NOAA-NOS-OCM-2022-2007044 NOFO Report.pdf

Coral Reef Conservation Program Domestic Capacity-Building Partnerships

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Funding Opportunity Description 4

A. Program Objective 4 B. Program Priorities 5 C. Program Authority 6

II. Award Information 6 A. Funding Availability 6 B. Project/Award Period 7 C. Type of Funding Instrument 8

III. Eligibility Information 8 A. Eligible Applicants 8 B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement 9 C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility 10

IV. Application and Submission Information 10 A. Address to Request Application Package 10 B. Content and Form of Application 10 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 22 A. Evaluation Criteria 23 B. Review and Selection Process 25 C. Selection Factors 27 D. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates 28

VI. Award Administration Information 28 A. Award Notices 28 B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements 29 C. Reporting 31

VII. Agency Contacts 33 VIII. Other Information 33

Notice of Federal Funding Page 1 of 33

NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Federal Agency Name(s): National Ocean Service (NOS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce

Funding Opportunity Title: Coral Reef Conservation Program Domestic Capacity-Building Partnerships

Announcement Type: Initial

Funding Opportunity Number: NOAA-NOS-OCM-2022-2007044

Federal Assistance Listings Number: 11.482, Coral Reef Conservation Program

Dates: Full applications MUST be submitted electronically via www.grants.gov by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Friday, February 11, 2022 to be considered for funding.

Letters of Intent (LOIs) are optional but strongly recommended, and should be submitted no later than 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Friday, December 10, 2021 by email <coral.grants@noaa.gov>.

LOIs submitted after this date will not be reviewed by the relevant agency for feedback.

Funding Opportunity Description: The purpose of this notice is to invite organizations with demonstrated expertise and experience in supporting coral reef management in the United States to submit proposals that establish partnerships with the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and local management agencies to further the conservation of U.S. coral reefs. This funding announcement describes the coral reef conservation partnership(s) that the NOAA CRCP envisions, identifies the qualities that NOAA desires in a partner, and describes criteria against which applications will be evaluated for funding consideration. Partnerships selected through this notice will be implemented through a cooperative agreement of up to 24-months (2 years) in duration.

Pursuant to Section 6403 of the Coral Reef Conservation Act (CRCA), 16 U.S.C. 6401-6409, and pending federal appropriations, CRCP funding of approximately $1,000,000 is expected to be available for initiating partnership(s) with up to ten organizations in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022.

CRCP will consider funding a single proposal that includes support for all seven coral reef states and territories and/or several proposals in the Pacific Islands (benefitting Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and/or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), the Atlantic/Caribbean region (benefitting Florida, Puerto Rico, and/or the U.S. Virgin Islands), and the national priorities, or any combination thereof. Some international work may be proposed using non-federal matching funds provided the scope is similar to domestic activities and clearly

Notice of Federal Funding Page 2 of 33 linked, but will not be prioritized. It is expected that a minimum of one project, but not more than two projects, will be selected to benefit each jurisdiction in any combination of proposals.

Applications may propose work plans of up to 24 months, in conformance with the requirements of Section IV of this announcement, and may at most request $90,000 per state or territory, depending on how many of the seven coral states and territories will benefit from the proposed project(s), and up to $150,000 for a national capacity-building project. Based on the number of projects proposed, applications are expected to be within the range of $50,000 to $750,000. As required by the CRCA, recipients are required to match NOAA's Federal contributions with non-federal matching contributions at a minimum ratio of 1:1, unless the applicant requests and is granted a waiver to the matching requirement by the agency. Funding after the first year generally depends on future Congressional appropriations, NOAA/CRCP priorities, and recipient performance in the first year of the award.

Letters of Intent (LOIs) are optional but strongly recommended, and should be submitted no later than 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Friday, December 10, 2021 by email <coral.grants@noaa.gov>.

LOIs submitted after this date will not be reviewed by the relevant agency for feedback.

Notice of Federal Funding Page 3 of 33

FULL ANNOUNCEMENT TEXT

I. Funding Opportunity Description

A. Program Objective

Coral reefs and associated seagrass and mangrove communities are among the most complex and diverse ecosystems on earth. They support important fishing and tourism industries, protect coasts from wave and storm damage, contain an array of potential pharmaceuticals, and provide local communities with a source of food, materials and traditional activities.

