NOAA-OAR-CPO-2024-2007735 NOFO Report .pdf

Climate Program Office (CPO) NIHHIS FY2024

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Funding Opportunity Description 4

A. Program Objective 4 B. Program Priorities 4 C. Program Authority 8

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

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

IV. Application and Submission Information 9 A. Address to Request Application Package 9 B. Content and Form of Application 9 C. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM) 15 D. Submission Dates and Times 16 E. Intergovernmental Review 16 F. Funding Restrictions 16 G. Other Submission Requirements 16

V. Application Review Information 17 A. Evaluation Criteria 17 B. Review and Selection Process 18 C. Selection Factors 19 D. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates 20

VI. Award Administration Information 20 A. Award Notices 20 B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements 20 C. Reporting 26

VII. Agency Contacts 26 VIII. Other Information 27

Notice of Federal Funding Page 1 of 27

NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Federal Agency Name(s): Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce

Funding Opportunity Title: Climate Program Office (CPO) NIHHIS FY2024

Announcement Type: Initial

Funding Opportunity Number: NOAA-OAR-CPO-2024-2007735

Federal Assistance Listings Number: 11.431, Climate and Atmospheric Research

Dates: Letters of intent (LOIs) for all competitions should be received by email by 5:00 p.m.

Eastern Time on 08/14/2023.

Full Applications: Full applications for all competitions must be received by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, on 10/16/2023.

Funding Opportunity Description: Climate variability and change present society with significant economic, health, safety, and security challenges. As part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate portfolio within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the Climate Program Office (CPO) addresses these climate challenges by managing competitive research programs through which high-priority climate science, assessments, decision-support research, outreach, education, and capacity-building activities are funded to advance our understanding of the Earth’s climate system, and to foster the application and use of this knowledge to improve the resilience of our Nation and its partners. Through this announcement, CPO is seeking applications for three individual competitions in FY23. These competitions are relevant to one of the high-priority climate risk areas CPO is focusing on to improve science understanding and/or capabilities that result in user-driven outcomes: Extreme Heat. More information about CPO’s Climate Risk Areas Initiative can be found at https://cpo.noaa.gov/News/ArtMID/7875/ArticleID/1945/NOAA%E2%80%99s-Climate- Program-Office-launches-Climate-Risk-Areas-Initiative.

This announcement is also supportive of NOAA’s FY22-26 Strategic Plan, particularly strategic goals of 1) Building a Climate Ready Nation and 2) Making Equity Central to NOAA’s Mission.

The NOAA Strategic Plan can be found at:

https://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-06/NOAA_FY2226_Strategic_Plan.pdf

Notice of Federal Funding Page 2 of 27

NOAA, OAR, and CPO require applicants and awardees to support the principles of diversity and inclusion when writing their proposals and performing their work; indeed, applicants will be evaluated, in part, on how well principles of diversity and inclusion are addressed. Diversity is defined as a collection of individual attributes that together help organizations achieve objectives. Inclusion is defined as a culture that connects each employee to the organization.

Promoting diversity and inclusion improves creativity, productivity, and the vitality of the climate research community in which CPO engages.

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FULL ANNOUNCEMENT TEXT

I. Funding Opportunity Description

A. Program Objective

Climate variability and change present society with significant economic, health, safety, and security challenges. As part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate portfolio within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the Climate Program Office (CPO) addresses these climate challenges by supporting climate research, observations, monitoring, modeling, assessments, interdisciplinary decision-support research, outreach, education, and partnership development. These investments support NOAA’s mission of "Science, Service, and Stewardship" and are designed to advance our understanding of the Earth’s climate system and to foster the application and use of this knowledge to improve the resilience of our Nation and its partners. The position of CPO at the intersection among NOAA’s science and service missions, the climate research community, and the broader climate enterprise enables it to provide strategic vision, lead a research agenda and forge partnerships that enhance society's ability to make effective decisions. CPO also fulfills NOAA’s authorized responsibilities under the National Climate Program Act, the Global Change Research Act and its National Climate Assessment, the National Integrated Drought Information System Act, and similar international endeavors such as the World Climate Research Program.

CPO’s programs manage a competitive process through a Notice of Federal Funding Opportunity (NOFO) announcement to make awards supporting high-quality research and technical assistance conducted across the United States and internationally on the most urgent climate science questions. While each program area has its own focus, together they advance understanding of Earth’s climate system through interdisciplinary, integrated scientific research, and leverage the resulting knowledge, data, and systems to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond to climate variability and climate change. Toward this end, CPO’s Integrated Information Systems work collaboratively with decision makers to build societal understanding of climate risks, develop science-based solutions, and improve capacity, communication, and decision-making to reduce impacts to human health, critical infrastructure, security, and the economy.

