NOAA-OAR-OAP-2024-2008263 NOFO.pdf

Ocean and Coastal Carbon Observing Optimization Studies

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Funding Opportunity Description 4

A. Program Objective 4 B. Program Priorities 6 C. Program Authority 11

II. Award Information 11 A. Funding Availability 11 B. Project/Award Period 11 C. Type of Funding Instrument 12

III. Eligibility Information 13 A. Eligible Applicants 13 B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement 14 C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility 14

IV. Application and Submission Information 14 A. Address to Request Application Package 14 B. Content and Form of Application 15 C. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM) 20 D. Submission Dates and Times 22 E. Intergovernmental Review 22 F. Funding Restrictions 23 G. Other Submission Requirements 23

V. Application Review Information 23 A. Evaluation Criteria 23 B. Review and Selection Process 24 C. Selection Factors 25 D. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates 26

VI. Award Administration Information 26 A. Award Notices 26 B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements 27 C. Reporting 31

VII. Agency Contacts 31 VIII. Other Information 31

Notice of Federal Funding Page 1 of 32

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: Ocean and Coastal Carbon Observing Optimization Studies

Announcement Type: Initial

Funding Opportunity Number: NOAA-OAR-OAP-2024-2008263

Federal Assistance Listings Number: 11.017, Ocean Acidification Program (OAP)

Dates: An informational webinar will be held December 8th at 4pm Eastern time. The webinar will be recorded and posted to the Ocean Acidification Program website. To register for the webinar please go to this link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7078097742909317974 Full applications must be received and validated by Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on March 17th, 2024. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered. When developing your submission timeline, keep in mind the following information necessary to submit an application on Grants.gov: (1) a free annual registration process in the electronic System for Award Management (SAM) may take between three and five business days or as long as several weeks, as described in Section IV.G. of this Announcement, (2) required institution registration with eRA commons may take up to 4 weeks, and (3) if you submit an application via Grants.gov, you will receive a series of email notifications for up to two business days before learning via validation or rejection whether NOAA has received your application. If use of Grants.gov is not feasible, contact the NOAA OAP Program Manager (see Section VII for contact information) as soon as possible and no later than two weeks before the due date to assess whether alternative arrangements can be made.

Funding Opportunity Description: The NOAA Ocean Acidification Program (OAP), in partnership with the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) Program is soliciting proposals to optimize sampling strategies that improve carbonate chemistry observing systems co-developed with an observing data product end user that can inform real-time data delivery and forecasting of ocean acidification relevant parameters. The optimization design should be geared towards delivering the data needed to support the end user's specific decision support needs.

Funding is contingent upon the availability of Federal appropriations.

Total funding for this research: Applicants should submit proposals not to exceed $500,000 per year for projects generally 2-3 years in duration, with a total multi-year budget not to exceed $1,500,000 (Option 1.a.: Up to $350,000 per year for three years; Option 1.b.: Up to $200,000

Notice of Federal Funding Page 2 of 32 per year for three years; Option 2: Up to $500,000 per year for three years). Should funds become available for this program, up to approximately $4,000,000 may be available in Fiscal Year 2024 for the first year. We anticipate funding 2-5 projects with expected start dates of September 1, 2024. Funding for this program is contingent upon availability of funds, which have not been appropriated at the time of this announcement.

Notice of Federal Funding Page 3 of 32

FULL ANNOUNCEMENT TEXT

I. Funding Opportunity Description

A. Program Objective

NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) as part of the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Line Office (OAR) was established by the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring (FOARAM) Act. OAP coordinates research, monitoring, and other activities to improve our understanding of how the chemistry of the ocean is changing, how variable that change is by region, and what impacts these changes are having on marine organisms, people, and the local, regional, and national blue economies. NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the world’s oceans, share that knowledge, and conserve coastal and marine ecosystems. The OAP plays an integral role in NOAA’s mission by monitoring changes in ocean chemistry, measuring the biological response of ecologically and economically important species, assessing the socioeconomic impacts of the ocean chemistry changes and organismal responses, promoting ocean acidification educational opportunities, engaging in national public outreach activities related to ocean acidification and its impacts, and coordinating ocean acidification activities with other agencies and international ocean science bodies.

The mission of the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) Program within NOAA and OAR is to undertake research and monitoring activities to provide and support high quality global ocean observations that improve scientific understanding, monitor changes in the global oceans, and improve ocean knowledge and services for a range of climate, weather, ocean, and coastal needs. The strategic goals of GOMO include developing a sustained global ocean monitoring and observing system; harnessing innovative technologies to improve and expand the ocean observing system to address emerging needs and opportunities for ocean health, ocean economy, weather and climate; improving the value, accessibility, and usability of observational data for informed decision-making; and increasing the expertise, diversity and capacity of the ocean observing enterprise. To achieve these goals, GOMO supports interdisciplinary earth-system research and coordinated activities to improve understanding and monitoring of ocean physical, chemical, and marine ecological features. GOMO coordinates ocean monitoring and observing research with other appropriate intergovernmental, national, and international ocean science and observing bodies.

