NOAA-OAR-CPO-2026-33094.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 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Funding Opportunity Title Climate Program Office FY 2026 - Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA)

Announcement Type Competitive

Funding Opportunity Number

NOAA-OAR-CPO-2026-33094

Assistance Listing Number(s) 11.431

Dates Letters of intent (LOIs) for all competitions should be received by email by May 13 2026 11:59 p.m.

Pacific Time.

Full Applications: Full applications for all competitions must be received by June 5, 2026 11:59 p.m.

Pacific Time.

Funding Opportunity Description Through this Notice of Federal Funding Opportunity, the NOAA Climate Program Office (https://cpo.noaa.gov/funding-opportunities/) of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research is soliciting proposals for the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments FY 2026 competition for cooperative agreements.

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States and communities regularly face risks from weather and climate-driven hazards, including flooding, extreme temperatures, water shortages, wildfires, and severe storms. These events directly impact the health, housing, safety, business development, and economies of communities and frequently recur in seasonal cycles. Beyond short-term cycles of emergency response, state and local governments are seeking to improve their understanding and address current risks, while improving their overall preparedness for future disasters. NOAA RISA teams are place-based science teams that provide support for planning and preparedness, with expertise in regional risks, local context, institutions, and approaches. These teams partner with decision-makers across multiple private and public sector organizations in their regions, including emergency managers, utilities, ports, small- and medium-sized businesses, rural towns, city planners, and regional councils.

In FY 2026, the RISA program will solicit proposals for teams in 9 regions of the United States. The proposal should articulate an integrated set of research and partnership activities that will meaningfully advance the resilience and preparedness of states and communities in each designated region. In the proposed projects, applicants should consider how the research and partnerships will lead to outcomes for planning and decision making and potential scalability within or across the region.

Full Text of Announcement I. Funding Opportunity Description A. Program Objective The Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) program is part of the CPO Climate and Societal Interactions Division (CSI). The Climate and Societal Interactions (CSI) Division’s mission is to improve resilience and preparedness in a variety of socio-economic regions and sectors through the use of weather information. CSI’s research investments advance the nation’s understanding of weather-related risks and vulnerabilities, and contribute to the development of tools and processes that foster risk-informed decision making. These efforts support NOAA’s vision to create and sustain enhanced resilience in ecosystems, communities, and economies.

The goal of the RISA program is to enable state and local partners to better understand, plan for, and ultimately address the long-term preparedness needs of their residents. The program competitively funds interdisciplinary teams to conduct applied, collaborative, scientific research and to support the decision-making of key partners. Teams are focused on U.S. regions, typically covering 2-3 states or territories, or a specific geographic boundary. The program broadly focuses on understanding and planning for preparedness issues faced by public and private decisionmakers. Impacts that affect life, property, and safety are particularly relevant given the program’s emphasis on long-term planning that reduces or eliminates risk before disaster occurs, while generating socioeconomic prosperity for all American communities. The program also supports local workforce development and trains the next generation of professionals who provide risk information services.

B. Program Priorities

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National resilience and preparedness are an important and complex goal, requiring the leadership of state and local leaders backed by federal support. Informed choices related to infrastructure and management made long before a disaster or hazard impact can save millions of dollars in public and private property damage. Advanced planning can save lives and improve public safety. NOAA science and services provide contextual and predictive information about risks using state-of-the-art technology and dedicated experts, but this knowledge is only useful if it is heard, understood, and acted upon. State and local partners encounter many challenges when attempting to act upon information, including misalignment of spatial scale and time frame of data and information with local decisions, factoring uncertainty into costly choices, navigating and accessing the most relevant information, interpreting risk exposure and consequences, and building confidence to act. The RISA program serves to address many of these challenges and opportunities by establishing partnership teams on the ground at regional scales. These teams conduct applied research, leveraging NOAA and other federal agencies’ information resources, in active collaboration with state and local partners, convene these partners together so they can learn from each other, and provide science translation.