B. Program Priorities

This FY24 NOFO is being executed through the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS). NIHHIS is an integrated information system that was jointly developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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(NOAA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The NIHHIS Program is run out of NOAA’s Climate Program Office. NIHHIS is guided by an interagency steering committee composed of representatives from many federal agencies. For more information about the program, visit Heat.gov.

The National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) is a covered program under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which set a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in climate and clean energy and other areas, flow to disadvantaged communities. As such, NIHHIS strives to achieve this goal by ensuring that 40 percent of the overall benefits of its research investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution – as identified by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, a tool created by the White House Council on Environmental Quality that aims to help federal agencies identify disadvantaged communities as part of the Justice40 Initiative [https://screeningtool.geoplatform.gov/]. NIHHIS also strives to create more equitable access to green and blue spaces in accordance with the America the Beautiful Initiative and the Interagency Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Promoting Equitable Access to Nature in Nature-Deprived Communities (https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/news-updates/2022/09/23/fact-sheet-biden-%E2%81%A0harris-administration-advances-commitment-to-create-more-equitable-access-to-parks-and-nature-in-communities/).

Applicants to this opportunity are encouraged to address how their proposed work will help NIHHIS achieve these goals.

*Justice40 Initiative [https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/] *Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool [https://screeningtool.geoplatform.gov/en/] *Promoting Equitable Access to Nature [https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/news-updates/2022/09/23/fact-sheet-biden-%E2%81%A0harris-administration-advances-commitment-to-create-more-equitable-access-to-parks-and-nature-in-communities/]

1. The National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS)

The mission of the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) is to build understanding of heat, develop science-based solutions, and to improve capacity, communication, and decision-making to reduce heat-related illness and death. NIHHIS

Notice of Federal Funding Page 5 of 27 envisions a heat-resilient nation empowered to effectively address extreme heat and its impacts.

In FY24, NIHHIS is offering funding opportunities under two competitions to expand development of actionable, place-based climate information for community heat resilience.

These competitions will support the new NIHHIS Centers of Excellence.

The two competitions covered by this announcement are as follows:

1. NIHHIS Center of Excellence - Center for Community Climate & Health Observations, Monitoring & Evaluation

2. NIHHIS Center of Excellence - Center for Climate and Health Assessments, Policy, and Practice

1. NIHHIS Center of Excellence - Center for Community Climate & Health Observations, Monitoring & Evaluation

Building upon years of successful citizen science projects to map Urban Heat Islands in over 60 communities, competition 1 will establish a center that provides community climate science support focused on assisting community-serving organizations and their partners in conducting community climate & health studies. This center will provide financial and technical assistance to community-serving and community-based organizations (e.g.

environmental justice organizations, local governments, science museums, universities) interested in observing, monitoring, and evaluating the many factors influencing heat risk at a local scale. In particular, this center will support the design and execution of community science projects that deploy new observational technologies and survey instruments, as well as make use of existing observations and datasets in support of community resilience to extreme heat. An important goal for this center will be to implement and advance methods and protocols for community climate science that enable community-based projects to be contributions to the larger evidence base for making decisions that reduce climate risks.

2. NIHHIS Center of Excellence - Center for Climate and Health Assessments, Policy, and Practice

Building upon community-based observations and engagement (such as that enabled by the center in competition 1), competition 2 will establish a center to support evidence-based community action for heat resilience decision-making via applied climate and health research and analysis. This center will provide technical assistance to community leaders and decision/policy makers (e.g. local governments) that may lack the capacity or specialized

Notice of Federal Funding Page 6 of 27 expertise in-house to monitor, model, and assess heat's many impacts as well as to simulate, project, or otherwise evaluate the effectiveness of a collection of potential plans, policies, and other actions to reduce heat risk. In addition to supporting action in communities, an important goal for this center will be to synthesize and share lessons learned and best practices to add to the state of the science on the effectiveness of heat interventions and promote scalable and effective heat action in any community.