Ocean Acidification:

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been rapidly increasing for over 250 years, since the onset of the Industrial Revolution. The world's oceans act as a sink for a

Notice of Federal Funding Page 4 of 32 portion of the carbon dioxide emitted by humans, and this absorption is causing changes in ocean chemistry including a reduction in surface ocean pH, otherwise known as ocean acidification. A growing number of laboratory experiments have demonstrated that ocean acidification adversely affects many marine organisms, especially those that construct their shell material from calcium carbonate. Ocean acidification has the potential to threaten the future health of the world's oceans and the ecosystem services it provides.

To address ocean acidification and related ecological, economic, and societal impacts, the U.S. Congress enacted the FOARAM Act in 2009. The FOARAM Act requires NOAA to respond to this pressing issue through research and monitoring. In recent legislation, the US Congress also tasked the OAP with providing technical assistance to socioeconomically vulnerable States, local governments, Tribal governments, communities, and industries impacted by ocean and coastal acidification to support their development of ocean and coastal acidification mitigation strategies. Several states including Washington, Maine, New York and Maryland have created state specific OA action plans (https://www.oaalliance.org/member-examples) and/or passed legislation to understand the impacts of OA on their resources (https://doi.org/10.1080/08920753.2021.1947166). While many States, local governments, Tribal governments, communities and industries have established monitoring, some entities lack the resources and technical capacity to optimize those existing observations to monitor for changes in the carbonate system or to monitor for impacts from acidification. The goal of this NOFO is to provide funding to facilitate the co-development of an observing optimization study in order to increase the capacity and long term knowledge transfer with the end-user/co-development partner.

The federal government identifies its priorities for national and regional ocean acidification research in the Second Strategic Plan for Federal Research and Monitoring of Ocean Acidification. (https://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/StrategicPlanforFederalResearchandMonitoringofOceanAcidificati on.pdf). This announcement specifically addresses the priorities listed in Themes 2 (Monitoring) and 3 (Modeling), which include a specific short-term goal to “use models to guide observational sampling strategies” including Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) “to plan the most effective and efficient design for sampling.”

NOAA priorities for ocean acidification research are informed by the NOAA Ocean, Coastal and Great Lakes Acidification Research Plan: 2020-2029 (https://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ResearchPlan2020- 2029_comp.pdf). This announcement specifically addresses Action 1.1.5: Conduct observational and numerical simulation experiments to inform strategic deployment of … observing assets for optimal spatial and temporal coverage.

Global Ocean Carbon and Climate:

NOAA’s GOMO program supports long-term global ocean carbon observations from the

Notice of Federal Funding Page 5 of 32 sea surface to the ocean interior at a range of spatial and temporal scales from a variety of platforms including ships, moorings, and autonomous platforms. The observations provide accurate knowledge of the sources and sinks of ocean carbon, which is critical for constraining ocean carbon uptake, balancing the global carbon budget, projecting future climate, and supporting the development of climate policies. GOMO’s priorities for ocean carbon cycle observing and research are informed by the GOMO Strategic Plan 2021-2025 (https://globalocean.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/GOMO-Strategic-Plan-2021- 2025.pdf). In addition, the ocean carbon observations supported by GOMO comprise NOAA’s Global Ocean Carbon Network, as established by the NOAA Observing Systems Committee (OSC), which is composed of NOAA’s contribution to U.S. GO-SHIP and surface water CO2 from moorings and Ships of Opportunity as part of the recently established Surface Ocean CO2 Reference Observing Network (SOCONET).

NOAA, OAP, and GOMO encourage applicants and awardees to support the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion when writing their proposals and performing their work. OAP is committed to building inclusive research, extension, communication and education programs that serve people with unique backgrounds, circumstances, needs, perspectives, and ways of thinking. We encourage applicants of all ages, races, ethnicities, national origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, disabilities, cultures, religions, citizenship types, marital statuses, education levels, job classifications, veteran status types, and socioeconomic status types to apply for this opportunity. In the application we encourage applicants to share how their end products advance the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion.

B. Program Priorities

The NOAA Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) in partnership with the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) Program is soliciting proposals to evaluate how to optimize sampling strategies to readily acquire the requisite data of known uncertainty necessary to track and forecast ocean carbon system (e.g. carbonate mineral saturation state, carbonate ion concentration, pH, etc.) dynamics on short term (daily to subseasonal to annual) to long term (multidecadal to centennial) time-scales.

