NOAA-NOS-OCM-2025-28920.pdf

NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

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Table of Contents

NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

Executive Summary Full Text of Announcement

I. Funding Opportunity Description II. Award Information III. Eligibility Information IV. Application and Submission Information V. Application Review Information VI. Award Administration Information VII. Agency Contacts VIII. Other Information

Executive Summary Federal Agency Name NOS Office for Coastal Management (OCM) Funding Opportunity Title FY 2025-2029 Reef Research Coordinating Institute Designation and Cooperative Agreements Announcement Type Institutional Funding Opportunity Number

NOAA-NOS-OCM-2025-28920

Assistance Listing Number(s) 11.482 Dates Proposals must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on January 31, 2025.

A webinar outlining required proposal elements and the review process will take place on November 6, 2024 at 5:00 pm EST, 12:00 pm Hawaii Standard Time (HST), and November 7, 2024 at 8:00 am Chamorro Standard Time (ChST). This will be recorded and made available for those who are unable to attend.

Funding Opportunity Description The NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) invites applications for the establishment of two Reef Research Coordination Institutes (RRCIs) through cooperative agreements to support the research, restoration, and management of shallow-water coral reef ecosystems within the U.S. states and territories. The two RRCIs will be to be known as the “Atlantic Reef Research Coordination Institute'' and the “Pacific Reef Research Coordination Institute'' and will hold this designation for an initial five (5) year period of performance and may be renewed for up to another five (5) years without competition.

Applicants must be previously designated as a Coral Reef Research Center by the CRCP in 2024.

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The selected RRCIs must be able to work across a variety of areas including conducting research, supporting ecological research and monitoring, building capacity within jurisdictional resource management agencies, translating research findings to management and restoration practices, and conducting public education and awareness programs.

Building capacity in the jurisdictions may include a variety of actions such as supporting personnel, providing training on jurisdictional driven topics, and/or managing a national fellowship program.

NOAA CRCP anticipates that up to $4,500,000 may be available annually for distribution between the two RRCIs. The actual annual funding will be based on 1) CRCP annual appropriations, 2) current and future national and state priorities, 3) the quality of projects proposed and selected during the negotiations, and 4) the satisfactory progress in achieving the stated goals described in project proposals.

Applicant organizations must complete and maintain three registrations to be eligible to apply for or receive an award. These registrations include SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons. All registrations must be completed prior to the application being submitted. The complete registration process for all three systems can take 4 to 6 weeks, so applicants should begin this activity as soon as possible. If an eligible applicant does not have effective access to the internet, please contact the Agency Contacts listed in Section VII for submission instructions.

Prior to registering with eRA Commons, applicant organizations must first obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) from SAM.gov, if needed (refer to Section IV. Applications and Submission Information, Section C). Organizations can register with eRA Commons in tandem with completing their full SAM and Grants.gov registrations; however, all registrations must be in place by time of application submission. eRA Commons requires organizations to identify at least one Signing Official (SO) and at least one Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) account in order to submit an application.

Full Text of Announcement I. Funding Opportunity Description A. Program Objective The purpose of this announcement is to designate two Reef Research Coordination Institutes (RRCIs) to work collaboratively with NOAA and other partners to advance and sustain coral reef research capabilities and help build capacity in the U.S. coral reef jurisdictions.

Successful applicants will hold this designation for an initial five (5) year period of performance and may be renewed for up to another five (5) years without competition.

Reef Research Coordination Institute Concept/Background There will be two RRCIs, one in the Atlantic basin and one in the Pacific basin, the ‘Atlantic Reef Research Coordination Institute’ and the ‘Pacific Reef Research Coordination Institute.’