Competitions 1 and 2 (the centers) will create virtual centers that will provide scientific support services to community-serving, community-based, and government entities working to address community climate and health issues (with a focus on heat and health) via targeted projects. The centers will be expected to offer baseline services at no additional charge (they will be funded by the award from this competition). The applicant may also offer fee-based complementary or supplemental services that are beyond the scope of the award so long as a distinction is clearly made. The centers must have a discoverable public presence (including a website and contact email) and should build on existing programs or capabilities (e.g. the center web site should be integrated into heat.gov). A physical location is not required for the center. Applications to either competition are encouraged to consider how the centers could build on each other, such as by facilitating sequential community applications for support to from centers (e.g. collecting baseline data via center 1, using it to inform decision-making via center 2, collecting additional data for evaluation via center 1, and using it to inform evaluations of effectiveness via center 2). NIHHIS will work with the ultimate awardees to facilitate collaboration between the potential centers and synchronize community application processes via heat.gov. Applicants to this NOFO may write proposals to host a center under either of the competitions herein, but the proposals must be separate and able to stand alone (for example, if proposing to competitions 1 and 2 to create a joint center, a proposal to each competition is still needed).

Additional information and the detailed competition information sheet for this competition can be found at the following website:

https://cpo.noaa.gov/Funding-Opportunities/NIHHIS-FY2024-IRA

For all competitions, applicants are strongly encouraged to collaborate with NOAA programs, centers, labs, and cooperative institutes as well as other Federal agencies that partner with NIHHIS and global partners with the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN). A table of potential NIHHIS Federal Collaborators to facilitate partnerships in support of developing applications will be maintained at the website above and will be updated with new information on Fridays during the period that this funding opportunity remains open. Additionally, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section will be maintained

Notice of Federal Funding Page 7 of 27 on this site, and will be updated with new information on Fridays during the period that this funding opportunity remains open.

Please visit the CPO website above for further information or contact the CPO Grants Manager, Diane Brown, by mail (see address above) or at <diane.brown@noaa.gov> for general NOFO questions only. For competition specific information, please contact the corresponding competition manager, Hunter Jones <hunter.jones@noaa.gov>. Please allow up to two weeks after receipt for a response.

C. Program Authority

49 U.S.C. 44720(b), 15 U.S.C. 2904, 15 U.S.C. 2931-2934, 15 USC 3724

II. Award Information

A. Funding Availability

In FY24, it is expected that $2.0 million total will be available for approximately 2 new awards (see section I.B above). Current or previous grantees are eligible to apply for a new award that builds on, but does not replicate, activities covered in existing or previous awards.

Current grantees should not apply for supplementary funding through this announcement.

Depending on the availability of funds and the quality of proposals, funding under each of competitions 1 and 2 will take the form of a 3-year cooperative agreement with a funding floor of $1.0M in year 1 and $0.75M in years 2 and 3 for a total of $2.5M per center for the 3-year period. Proposals should be modular and scalable, completely achieving the requirements below and in the competition information sheet [https://cpo.noaa.gov/Funding- Opportunities/NIHHIS-FY2024-IRA] at the stated funding floor. Applications may also indicate what could be achieved at funding levels as high as $3M per year ($9M per center for the 3-year period), but should focus primarily on capabilities at the funding floor level.

B. Project/Award Period

Funding for each of the NIHHIS Centers of Excellence (competitions 1 and 2) is expected to last 3 years.

C. Type of Funding Instrument

The funding instrument for awards to competitions 1 and 2, the NIHHIS Centers of Excellence, is expected to be Cooperative Agreements. Applicants are strongly encouraged to have NOAA or NOAA-affiliated partners (on current awards from NOAA or in agreements (CRADAs, MOUs) or other regular engagements with NOAA staff or programs)

Notice of Federal Funding Page 8 of 27 that will be substantially involved in the implementation of the project, indicating that a cooperative agreement should be awarded. Examples of substantial involvement may include, but are not limited to, applications for collaboration between NOAA scientists and a recipient scientist or stakeholder with the expectation that the NOAA scientist will participate in aspects of the project such as the data analysis, technical methods development, and co-preparation and presentation of results in meetings and publications.

Funding for contractual arrangements for services and products for delivery to NOAA is not available under this announcement.

III. Eligibility Information

A. Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants are institutions of higher education, other nonprofits, commercial organizations, international organizations, and state, local and tribal governments. Federal agencies or institutions are not eligible to receive Federal assistance under this notice.

B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement

All CPO programs have no cost sharing or matching criteria.

C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility

None.

IV. Application and Submission Information

A. Address to Request Application Package

Application packages are at grants.gov. For applicants without Internet access, please contact the CPO Grants Manager Diane Brown by mail at NOAA Climate Program Office (R/CP1), SSMC3, Room 12734, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910 to obtain an Application Package.