NOAA currently deploys a portfolio of observing technologies that include both fixed and mobile autonomous assets as well as regional ship-based biogeochemical surveys to understand and track carbonate chemistry across a range of time-scales in an effort to better inform our understanding of how our changing ocean carbonate chemistry (ie - ocean acidification) could impact U.S. living marine resources and the nation’s blue economy.

Given the opportunistic locations of the current observing assets (many deployed to leverage other missions), configuration of the existing network may be suboptimal for the intended purpose of characterizing the in situ carbonate dynamics most relevant to marine resources

Notice of Federal Funding Page 6 of 32 and industry needs. Ideally an observing network should consider not only surface conditions, but also conditions at depths where sensitive organisms may reside. Additionally, observing networks should consider time-scales which capture not only long-term trends, but also seasonal dynamics and short-term extremes which can be significant in coastal and estuarine waters. An optimized design should maximize the usefulness of the data obtained specific to end user needs, maximize the synergy with existing observational assets, and minimize the operational costs of deploying and maintaining such a network.

More information on observing systems and modeling efforts that may be relevant to this opportunity can be found through the following resources:

-OAP-sponsored coastal ocean acidification cruises:

https://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/ocean-acidification-research-cruises/ -GO-SHIP cruises: https://www.go-ship.org/ -NOAA Ocean Acidification Observing System buoys:

https://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/ocean-acidification-monitoring/ -Surface Ocean CO2 Observing Network (SOCONET):

https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/ocd/gcc/SOCONET/ -Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS): https://www.myroms.org/ -JISAO Seasonal Coastal Ocean Prediction of the Ecosystem (JSCOPE):

https://www.nanoos.org/products/j-scope/ -Ocean Observatories Initiative: https://oceanobservatories.org/ -NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory carbon group:

https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Observations+and+Data -NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory ocean chemistry and ecosystems group: https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/ocd/ocdweb/occ.html -NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing Systems: https://ioos.noaa.gov/ioos-in-action/ US Regional carbon observing information can be found by visiting the coastal acidification network websites listed below:

- Northeast Coastal Acidification Network: http://necan.org/

- Mid-Atlantic Coastal Acidification Network: https://midacan.org/

- Southeast Coastal Acidification Network: https://www.socan.secoora.org/

- Alaska Ocean Acidification Network: https://aoan.aoos.org/

- California Current Acidification Network: https://c-can.info/

- Gulf of Mexico Coastal Acidification Network: https://gcoos.org/gcan/

On a global scale, further development of the NOAA Global Ocean Carbon Network will benefit from an objective evaluation of augmentations that would reduce uncertainties in modeled fields of ocean carbon system parameters. In particular, it is necessary to determine

Notice of Federal Funding Page 7 of 32 whether the ocean carbon sink is keeping pace with the atmospheric CO2 increase by (i) reconciling differences between observations and model-based estimates of ocean carbon uptake and (ii) improving observations and quantification of the biological and/or solubility carbon pumps. To achieve a holistic understanding of carbon cycling in the global ocean, GOMO is soliciting proposals that address the previous priorities listed above (i) and/or (ii) through the application of Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) that optimize the use of emerging technologies (e.g., ASVs) and platforms to observe carbon system measurements (e.g., f/pCO2, DIC/DOC, PIC/POC, etc.) in climate-critical regions.

Originally developed for optimizing meteorological observations, model-based Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) represent one possible approach for optimizing an ocean and coastal carbon observing network. In recent years, the approach has been increasingly applied to ocean observing systems including improving our ability to monitor ocean carbon flux (e.g. Majkut et al., 2014). Other approaches have adopted the methodologies of optimal experimental design (e.g. best linear unbiased estimator, Ripley, 1987) which was employed to optimize fixed observational assets in a coastal observatory (Frolov et al., 2008). Both approaches (and others) may be considered for this call.

Conducting such an analysis demands that the primary modes of variability of a given system have been sufficiently resolved to generate a high-resolution nature run. A nature run is the output of a model that incorporates the best available knowledge on physics and biogeochemistry, calibrated to the system of interest, and validated against the best available data. The nature run should ideally estimate the dynamic ranges from subseasonal to multi-decadal. The outputs from this nature run then serve as a reference field such that simulated observations using various sampling strategies can be evaluated. This evaluation involves assessing the error characteristics intrinsic to the simulated observations through a comparison of the nature run versus the analyzed field derived from the simulated observations. In some regions, the requisite variability may not be sufficiently constrained from available observing data to derive a suitable nature run. Therefore, this funding opportunity includes two options: 1) a regionally targeted model-based objective assessment of observing system design specific to the ocean carbonate system or 2) a regionally targeted field intensive involving the targeted short-term deployment of observing assets to better characterize the dominant modes of variability.