The program strives to directly support local, state, and regional scale decision makers in addressing the complex risks posed by the interaction between natural hazards (e.g. flooding, extreme temperatures, wildfires) and socioeconomic stressors (e.g. health, access to essential resources and safe infrastructure). To do so, RISA funds innovative and usable science in collaboration with communities and decision makers, helping to ensure that the best available information is used to guide planning and risk management. RISA’s collaborative approach incorporates multiple knowledge sources and integrates social, physical, and natural sciences, resulting in long-term support of and increased readiness for communities. Central to achieving the RISA mission are:

• Regional Relevance, Local Expertise and Partnerships

• Integrated Scientific Approaches

• Linking Knowledge with Local Decision Making

• A National Network to Share Information and Lessons Learned

Competition Information

RISA Teams in Established Regions

Awards will have the following designations to determine their terms and conditions (see 2 CFR 200.1 and DOC Federal Financial Assistance Manual):

• Research and development awards

• Cooperative agreements

NOAA is soliciting applications to support a maximum of one RISA team in each of the following nine (9) regions for one year.

1. Alaska

2. Great Lakes: Great Lakes Watershed (Michigan and portions of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota)

3. Intermountain West: Colorado, Utah, Wyoming

4. Lower Northeast: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Eastern Pennsylvania (Delaware River watershed)

5. Mid-Atlantic: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania (except Delaware

River watershed)

6. Pacific Islands: Hawai'i and U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands (American Samoa, Guam, Northern

Mariana Islands, Palau, Marshall Islands, Micronesia)

7. Pacific Northwest: Idaho, Oregon, Washington

8. South-Atlantic: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia

9. South Central: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas

Key facts to know:

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• Applications must describe an interdisciplinary team, which features a balance between social and physical sciences as relevant to address decision making needs. For example, team representation may pull from across multiple disciplines including the social, behavioral, economic, engineering, physical, and natural sciences. Applicants should be located largely within the region served.

o The application should address team structure, advisory mechanisms, research plans, partner engagement, and institutional commitment.

o See IV. (6) Project Management Plan for specific instructions.

• Applications must propose a set of interconnected projects and activities, which should:

o Be driven by local and regional needs, priorities, and opportunities.

o Address a range of societal issues relevant to addressing weather risks in the region in sectors such as: land use planning, water management, public health, emergency management, community development, insurance, housing, transportation, public infrastructure.

o Integrate local knowledge of partners with scientific inquiry through active collaboration.

o Identify and inform trade-offs and/or solutions to address local and regional needs, as determined by iterative dialogue with local partners.

o Remain flexible enough to adjust to changing regional circumstances to best inform planning and effective risk-reduction actions.

o Integrate opportunities to scale products and services up, across, and deep for decision makers when appropriate.

• In geographic coverage, applications should:

o Cover a reasonable extent of the states listed.

o Balance coverage across coastal and inland areas, as well as urban and rural areas.

o Balance, and consider the linkages between, deeper work at the local scale with scalable work across the region.

C. Program Authority 15 U.S.C. 2904-7, 15 U.S.C. 2931-2934

II. Award Information A. Funding Availability This Notice of Federal Funding may fund:

• Up to 9 awards total

• Up to $1,800,000 per award

• Applicants should scope their work accordingly:

Recommended Budgets

• Funding is contingent upon Congressional appropriations and the program’s approved spending allotment.

o The program will fund a maximum of one team per region.

o The program may choose to not fund a team in every region listed.

• 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.

Budget Year Competition

(Sep 1, 2026 - Aug 31, 2027) $1,000,000

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B. Project/Award Period Sep 1, 2026 - Aug 31, 2027

C. Type of Funding Instrument The funding instrument for awards will be a cooperative agreement and will involve substantial involvement of NOAA program officers.

• Examples of substantial involvement may include:

o The recipient sharing information and findings on a regular basis.

o The recipient refocusing priorities to better respond to regional opportunities and need sas they arise, and in consultation with NOAA program managers.

o An evaluation to assess progress.

o Collaboration between NOAA scientists and recipient scientists or NOAA detailing

Federal personnel to work on proposed projects.

• NOAA will make decisions regarding the use of a cooperative agreement on a case-by-case basis.

• 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

• State, local, territorial, and tribal governments

B. Cost Share or Matching Requirement The competitions listed in this NOFO do not have any 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 can be found on grants.gov. For applicants without Internet access, please contact the CPO Grants Specialist Kathleen Palermo by mail to obtain an application package:

Kathleen Palermo NOAA Climate Program Office (R/CP1) SSMC3, Room 12712 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910

B. Content and Form of Application

1. Content and Form of Letter of Intent

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The purpose of the Letter of Intent (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.

• Applicants who have not submitted an LOI or have not been encouraged may still submit a full application.