B. Content and Form of Application

1. Letter of Intent (LOI)

The purpose of the LOI process is to provide information to potential applicants on the relevance of their proposed project to the competition in advance of preparing a full application. Full applications will be encouraged only for LOIs deemed relevant. Applicants who have not been encouraged may still submit a full application. LOIs in the format of a

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Word Document or a PDF should be submitted by email to NIHHIS Program Manager Hunter Jones [hunter.jones@noaa.gov] by the deadline specified in Section IV.D below. The LOI should provide a concise description of the proposed work and a statement regarding its relevance to the targeted competition. The LOIs for competitions 1 and 2, the NIHHIS Centers of Excellence, should be no more than four pages in length. All LOIs should include the items listed below. If these items are not included or the LOI is submitted late, the LOI may not be considered:

¿ Competition Name.

¿ A tentative project title.

¿ Name(s) and institution(s) of the Lead Principal Investigator(s) and other Principal Investigator(s).

¿ Approximate cost of the project.

¿ Relevance to the Competition that is being targeted.

¿ Brief statement of the research question and/or societal need to be addressed.

¿ Summary of work to be completed, methodology to be used, data sets needed or to be collected, NOAA and/or NIHHIS partners/resources connected to the work, and outcomes to be achieved.

A response to the LOI from the Competition Manager (e-mail or letter) will be sent to the investigator within four weeks after the LOI’s due date encouraging or discouraging a full application based on its relevance to the targeted competition. It is then entirely up to the investigator whether to submit a full application.

2. Full Application Failure to comply with these provisions will result in applications being returned without review. Full applications for competitions 1 and 2, the NIHHIS Centers of Excellence, are limited to 25 pages, single-spaced, using 12-point font type with one-inch margins on standard 8.5 by 11 inch paper. For full applications with three or more Principal Investigators, the page limit is increased by 5 additional pages. The page limits are as follows:

1. Title page ( 1 page )

2. Abstract ( 1 page )

3. Project narrative, figures, and references

- If < 3 Investigators, = 15 pages

- If = 3 Investigators, = 20 pages

4. Results from prior research ( = 1 page )

5. Data/information sharing plan ( = 2 pages )

6. Statement of diversity and inclusion ( = 1 page )

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7. Vitae (up to balance of page budget)

8. Current and pending support (up to balance of page budget)

9. Budget documents

- Budget table (up to balance of page budget)

- Budget narrative (up to balance of page budget)

- Standard forms (not included in page limit)

- Indirect costs (not included in page limit)

10. Letters of support (encouraged, not required; not included in page limit)

The budget table/justification should be submitted in a file labeled “Budget Narrative”. The full proposal and Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA) should be put into one electronic file. The Federal Forms (SF424, SF424A, SF424B, CD511) and other mandated forms should be inserted in separate files when submitted and are not included in the page count.

The following forms and elements are required in each application:

(1) Title page: The title page shall identify the Principal Investigator(s) (PI) (project/center lead) and institutional representative and clearly indicate which Competition is being addressed by name and Competition number. The title page should also include all co-PIs from Federal Institutions. If more than one investigator is listed on the title page, please identify the lead investigator. The lead PI and institutional representative should be identified by: full name, title, organization, telephone number, email, and address. For paper submissions, the lead PI and the institutional representative must sign the title page. The total amount of Federal funds being requested should be listed for each budget period. If there are several institutions submitting separate applications associated with the same project, the names of all component institutions along with their lead PI name, e-mail, and amount requested per year must also appear on the title page of all applications that anticipate being funded under the same project.

(2) Abstract: A one-page abstract must be included and should contain the project title, an introduction to the problem, rationale, and a brief summary of the work to be completed.

Abstracts must identify the name of the competition that is being targeted and must also include a paragraph describing the work’s broader impacts and relevance to the competition that is being targeted as well as NOAA’s long-term climate research goals stated in section I.A. For multiple applications associated with the same project, the abstract must be identical in all applications. Failure to include this paragraph can result in the application being denied without additional review.

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(3) Project Narrative: The proposed project must be completely described, including identification of the science questions and societal needs to be addressed, scientific objectives and expected societal outcomes, the proposed methodology, metrics to evaluate stated outcomes, and relevance to the competition to which you are submitting the proposal and to NOAA’s long-term climate research goals. Applicants should meet all requirements specified in the corresponding competition information sheet available at [https://cpo.noaa.gov/Funding-Opportunities/NIHHIS-FY2024-IRA].

Benefits of the proposed project to the public and the scientific community should be discussed. The statement of work, including references, figures, and other visual materials, must not exceed 15 pages of text. Applications from three or more investigators may include a statement of work containing up to 20 pages of overall project description. For multiple applications associated with the same project, all applications must have an identical statement of work, including a clear statement of the roles and responsibilities of each applicant.