Successful applicants to Options 1.a. and Option 2, below, will co-develop this project with an observing partner so that the results from this funded work will be incorporated into future observing system design and implementation. Examples of partnerships could include but are not limited to: states or tribal entities who are designing an optimal observing network or incorporating carbonate parameters into an existing sampling regime; or public or private entities interested in designing an observing network to quantify the efficacy of marine carbon removal in a particular region.

Notice of Federal Funding Page 8 of 32

Applicants must choose ONLY one of the following three project options:

Option 1.a.: Observing System Optimization Study (U.S.): $350,000 per year for up to three years. Proposals submitted under this option will target U.S. Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) regions for which sufficient data currently exist to allow for a fully consistent three-dimensional analysis of ocean carbonate system variables for the purpose of evaluating how best to use monitoring assets to optimally characterize regionally integrated fields of interest at subseasonal to decadal time-scales. Applicants should work with their partner entity to assess the existing relevant observing assets in the region to evaluate potential gaps or redundancies in observing data. Examples of carbonate parameters of interest include 3-D mapped distributions of: carbonate mineral saturation state, calcium carbonate ion activity product, pH, total dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, time-of-emergence indicators (time period required to discern a trend amid high-frequency variability), etc. Proposals submitted under this option should directly address one or more of the priority elements (see below). For this call, fields of interest should be optimized for spatial (including vertical) and temporal (e.g. subseasonal to decadal) resolutions that are relevant to the partner entity observing needs and this should be clearly articulated in the proposal.

Option 1.b.: Observing System Optimization Study (Global): $200,000 per year for up to three years. Proposals submitted under this option will assess climate-critical regions outside of the U.S. LMEs, such as the Southern Ocean, Tropics, or other open ocean regions. As above, proposals will evaluate how to best use monitoring assets to optimally characterize carbon system parameters across time-scales including assessment of existing, redundant, or gaps in observing data. High-accuracy, climate quality observational parameters will be considered, including, but not limited to: partial pressure or fugacity of CO2, total dissolved inorganic and organic carbon, particulate inorganic and organic carbon, total alkalinity, and pH as well as parameters that influence climate through biogeochemical feedbacks (e.g., N2O, CH4). Applicants should address cutting-edge challenges in ocean carbon and climate science (e.g., discrepancies between modeled and observational products of ocean uptake of CO2, closing the ocean carbon cycle budget, etc., see i and ii above). Proposals that include innovative platforms in carbon system observing design, such as autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs), are also highly desired. Proposals submitted under this option should directly address one or more of the priority elements identified below.

Option 2: Regional Field Intensive: Up to $500,000 per year for no more than 3 years with an overall three year total of no more than $1,500,000. For U.S. LMEs that lack the observational data to allow for the generation of a suitable nature run, the NOAA OAP will consider proposals for a three-year field intensive specifically aimed at characterizing the subseasonal to decadal variability which contributes the dominant error to the ocean

Notice of Federal Funding Page 9 of 32 carbonate system parameters of interest. PIs should include a justification for why the field intensive is needed in their region and this justification should include end user relevance.

Such intensives are envisioned to adopt the short-term (not to exceed two years) deployment and subsequent recovery of appropriate observing assets and conduct data analysis to establish the prerequisites for conducting an OSSE should subsequent funding become available. In addition, the project should also produce a detailed methodology document (i.e.

standard practices guide) detailing the approach. Such a document could generically inform similar studies conducted in other LMEs should similar field intensives be advanced in the future. While the outcomes from projects funded under option 2 fall short of directly delivering on the priority elements (see below), they should be conducted to ensure maximum success of a subsequent OSSE (option 1) carried out under a future opportunity.

As such, it’s imperative that the applicants include explicit partnerships with relevant modeling researchers to ensure they are configuring the field intensive and data outputs in a manner that is most readily usable in models relevant to that LME.

Regardless of which option is chosen, all projects are required to convene an Advisory Committee and set aside funds to attend a PI meeting. The Advisory Committee should consist of at least five people and be made up of modelers, observing experts, resource managers or other potential end users of the optimized observing system. The Advisory Committee will ensure outcomes of the project are relevant to the users of an optimized observing system. PIs need to incorporate travel funding to attend one all PI, in person workshop during the first year of the project, likely in conjunction with the Fall 2024 AGU meeting, held in Washington DC. PIs and co-PIs must attend. This workshop will last two full days. Subsequent PI meetings will be held either virtually or in conjunction with widely attended events.