Eligible applicants are limited to designated coral reef research centers (CRRC; see Section III.A. Eligible Applicants for a list of CRRCs). RRCIs will have the following functions within their respective basin, and shall:

1. Conduct research to fill national and regional coral reef ecosystem research gaps and improve understanding of, and responses to, continuing and emerging threats to the resilience of United States coral reef ecosystems;

2. Support ecological research and monitoring to promote more effective coral reef management and restoration; and

3. Enter into agreements to:

a. Collaborate directly with:

i. States that contain a coral reef ecosystem within their seaward boundaries: American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau;

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ii. Native entities (the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Native Hawaiian organizations with an interest in a coral reef ecosystem);

iii. Coral reef stewardship partnerships (16 U.S.C. § 6405);

iv. Nonprofit organizations; and

v. Other designated coral reef research centers (See III.A. Eligibility Information);

b. Assist in the implementation of the National Coral Reef Resilience Strategy and applicable coral reef action plan (16 U.S. Code § 6404) goals and objectives;

c. Build capacity within jurisdictional resource management agencies on research priorities and translate research findings to management and restoration practices; and

d. Conduct public education and awareness programs for policymakers, resource managers, and the general public on coral reefs and coral reef ecosystems, including best practices for management and restoration; coral reefs’ value; and threats to coral reef ecosystems.

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.

B. Program Priorities

PRIORITY ACTIVITIES

Successful RRCIs will need to demonstrate they can support activities across all three priority areas listed below (Research, Monitoring, and Capacity Building) and have established, or can establish, partnerships with federal and state governments, and other organizations to identify and address key coral reef research needs.

1. Conduct research to fill national and regional coral reef ecosystem gaps and support more effective coral reef management and conservation. Applications should address one or more of the following actions:

a. Research to identify and improve the understanding of climate variability and change, as well as anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems and the effect of these changes on the interactions between people and natural systems at the global, regional, and local levels;

b. Identify drivers of coral disturbances and intervention techniques to increase resilience of different coral species to major disturbances, including coral bleaching;

c. Determine water quality impacts to coral reef ecosystems, identify, characterize, and quantify the thresholds important for coral reef ecosystem health conditions;

d. Develop new techniques, technologies and research to implement scaling up of restoration and address bottlenecks in restoration efficiencies (e.g., genetic diversity, herbivore co-culture, and post-settlement survival);

e. Conduct research on population status and ecology of coral reef fisheries taxa (e.g., tagging, biological sampling, fishery monitoring, and habitat);

f. Conduct larval connectivity studies on fish, corals, and/or other invertebrates to determine optimal conservation actions, as determined by management needs;

g. Study different methods of invasive species identification, assessment, prevention, mitigation, and removal/culling, tailored towards the management needs; and

h. Enhance scientific understanding of the interconnections between the marine ecosystem and the adjacent watershed including their human health and resource stewardship implications.

2. Support ecosystem monitoring initiatives, such as the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) and/or long-term State or territorial monitoring efforts. Applications should address one or more of the following actions:

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a. Employ new techniques for decision support, including data analysis, synthesis, visualization, and display that allow NOAA and other stakeholders to conduct science more efficiently and share results with coral reef managers;

b. Participate in the development of data products that characterize the causes and consequences of coral reef conditions and the costs and benefits of possible management actions to maintain or improve conditions; and

c. Integrate data at appropriate spatial and temporal scales to understand the causes of coral reef ecosystem change and the rate at which they occur to inform management actions.

3. Enter into agreements and collaborate directly with States, nonprofits, coral reef research centers and other organizations (see Section I.A.3.a) to build capacity in U.S.

coral reef jurisdictions and conduct public education and awareness programs on coral reefs. Applications should address one or more of the following actions:

a. Build capacity in State resource management agencies to address local gaps by engaging qualified individuals who meet administrative, management, and scientific needs;

b. Provide assistance with developing and improving databases for long-term coral reef and water quality monitoring data for coral reef ecosystem management;

c. Help develop locally-relevant communications, public outreach and education, community engagement, graphic design, and educational materials to facilitate the implementation of research results into scientific and management actions;

d. Increase opportunities for individuals from under-represented groups, university students, and/or local government agencies to participate in coral reef trainings, in-water field work, or other research and management activities to develop expertise and capacity; and

e. Enhance community engagement when identifying new data needs and pursuing results from data and information.

Examples of jurisdictional-specific priority activities are available as an attachment in grants.gov for reference.