• The program strongly encourages applicants to submit LOIs, as the process will increase their familiarity with program priorities.

LOIs should be submitted by email to oar.cpo.risa@noaa.gov by the deadline specified in section IV.C below. The LOI should provide a concise description of the proposed work and a statement regarding its relevance to the targeted competition. The LOI should be no more than two pages in length and 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), institution(s), and applicable roles of the Lead Principal Investigator(s), and other prominent team members or collaborators.

• Email addresses to receive the program’s response.

• Statement of the regional weather resilience issues to be addressed, featuring major needs and gaps of regional decision makers and how those will be addressed by the team.

• Brief summary of work to be completed, methodology to be used, approaches and data sets/information needed or to be collected.

• Description of how the proposed work will benefit local, state, tribal, and/or territorial planning and preparedness efforts with potential partners specified.

• Approximate cost of the project.

• Relevance to the RISA program’s goals and objectives.

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 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. Content and form of Full Application

Failure to comply with required provisions will result in applications being returned without review.

Required formatting:

• Single spaced, using 12-point font type with one-inch margins on standard 8.5 by 11 inch paper.

The following elements are required in each application (25 pages total)

1. Title Page (page limit: 2)

2. Abstract (page limit: 1)

3. Project Narrative/Statement of Work (page limit: 15 including embedded figures)

4. Project Management Plan (page limit: 3)

5. Results from prior Research (page limit: 2)

6. Data/Information Sharing Plan (page limit: 2)

Additional Required Materials for all applications (but excluded from page limits):

1. Bibliography

2. Letter of Institutional Commitment

3. Vitaes

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4. Current and Pending Support

5. Budget Table and Narrative

6. Federal Forms: SF424, SF424A, SF424B, CD511 and other mandated forms

7. Negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (NICRA)

Additional Optional Materials:

1. Letters of Support (Max of 10 letters but not included in the page limit)

2. Table/listing of intended partners

For subawardees:

• Subawardees should not submit a separate application. However, subawards still need to submit to the lead PI their own federal forms (SF424 and SF424a) and budget information, and the lead PI will provide them with their funding. The subaward budgets should be incorporated into the Lead PI institution's overall budget.

For first time applicants:

• INDIRECT COST RATE - If an applicant has not previously established an indirect cost rate with a Federal agency they may choose to negotiate a rate with the Department of Commerce or use the de minimis indirect cost rate of 15% of MTDC (as allowable under 2 C.F.R. §200.414). The negotiation and approval of a rate is subject to the procedures required by NOAA and the Department of Commerce Standard Terms and Conditions.

• The NOAA contact for indirect or facilities and administrative costs is: Jennifer Jackson, Grants Officer, jennifer.jackson@noaa.gov.

• Please reference the "Application Checklist" on the CPO website to assist you in submitting your application

The full proposal and Negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (NICRA) should be put into one electronic file. The budget table/justification should be submitted in a file labeled budget narrative. The Federal Forms (SF424, SF424A, SF424B, CD511) and other mandated forms should be inserted in separate files when submitted to grants.gov and are not included in the page counts.

Description of required elements and forms with page limits if applicable:

1. Title Page (2 pages) should include the:

o Project title o Competition name& number o Targeted RISA region o Total amount of Federal funds requested for each budget period o Full name, title, organization, telephone number, and email address of the lead Principal

Investigator (PI) and institutional representative o List of team members with names, roles, and institutional affiliations as applicable

2. Abstract (1 page):

The abstract must be included and should contain the project title, an introduction to the context, approach, and a brief summary of the work to be completed. Abstracts must identify the name of the RISA region that is being targeted and must describe the anticipated contribution to long-term preparedness in the region (per Section I.B. Program Priorities). The abstract will be a public summary of the project if funded and should be short and concise in plain language.

3. Project Narrative/Statement of Work (15 pages including embedded figures)

The Statement of Work must include:

1. Identification of the Regional Context: Describe the major weather risks and related adaptation and resilience challenges or opportunities in the region. Explain why this RISA team is well positioned to help address the challenges and opportunities, and the overarching and integrated approach the team will take to understand and/or address the identified issue(s).

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2. Description of the proposed activities. Include the goals and objectives for each activity, their proposed partnerships, methodology, relevance to local/state/tribal/territorial preparedness, strategy for addressing major regional needs, and their relevance to the RISA program goals.