As shallow-water, near shore communities, coral reef ecosystems are ecologically linked to adjacent watersheds and are highly vulnerable to human activity. Stresses in the coral reef environment include poor water quality from runoff and inadequate sewage treatment, sedimentation, destructive fishing practices, recreational overuse and misuse, and impacts from climate change, including changes in ocean chemistry.

To address these and other threats, Congress passed the Coral Reef Conservation Act (CRCA or the Act), codified at 16 U.S.C. 6401-6409, which established the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and provided guidance for allocation of Federal funding toward efforts to conserve coral reef ecosystems in the U.S. and internationally. As described in the Act, one of the primary functions of the CRCP is to provide financial assistance to external partners for coral reef conservation projects consistent with the Act and CRCP priorities. CRCP implements several financial assistance programs under the Act’s authority, including the partnership projects announced in this notice. More information about CRCP is available at http://coralreef.noaa.gov/.

In 2018, the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program established the new NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program Strategic Plan (Strategic Plan-2018; available at https://www.coris.noaa.gov/activities/strategic_plan2018/) which uses a resilience-based management approach focused on conservation that supports the ability of corals to withstand and recover from stress. This announcement will not award funding for construction projects. A construction project is defined as an award in which the major purpose of the project or program is construction.

NOAA also issued Coral Reef Conservation Grant Program Implementation Guidelines, most recently published at 75 Fed. Reg. 48934 (Aug. 12, 2010) and available at http://go.usa.gov/3FT7z. The most recent Guidelines cover 2010-2015, but their approach remains generally in effect until further notice unless otherwise stated in a NOAA CRCP funding announcement posted on Grants.gov. Please note that CRCP funding announcements are issued only on Grants.gov, not in the Federal Register as stated in the

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Guidelines, and the Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notice referenced in the Guidelines is updated as described in Section VI.B. of this announcement.

All of the following information in this funding opportunity pertains only to the FY 2022- 2023 Coral Reef Conservation Program Domestic Capacity-Building Partnerships funding category.

B. Program Priorities

CRCP’s efforts focus on strategic goals, objectives, regions, and specific coral reef conservation activities where the CRCP can have the greatest impact while building on NOAA strengths, partnerships, resources, and expertise. In FY 2022, the CRCP will accept applications for cooperative agreements up to a two-year project period focused on building domestic capacity to assist state and territorial agencies with coral reef conservation and management responsibilities. Priority will be given to proposals that support the objectives from the Strategic Plan-2018 (https://www.coris.noaa.gov/activities/strategic_plan2018) and the following specific jurisdictional priorities (use URLs below or see attachment in the grants.gov grant opportunity's Related Documents section):

American Samoa: https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coralreef_noaa_gov/media/docs/as.pdf Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands:

https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coralreef_noaa_gov/media/docs/cnmi.pdf Florida: https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coralreef_noaa_gov/media/docs/fl.pdf Guam: https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coralreef_noaa_gov/media/docs/guam.pdf Hawaii: https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coralreef_noaa_gov/media/docs/hi.pdf Puerto Rico: https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coralreef_noaa_gov/media/docs/pr.pdf U.S. Virgin Islands: https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coralreef_noaa_gov/media/docs/usvi.pdf National: https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coralreef_noaa_gov/media/docs/national.pdf

These jurisdictional priorities will be used to directly support the specific priority conservation needs identified by the CRCP and jurisdictional partners where the priorities of both overlap. As such, CRCP expects the majority of projects proposed under this competition will involve the development and implementation of projects that address both the CRCP Strategic Plan and jurisdictional priorities, and will focus effort primarily in domestic jurisdictions identified for coral reef management. Projects that do not specifically address these priorities or jurisdictions may be proposed, but are not likely to be competitive.