Priority Elements The NOAA Ocean Acidification Program is accepting proposals (through Option 1.a and Option 2) that address one or more of these priority elements:

1. The studies proposed for this call should be co-developed with a partner entity to target one of the following U.S. Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs;

www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/ecosystems/lme/): Northeast, Southeast, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea , California Current, Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and the Pacific Islands Ecosystem Complex. Focus areas can extend from estuaries and coastal river mouths seaward to the outer margins of major currents or the edge of continental shelves. Alternatively, proposals may be considered for high-priority sub-regions of a U.S. LME in cases where model fidelity is best optimized at finer scales such as in important major estuaries (e.g., Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay). Justification for the size and scope of the project should match the needs of the partner entity;

Notice of Federal Funding Page 10 of 32

2. Evaluate the capability of existing ocean carbonate system assets (inclusive of applicable federal and state time-series) within the area of interest to adequately characterize the carbonate system in response to the needs of the partner entity; and

3. Explore alternative configurations of an ocean carbonate system observing network that would minimize errors in 3-D mapped fields of interest, maximize synergies with the existing observational assets, characterize uncertainty in the measured fields and minimize the operational costs for the partner entity.

The Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program will consider proposals (through Option 1.b. above) that address one or more of these priority elements:

1. Studies co-developed via collaborative Advisory Committee (see above) assessing high-accuracy ocean carbon parameter(s) in a climate-critical global region;

2. Evaluate the capability of existing ocean carbon system assets within the region of interest to adequately characterize the carbon system; and

3. Explore alternative configurations of an ocean carbon observing network that would minimize errors in mapped fields of interest, maximize synergies with the existing observational assets, and minimize the operational costs.

C. Program Authority

Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act 33 U.S.C. Sec. 3701- 3708

II. Award Information

A. Funding Availability

Applicants should submit proposals 2-3 years in duration not to exceed: $350,000 per year for Option 1.a.; $200,000 per year for Option 1.b.; $500,000 per year for Option 2. If funds become available for this program, up to approximately $4,000,000 may be available in fiscal year 2024 for the first year of about 2-5 projects with expected start dates of September 1, 2024. Funding for this program is contingent upon availability of funds, which have not been appropriated at the time of this announcement. Proposals not funded in the current fiscal period may be considered for funding in the next fiscal period without NOAA repeating the competitive process outlined in this announcement.

B. Project/Award Period

Full applications may cover a project/award period up to 3 years, but shorter-term project proposals are also encouraged. Awards may be funded incrementally, generally on an annual basis, but, once awarded, those awards will not compete for funding in subsequent years. Once approved, full applications are not required for the continuation of the award in

Notice of Federal Funding Page 11 of 32 out years. Funding for each year's activity is contingent upon the availability of funds from Congress, satisfactory performance, and is at the sole discretion of the agency.

During the implementation phase of research projects funded under this announcement, regardless of the funding mechanism used, OAP Program Managers will analyze progress reports for each continuing award, and will have dialogue with the Principal Investigators (PI) and Authorized Representatives of the recipient institutions to discuss research progress and expected timelines for the remaining award period. If NOAA experiences budget reductions in future fiscal years, the amount of funding provided in any given fiscal year will be determined on a project-specific basis by the remaining tasks to be completed, the overall pace of the research and the length of time remaining on the award and/or across the board reductions based on the overall funds available.

Regardless of the budget for any given fiscal year, Program Managers will consider the length of time remaining for each project, the amount of funds available, the tasks to be completed in the upcoming fiscal year, the pace of research, and any delayed progress relative to that originally proposed, before determining the funding amount in any given fiscal year.

C. Type of Funding Instrument

In an effort to maximize the use of limited resources, applications from non-Federal, non-NOAA Federal and NOAA Federal applicants will be evaluated in the same competition, with different funding instruments applied depending on the type of applicant.

The funding instrument for a research application selected for funding from a non-Federal researcher is expected to be a cooperative agreement. A cooperative agreement is appropriate when substantial Federal government involvement is anticipated. "Substantial involvement” will be coordinated and communicated by OAP Program Managers, and can include collaboration and participation by NOAA researchers, as well as OAP Program Manager involvement in PI meetings, setting up management advisory groups, development of management transition plans, and communication of project results.

If the non-Federal applicant is at an institution that has a NOAA approved Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU), it is allowed to submit applications that reference the CESU. If the applicant is a member of one of these CESUs and is interested in using its CESU status, it may state its wishes in a cover letter to the application stating its desire to have the application associated with the CESU. This letter should specify the name of the CESU. Of the seventeen CESUs across the nation, NOAA is a member of ten: North and West Alaska, California, Hawaii-Pacific Islands, South Florida-Caribbean, Gulf Coast, Piedmont-South Atlantic Coast, Chesapeake Watershed, North Atlantic Coast, Pacific Northwest, and Great Plains. If an applicant is associated with a CESU NOAA is not a member of, the application must be submitted through their institution without reference to CESU status.