3. Expected outcomes of the proposed activities. Describe the scientific and societal contribution or advancement that each activity will enable. How is the activity advancing actionable science and/or supporting decision making? What are the known or anticipated short-and long-term outcomes of this work? What are the metrics of success, and how will you evaluate project and team outputs/outcomes?

4. Societal benefits of the proposed activities. Describe how this work will contribute to societal benefits, particularly in advancing state, local, tribal, and/or preparedness to extreme weather risks while promoting socioeconomic opportunity. How do you anticipate research, support services, and information products will be used or applied by decision makers to increase resilience? Will the work support training and/or workforce development?

4. Project Management Plan (3 pages)

The Project Management Plan should (1) describe the organizational relationships, roles and responsibilities, and reporting structure related to the specific goals and objectives of the RISA team, (2) describe the processes used to prioritize activities, and (3) articulate how the management and leadership of the team will have mechanisms in place to allow activities to evolve as regional and partner needs emerge. The project management plan should include a graphic depicting team structure and decision making.

We strongly encourage a full-time position dedicated to the coordination, integration, and reporting across the team’s activities. This position is usually to the lead-principal investigator/director and is normally called a team “program manager.”

5. Results from Prior Research (2 pages):

The results of each prior research project led by the Principal Investigator(s) during the last three years relevant to the proposed effort should be summarized in brief paragraphs. NOAA believes it is important that data sets developed with its support should be shared with the scientific community. As such, PIs should also indicate how and when they have made their data/information accessible and usable by the community in the past.

6. Data/Information Sharing Plan (2 pages):

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.

7. Bibliography

Include a formatted list of sources referenced. There is no page limit.

8. Letter of Institutional Commitment

Include a letter describing how the host institution(s) are committed to RISA team efforts, to collaborative science, and to enabling researchers and staff to participate fully in collaborative activities. As part of the broader goals of the RISA network, host institutions themselves are considered regional partners in this work; therefore, the program is interested in understanding how the institution sees their role in hosting and supporting a RISA team as a regional collaborator. The letter should describe anticipated advantages of hosting or participating in the RISA team, types of additional support for people, processes, or products during or after the RISA award, and any plans for other parts of the institution to collaborate with or complement RISA efforts.

9. Vitae

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Curriculum vitae of no more than two pages each are requested with each application for lead Principal Investigators and all core team members. Reference lists should be limited to all publications in the last three years, with up to five other relevant papers.

10. Current and Pending Support

For each lead Principal Investigator and any relevant core team member(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.

11. Budget Table and Narrative

Budget Table: An itemized budget for all years and a total itemized budget must be included as a separate spreadsheet that breaks down the budget per object class category. Travel must be itemized to include destination, airfare, per diem, lodging, and ground travel.

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 $10,000 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, more specifically, Subpart E- Cost Principles,

200.430 (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 reflects the total activity for which the employee is compensated by the non-Federal entity, not exceeding 100% of compensated activities.

The budget table and budget narrative should be submitted in a separate file labeled “Budget Narrative.”

12. Federal Budget Forms

The Federal Budget Forms (SF424, SF424A, SF424B, CD511) and other mandated forms are required for all non-federal applicants, including all non federal co-applicants and subawardees.

Budget numbers corresponding with the descriptions contained in the budget narrative 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 each year 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). All budget items need to be rounded up to the nearest dollar to avoid discrepancies.

SF-424B: Assurances – Non-Construction Programs - The SF-424B is required for all applicants that have not updated their System for Award Management (SAM.gov) entity registration since February 2, 2019 to include the Federal financial assistance certifications and representations (certs and reps). If an applicant has updated their SAM.gov entity registration since February 2, 2019 to include the certifications and representations, then the SF-424B is not required.

Reminder: These Federal Forms should be submitted as separate files and are not included in the page count.

13. Negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (NICRA)

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A copy of the institution’s current Negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (NICRA) must be included. The NICRA does not, however, 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 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 2 C.F.R.

200.414). This document is not part of the page limit.

14. Letters of Support (Optional)

Letters of Support are not required. However, up to 10 letters may be submitted and can be used to supplement information included in the Full Proposal, and they will be taken into consideration when evaluating the proposal if submitted as part of the application. When deciding who to gather letters of support from, consider the centrality of the partner’s role in the project. The letters supplement the reviewers’ understanding from the full proposal, so letters are particularly useful where they provide a sense of the prior relationship or level of interest from critical partners and stakeholders.