The project narrative should clearly state how applicants will achieve the Justice40 goal of at least 40 percent of the overall benefits of their proposed work benefitting disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution – as identified by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, a tool created by the White House Council on Environmental Quality that aims to help Federal agencies identify disadvantaged communities as part of the Justice40 Initiative [https://screeningtool.geoplatform.gov/].

(4) Results from prior research: The results of each prior research project led by the Principal Investigator(s) during the last three years relevant to the proposed effort (not limited to NOAA funding only) should be summarized in brief paragraphs. Because NOAA believes it is important that methods and data sets developed with its support should be shared with the scientific community, PIs should also indicate how and when they have made their methods and data accessible and usable by the community in the past. This section should not exceed two pages. For multiple applications associated with the same project, this section must be identical in all applications.

(5) Data/Information Sharing Plan:

Proposals submitted in response to this announcement must include a data management plan (up to 2 pages). See section VI.B Administrative and National Policy requirements below for additional information of what the plan should contain and refer to guidance in the program-specific competition information sheets.

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(6) Statement of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I): In accordance with Executive Order 13985, which mandates a comprehensive federal approach to advance equity for all and support for underserved communities, CPO recognizes that it has a particular and unique opportunity to support NOAA’s commitment to diversity and inclusion by taking an intentional step that encourages program applicants to consider diversity and inclusion as part of their scientific projects. This action has the potential to make an impact on not only the diversity and inclusion in science at NOAA, but also beyond the agency. In this section, describe how well the proposed activity broadens the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.) including, but not limited to, how the project advances the organization or institution’s commitment to diversity and advances full participation of women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). If funded activities aligned with diversity and inclusion are being proposed, please include the description of those within the project narrative and budget justification. Examples could include what the project will do specifically to: recruit or retain under-represented groups, collaborate with minority-serving institutions, foster an inclusive and safe environment, share data and/or information in ways that it is accessible to minority-serving institutions. Applicants are also encouraged to highlight past work in D&I and the value those experiences will add to the proposal.

(7) Vitae: Abbreviated curriculum vitae are requested with each application for PIs and Co-PIs. Reference lists should be limited to all relevant publications in the last three years with up to five other relevant papers. For multiple applications associated with the same project, each application should include identical vitae for all applications.

(8) Current and pending support: For each Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator(s), submit a list of all current and pending Federal support that includes project title, supporting agency with grant number, investigator months per year, dollar value, and duration. Requested values should be listed for pending support. The list of support will be included in the page limit for the proposals.

For multiple applications associated with the same project, each application should include identical current and pending support information for all applications.

(9) Budget Table, Narrative, and Forms:

Budget Table: An itemized budget for all years and a total itemized budget must be included as a separate table that breaks down the budget per object class category. Travel must be itemized to include destination, airfare, per diem, lodging, and ground travel. At this time, the CPO NOFO does not allow course buyouts as a budget expenditure. At this time, the CPO NOFO does not allow for federal salary as a budget expenditure as part of an

Notice of Federal Funding Page 13 of 27 application.

For multiple applications associated with the same project, the Lead Principal Investigator should include a table that displays the total budget for all partners. All partners, including the Lead Principal Investigator and any co-PIs from Federal Institutions, should include a separate budget for their portion of the project.

Budget Narrative: A brief description of the expenses listed on the budget table and how they address the proposed work must be included. Item justifications must include salaries, equipment, publications, supplies, tuition, travel, etc. Investigators who will not be requesting funds for salaries must also be listed, indicating their estimated time of commitment. Purchases of equipment greater than $5000 must include a purchase versus lease justification.

Duplicate work with different federally-funded projects, commonly referred to as "double dipping," is not permitted. As stated in the Code of Federal Regulations, specifically Subpart E- Cost Principles,2 CFR 200.430 (i)(1)(i-vii), Standards for Documentation of Personnel Expenses, "Charges to Federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed." The regulations additionally state that the work, "Reasonably reflect the total activity for which the employee is compensated by the non- Federal entity, not exceeding 100% of compensated activities."

Federal Budget Forms: Budget numbers corresponding with the descriptions contained in the statement of work and budget table must be included. In addition to including the total budget on the SF424, the application must include the total budget and budgets for years 1, 2, and 3 in separate columns in Section B on page 1 on the SF424A. (Note that this revised 424A Section B format is a NOAA requirement that is not reflected in the Instructions for the SF 424A). Note that these forms are not part of the required page limit. All budget items need to be rounded up to the nearest dollar to avoid discrepancies.