Through this funding announcement, the CRCP seeks to better support the needs of U.S.

coral reef managers working within state and territorial agencies by funding a single proposal that includes support for all seven coral reef states and territories and/or several

Notice of Federal Funding Page 5 of 33 proposals in the Pacific Islands (benefitting Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and/or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) and in the Atlantic/Caribbean region (benefitting Florida, Puerto Rico, and/or the U.S. Virgin Islands) with organizations that have demonstrated expertise and experience in implementing local coral reef conservation projects. It is expected that a minimum of one project, but not more than two projects, will be selected to benefit each jurisdiction in any combination of proposals. Some international work may be proposed using non-federal matching funds provided the scope is similar to domestic activities and there are domestic linkages, but will not be prioritized.

Cooperative agreements between the CRCP and NGO partner(s) are expected to augment the technical support provided to the governor-appointed natural resource management agencies in the seven U.S. States, Territories, and Commonwealths that have primary management authority and responsibility for conserving U.S. coral reef ecosystems in Florida, the U.S.

Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam.

Applicants should document their previous involvement in coral conservation efforts in each jurisdiction in which they are proposing to work. If the applicant does not have previous experience or existing staff in a particular jurisdiction, they should provide specific information about how the applicant intends to fill such gaps through reassignment of existing staff or through the establishment of agreements and/or subawards with other partner organizations that have successfully worked in that location.

C. Program Authority

Authority for NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program is provided by Section 6403 of the Coral Reef Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. 6401-6409 (CRCA).

II. Award Information

A. Funding Availability

Under 16 U.S.C. 6401-6409 and pending federal appropriations in FY 2022 and 2023, CRCP funding of approximately $1,000,000 per year is expected to be available for initiating partnership(s) with up to ten organizations in FY 2022.

CRCP will consider funding a single proposal that includes support for all seven coral reef states and territories and/or several proposals in the Pacific Islands (benefitting Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and/or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), the Atlantic/Caribbean region (benefitting Florida, Puerto Rico, and/or the U.S. Virgin Islands), Notice of Federal Funding Page 6 of 33 and a national capacity-building project, or any combination thereof. It is expected that a minimum of one project, but not more than two projects, will be selected to benefit each jurisdiction in any combination of proposals. Applications may propose work plans of up to 24 months, in conformance with the requirements of Section IV of this announcement, and may at most request between $90,000 per state or territory, depending on how many of the seven coral states and territories will benefit from the proposed project(s) and up to $150,000 for a national capacity-building project. Based on the number of projects proposed, application are expected to be within the range of $50,000 to $750,000. As required by the CRCA, recipients are required to match NOAA's Federal contributions with non-federal matching contributions at a minimum ratio of 1:1 unless the applicant requests, and is granted, a waiver to the matching requirement by the agency. Funding after the first year generally depends on future federal appropriations, NOAA/CRCP priorities, and recipient performance in the first year(s) of the award.

The lead applicant on any proposal will be responsible for ensuring that allocated funds are used for the purposes of, and in a manner consistent with, this program, including any funds awarded to an eligible sub-awardee. There is no guarantee that funds will be available for this federal funding opportunity or that any proposal will be selected for funding. If an applicant incurs any costs prior to receiving an award agreement signed by an authorized NOAA official, the applicant does so at their own risk of not being selected and these costs not being included in a subsequent award. The direct costs of proposal preparation shall not be included in the budget. In addition, NOAA and DOC will not be responsible for project costs if this program fails to receive funding. Recipients and sub-recipients are subject to all federal laws and agency policies, regulations, and procedures applicable to federal financial assistance awards. Applicants must comply with all existing NOAA grants or cooperative agreements terms and conditions and otherwise be eligible to receive federal awards in order to be considered for or receive funding under this competition.

Proposals not funded in the current fiscal period, or if no proposal is selected for funding under this announcement in the current fiscal period, may be considered for funding in another fiscal period without NOAA repeating the competitive process outlined in this announcement. Funding in subsequent fiscal years encompassing the proposed period of performance is subject to the availability of appropriations.

B. Project/Award Period

CRCP expects to initiate between one and ten cooperative agreement award(s) with successful applicant(s) beginning on October 1, 2022 or later, and extending for a period of up to 24-months.

