NOAA-NOS-OCM-2022-2007112_ECRF disaster supplemental RFA application instructions.docx

Application Instructions for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Request for Application (RFA) Noncompetitive Cooperative Agreement Submission Date Application should be submitted electronically via the grants.gov web site (www.grants.gov) on or before 11/19/2021 if possible. Please note that the RFA will be open on grants.gov past the date listed above in order to accommodate needed extensions. However, the program should make every effort to submit proposals by the respective due date, since late submission may result in delayed final award funding or task-specific funding restrictions due to lack of time to evaluate and negotiate project details.

Project Duration The project duration date for the program is anticipated to be five years from the award start date (expected as February 1, 2022 to January 31, 2027, or March 1, 2022 to February 28, 2027).

Project Type/Structure The project will be awarded as a non-competitive cooperative agreement. A cooperative agreement is a financial assistance vehicle that requires substantial involvement by the awarding agency. Substantial involvement means that, after award, NOAA scientific or program staff will assist, guide, coordinate, or participate in project activities in a partnership role; it is not to assume direction, prime responsibility, or a dominant role in the activities. The dominant role and prime responsibility resides with the awardee for the project as a whole, although specific tasks and activities may be shared among the awardees and NOAA. Examples of substantial NOAA involvement may include non-compensated collaboration in research or approval of key stages in the project before subsequent steps are undertaken.

While NOAA determines the substantial involvement in projects, applicants may propose specific NOAA participation or substantial involvement suitable for their projects.

Project Objective The project objective is to enhance the resilience of coastal areas of the U.S. that received a federal disaster declaration as a result of hurricanes and of wildfires in calendar years 2020 and 2021. This will be done by administering a competitive grants program, as authorized by the National Oceans and Coastal Security Act (PL 114-113), to implement disaster recovery funding appropriated under the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act, 2022 (PL 117-43). The project must align with the intent of the Coastal Zone Management Act.

Program Authority The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) advances understanding and prediction of changes in the Earth’s environment and conserves and manages coastal and marine resources to meet our Nation’s economic, social, and environmental needs.

16 USC 1456c; 16 U.S.C. 661, as amended by the Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1970; and 16 U.S.C. 1891a Funding Amount Total anticipated funding for the award is approximately $25,000,000, subject to availability of funding and final administrative funding allocations.

Federal Program Officer Contact Elaine Vaudreuil, Elaine.Vaudreuil@noaa.gov, 240-533-0821 Required Forms/Information The following forms and documents are required to process your application.

· SF-424, Application for Federal Assistance

· SF-424A, Budget Information for Non-Construction Programs

· SF-424B, Assurances, Non-Construction Program

· CD-511, Certifications Regarding Debarment, Suspension, Responsibility Matters, Drug Free Workplace Requirements, and Lobbying.

· SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities---form should only be submitted to the government if the applicant is actually reporting lobbying activities.

· CD-512, Certifications Regarding Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion-Lower Tier Transactions, is a form that remains in the applicant’s file. Applicants should not submit the CD-512 to the government.

· Project Description. Provide sufficient background information for NOAA and non-NOAA readers to understand the significance of the proposed project. Summarize the problem that will be addressed and the status of ongoing efforts to address the identified needs. Where applicable, summarize the relationship of the proposed work to other regional or national efforts.

· Goals and Objectives. Describe in the narrative the specific project goals and objectives to be achieved. Describe and define any collaborations and involvement of NOAA personnel in the project.

· Approach. Provide a general work plan that: identifies specific tasks to be accomplished with the federal and match funds requested for this award; explains any technical approach needed to accomplish the tasks; and identifies the roles of any partners and cooperators.

· Outcomes. Identify the benefits that will be achieved as a result of this effort, both to the recipient and the general public as a whole. Identify the methods that will be used to monitor progress and track results of the projects funded through the competitive grants program.

· Budget justification. The sub-totals by cost category should match the figures on the SF-424A and include a narrative justification of the budget. NOAA’s Grants Management Division has developed detailed budget narrative guidance that provides additional details regarding the information that grant officers are looking for when reviewing applications. This guidance can be found at https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coasthome/funding/_pdf/forms/budget-narrative-guidance-for-NOAA-grants.pdf

· Data Sharing Plan. A Data Sharing Plan of no more than two pages should be attached, as described below in Section B.5 under “Administrative and National Policy Requirements.”