For multiple applications associated with the same project, each application requesting funding from NOAA needs to complete the federal budget forms for their specific institution.

Indirect Costs: Each applicant and co-applicant must include a copy of their institution’s current IDCRA. The IDCRA does not, count as part of the required page limit. To obtain an indirect cost rate if your institution does not already have one, a grantee must submit an indirect cost proposal to its cognizant agency and negotiate an indirect cost agreement. If an applicant has not previously (ever) established an indirect cost rate with a Federal agency

Notice of Federal Funding Page 14 of 27 they may choose to negotiate a rate with the Department of Commerce or use the de minimis indirect cost rate of 10% of MTDC (as allowable under 2C.F.R. 200.414).

(10) Letters of Support are encouraged but not required. They may be used to supplement information included in the Full Proposal if submitted as part of the application and they will be taken into consideration when evaluating the proposal. For example, unfunded collaborations should be documented in the body of the Full Proposal (the sections included in page count), and a Letter of Support from the unfunded collaborator could be included as a supplement. In another example, if the proposal includes key stakeholders or users, this should be documented in the Full Proposal, and a supplementary letter of support could be included to convey the value of the project to the stakeholder or user.

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

Excerpt 2 CFR 200 Appendix I.D.3: Each applicant (unless the applicant is an individual or Federal awarding agency that is excepted from those requirements under 2 CFR 25.110(b) or (c), or has an exception approved by the Federal awarding agency under 2 CFR 25.110(d)) is required to: (i) Be registered in SAM before submitting its application; (ii) Provide a valid unique entity identifier (UEI) in its application; and (iii) Continue to maintain an active SAM registration with current information at all times during which it has an active Federal award or an application or plan under consideration by a Federal awarding agency. NOAA may not make a Federal award to an applicant until the applicant has complied with all applicable UEI and SAM requirements and, if an applicant has not fully complied with the requirements by the time NOAA is ready to make a Federal award, NOAA may determine that the applicant is not qualified to receive a Federal award and use that determination as a basis for making a Federal award to another applicant.

In order to submit an application through Grants.gov, an applicant must register for a Grants.gov user ID and password. Note that this process can take between three to five business days or as long as four weeks if all steps are not completed correctly. To avoid delays, applicants are strongly encouraged to start early and not wait until the approaching application deadline before registering, logging in, reviewing the application instructions, and applying. Information about the Grants.gov registration process for organizations can be found at http://grants.gov/applicants/organization_registration.jsp.

Please note that organizations already registered with Grants.gov do not need to re-register;

however, all registered organizations must keep their Grants.gov password and SAM database (which now incorporates CCR) registration up-to-date or their applications will not be accepted by Grants.gov. Note that your CCR username will not work in SAM. You must create a new SAM user account to renew or update your registration. Registration on SAM is

Notice of Federal Funding Page 15 of 27 a requirement. To obtain additional information and to verify that all required registrations are current, please visit www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM.

If you experience a Grants.gov systems issue (technical problems or glitches with the Grants.gov website) that you believe threatens your ability to complete a submission before the application deadline, please do all the following:

close of the competition ¿ Ensure that you obtain a case number regarding your communications with Grants.gov

In the event of a confirmed systems issue, NOAA reserves the right to accept an application in an alternate format prior to the application deadline. Problems with an applicant organization’s computer system or equipment are not considered systems issues. Similarly, an applicant’s failure to do the following are not considered systems issues:

application

• Read an email message with guidance from Grants.gov

D. Submission Dates and Times

Letters of intent (LOIs) for all competitions should be received by email by 5:00 p.m.

Eastern Time on 08/14/2023.

Full Applications: Full applications for all competitions must be received by 5:00 p.m.

Eastern Time, on 10/16/2023.

E. Intergovernmental Review

Applications under this program are not subject to Executive Order 12372, Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs.

F. Funding Restrictions

Fees and profits are not permitted

G. Other Submission Requirements

All applications should be submitted through grants.gov. If an applicant does not have Internet access, CPO Grants Manager Diane Brown should be contacted by mail at NOAA

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Climate Program Office (R/CP1), SSMC3, Room 12734, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910 for hard copy submission instructions.

Faxed or emailed copies of applications will not be accepted.