CAPABILITIES AND CAPACITIES

Successful applicants will need to provide information on how their current institutional capacities, facilities, and expertise will support the implementation of the activities listed above. Applicants should address the following items:

Specialized Administrative Capabilities The designated RRCI must be able to conduct multi-disciplinary research in collaboration with a range of partners, including State governments (see Section I.A.3.a.i), Native entities (see Section I.A.3.a.ii), nonprofit organizations, and other designated CRRCs within their basin to conduct research and build capacity.

The proposal should demonstrate (through proposed projects) the ability to:

1. Hire and host the All Islands Committee’s Executive Director position, including related fringe, travel, and expenses. The Executive Director coordinates the activities of the All Islands Committee, which is a subset of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (16 U.S.C. §§ 6451-6456) and includes all member States and territories. The Executive Director must travel to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meetings at minimum, one (1) in Washington, D.C., and one (1) rotating among the member States and territories every year. The RRCI will need to negotiate salary, location, and all other conditions of employment after the designation. The Executive Director position will be administered by one RRCI; and

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2. Administer capacity building programs, including the Susan L. Williams Coral Reef Management Fellowship (16 U.S.C. § 6481), to help train the next generation of scientists and management practitioners. The program currently supports seven (7) fellows for two (2) years per cohort, one each in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, totalling approximately $650,000 per year. The fellowship program will be administered by one RRCI.

Additionally, the proposal will need to demonstrate either by statement in the Center Qualifications section or through proposed projects the institution’s ability to:

1. Hire positions, as needed, to support jurisdictional and regional coral reef staffing needs (examples of State-specific research and capacity needs are available as an attachment in grants.gov for reference);

2. Support required annual jurisdictional reporting requirements in the CRCA, including a Congressional report highlighting the status of the coral reef resources, recent coral reef management and restoration activities, and updated estimates of the economic activity supported by those coral reef resources (16 U.S.C.§ 6452(5)); and

3. Support local meetings, workshops, and symposiums for coral reef managers in each basin, which may include U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meetings.

Specialized Research Capacities A critical component of an RRCI will be the ability to conduct research that fills national and regional coral reef ecosystem research needs. The selected RRCIs will need to demonstrate either by statement in the Center Qualifications section or through project proposals that they currently possess, have access to, or can obtain, the following infrastructure to support research and management needs:

1. Scientific laboratory space and equipment for biological, chemical, physical, and geological marine research;

2. Cold and dry storage facilities;

3. Facilities suitable for the long-term, ex-situ holding of corals and other reef-associated species for research, and restoration (e.g., wet labs for conducting large-scale tank experiments and/or coral raceways);

4. Computing and data storage sufficient for complex analyses, modeling, machine learning, etc.;

5. Field research gear appropriate for the identified research priorities;

6. Vessels that can support nearshore marine research and monitoring; and

7. Scientific diving facilities and a training program that is reciprocal to NOAA Dive

Center standards <https://www.omao.noaa.gov/diving-program/reciprocity>.

C. Program Authority Grant authority for the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program is provided by the Coral Reef Conservation Act, as amended,16 USC 6401-15; see e.g., 6411, 6414(a)(3).

II. Award Information A. Funding Availability All funding is contingent upon the availability of federal appropriations. NOAA anticipates approximately $4,500,000 will be available annually, to be divided between two RRCIs. Each applicant may apply for the full available amount, up to $4,500,000, in fiscal year (FY) 2025, and $22,500,000 total over five (5) years. The actual annual funding that an RRCI receives may be less than the requested amount and will depend on the projects that are approved by NOAA after the initial RRCI award begins, the availability of funding, the quality of the research, the alignment of project progress to the original project proposal's stated goals, and continued relevance to CRCP program objectives.

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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.

Direct costs of proposal preparation shall not be included within the project application budget. In addition, NOAA and the Department of Commerce (DOC) will not be responsible for project costs if this program fails to receive funding. Recipients and subrecipients are subject to all federal laws and agency policies, regulations, and procedures applicable to federal financial assistance awards.