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C. Type of Funding Instrument

Successful applicants will enter into a cooperative agreement with NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program as described under the terms of this document. Federal cooperative agreements are different from traditional grants in that they allow for 'substantial federal involvement' in the planning and implementation of funded projects. Substantial involvement on the part of NOAA may include the collaboration and participation of NOAA Federal Program Officers, local Coral Reef Management Liaisons, Coral Reef Fisheries Liaisons, and other CRCP staff in project development, planning and implementation;

technical monitoring of award activities beyond ordinary stewardship; and coordination of funded projects with other CRCP-funded efforts as needed. See Section 5.C. of the Department of Commerce Grants Manual at https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coasthome/funding/_pdf/grants-cooperative-agreements-manual.pdf for more information about substantial involvement. Applications should be written with the understanding the project will be a cooperative agreement. As the federal government will be substantially involved in the project, applicants may suggest anticipated federal roles and responsibilities in their proposals. Applicants tentatively selected for potential funding are expected to discuss how the CRCP might be involved in the project during project negotiations. NOAA will include an award condition describing its substantial involvement if a project is selected for funding.

III. Eligibility Information

A. Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants include non-profit and non-governmental organizations, institutions of higher education, and for-profit organizations that have demonstrated expertise and experience in supporting coral reef management in U.S. states and territories.

NOAA employees are not permitted to assist in the preparation of applications or write letters of support for any application. NOAA CRCP staff is available to provide general information on programmatic goals and objectives, ongoing coral reef conservation programs/activities, and regional funding priorities. For proposals that involve collaboration with current NOAA projects or staff, NOAA employees may provide a limited statement verifying the nature and extent of the collaboration and confirming prior coordination activities. Letters of support from NOAA employees are not allowable and will not be included among the application materials considered by merit reviewers.

Federal agencies and employees cannot receive funds under this announcement but may serve as collaborative project partners. If Federal agencies are collaborators, applicants are

Notice of Federal Funding Page 8 of 33 expected to provide detail on the planned level of Federal engagement in the application.

Examples might include, but are not limited to partnership services; serving in a review capacity; or participating in priority task teams, working groups, or leadership teams.

B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement

NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Grant Program awards are subject to statutory and regulatory matching fund policies. Federal funds for any coral conservation award funded under 16 U.S.C. 6403(b) may not exceed 50 percent of the total cost of the award. Therefore, any coral conservation project under this Grant Program requires a 1:1 contribution of non-federal matching funds. “Cost sharing or matching” is defined by 2 CFR 200.1 as “the portion of project costs not paid by federal funds (unless otherwise authorized by federal statute).”

NOAA will accept any shared costs or matching funds and all contributions, including cash and third party in-kind contributions of goods and services, will be accepted as part of an applications cost sharing or matching when they meet all of the following criteria listed in 2 CFR 200.306(b): 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 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 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.

Matching funds may come from a variety of public and private sources and may include third party in-kind goods and services such as private boat use and volunteer labor. Goods and services provided by the recipient have the valuation described in 2 CFR 200.306.

Federal agencies and employees’ in-kind services cannot be considered as part of an applicant’s matching funds, but can be described in the budget narrative to demonstrate additional leverage. Applicants are permitted to combine contributions from multiple non-federal partners in order to meet the 1:1 match requirement, consistent with the standards described in 2 CFR 200.306, and if funds are available within the project period stated in the application. Applicants should specify the source(s) of match in their proposal and detailed budget narrative and may provide or be asked to provide letters of commitment to confirm stated match contributions.

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. Successful applicants should be prepared to carefully document matching contributions, including the number of volunteer or community participation hours devoted to specific projects, and all

Notice of Federal Funding Page 9 of 33 other cash or third party in-kind contributions. If the applicant plans to use any federal funds as match, the applicant should identify the federal statute authorizing the program to use federal funds to meet the match or cost sharing requirements (note that this would be unusual). 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.5.h. and Section IV.F of this announcement. In addition, any Program Income that may arise in the project may be applied toward cost sharing or added to the project, consistent with 2 CFR 200.307.

The NOAA Administrator may waive all or part of the matching requirement if the Administrator determines that the project meets the following two requirements identified in 16 U.S.C. 6403(b)(2): 1. No reasonable means are available through which an applicant can meet the matching requirement, and 2. The probable benefit of such project outweighs the public interest in such 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, must be submitted as part of the final application. Please address the waiver request as described in Section IV.B.5.g. of this announcement.

C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility

None.