· Conflict of Interest Statement. This applies if the applicant is employing a former (less than 5 years) Department of Commerce (DOC) employee who will represent the application before DOC or another Federal Agency regarding this application and/or subsequent award, or who has been involved in the merit review and/or selection process. If this is the case, identify person(s), list their period of DOC employment, and describe their involvement in this project and/or NOAA grant program. Supporting documentation must be submitted with the application. If there is no conflict of interest, a statement to this effect will suffice.

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Review As required by NEPA, NOAA must analyze the potential impacts of applications that request federal funding. After the application is submitted, NOAA may require additional information to fulfill NEPA and other compliance requirements. If NOAA determines that an environmental assessment is required, applicants may also be requested to assist in drafting the assessment. 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.

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 human environment.

New projects that have not undergone a NEPA review will be required to do so and should anticipate working with the Federal Program Office to satisfy this requirement.

Continuing projects that have substantially changed their scope of work may also need to be reviewed.

Award Administration Information A. Award Notices Official notification of funding, signed by a NOAA grants officer, is the authorizing document that allows the project to begin. This notification will be issued to the Authorizing Representative of the project electronically through use of Grants Online. Projects should not be initiated in expectation of Federal funding until the Applicant’s Authorized Representative has received official notice of the award from the NOAA grants officer and has reviewed and accepted the terms of the award.

B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

1. Pre-Award Notice The Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notification Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreements contained in the Federal Register notice of December 30, 2014 (79 FR 78390), are applicable to this solicitation. Refer to http://go.usa.gov/cXC7A.

2. Uniform Administrative Requirements Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements at 2 C.F.R. 200, implemented by the Department of Commerce at 2 C.F.R. 1327.101, apply to awards in this program. Refer to http://go.usa.gov/cXCJQ.

3. Terms and Conditions The Department of Commerce Financial Assistance Standard Terms and Conditions will apply to awards in this program. These terms will be provided in the award package in Grants Online. In addition, award documents provided by NOAA may contain special award conditions, including those limiting the use of funds for compliance activities such as outstanding environmental compliance requirements, which will be applied on a case-by-case basis, and requirements for submitting progress reports.

4. NEPA Requirements NOAA must analyze the potential environmental impacts, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for applicant proposals or projects which are seeking NOAA federal funding opportunities. Detailed information on NOAA compliance with NEPA can be found at the following NOAA NEPA website: www.nepa.noaa.gov including the NOAA Administrative Order 216-6A for NEPA, www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/ames/administrative_orders/chapter_216/216-6A.html, and the Council on Environmental Quality implementing regulations, energy.gov/sites/prod/files/NEPA-40CFR1500_1508.pdf.

Consequently, as part of an applicant's package, and under the 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.

5. Data Sharing Requirements Environmental data and information collected or created under NOAA grants or cooperative agreements must be made discoverable by and accessible to the general 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.

Applications 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 contents of the Data Management Plan (or absence thereof), and past performance regarding such plans, will be considered as part of application 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 application budget unless otherwise stated in the guidance. Accepted submission of data to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (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.

NOAA may, at its own discretion, make publicly visible the Data Management Plan from funded applications, 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.

Application 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: www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/ames/administrative_orders/chapter_212/212-15.html 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 Data Sharing Policy is available on NOAA's Environmental Data Management Committee website at: https://nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/

6. Certifications Regarding Tax Liability and Felony Criminal Convictions Certifications Regarding Federal Felony and Federal Criminal Tax Convictions, Unpaid Federal Tax Assessments and Delinquent Federal Tax Returns.

In accordance with Federal appropriations law, an authorized representative of the selected applicant(s) may be required to provide certain pre-award certifications regarding federal felony and federal criminal tax convictions, unpaid federal tax assessments, and delinquent federal tax returns.

7. Limitation of Liability Funding for programs listed in this notice is contingent upon a final budget provided by NOAA to the line office. Applicants are hereby given notice that funds have not yet been received for the program listed in this request. In no event will NOAA or the Department of Commerce be responsible for application preparation costs. Publication of this announcement does not oblige NOAA to award any specific project or to obligate any available funds.

NOAA reserves the right to halt activity under the award through enforcement procedures under 2 C.F.R. 200.338-.342, Remedies for Non-compliance, if the recipient is not fulfilling the requirements of the project as outlined in the grant award. Non-compliance with a federally approved project may result in termination of the award as described in 2 C.F.R. 200.339.