Notice of Federal Funding Page 12 of 32

The following criteria must be met for NOAA to use the established partnerships with CESUs:

1. The proposed funding opportunity must fit within the objectives of the National CESU Network Program - to provide research, technical assistance, and education to federal land management, environmental, and research agencies and their partners in biological, physical, social, cultural, and engineering disciplines needed to address natural and cultural resource management issues at multiple scales and in an ecosystem context.

2. The proposed funding opportunity must fit the intent of the Cooperative and Joint Agreements, which means:

a. The research partnership will carry out or stimulate an activity (data, products or services) for a public purpose; AND

b. NOAA will be significantly involved in the work.

Previous research completed by a local CI will be considered in decisions made to issue an award using an institution's CESU status.

The funding instrument for a selected application from an eligible NOAA Federal applicant will be an intra-agency transfer of funds.

The funding instrument for a selected application from a non-NOAA Federal applicant will be through an inter-agency transfer of funds, provided legal authority exists for the Federal applicant to receive funds from another agency. Non-NOAA Federal applicants that intend to be the lead institution must contact Erica Ombres erica.h.ombres@noaa.gov or 301-734- 1072 to discuss technical details. PLEASE NOTE: Before non-NOAA Federal applicants may be funded, they must demonstrate that they have applicable legal authority for an interagency transfer of funds. Because this announcement is not proposing to procure goods or services from applicants, the Economy Act (31 USC 1535) is not an appropriate legal basis. Support may be solely through OAP or partnered with other Federal offices and agencies.

The intra- and inter-agency transfers of funds are not Federal assistance (grants or cooperative agreements) and the policies described in this NOFO applicable to Federal assistance awards do not apply to Federal entities receiving intra- and inter-agency transfers of funds. Refer to the Agency Contact officials in Section VII. for more information.

III. Eligibility Information

A. Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants for Federal financial assistance in this competition are institutions of higher education, other non-profits, state, local, Indian Tribal Governments, for-profit

Notice of Federal Funding Page 13 of 32 organizations, U.S. Territories and Federal agencies that possess the statutory authority to receive transfers of funds. DOC/NOAA supports cultural and gender diversity and encourages applications involving women and minority individuals and groups. In addition, DOC/NOAA is strongly committed to broadening the participation of historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions, tribal colleges and universities, and institutions that work in underserved areas. DOC/NOAA encourages applications involving any of the above institutions to apply.

Please note that:

(1) PIs should be employees of an eligible entity listed above and applications should be submitted through that entity. Non-Federal researchers should comply with their institutional requirements for application submission.

(2) Non-NOAA Federal applicants will be required to submit certifications or documentation showing that they have specific legal authority to accept funds for this type of research.

(3) Foreign researchers must apply as subawards or contracts through an eligible US entity.

B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement

None

C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility

IV. Application and Submission Information

A. Address to Request Application Package

Address to Request Application Package:

Erica Ombres 1315 East West Highway

SSMC3 12864

Silver Spring MD 20910 email: erica.h.ombres@noaa.gov

Applications submitted in response to this announcement are strongly encouraged to be submitted through the Grants.gov web site. The full funding announcement for this program is available via the Grants.gov web site: http://www.grants.gov. You will be able to access, download and submit electronic grant applications for NOAA Programs in this announcement at http://www.grants.gov. NOAA strongly recommends that you do not wait until the application deadline date to begin the application process through Grants.gov.

Applicants must register with Grants.gov before any application materials can be submitted.

Notice of Federal Funding Page 14 of 32

To use Grants.gov, applicant must have an institutional eRA commons account and be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), and periodic renewals are required.

Allow a minimum of five days to complete the SAM registration. (Note: Your organization’s Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) will be needed on the application form). An organization's one-time registration process may take up to four weeks to complete. In addition, it may take two days until the applicant is notified as to whether NOAA received the application, so allow sufficient time to ensure applications are submitted before the closing date.

After electronic submission of the application through Grants.gov, the person submitting the application will receive within the next 24 to 48 hours two email messages from Grants.gov updating them on the progress of their application. The first email will confirm receipt of the application by the Grants.gov system, and the second will indicate that the application has either been successfully validated by the system before transmission to the grantor agency or has been rejected because of errors. Only validated applications are sent to NOAA for review. After the application has been validated, this same person will receive a third email when the application has been downloaded by the Federal agency.

In addition to Grants.gov, this announcement will also be available by contacting the program official identified in Section VII. Please refer to important information in Submission Dates and Times (Section IV.D.) to help ensure your application is received on time.