15. Table/listing of Intended Partners (Optional)

Applicants may include a table or listing of intended partners to characterize their key partners and stakeholder constituency for the reviewers.

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Questionnaire: This program does not require any NEPA questions to be answered as part of the application

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 on what the plan should contain.

C. Unique entity identifier and System for Award Management (SAM) Excerpt 2 CFR Appendix-I-to-Part-200(b)(5)(ii)

• Each applicant (unless the applicant is an individual or Federal awarding agency that is excepted from those requirements under 2 CFR 25.110(a) or (b)) 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:

o Until the applicant has complied with all applicable UEI and SAM requirements.

o 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.

Grants.gov

After receiving a UEI from SAM.gov, applicants must register their organization in Grants.gov.

Register early to avoid delays.

To apply:

• Register for a user ID and password.

• Process time: 3-5 days or up to 4 weeks if all steps are not completed correctly.

• Start early and read the instructions before the deadline.

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For organization registration, see Grants.gov registration info https://www.grants.gov/applicants/applicant-registration.

Keep Grants.gov and SAM registrations current. This is essential for your applications to be accepted.

Create a new SAM user account, as CCR usernames won't work. Registration on SAM is mandatory.

• Stay registered: Organizations already on Grants.gov don't need to register again.

• Maintain: Ensure your SAM and Grants.gov passwords are up-to-date.

• Check status: For more info or to verify a current registration, 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 of the following:

• Print any error message received

• Call the Grants.gov Contact Center at 1-800-518-4726 for immediate assistance

• Contact NOAA using the contact information in section VIII. of this NOFO prior to the 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 system issues. Similarly, an applicant’s failure to do the following are not considered systems issues:

• Complete the required registration

• Ensure that a registered Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) submits the application

• Read an email message with guidance from Grants.gov.

eRA Commons

Prior to submitting in Grants.gov, applicant organizations must first register in eRA Commons.

• The eRA registration can start while an organization is waiting for their final SAM.gov approval of their UEI.

• eRA Commons registration must be completed by the Signing Official (SO). An SO is someone in the organization with signatory authority such as a President, Executive Director, Owner, etc.

• Instructions can be found here: https://www.era.nih.gov/register-accounts/register-in-era-commons.htm

• Organizations registering in the eRA Commons for the first time should allow 2-4 weeks to complete the registration process.

Common Errors

• A Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) account must be created and entered on the Applicant Identifier field of the SF-424 for a successful submission.

• The applicant’s congressional district number must be included in the SF-424 for a successful submission. It must be the two-letter abbreviation, a hyphen, and the three-digit district number.

For example: State of Virginia, 1st Congressional District would be “VA-001.”

• Refer to the “Common Errors” section of the NOAA Fisheries site for more information on common errors that can impede a successful submission:

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/funding-financial-services/grant-application-process

D. Submission Dates and Times Letters of intent (LOIs) for all competitions should be received by email by May 13, 2026 11:59 p.m.

Pacific Time.

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Full Applications: Full applications for all competitions must be received by June 5, 2026 11:59 p.m.

Pacific Time.

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 Specialist Kathleen Palermo should be contacted by mail at: NOAA Climate Program Office (R/CP1), SSMC3, Room 12712, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910 for hard copy submission instructions.

Faxed or emailed copies of applications will not be accepted.

H. Address for Submitting Proposals Kathleen Palermo NOAA Climate Program Office (R/CP1) SSMC3, Room 12712 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910

V. Application Review Information

1. Importance/relevance and applicability of proposed projects to the program goals

Maximum Points: 5

(Weight = 40%) This criterion ascertains whether there is intrinsic value in the proposed work and relevance to CSI/RISA program goals, as well as public and private sector partners and decision makers across any of the following levels: federal, tribal, regional, state, territorial, or local. This includes: 1) importance and relevance to the priorities of the competition the proposed work is applying to; 2) the regional significance of the project and the intellectual contribution; 3) the PIs’ record of building effective partnerships and making their data accessible and useable by the public in the past, and the procedures described in Section VI.B Data Sharing Plan; 4) the applicant’s approach for engaging with decision makers, building networks of relationships to help support decision makers with scientific information, delivering benefits for communities, and proposed project management, and 5) the institutions’ commitment to hosting the RISA team.