V. Application Review Information

A. Evaluation Criteria

1. Importance/Relevance and Applicability of Application to the Program Goals (Stage 1 Weight=0%) (Stage 2 Weight=100%) (Final Weight=25%) This criterion ascertains whether there is intrinsic value in the proposed work and/or relevance to NOAA, NIHHIS, federal, regional, state, tribal, or local activities. This criterion includes consideration of the metrics applicants will use to ensure outcomes proposed in the project narrative are met. For the CPO grant program competitions in this NOFO, this includes importance and relevance to:

* the program objective in Section I.A,

* scientific program priorities of the selected Competition(s) in Section I.B, including how applicants will achieve the Justice40 goal of 40 percent of the overall benefits of their proposed work benefitting disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution – as identified by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool [https://screeningtool.geoplatform.gov/]

* the detailed competition information sheet [https://cpo.noaa.gov/Funding- Opportunities/NIHHIS-FY2024-IRA],

* the Statement of Diversity and Inclusion described in Section IV.B(6),

* the PI’s record of making their methods and data accessible and usable by the scientific community in the past, and

* the present Data/Information Sharing Plan described in Section IV.B(5).

2. Technical/Scientific Merit (Stage 1 Weight=70%) (Stage 2 Weight=0%) (Final Weight=52.5%) This criterion assesses whether the approach is technically sound and/or innovative, if the methods are appropriate, and whether the goals of the competition will be realized through clear project goals and objectives.

3. Overall Qualifications of Applicants (Stage 1 Weight=20%) (Stage 2 Weight=0%) (Final Weight=15%) This criterion assesses whether the applicant team possesses the necessary education, experience, training, facilities, and/or administrative resources to accomplish the project.

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4. Project Costs (Stage 1 Weight = 10%) (Stage 2 Weight = 0%) (Final Weight =7.5%) This criterion evaluates the budget to determine if it is realistic and commensurate with the project needs and time frame.

B. Review and Selection Process

Once a full application has been received, an administrative review will first be conducted to determine compliance with requirements and completeness of the application.

The selection reviews will then take place in two stages. In Stage 1, independent peer mail reviewers and/or independent peer panel reviewers consisting of Federal and/or non-Federal experts will evaluate applications using the three criteria described above:

technical/scientific merit, overall qualifications of applicants, and project costs. Relevance will be assessed separately in Stage 2. The panel will not give consensus advice. We protect the identities of reviewers to the extent permitted by law.

During Stage 1, each reviewer will provide one score for each of three criteria:

technical/scientific merit, overall qualifications of applicants, and project costs for each application. The scores from the reviewers for each application will be combined using weighted averages to produce a single numerical score for Stage 1. Occasionally a reviewer may, due to lack of familiarity in a particular area, choose not to score a particular application. In this case the remaining reviewers would still score the application and their scores would be averaged without the reviewer who recused themselves. Proposals that score a 3.0 or higher (out of a possible high score of 5) in Stage 1 will proceed to Stage 2.

If a mail review and a panel review are both conducted for Stage 1, the mail reviews will be provided to the Stage 1 review panel for use in its deliberations prior to providing its ratings, but the Competition Manager will use only the numerical rank order of the peer review panel to determine the average score for each proposal. Proposals that score a 3.0 or higher (out of a possible high score of 5) in Stage 1 will proceed to Stage 2.

In Stage 2, scores for Importance/Relevance and Applicability of Application to the Program Goals will be determined by a second panel composed of either Federal or a combination of Federal and non-Federal partners. The applications and their associated scores from Stage 1 will be provided to the Stage 2 panel. Each panel reviewer will provide a relevance score for each application that moved forward from Stage 1. The Stage 2 panel will not give consensus advice.

The Stage 1 and Stage 2 weighting of scores for the individual criteria are shown in the following table:

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Criterion Stage 1 Weight Stage 2 Weight Final Weight

Importance and Relevance/Applicability 0% 100% 25% Technical/Scientific Merit 70% 0% 52.5% Overall Qualifications of Applications 20% 0% 15% Project Costs 10% 0% 7.5% Final Score Stage Total 100% 100% 100%

To determine the final score, the scores from Stage 1 and Stage 2 will be combined, with a weighting of 75% for the Stage 1 score and 25% for the Stage 2 score, leading to the overall weightings for each criterion shown in the table above. The final score for each application will be used to determine the numerical rank order of proposals within each Competition.

The Competition Manager will recommend applications to the Selecting Official in numerical rank order unless a recommendation out of rank order is justified based upon any of the factors listed in the following section. Should applications receive a tie score, and funding is not available for every tied application, the Competition Manager may preferentially recommend applications for funding also according to any of the factors listed in the following section. The Competition Manager will review the amounts requested for each selected application (including costs for computing and networking services) and recommend the total duration and the amount of funding, which may be less than the application and budget requested.