In the event that this competition does not result in the awarding of cooperative agreements in this fiscal year due to a lack of available funding, the results of the competition may still be used to officially designate the Atlantic Reef Research Coordination Institute and Pacific Reef Research Coordination Institute in an unfunded capacity. These RRCIs would then be eligible for award selection and funding in future years (i.e., FY 2026) without new competition, when funds become available.

B. Project/Award Period “Institutional” awards are planned for this program. Funds are proposed to be awarded based on competition and with the intent to maintain a long-term partnership between NOAA and the recipients. New awards may be made on a noncompetitive basis if recipients perform satisfactorily, re-apply, and if the results of the periodic reviews validate the effectiveness and continued desirability of the use of institutional awards for the program and the recipient.

The initial award period in this program will be five (5) years and an award may be renewed for up to an additional five (5) years. NOAA anticipates reviewing the grant program within five (5) years to validate the effectiveness and continued desirability of the use of institutional awards and may elect to continue the program issuing non-competitive award(s), hold a competition, revise the program, or discontinue the program.

The start date on proposals shall be October 1, 2025 and end September 30, 2030.

Applications should conform to performance periods of five (5) consecutive one (1) year plans, with funding for the second, third, fourth, and fifth years estimated in the application.

C. Type of Funding Instrument The funding instrument for each award will be a cooperative agreement as described in 2 C.F.R. Sec. 200.1 Definitions, meaning that NOAA is “substantially involved” in the project.

The CRCP anticipates substantial involvement may include the collaboration and participation of NOAA Federal Program Officers, Coral Reef Management Liaisons, Coral Reef Fisheries Liaisons, and other NOAA 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. NOAA may further participate in one or more of the following ways:

• Collaboration on the scope of work through leading research directions, scientific collaborations, and providing assistance with technical aspects of projects, including permitting and development of work plans and monitoring plans;

• Collaboration on implementation of project activities related to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force, the All Islands Committee, fellowship programs, the National Coral Reef Resilience Strategy, coral reef action plans, public reporting, reef management policies and practices, convening of partners, and meeting planning and facilitation;

• Increasing access to, and building capacity of partners to use NOAA or federal data, tools, and equipment; and data management and sharing activities, including development of spatial databases, models, and information analyses; and/or

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• Other involvement consistent with Office of Management and Budget Guidance on Substantial Involvement, as negotiated with the recipient. See 43 Federal Register 36860 (Aug. 18, 1978).

Applicants may also propose anticipated specific federal roles and responsibilities in their proposals. Successful applicants will formalize the specific roles of the federal agency during the award negotiation process. The specific nature of CRCP’s substantial involvement will be described in an award condition included in a funded award. Applicants tentatively selected for funding should discuss the specific roles of the federal agency during project negotiations.

III. Eligibility Information A. Eligible Applicants Eligible applicants are limited to the following institutes of higher education and nonprofits designated as coral reef research centers under the Coral Reef Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. § 6411(b)):

• American Samoa Community College

• Arizona State University Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science

• Caribbean Coral Reef Institute

• Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation, University of Puerto Rico

• Coral Restoration Foundation

• Coral World Ocean and Reef Initiative

• Florida Atlantic University

• Florida Institute of Oceanography at Key Marine Laboratory

• Florida Institute of Technology

• Florida International University

• Hawaii Marine Education Research Center

• Hawaii Sea Grant

• Institute of Socio Ecological Research

• Mote Marine Laboratory

• National Coral Reef Institute at Nova Southeastern University

• Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science

• Plant A Million Corals Foundation

• The Nature Conservancy, Hawaii and Palmyra

• The Nature Conservancy, Puerto Rico Program

• The Nature Conservancy

• The Nature Conservancy, USVI Coral Innovation Hub

• University of Florida Sea Grant

• University of Florida

• University of Guam Marine Laboratory

• University of Hawaii at Hilo Department of Marine Science

• University of Hawaii at Hilo, Multiscale Environmental Graphical Analysis (MEGA) Lab

• University of Hawaii Systems

• University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science

• University of Puerto Rico, Department of Marine Sciences

• University of Puerto Rico, Humacao Campus Marine Biology Program

• University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez

• University of the Virgin Islands

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The Pacific Reef Research Coordinating Institute must be located within American Samoa, Guam, or Hawaii. The Atlantic Reef Research Coordinating Institute must be located within Florida, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. Only one CRRC in each basin will receive a RRCI designation and financial assistance award. In the event that a consortium of CRRCs submits a single application, the designation and award will reside with the submitting CRRC and that CRRC will be solely responsible for the award’s administration.