IV. Application and Submission Information

A. Address to Request Application Package

The standard SF-424 application package is available online at http://www.grants.gov.

B. Content and Form of Application

Letters of Intent (LOIs) are optional but strongly recommended, and should be submitted no later than 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Friday, December 10, 2021 by email <coral.grants@noaa.gov>. LOIs submitted after this date will not be reviewed by the relevant agency for feedback. The LOI should provide a concise description of the proposed work and its relevance to program objectives and jurisdiction priorities. LOIs will not be scored but will be shared with relevant local state and territorial agencies or NOAA, who MAY contact applicants to clarify priority intent or suggest revisions. As a relevant agency might not contact the applicant, and NOAA is not evaluating the LOIs, applicants should not

Notice of Federal Funding Page 10 of 33 wait to be contacted before proceeding with full applications.

The LOI should be no more than 2 pages, single-spaced, 11 or 12-point font, and should:

state the intent, goal, and outcome of proposed work; briefly describe the proposed project and activities, ensuring to highlight and describe the professional or technical network that will be leveraged or created; identify partnerships and existing federal, state, territorial and/or local activities or programs that will be leveraged or integrated; identify public engagement and outreach activities and project outcomes; and identify the intended benefits to the region and local community. An anticipated period of performance and estimated funding request by year should be included, if known.

Applicants should submit a full standard NOAA financial assistance application package in accordance with the guidelines in this document. All application materials should use a legible 11- or 12-point font with 1-inch margins on all sides. Electronic applications must be submitted as Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) or Microsoft Word files. The complete full application package should include the following forms and documents:

The following Federal forms from the SF-424 Form Family should be included in the application package, as applicable (no page limit with forms and related mandatory federal form information):

i. Application for Federal Assistance: Form SF-424

ii. Budget Information for Non-construction Programs: Form SF-424A (prior to award, a Form SF-424A for each year of funding will be required)

iii. Assurances for Non-construction Programs: Form SF-424B

iv. Certification Regarding Lobbying: Form CD-511

v. Disclosure of Lobbying Activities: Form SF-LLL (if applicable) Federal forms and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) information, as well as information provided to complete the federal forms (e.g. Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement), can be submitted separately or combined and submitted as one PDF document.

There are rarely problems uploading or downloading large files through Grants Online, however, applicants should be aware that files that cannot be opened or downloaded will not be reviewed. Grants Online offers the following solutions to address the occasional challenge of uploading large data files to Grants Online (see this PDF at page 11):

https://www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/grantsonline/Documents/EDATrainingManual_201 5Oct.pdf.

All applications should contain the following five (5) components with components 2-4 limited to no more than 40 pages for applicants proposing work in one (1) to four (4)

Notice of Federal Funding Page 11 of 33 domestic jurisdictions, and no more than 60 pages for applicants proposing work in five (5) to seven (7) domestic jurisdictions, including a national proposal. The project description should also include a title page and table of contents, but these pages (title and table of contents) will not count towards the page limit. Project descriptions that exceed the 40-page or 60-page limit will be shortened by removing pages at the end of the proposal narrative (see element 3 of the component section below) before it is forwarded to merit reviewers for evaluation. Pages removed from lengthy applications will not be reviewed or considered.

Applications that are incomplete, unclear, or contain numerous typographical errors may not be understood effectively by reviewers, resulting in lower evaluation scores, so applicants are advised to review their application materials closely before they are submitted to the agency for consideration:

1. Title Page (Proposal Cover Sheet).

Include proposal title; complete contact information for the Principal Investigator and the organization’s Authorized Representative; the DUNS number of the applicant, which must match the applicant’s registered organization name to receive funds; requested start date (October 1, 2022 or later); duration of proposed project (up to 24-months); the Federal funding amount requested broken out by jurisdiction and task; and the amount and source of non-Federal matching contributions to the project.

2. Proposal Summary.

Provide a 2 page summary of the proposed cooperative agreement. The summary should provide a description of the applicant's capabilities, overall project goals and objectives, brief summaries of the projects that the applicant intends to complete over the award period in each geographic area, and a brief summary of the anticipated products and desired outcomes from the proposed activities. Please note that this information may be utilized during Congressional notification and shared with the public.