C. Reporting Award recipients will be required to submit financial and performance (technical) progress reports consistent with 2 CFR 200.328 -.330 and DOC Standard Terms and Conditions electronically through NOAA’s electronic grants management system, Grants Online. Performance reports must be submitted on either a quarterly or semi-annual schedule, no later than 30 days following the end of each reporting period, as determined during award negotiations to align with NOAA’s tracking for disaster supplemental funds. Financial reports must be submitted every 6 months by the end of April and October during the period of the award in accordance with the DOC Financial Assistance Standard Terms and Conditions.

A comprehensive final report is due 120 days after the award expiration date along with copies of all products developed under the award. Copies of all materials (including but not limited to brochures, posters, videos, DVDs, publications, reports, management plans, public service announcements, workshop proceedings, etc.) produced through the award, along with copies of any reports submitted by subcontractors as part of the award, must be provided to the program office within 120 days of the end of the award. 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 must be made available to the public free of charge.

The applicant will be requested to ensure that all interim progress reports indicate whether financial reports have been submitted to NOAA's GMD and are up-to-date. In the final progress report, applicant will be asked to (a) clearly state the resulting overall impact of their project within the coastal management community; and (b) certify that "Final financial reports have been submitted to NOAA's GMD and a final funding draw-down has been made through the Automated Standard Application for Payments (ASAP)."

If equipment or tangible personal property is purchased with grant funds, applicants shall submit an inventory in accordance with OMB guidance that Commerce adopted by regulation at 2 C.F.R. 1327.101, which shall be incorporated under the award. The equipment requirements of the OMB Uniform Guidance are set out at 2 C.F.R. Part 200.313.

Recipients must inventory tangible property at least once every two years and at award closeout. As necessary, SF-428 forms may be attached as an appendix to progress reports or submitted directly to the NOAA program officer.

Recipients must submit reports at least annually and at award closeout on the status of real property in which the federal government retains an interest, unless the federal interest in the real property extends 15 years or more. As necessary, SF-429 forms may be attached as an appendix to progress reports or submitted directly to the NOAA program officer.

The program office recommends that if the equipment is no longer needed, recipients are encouraged to request disposition instructions for equipment approximately 150 days before the project period ends to allow sufficient time to have equipment disposition requests addressed before a project ends. Equipment disposition instructions typically require that recipients “Submit Additional Closeout Documents" as an award action request in Grants Online. NOAA will provide instructions for disposition in accordance with OMB requirements.

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, 31 U.S.C. 6106, includes a requirement for awardees of applicable Federal grants to report information about first-tier subawards and executive compensation under Federal assistance awards issued. All awardees of applicable grants and cooperative agreements are required to report to the Federal Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) available at www.FSRS.gov on all subawards over $30,000. See 2 CFR 170 at www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title02/2cfr170_main_02.tpl.

Other Information

A. Allowable costs Funds awarded cannot necessarily pay for all the costs that the recipient might incur in the course of carrying out an award. Generally, costs that are allowable include salaries, equipment, supplies, contractual, and other, as long as these are "necessary and reasonable" specifically for the purpose of the award. Allowable costs are determined by reference to the OMB Uniform Guidance at 2 C.F.R. Part 200, codified by the Department of Commerce at 1327.101. All cost reimbursement sub-awards (e.g., subgrants, subcontracts) are subject to those federal cost principles applicable to the particular type of organization concerned. The recipient may request approval of pre-award costs; however, all costs incurred before the Federal awarding agency makes the Federal award are at the recipient's risk.

B. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) In the event that an application contains information or data that you do not want disclosed prior to award for purposes other than the evaluation of the application, mark each page containing such information or data with the words "Privileged, Confidential, Commercial, or Financial Information - Limited Use" at the top of the page to assist NOAA in making disclosure determinations. DOC regulations implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C 552, are found at 15 C.F.R. Part 4, Public Information, which sets forth rules for DOC to make requested materials, information, and records publicly available under FOIA. The contents of funded applications may be subject to requests for release under the FOIA. Based on the information provided by you, the confidentiality of the content of funded applications will be maintained to the maximum extent permitted by law.

C. Designation of Principal Investigators or Project Directors After award acceptance in Grants Online, the Principal Investigator(s) or Project Director(s) must be associated with the award by the Recipient System Administrator within 30 days from when the award offer was received. This will provide the investigator with access to the award for requesting award actions and submitting project progress reports. The Recipient System Administrator that recipients identify during acceptance will receive a task in Grants Online to "Manage Award Users."