To be eligible to apply or receive an award, applicant organizations must complete and maintain three registrations: SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons. For each, the complete registration process can take 4 to 6 weeks. For more information on how to meet these registration and application submission requirements without errors, we advise all to carefully review relevant Applicant and Grantee Training modules:

https://www.commerce.gov/ocio/programs/gems/applicant-and-grantee-training.

Additionally, we advise that all carefully read ‘Additional Application Package Forms’ within the ‘Full Proposal Required Elements’ section below.

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

DOC/NOAA supports cultural and gender diversity and encourages women and minority individuals and groups to participate in proposals submitted to this program. In addition, DOC/NOAA is strongly committed to broadening the participation of historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions, tribal colleges and universities, and institutions that work in historically underserved areas. DOC/NOAA encourages applications involving any of the above institutions to apply.

B. Cost Share or Matching Requirement Cost sharing is not required. However, given the collaborative nature and investment of a RRCI by both NOAA and the applying institution, voluntary cost sharing commitments will be accepted but not factored into the evaluation. Acceptable cost-sharing proposals include, but are not limited to: offering a reduced indirect cost rate against activities in one or more projects, waiver of any indirect costs assessed by the awardee on subawards, waiver of indirect costs assessed against base funds and/or activities, waiver or reduction of any costs associated with the use of facilities at the RRCI, and full or partial salary funding for administration staff, or third party contributions of goods and services. See 2 C.F.R. 200.306.

C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility

NA

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. If the electronic application is not accessible, applicants may request a paper application package from Mr. Craig Reid, NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, 1305 East-West Highway, SSMC4, 10th floor, Silver Spring, MD 20910 or email craig.a.reid@noaa.gov.

B. Content and Form of Application

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Applicants should submit a complete standard NOAA financial assistance application package in accordance with the guidelines in this document. Applications that do not follow the proposal application requirements stated in this announcement may not be considered for review.

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) to the extent possible.

Prior to submission, carefully review the PDF Guidelines for submission found here:

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/how-to-apply-application-guide/format-and-write/format-attachments.htm. Recent applicants have encountered rejected applications for formatting issues, especially:

• Do not use “bundling” or “portfolio” features to combine PDFs into a single document. Everything must be visible in the PDF.

• Descriptive filenames may only be 50 characters or less (including spaces).

• Keep attachment file size to 100 MB or less.

• eRA won’t accept any pages larger than the U.S. standard letter paper size (8.5” x

11”).

We strongly recommend that applicants attempt to submit their full proposals at least a few days or more prior to the due date in case these or other issues impact your submission, as they are not reasons we can extend the deadline. If you have issues during the submission process, please contact the eRA Service Desk.

The complete application package should include the following forms and documents:

1. Title Page. The title page should clearly indicate the proposed name of the RRCI, principal investigators, total amount of Federal funds being requested, award period, and a brief abstract containing a description of the RRCI, research, and proposed activities.