3. Proposal Narrative.

The proposal narrative description should describe each of the discrete projects or tasks proposed in the application. Each task should be titled and assigned a separate project or task number. Sufficient detail should be provided to enable reviewers to evaluate the relevance and applicability of proposed work to program priorities described in Section I.B. of this announcement; to determine the technical/scientific merit of the proposed work; to adequately review the qualifications of the applicants; and to assess whether the proposed scope of work raises any concerns with regard to Federal policy considerations, such as those related to the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Historic Preservation Act, etc. Applicants should clearly describe how each activity or project will directly benefit the coral reef management priorities of State and Territorial

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Coral Reef Management agencies. Each task description in the proposal narrative should include:

(a) Introduction - Provide a brief summary of relevant background information that justifies the need for the proposed project or task. Clearly describe or explain: the relationship of the proposed project to previous efforts; how the project fits into the jurisdictions' strategies for addressing the issue; how the project would complement coral reef conservation activities of local governmental agencies, and, if applicable, other relevant CRCP-sponsored coral conservation activities.

(b) Task Description and Methodology - Provide a project description that describes the scope and detail of the project and the work to be accomplished. Clearly describe or explain:

project goals and objectives, proposed activities, methods, procedures, any special equipment that will be used in support of the project goals, and how project outcomes will directly result in improved management of coral reef resources.

(c) Task Outcomes or Products - Identify and describe the anticipated project products or outcomes, explain how they will benefit local management of coral reef resources, and describe performance measures that will be used to evaluate project success. The narrative should include information on dissemination of the findings/results to resource managers, local communities, and other stakeholders as appropriate. The project narrative also needs to include information on how the project will be evaluated for success. If the goal of the project is to build capacity for improved conservation, describe proposed plans to ensure the activities continue into the future.

(d) Schedule - Indicate when each task or project is expected to begin (month and year) and include a timeline for completing tasks in narrative or table format.

(e) Project Management/Personnel - Identify the project manager or Principal Investigator.

Identify other individual(s) responsible for completing the projects and tasks proposed in the application. Describe how the project will be organized and managed, and include the qualifications of the principal investigator(s) by providing curricula vitae or resumes. The Principal Investigator may or may not be the applicant organization. However, if the applicant is not the principal investigator, there should be an explanation of the relationship between the applicant and principal investigator (e.g., the applicant may be responsible for managing the grant funds and the Principal Investigator will be responsible for completing the work). Please also include information about the specific responsibilities of other personnel funded through the proposal, including the technical and administrative points of contact as appropriate.

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4. Budget Narrative and Justification.

In order to allow reviewers to evaluate the appropriateness of all costs, applications should include a detailed budget narrative and a budget justification broken out by individual task.

The budget narrative submitted with the final application should match the dollar amounts included on all required forms and clearly link to the project narrative. Please explain each calculation and provide a narrative justification to explain expenditures for each budget category. The budget narrative should describe, by category of expenditure, the total funding needed to accomplish the objectives described in the project narrative for the entire award period. Please explain how categorical costs are derived in sufficient detail to enable reviewers to determine if costs are 'allowable and reasonable' according to the cost principles referenced in 2 CFR 200, Subpart E. Budget narrative categories should correspond to the standard object class categories listed in Section B of the SF-424A. For additional details, please review the budget guidance provided at:

https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coasthome/funding/_pdf/forms/budget-narrative-guidance-for- NOAA-grants.pdf.

Applicants should include detailed budget information regarding all known contracts and subawards, and indicate the basis for the cost and price estimates in the narrative. Applicants should describe activities to occur or products or services to be obtained and indicate the applicability or necessity of each to the project. Each subaward should include form SF- 424A.

Detailed budget information includes:

(a) Name of identified qualified sub recipient or contractor, affiliation, contact information, and method of selection. For “to be determined,” describe plans for selection. Information must include the name and location (city, state, and Congressional district) of the entity receiving the funds and the location of the primary place of performance under the contract or subaward.).

(b) Period of Performance. Include the dates for the performance period. If it involves a number of tasks, include the performance period for each task.

(c) Scope of Work. List and describe the specific activities or tasks to be performed.