B. Content and Form of Application

Required Elements:

Collaborative Proposals - If more than one institution is collaborating in a project awarded funds, the lead institution will be responsible for distributing funds to the partner institutions with the exception of Federal partners. Federal partners will be funded with either intra- or inter- agency agreements initiated by OAP. Collaborating institutions expected to receive funds must be budgeted as sub-awards or contracts. Unfunded collaborators may also participate.

Each application must substantially comply with the following sixteen elements to be forwarded for merit review. The Summary, Title page, Abstract, Project Description, References, Biographical Sketch, and Budget Justification must be single spaced in 12 point font with 1-inch margins. The Collaborators List must be an Excel spreadsheet. The sixteen elements are as follows:

(1) Standard Form 424. The applicant must submit the Standard Form, SF-424, “Application for Federal Assistance,” to indicate the total amount of funding proposed for the whole project period. This form is to be the cover page for the original application and is the first required form in the grants.gov application package.

(2) Summary title page. One-page maximum. The Summary title page identifies the

Notice of Federal Funding Page 15 of 32 project's title and the PI’s and all Co-PI’s names, affiliations, phone and E-mail information.

The requested funding amounts for each fiscal year should be included on the Summary title page.

(3) One-page abstract/project summary. The summary (abstract) should appear on a separate single page, headed with the proposal title, institution(s), investigator(s), total proposed cost, and budget period. It should be written in the third person. The summary is used to help compare proposals quickly and allows the respondents to summarize their key points in their own words. Project summaries of applications that receive funding may be posted on program-related websites. The project summary should include an introduction of the problem, rationale, scientific objectives and/or hypotheses to be tested, and a brief summary of work to be completed. The project summary should also briefly include information about the partner entity, the co-development process and how this work will support them.

(4) Project Description. The description of the proposed project must include narratives of the Proposed Research (elements i through iv), The Advisory Committee structure and function (element v), and the Data Management Plan (element vi). The description of the proposed project must not be more than 15 pages for elements (i) through (v) and an additional 2 pages for the Data Management Plan (vi). The Proposed Research Narrative should be thorough and explicitly indicate its relevance to the program goals and scientific priorities by:

(i) Identifying the topic that is being addressed by the proposal, the region proposed for work, and the relevance of the work to advancing/optimizing carbon observing systems;

(ii) Describing the proposed scientific objectives and research activities in relation to the present state of knowledge in the field and in relation to previous and current work by the proposing principal investigator(s);

(iii) Discussing how the proposed project lends value to the program goals and provides direct technical assistance to the co-development partner entity;

(iv) Identifying the function of each PI and partner entity. The Lead PI (s) will be responsible for communicating with the Federal Program Manager on all pertinent verbal or written information. He/She may also be a primary liaison to the Advisory Committee;

(v) Identifying who will serve on the Advisory Committee, their expertise and role in advising on the project. All projects will be required to stand up an Advisory Committee (at least five people) made up of modelers, observing experts, resources managers or other potential end users of the optimized observing system. The NOAA Program Manager and the partner entity are de facto members of the advisory committee.

(vi) Providing a detailed Data Management Plan that describes how metadata and data collected as part of the project will be disseminated to the broader community, and plans for longer term archiving of these data. National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) serves as the data management focal point for the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program

Notice of Federal Funding Page 16 of 32

(https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/ocean-carbon-acidification-data-system). All data resulting from NOAA OAP-funded projects must be archived and accessible through NCEI.

Costs associated with use of data centers, or data archiving, should be included in the application budget. See the section on the NOAA Data Reporting requirements below (Section VI. C.).

(5) References cited. Reference information is required. Each reference should include the names of all authors in the same sequence they appear in the publications, the article title, the journal or book title, volume number, page numbers, and year of publication. While there is no established page limitation, this section should include bibliographic citations only and should not be used to provide parenthetical information outside of the Project Description.

(6) Milestone chart. Provide timelines of major tasks covering the duration of the proposed project.

(7) Biographical sketch. All PI(s) co-PI(s) must provide summaries of up to 2 pages that include the following:

(a) A listing of professional and academic credentials and mailing address;

(b) A list of up to five publications most closely related to the proposed project and five other significant publications.

(8) Current and pending support. Describe all current and pending Federal financial/funding support for all PI(s) and co-PI(s). Continuing grants must also be included. You should respond to this element whether or not you have any current and/or pending support, e.g., by indicating “not applicable.”

(9) A list of all known applicable permits that will be required to perform the proposed work. You should respond to this requirement element whether or not permits are required.