2. Center Qualifications. The Center Qualifications section should be limited to no more than 15 pages single spaced and will be used by NOAA to confirm that the applicant has the required capacities, capabilities, and expertise to conduct coral reef research and meet the primary functions of an RRCI (see Section 1.A.). All proposals should include the following sections:

a. Goal(s) and Objective(s) of the RRCI. The applicant should clearly describe the goals and objectives of the RRCI, and what the RRCI expects to accomplish during the award. Recipients will be required to submit semi-annual progress reports in which progress against these goals and objectives will be reported.

b. Coral Reef Research Experience. Applicants should describe their recent involvement in coral reef research efforts in each jurisdiction within the relevant ocean basin, including a list of all relevant coral reef research projects within the last five (5) years. The application should include a list, broken out by jurisdiction, of project titles, funding agency or organization, project duration, and total award value in the appendices. This section should be a brief summary, not to exceed two (2) pages.

c. Administrative Structure. This section should describe the organizational structure of the RRCI and must describe how the RRCI chooses projects and reviews its progress, as well as how the RRCI will support enhanced communication and collaborations with NOAA and partners. If any RRCI personnel are proposed to work in facilities not operated by the RRCI (e.g., NOAA or state facilities), this section must describe the administrative support structure (i.e., financial/human resources) requested for such personnel and would be expected to voluntarily reduce the approved negotiated indirect cost rate accordingly.

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d. Partnerships and networks. In order to be competitive for the RRCI designation, CRRCs should be able to enter in memoranda of agreement with various States (see Section I.A.3.a.i.), Native entities (see Section I.A.3.a.ii.), nonprofit organizations, other CRRCs (see Section III.A.), and other non-Federal entities as members of future coral reef stewardship partnerships (16 U.S.C. § 6405) within their respective ocean basin.

– Identify and describe the professional or technical network that will be leveraged or created through this RRCI.

– Describe how the partners and network users will interact with the RRCI and research project(s), the communication mechanism utilized to engage the network, and describe how they will use the outcome or results of the project.

– Describe what existing federal, state, and local organizations or programs will be connected, integrated, and leveraged.

– Describe the roles of partners and indicate any efforts or resources that will be leveraged in the project.

– Include letters of collaboration from partners and any letters of support in the appendices, as appropriate. These are not expected from other eligible applicants (i.e., other CRRCs) but will be accepted.

3. Project Description. The Project Description section should be limited to no more than 50 pages single spaced. Applications should provide sufficient detail to enable reviewers to evaluate the relevance and applicability of the 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, Endangered Species Act, Historic Preservation Act, and Marine Mammal Protection Act.

a. Five-year Project Portfolio. The purpose of this section is to demonstrate how the applicant’s qualifications and experience previously described (see Section IV.B.2.b) may translate into implementable projects that directly respond to national, regional, and State-specific priorities. Many to most of these proposed projects are unlikely to be selected and incorporated into the final application, which will be negotiated between NOAA and the CRRC after the two RRCIs have been selected for designation and NOAA has received their FY 2025 Congressional appropriations. However, this section will be weighted heavily by merit and panel reviewers (see Section V.) and should highlight the applicant’s capacity and willingness to support a diverse range of functions, priorities, geographies, and partner types (see Sections I.A, I.B., I.A.3.a.i, and I.A.3.a., respectively).

The project portfolio must include abstract-level summaries of potential project descriptions, timelines, and approximate budgets for projects which could be conducted by the RRCI during the five-year award period if fully funded at up to $4,500,000 per year. At least one project (or component of a project) must be located in, or directly benefit, each of the States within the relevant ocean basin.

The Freely Associated States may be included but are not required for this section. Refer to Section I.B for national and regional research and capacity-building priorities, as well as the attached list of State-specific priorities. Note that these priorities are not exhaustive and other projects may be proposed.

The selection of this proposal neither precludes the RRCI from proposing additional research projects after the award has been made as long as they are consistent with the pending National Coral Resilience Strategy, nor obligates NOAA to fund the projects proposed in this application.

If the project includes Federal partners, the roles and responsibilities of the federal partners must be clearly identified.

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b. Performance Measures. Include proposed measures to be used by the RRCI to gauge, quantify, and/or evaluate progress on both individual projects and its overall performance. The narrative should include information on dissemination of the findings/results to resource managers, local communities, and other partners as appropriate.

c. Outreach and Education: Include a list of entities the applicant may partner with in future coral reef research and how results will be disseminated within the coral reef community in support of the research priorities described above.