2. Technical/scientific merit Maximum Points: 5

(Weight = 42%) 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. This also includes an assessment of how projects are integrated across the RISA for a unified approach, the approach to interdisciplinary science (e.g. physical, social, natural, engineering sciences), plans for moving the scientific results into actionable and implementable products and services, and an approach for evaluating the societal/regional impact of the RISA team’s activities.

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The above stated merit score will also include the applicant’s approach to partnership building with state, local, tribal, and/or territorial entities.

3. Overall qualifications of applicants Maximum Points: 5

(Weight = 12%) This criterion assesses whether the applicant team possesses the necessary education, experience, training, facilities, and/or administrative resources to accomplish the work. The above stated qualifications score will also include the PIs’ record of collaborating with decision makers.

4. Project costs Maximum Points: 5

(Weight = 6%) This criterion evaluates the budget to determine if it is realistic and commensurate with the proposed needs and time frame.

Evaluation Criteria Review and Selection Process

Once a full application has been received, an administrative review will be conducted to determine compliance with requirements and completeness of the application. The competition will be evaluated based on criteria provided in section V.A. For the competition, proposals will be reviewed by a panel of subject matter experts who will score them for technical merit, applicants’ qualifications, project costs, and relevance. Panels may consist of both Federal and/or non-Federal experts. Panels will not give consensus advice. We protect the identities of reviewers to the extent permitted by law.

Each reviewer will provide one score for each criteria: importance/relevance, technical/scientific merit, overall qualifications, and project costs for each application. The scores will be weighted per the percentage weights listed in the table below and combined into one score for each proposal. The final score for each application will be used to determine the numerical rank order of proposals within the Competition. Proposals with a final score below 3.0 (out of a possible high score of 5) will not be considered for funding.

The competition manager may solicit non-scoring mail reviews and provide them to panelists in advance of the panel convening to provide additional perspectives for discussion.

The panel review weighting of scores for the individual criteria is shown in the following table:

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 tied score, and funding is not available for every tied application, the Competition Manager may preferentially recommend applications for funding according to any of the factors listed in the following section. The Competition Manager will review the amounts requested for each selected application and recommend the total duration and the amount of funding, which may be less than the application and budget requested.

Criterion Weight

Importance and Relevance/Applicability 40%

Technical/Scientific Merit 42%

Overall Qualifications of Applicants 12%

Project Costs 6%

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Selection Factors The Selecting Official shall award in the rank order unless the proposal is justified to be selected out of rank order based on one or more of the following factors:

1. Availability of funding.

2. Balance/distribution of funds:

a. geographically

b. by type of institution

c. by type of partners

d. by research priority

e. by project types

3. Duplication of other projects funded or considered for funding by NOAA/Federal agencies.

4. Program priorities and policy factors.

5. Applicant’s prior award performance.

6. Partnerships with/Participation of targeted groups.

7. 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.

Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates Subject to the availability of funds, review of applications will occur during the 6-7 months following the full application’s due date. CPO anticipates that funding decisions on applications will be made during Spring 2026. Such decisions are contingent upon the final FY26 appropriation for NOAA by Congress and the final allocation of funds to CPO by NOAA. Funding for successful applicants is expected to begin during summer 2026 for most approved projects. Applications should use September 1, 2026, as the start date unless otherwise directed by the Competition Manager.

VI. Award Administration Information A. Award Notices PRE-AWARD COSTS. Written pre-approval is required from NOAA for pre-award costs but prior approval may be waived for awards designated by NOAA as research. Award recipients expend pre-award costs up to 90 days before the period of performance start date at the applicant’s own risk and in accordance with the applicant’s internal policies and procedures. Such costs are allowable only to the extent that they would have been allowable if incurred after the date of the Federal award. This does not include direct proposal costs (as defined at 2 CFR 200.460). In no event will NOAA or the Department of Commerce be responsible for direct proposal preparation costs. Pre-award costs will be a portion of, not in addition to, the approved total budget of the award. Pre-award costs expended more than 90 days prior to the period of performance start date require additional approval from the Grants Officer. This does not change the period of performance start date

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

LLIMITATION OF LIABILITY. Funding for programs listed in this notice is contingent upon the availability of funds. Applicants are hereby given notice that funds may not have been appropriated yet for the programs listed in this notice. Publication of this announcement does not oblige NOAA to award any specific project or to obligate any available funds.