(10) Accomplishments from Prior Federal Support. If any PI or co-PI identified on the project has received Federal funding in the past five years addressing OA or carbon relevant observing systems, information on the award(s) is required. Each PI and co-PI who has received more than ONE award (excluding amendments) must report on the award most closely related to the proposal. This section should not exceed two pages per PI per award in addition to the 15 pages for the Project Description. The following information should be provided:

a) the Federal agency, award number, amount and period of support;

b) the title of the project;

c) a summary of the results of the completed work;

d) publications resulting from the award;

e) a brief description of outputs and outcomes; and

f) as appropriate, a description of the relation of the completed work to the proposed work. When applicable, this information will be considered by reviewers in the evaluation of overall qualifications of applicants. You should respond to this element whether or not you have accomplishments from prior Federal support; e.g. by indicating “no prior Federal

Notice of Federal Funding Page 17 of 32 research on OA or carbon relevant observing systems.”

(11) Budget narrative/justification. In order to allow reviewers to fully evaluate the appropriateness of costs, all applications must include a detailed budget narrative and a justification to support all proposed budget categories for each fiscal year. Personnel costs should be broken out by named PI and number of months and percentage of time requested per year per PI. Support for each PI should be commensurate with their stated involvement each year in the milestones chart (see Required Elements (6) Milestone chart). Any unnamed personnel (graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, technicians) should be identified by their job title, and their personnel costs explained similar to PI personnel costs above. The contribution of any personnel to the project goals should be explained. Travel costs should be broken out by number of people traveling, destination and purpose of travel, and projected costs per person. Equipment costs should describe the equipment to be purchased, and its contribution to the achievement of the project goals. Each subaward should be listed as a separate item in the budget justification. Provide separate budget justifications for each subaward and indicate the basis for the cost estimates. Describe project activities for subawards and products/services to be obtained for acquisitions, and indicate the applicability or necessity of each to the project.

For additional information concerning each of the required categories and appropriate level of disclosure please see http://www.ago.noaa.gov/grants/docs/gmd_budget_narrative_guidance_-_05-24- 2017_final.pdf.

If more than one institution is collaborating in a project awarded funds, a separate budget justification is required for each subaward. Signed approval from each identified subaward institution is also required. The lead institution is responsible for sending funds to their subaward institutions. For acquisition contracts, the purpose and cost or price must be fully justified and the contract must fully comply with 2 C.F.R. 200.317-.326.

An applicant requesting funds for indirect costs in its proposal budget that has a current Federally approved rate should submit documentation of the indirect cost rate agreement as an attachment to its application submission. An applicant without a Federally approved rate should refer to Section IV.F. of this Announcement regarding options.

(12) CD 511. Certification Regarding Lobbying. Lead institutions can submit these forms through the grants.gov CD511 document placeholder without a hard signature because electronic signatures are allowed on documents from the submitting institution.

(13) Standard Form 424B. Assurances - Non-Construction Programs. Lead institutions can submit these forms through the grants.gov SF 424B document placeholder without a hard signature because electronic signatures are allowed on document from the submitting institutions.

(14) Standard Form 424A. All applicants are required to submit a SF-424A Budget Form that identifies the budget for each fiscal year of the proposal. Place each fiscal year in

Notice of Federal Funding Page 18 of 32 separate columns in Section B of page 1 on the SF424A by filling in the fiscal years 1 to 3 in Section A Budget Summary - Grant Program Function or Activity column. (Note that this revised 424A Section B format is a NOAA requirement that is not reflected in the Instructions for the SF 424A). The budget figures must correspond with the descriptions contained in the proposal. Each subaward should provide a SF424A listing each year of funding being requested. List total subaward costs under line item 6.h. other on the SF-424A.

Signed approval from the institution of each identified subaward should be provided.

(15) Provide one list that includes all (U.S. and Foreign) collaborators, advisors, and advisees for each investigator (PI(s) and co-PI(s), post-docs, and subawardees), complete with corresponding institutions. Submit only one, combined and alphabetized list per application in an excel spreadsheet using Last Name, First Name and Institution for the column headings. Collaborators are individuals who have participated in a project or publication within the last 48 months with any investigator, including co-authors on publications in the resumes. Collaborators also include those persons with which the investigators may have ongoing collaboration negotiations. Advisees and Advisors do not have a time limit. Advisees are persons with whom the individual investigator has had an association as thesis advisor or postdoctoral sponsor. Advisors include an individual’s own graduate and postgraduate advisors. Unfunded participants in the proposed study should also be listed (but not their collaborators). This information is critical for identifying potential conflicts of interests and avoiding bias in the selection of reviewers.

(16) Key Contacts form. All applicants must submit the Key Contacts form. This form identifies the official applicant contacts.

In addition to the sixteen required elements, applicants may provide the following:

(1) A list of potential merit reviewers on a page after the Summary Title Page.

(2) Letters from unfunded collaborators, verifying their contribution to the project, and advisory committee members, verifying their willingness to serve. These letters do not count against the page limit for the Project Description.