent of the collaboration and confirming prior coordination activities or a statement related to management utility of the proposed work.

d) Match waiver request (if applicable). See Section III. B. Cost Share Matching Requirements, above.

e) Permits. A list or copy of all applicable permits that will be required to perform the proposed work. It is the responsibility of the applicant to obtain all necessary federal, state, and local government permits and approvals for the proposed work. For work within National Marine Sanctuaries, National Parks, National Seashores, and other federally designated protected areas, it is the responsibility of the applicant to request and obtain any necessary permits or letters of agreement from the appropriate government agencies prior to commencement of an award. Applicants are expected to design their proposals so that they minimize potential adverse impact on the environment. If applicable, documentation of requests or approvals of environmental permits should be included in the proposal package.

Failure to apply for and/or obtain federal, state, and local permits, approvals, letters of agreement, or failure to provide environmental analyses where necessary will delay or

Notice of Federal Funding Page 16 of 35 prevent the award of funds for projects that have been preliminarily selected for funding.

f) NEPA and Environmental Compliance. As part of the application package, applicants should provide detailed information in the Project Narrative or in the supplementary materials about the location and state of the environment in which the activities are to be conducted and any environmental concerns. This information should include locations and/or maps showing project sites, species and habitats that may be affected, in-situ activities, and all other environmental concerns that may exist (e.g., use and disposal of hazardous or toxic chemicals, effects on human health and safety, level of controversy of the proposed work, introduction of non-indigenous species, impacts to endangered and threatened species, impacts to historical or cultural sites).

Under NEPA, NOAA must analyze the potential environmental impacts of projects or proposals seeking funding from NOAA. After the application is submitted, NOAA may require additional information to fulfill NEPA and other compliance requirements. The applicants selected for funding may be required to complete a subset of questions (based on activities outlined your application as identified by the Federal Program officer) of the Environmental Compliance Questionnaire for NOAA Federal Financial Assistance applicants accessible at http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/questionnaire.pdf. Applicants may also be required to cooperate with NOAA in identifying and implementing feasible measures to reduce or avoid any identified adverse environmental impacts of their proposal. The failure to work with NOAA on environmental compliance or refusal to implement any required action (e.g., best management practices, conservation recommendations, or mitigation measures) related to consultations may be grounds for the denial of an application.

The CRCP has a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS;

https://coralreef.noaa.gov/about/enviro-compliance.html) and a joint Programmatic Biological and Conference Opinion and Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Essential Fish Habitat Consultation on the National Coral Reef Conservation Program and Mission: Iconic Reefs (BiCOp;

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/44324/noaa_44324_DS1.pdf) that streamlines the environmental evaluation and compliance process. NOAA will need to ensure the proposed work aligns with actions and level of impacts described in these documents and applicants must implement relevant 1) required best management practices (Appendix A of PEIS), 2) reasonable and prudent measures and conservation recommendations from the BiCoP, and/or 3) any other required actions from other environmental consultations (e.g., National Historic Preservation Act). If a successful applicant chooses not to implement requirements in the CRCP programmatic documents, NOAA will need to complete independent environmental compliance actions, which may delay the funding or starting of

Notice of Federal Funding Page 17 of 35 the work.

In cases where additional information is required after an application is selected, funds can be withheld by the Grants Officer under a special award condition requiring the recipient to submit additional environmental compliance information sufficient to enable NOAA to make an assessment on any impacts that a project may have on the environment.

Detailed information on NOAA compliance with NEPA can be found at the following NOAA NEPA websites: http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/ including NOAA Administrative Order 216-6A for NEPA, https://www.noaa.gov/organization/administration/nao-216-6a.

Element 5: Data Management Plan (2 page limit) Environmental data and information collected or created under NOAA grants or cooperative agreements must be made discoverable by and accessible to the public, in a timely fashion (typically within two years), free of charge or at no more than the cost of reproduction, unless an exemption is granted by the NOAA Program. Data should be available in at least one machine-readable format, preferably a widely-used or open-standard format, and should also be accompanied by machine-readable documentation (metadata), preferably based on widely used or international standards.