Project descriptions must not exceed 50-pages and will be shortened by removing pages at the end of this section before it is forwarded to merit and panel 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.

4. Budget Narrative and Justification (see below for details)

5. Appendices (see below for details)

6. 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). Please note that these federal forms must be filled out in a Grants.gov Workspace:

a. Application for Federal Assistance: Form SF-424.

Applicants requesting Federal funding under this program must submit a copy of SF-424, 'Application for Federal Assistance'. If the applicant submits a hard copy of the final application, the SF-424 must be signed and dated by the organization's authorized representative and used as the cover page for the final application. An electronic signature and date stamp will automatically be included on SF-424 forms submitted via Grants.gov. Applicants will be required to enter their organization’s Congressional District in the SF424 R&R form. For tips on finding and entering your Congressional District correctly, please review the information found here:

https://grantsgovprod.wordpress.com/2017/06/21/how-to-find-your-congressional-district-for-the-sf-424-form/

b. Budget Information for Non-construction Programs: Form SF-424A.

Applicants are required to submit a SF-424A Budget Form to summarize the budget for the proposed scope of work. The first column of Sections A and B shows the federal funds requested, while the second column of Sections A and B shows the non-federal matching funds provided for the project. Total award funding is shown in the final column of Section B. Non-federal funding is broken out by source in Section C. Forecasted cash needs in Section D should be inclusive of all funding for multi-year projects. Federal and non-Federal funds should be expended at a similar rate throughout the course of the project. Section E may be left blank. Section F summarizes the direct charges in line 21 and lists the indirect charges requested; please show the rate used in line 22. Multi-year awards will have out year funds shown in Section E.

Please note that completion of the SF-424A form as described above represents NOAA's preference and may not be consistent with the instructions that accompany the SF-424A form. All budget figures should match the funding requested on the application cover sheet and correspond with the descriptions contained in the project and budget narratives. Each proposed sub-award of $25,000 or more should be accompanied by a separate SF-424A form to fully document the proposed subaward budget.

c. Budget Information for Construction Programs: Form SF-424C

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

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e. Assurances for Construction Programs: Form SF-424D

f. Certification Regarding Lobbying: Form CD-511

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

NEPA information, and the Appendices can be uploaded within the application package under “Other Narrative” or “Other Forms”.

There is a 100 megabyte file size limit on individual files. Applicants can upload multiple files to avoid exceeding the 100 megabyte file size limit.

Budget Narrative and Justification In order to allow reviewers to evaluate the appropriateness of all costs, applications should include a detailed budget narrative and justification of costs. 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 costs in their proposal to cover expenses to track and measure outcomes, and key metrics of their program.

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.

e. Itemized Budget. Include categories used in the 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 $10,000. See 2 CFR 200.1 Equipment and 2 CFR 200.313.

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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. Applicants may factor in travel costs for participation in a bi-annual NOAA Grants Management Division (GMD) workshop for recipients.

See below regarding treatment of Indirect Costs in the Budget Narrative.

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

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

a. 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.

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.

b. Resumes. Provide resumes of the Principal Investigator(s) associated with each project and other key personnel critical to the success of the proposal. Please limit resumes to a maximum of two pages for each key investigator. Publication lists should be limited to all publications in the last 3 years with up to five other relevant papers.

c. Data Management Plan. The Data Management Plan should address the requirements in this section of the Announcement.

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1) 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.

2) 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 contents of the Data Management Plan (or absence thereof), and past performance regarding such plans, will be considered as part of proposal review. There is an optional fillable form for data management and sharing plans at this link:

https://coast.noaa.gov/data/coasthome/funding/_pdf/forms/data-mgmt-sharing-plan-review-form.pdf. Otherwise, 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 (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.

3) 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.

4) 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.

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

http://www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/ames/administrative_orders/chapt er_212/212-15.html

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

7) 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.all.php

8) Responsible NOAA Official for questions regarding this guidance and for verifying accessibility of data produced by funding recipients:

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Randy Warren Data Manager NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management Randy.Warren@noaa.gov

Additional Data Management Guidance to Proposal Writers:

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.