(d) Criteria for Measuring Accountability: Include an itemized line item breakdown as well as total contract/award amount. If applicable, include any indirect costs paid under the contract/award and the indirect cost rate used.

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(e) Itemized Budget. Include categories used in program budget for subrecipients or cost-based contractors. If applicable, include any direct cost paid under the subaward or contract and the indirect cost rate used. All subawards and contracts must be made consistent with the requirements of 2 CFR 200.331-200.333 for subawards, and 200.317-200.327 for procurements. For any equipment, a description of the item and associated costs or price is required, including a description of how it will be used in the project. Note that equipment is defined as tangible personal property (including information technology systems) having a useful life of more than one year and a per-unit acquisition cost which equals or exceeds the lesser of the capitalization level established by the non-federal entity for financial statement purposes, or $5,000. See 2 CFR 200.33 Equipment, 2 CFR 200.313, and 2 CFR 200.317-

327. Non-federal applicants should identify, if this information is known when submitting the grant application, who they plan to request that NOAA transfer equipment or property ownership titles to after the project ends. The decision on grant ownership requests will be made by the Grants Officer during the grant closeout process. The cost or price, purpose, and method of selection for identified and planned acquisition contracts should be thoroughly justified in the Budget Narrative. Describe products or services to be obtained and indicate the applicability or necessity of each to the project. Procurements are subject to policies described in 2 CFR 200.317-.327. For “to be determined,” describe plans for selection. The budget narrative should also provide, to the extent possible, detailed information on travel, including costs, a description of anticipated travel, destinations, the number of travelers, and a justification of how the requested travel is directly relevant to the successful completion of the project. If actual trip details are unknown, applicants should state the basis for the proposed travel charges. Applicants should allocate travel funds for any coordination meetings at regional or national levels. If a foreign air carrier is anticipated to be used for any portion of travel, prior approval is required under the DOC Financial Assistance Standard Terms and Conditions, Section G.05.d., https://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/2020- 11/DOC%20Standard%20Terms%20and%20Conditions%20- %2012%20November%202020%20PDF_0.pdf and therefore, such travel should be included in the proposal to avoid having to request prior approval after the project starts. Refer to item 8 below in this Section regarding treatment of Indirect Costs in the Budget Narrative.

5. Appendices Appendices should be limited to materials that directly support the main body of the proposal (e.g. resumes, references, lists of relevant work products or reports, detailed methodologies, data sources, detailed budget narrative, letters of collaboration, letters of support, lists of data sources, and maps). Applicants should number the pages in their proposal and any appendices as a standard practice, NOAA requires that resumes for

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Principal Investigators (PIs) of competitive awards be on file and maintained in the grants processing system used by the Department of Commerce, Grants Online. Recipients of any award (competitive or non-competitive) are required to designate PIs in Grants Online within 30 days of receiving award offers.

The following appendix documents should be included in the application package:

(a) Mandatory detailed budget information.

(b) Letters of Collaboration. All supporting letters from partner organizations that are instrumental to the project should be included in the application package. Letters must clearly indicate the level of commitment and/or collaboration. Letters of collaboration do not need original signatures.

(c) Resumes. Provide resumes of the Principal Investigator for the project and other key personnel critical to the success of the project. Ensure that resumes address qualifications relevant to conducting the proposed work. Please limit resumes to a maximum of two pages for each key investigator.

(d) Data Management Plan. If the proposal is expected to generate environmental data, a Data Management Plan is required. The Data Management Plan should address the requirements in this section of the Announcement.

i. 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 be accompanied by machine-readable documentation (metadata), preferably based on widely used or international standards.

ii. 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 in the Announcement (component viii. of this section). 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.

Accepted submission of data to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information

Notice of Federal Funding Page 16 of 33

(NCEI) is one way to satisfy data sharing requirements; however, NCEI is not obligated to accept all submissions and may charge a fee, particularly for large or unusual datasets. The NOAA Program is not offering specific data management technical guidance. Proposals are to describe their proposed approach. Use of open standard formats and methods is encouraged. For more information about data sharing in this program, contact the agency official listed in Section VII. of this funding announcement.

iii. 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.

iv. 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.

v. NOAA's Administrative Order on the Management of Environmental Data Management and Information is available under:

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

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

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

https://nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/PD.DSP.php If no environmental data is expected and the applicant is not providing a data management plan, please state this in the proposal and describe the reason.

viii. Data Management Guidance to Proposal Writers. Responsible NOAA Official for questions regarding this guidance and for verifying accessibility of data produced by funding recipients: Craig Reid, Federal Program Officer, NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, craig.a.reid@noaa.gov, 240-533-0783.