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

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.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE (DOC) TERMS AND CONDITIONS. Successful applicants who accept a NOAA award under this solicitation will be bound by the DOC Financial Assistance Standard Terms and Conditions. This document will be provided in the award package in eRA at http://www.ago.noaa.gov and at https://www.commerce.gov/oam/policy/financial-assistance-policy.

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 Section G.05.i “Research Involving Human Subjects” found at https://www.commerce.gov/oam/policy/financial-assistance-policy.

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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 regulations, http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/NEPA- 40CFR1500_1508.pdf. Consequently, as part of an applicant's package, and under their description of their program activities, applicants are required to provide detailed information on the activities to be conducted, locations, sites, species and habitat to be affected, possible construction activities, and any environmental concerns that may exist (e.g., the use and disposal of hazardous or toxic chemicals, introduction of non- indigenous species, impacts to endangered and threatened species, aquaculture projects, and impacts to coral reef systems). In addition to providing specific information that will serve as the basis for any required impact analyses, applicants may also be requested to assist NOAA in drafting an environmental assessment, if NOAA determines an assessment is required. Applicants will also be required to cooperate with NOAA in identifying feasible measures to reduce or avoid any identified adverse environmental impacts of their proposal. Failure to do so shall be grounds for not selecting an application. In some cases if additional information is required after an application is selected, funds can be withheld by the Grants Officer under a special award condition requiring the recipient to submit additional environmental compliance information sufficient to enable NOAA to make an assessment on any impacts that a project may have on the environment.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. Department of Commerce regulations implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552, are found at 15 C.F.R. Part 4, Public Information. These regulations set forth rules for the Department regarding making requested materials, information, and records publicly available under the FOIA. Applications submitted in response to this Notice of Funding Opportunity may be subject to requests for release under the Act. In the event that an application contains information or data that the applicant deems to be confidential commercial information that should be exempt from disclosure under FOIA, that information should be identified, bracketed, and marked as Privileged, Confidential, Commercial or Financial Information. In accordance with 15 CFR § 4.9, the Department of Commerce will protect from disclosure confidential business information contained in financial assistance applications and other documentation provided by applicants to the extent permitted by law.

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DATA SHARING PLAN.1. Environmental data and information collected or created under NOAA grants or cooperative agreements must be made discoverable by and accessible to the general public, in a timely fashion (typically within two years), free of charge or at no more than the cost of reproduction, unless an exemption is granted by the NOAA Program. Data should be available in at least one machine-readable format, preferably a widely-used or open-standard format, and should also be accompanied by machine-readable documentation (metadata), preferably based on widely used or international standards. 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 Data Management Plan should be aligned with the Data Management Guidance provided by NOAA in the Announcement. The contents of the Data Management Plan (or absence thereof), and past performance regarding such plans, will be considered as part of proposal review. A typical plan should include descriptions of the types of environmental data and information expected to be created during the course of the project; the tentative date by which data will be shared; the standards to be used for data/metadata format and content;

methods for providing data access; approximate total volume of data to be collected; and prior experience in making such data accessible. The costs of data preparation, accessibility, or archiving may be included in the proposal budget unless otherwise stated in the Guidance. Accepted submission of data to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (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. 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.

More information can be found on NOAA’s Data Management Procedures at:

https://nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/documents/Data_Sharing_Directive_v3.0_remediated.pdf and at NAO 212- 15 Management of Environmental Data and Information:

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

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SCIENCE INTEGRITY. 1. Maintaining Integrity. The non-Federal entity shall maintain the scientific integrity of research performed pursuant to this grant or financial assistance award including the prevention, detection, and remediation of any allegations regarding the violation of scientific integrity or scientific and research misconduct, and the conduct of inquiries, investigations, and adjudications of allegations of violations of scientific integrity or scientific and research misconduct. All the requirements of this provision flow down to subrecipients. 2. Peer Review. The peer review of the results of scientific activities under a NOAA grant, financial assistance award or cooperative agreement shall be accomplished to ensure consistency with NOAA standards on quality, relevance, scientific integrity, reproducibility, transparency, and performance. NOAA will ensure that peer review of "influential scientific information" or "highly influential scientific assessments" is conducted in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review and NOAA policies on peer review, such as the Information Quality Guidelines. 3.