Proposals submitted in response to this Announcement must include a Data Management Plan of up to two pages describing how these requirements will be satisfied.

The Data Management Plan should be aligned with the Data Management Guidance provided by NOAA below in this Announcement. The contents of the Data Management Plan (or absence thereof), and past performance regarding such plans, will be considered as part of proposal review. A typical plan should include descriptions of the types of environmental data and information expected to be created during the course of the project;

the tentative date by which data will be shared; the standards to be used for data/metadata format and content; methods for providing data access; approximate total volume of data to be collected; and prior experience in making such data accessible. The costs of data preparation, accessibility, or archiving may be included in the proposal budget unless otherwise stated in the Guidance. Accepted submission of data to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information is one way to satisfy data sharing requirements;

however, the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information is not obligated to accept all submissions and may charge a fee, particularly for large or unusual datasets.

NOAA may, at its own discretion, make publicly visible the Data Management Plan from funded proposals, or use information from the Data Management Plan to produce a formal

Notice of Federal Funding Page 18 of 35 metadata record and include that metadata in a Catalog to indicate the pending availability of new data.

Proposal submitters are hereby advised that the final pre-publication manuscripts of scholarly articles produced entirely or primarily with NOAA funding will be required to be submitted to NOAA Institutional Repository after acceptance, and no later than upon publication. Such manuscripts shall be made publicly available by NOAA one year after publication by the journal. NOAA's Administrative Order on the Management of Environmental Data Management and Information is available at:

https://www.noaa.gov/organization/administration/nao-212-15-management-of-environmental-data-and-information.

Principal Investigators should indicate how and when they have made their data accessible and usable by the community in the past.

More information about the NOAA Data Sharing Policy is available on NOAA’s Environmental Data Management Committee website at:

https://nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/documents/EDMC_PD-Data_Sharing_Policy_v1.pdf.

Data Management Guidance to Proposal Writers Responsible NOAA Official for questions regarding this guidance and for verifying accessibility of data produced by funding recipients: Liz Fairey, Federal Program Officer, liz.fairey@noaa.gov, 301-427-8632.

*Data Accessibility: The NOAA CRCP requires that public access to grant/contract-produced data be enabled. Funding recipients are expected to submit data to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, which will provide public access and permanent archiving. The CRCP has held preliminary consultation with the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information regarding these pending data.

*Technical Recommendations: The NOAA CRCP is not offering specific technical guidance. Proposals are to describe their proposed approach. Use of open-standard formats and methods is encouraged.

*Resources: NOAA CRCP resources for data sharing or archiving have already been identified; proposals should not include such costs (unless data volume is expected to exceed

20GB).

NOAA may, at its own discretion, make publicly visible the Data Management Plan from funded proposals, or use information from the Data Management Plan to produce a formal metadata record and include that metadata in a catalog to indicate the pending availability of new data.

Notice of Federal Funding Page 19 of 35

Element 6: Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (if applicable) The proposed budget may include an amount for indirect or Facilities and Administrative costs if the applicant has an established indirect cost rate with the federal government.

Indirect costs are essentially overhead costs for basic operational functions (e.g., utilities, rent, and insurance) that are incurred for common or joint objectives and, therefore, cannot be identified specifically within a particular project. See 2 CFR §§ 200.1 and 2 CFR §§ 200.412-.415.

A copy of the current, approved negotiated indirect cost agreement with the federal government should be included with the application package. The applicant may elect to use the de minimis rate of 10% of modified total direct cost as described at 2 CFR § 200.414. If applied, the de minimis indirect cost rate should be used for all federal awards.

If the applicant does not have a current negotiated rate and plans to establish a new negotiated indirect cost rate agreement, documentation necessary to establish a rate must be submitted within 90 days of receiving an award. See Section IV.F Funding Restrictions for more information on indirect cost rates and establishing a new indirect cost rate with the

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C. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM)

To enable the use of a universal identifier and to enhance the quality of information available to the public as required by the…