Data Accessibility: The NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program requires that public access to grant/contract-produced data be enabled. Funding recipients are expected to submit data to NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), which will provide public access and permanent archiving. The NOAA Program has held preliminary consultation with NCEI regarding these pending data. Technical Recommendations: The NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program is not offering specific technical guidance. Proposals are to describe their proposed approach. Use of open-standard formats and methods is encouraged.

Resources: NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program resources for data sharing or archiving have already been identified; proposals should not include such costs (unless data volume is

Notice of Federal Funding Page 17 of 33 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.

(e) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Environmental Compliance NOAA must analyze the potential environmental impacts, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for applicant projects or proposals that are seeking NOAA federal funding opportunities. Detailed information on NOAA compliance with NEPA can be found at the following NOAA NEPA website: http://www.nepa.noaa.gov, including our NOAA Administrative Order 216-6 for NEPA, http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/NAO216_6.pdf, and the Council on Environmental Quality implementation regulations, http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/NEPA-40CFR1500_1508.pdf.

Consequently, as part of an applicant's package, and under their description of their program activities, applicants are required to provide detailed information on the activities to be conducted, locations, sites, species and habitat to be affected, possible construction activities, and any environmental concerns that may exist (e.g., the use and disposal of hazardous or toxic chemicals, introduction of non- indigenous species, impacts to endangered and threatened species, aquaculture projects, and impacts to coral reef systems). In addition to providing specific information that will serve as the basis for any required impact analyses, applicants may also be requested to assist NOAA in drafting an environmental assessment, if NOAA determines an assessment is required. Applicants will also be required to cooperate with NOAA in identifying feasible measures to reduce or avoid any identified adverse environmental impacts of their proposal. Failure to do so shall be grounds for not selecting an application. In some cases, if 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.

(f) Permits and Approvals. It is the responsibility of the applicant to obtain all necessary federal, state, and local government permits and approvals for the proposed work. Applicants must provide a list of all known permits that will be required to perform the proposed work and an indication of the status of any permits needed (e.g., not yet applied, permit application submitted/pending, permit granted, etc.) or a statement indicating that no permits are necessary. Applicants should include this required element even if permits are not required.

Failure to apply for and/or obtain federal, state, and local permits, approvals, letters of agreement, or failure to provide environmental analyses where necessary (i.e., NEPA and environmental assessment) will delay or prevent the award of funds for projects that have

Notice of Federal Funding Page 18 of 33 been preliminarily selected for funding. For work proposed within National Marine Sanctuaries, National Parks, National Seashores, and other federally designated managed 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. For applicants who propose to conduct research or monitoring activities that may affect any coral species that are listed under the Endangered Species Act, you will likely need an Endangered Species Act Section 10(a)(1)(A) permit.

(g) Match waiver request (if applicable). Refer to Section III.B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement for more details.

Preference under this competition will be given to applicants who provide a 1:1 or greater ratio of matching funds to federal funds in accordance with the provisions of the Coral Reef Conservation Act. If the proposal lacks sufficient matching funds, the applicant may include a separate document in which the applicant requests a waiver to the matching funds requirement as described in Section 6403(b)(2) of the Act. Although the CRCP will consider these requests, in most cases, waivers of matching funds will not be provided for applicants to this competition. Please address all waiver requests to Jennifer Koss, CRCP Program Manager, NOAA National Ocean Service, 1305 East West Highway, 10th Floor, SSMC4, N/ORM, Silver Spring, MD 20910 and provide a detailed justification explaining the need for the waiver, the total amount of matching funds requested to be waived, attempts to obtain sources of matching funds, how the benefit of the project outweighs the public interest in providing match, and any other circumstances preventing the availability of match.

(h) 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 200.56 -57 and 200.412-415.

A copy of the current, approved negotiated indirect cost agreement with the federal Government should be…