C. Selection Factors

The Selecting Official shall select awards in rank order unless a selection out of rank order is justified based upon any of the following factors:

* Availability of funding

* Balance/distribution of funds:

- Geographically

- By type of institutions

- By type of partners

- By research area

- By project types

* Duplication of other projects funded or considered for funding by NOAA or other Federal agencies

* Program priorities and policy factors

* Applicant’s prior award performance

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* Partnerships with/participation of targeted group

* Adequacy of information necessary for NOAA staff to make a NEPA determination and draft necessary documentation before recommendations for funding are made to the Grants Officer.

The Selecting Official makes final recommendations for awards to the Grants Officer who is authorized to obligate the funds.

D. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates

Subject to the availability of funds, review of applications will occur during the 2-4 months following the full applications due date. CPO anticipates that funding decisions on applications will be made during fall/winter 2024. Such decisions are contingent upon the availability of funds appropriated to NOAA by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act and the final allocation of funds to CPO by NOAA. Funding for successful applicants is expected to begin during fall/winter 2023 for most approved projects. Applications should use December 1, 2023, as the start date unless otherwise directed by the Competition Manager.

VI. Award Administration Information

A. Award Notices

The Grants Officer will provide notice to the applicant that they have received the award. Successful applicants will receive notification that the application has been recommended for funding by an official of the NOAA Climate Program Office. This notification is not an authorization to begin performance of the project. The official notification of funding, signed by a NOAA Grants Officer, is the authorizing document that allows the project to begin. Notifications will be issued to the Authorizing Official and the Principal Investigator of the project. Unsuccessful applicants will be notified that their application was not selected for recommendation.

GRANTS OFFICER SIGNATURE. Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation are not considered awards until the Grants Officer has signed the grant or cooperative agreement. Only Grants Officers can bind the Government to the expenditure of funds. The Grants Officer’s digital signature constitutes an obligation of funds by the federal government and formal approval of the award.

B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

UNIFORM ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS, COST PRINCIPLES, AND

AUDIT REQUIREMENTS. Through 2 C.F.R. § 1327.101, the Department of Commerce

Notice of Federal Funding Page 20 of 27 adopted Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards at 2 C.F.R. Part 200, which apply to awards in this program. Refer to http://go.usa.gov/SBYh and http://go.usa.gov/SBg4.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE (DOC) TERMS AND CONDITIONS. Successful applicants who accept a NOAA award under this solicitation will be bound by Department of Commerce Financial Assistance Standard Terms and Conditions. This document will be provided in the award package in NOAA’s Grants Online system at http://www.ago.noaa.gov and at http://go.usa.gov/hKbj.

RESEARCH TERMS AND CONDITIONS. For awards designated on the CD-450 as Research, the Commerce Terms, and the Federal-wide Research Terms and Conditions (Research Terms) as implemented by the Department of Commerce, currently, at https://www.nsf.gov/awards/managing/rtc.jsp, both apply to the award. The Commerce Terms and the Research Terms are generally intended to harmonize with each other;

however, where the Commerce Terms and the Research Terms differ in a Research award, the Research Terms prevail, unless otherwise indicated in a specific award condition.

BUREAU TERMS AND CONDITIONS. Successful applicants who accept an award under this solicitation will be bound by bureau-specific standard terms and conditions. These terms and conditions will be provided in the award package in NOAA’s Grants Online system. For NOAA awards only, the Administrative Standard Award Conditions for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Financial Assistance Awards U.S. Department of Commerce are applicable to this solicitation and may be accessed online at https://www.noaa.gov/organization/acquisition-grants/financial-assistance.

HUMAN SUBJECTS RESEARCH. For research projects involving Human Subjects, an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval or an exemption determination will be required in accordance with DOC Financial Assistance Standard Terms and Conditions “Research Involving Human Subjects” found at https://www.commerce.gov/oam/policy/financialassistance-policy.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE PRE-AWARD NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

FOR GRANTS AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS - 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 and may be accessed online at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-12- 30/pdf/2014-30297.pdf.

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LIMITATION OF LIABILITY - Funding for programs listed in this notice is contingent upon the availability of continuing Congressional appropriations. Applicants are hereby given notice that funds have not yet been appropriated for the programs listed in this notice.

In no event will NOAA or the Department of Commerce be responsible for proposal preparation costs. Publication of this announcement does not oblige NOAA to award any specific project or to obligate any available funds.

UNPAID OR DELINQUENT TAX LIABILITY. 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.

NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT (NEPA). NOAA must analyze the potential environmental impacts, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for applicant projects or proposals which 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…