PKG00255364-instructions.docx

BLM-National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) Graduate Research Innovation (GRIN) (One Task Statement)

Notice of Funding Opportunity Number: L19AS00110 JFSP Announcement No. FA-FOA0020-001

Federal Program: 15.232 – Wildland Fire Research & Studies Program

Authorizing Legislation: FEDERAL LAND POLICY AND MANAGEMENT ACT OF 1976 (FLPMA), 43 USC §1737 (b), Public Law 94-579; Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriation Act for FY 1998 (P.L.105-83; H.R. Report 105‒163) and subsequent years (P.L. 106–291; H.R. 106‒914)

I. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Background: The Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) is a partnership of six federal wildland fire management and research agencies that have a shared need to address problems associated with managing wildland fuels, fires, and fire-impacted ecosystems.

The partnering agencies include the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service (FS) and five bureaus in the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI): Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Geological Survey. The DOI also is represented by the Office of Wildland Fire. Funding to support the program is provided by both DOI and FS.

For further background on the JFSP, those considering submitting proposals are encouraged to visit its website at www.firescience.gov.

Objectives: The U.S. Congress directed the DOI and USDA FS to develop a Joint Fire Science Program and Plan to prioritize and provide sound scientific studies to support the land management agencies and other stakeholders in addressing issues associated with wildland fire. Current research priorities are identified as a task statement in this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).

The Graduate Research Innovation (GRIN) award is for current master and doctoral students enrolled at colleges or universities within the United States in the field of wildland fire and related physical, biological, and social sciences, to enhance student exposure to the management and policy relevance of their research to achieve beneficial outcomes of funded work. To be eligible, students must be currently enrolled in a master or doctoral program when the announcement closes. GRIN funding must be expended while the student is enrolled. It cannot be expended after the student graduates.

Public Benefit: Scientific studies funded by JFSP help to:

Program Strategic Goals: As a jointly funded program, JFSP research priorities align strategically with the priorities of the Secretary of Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture.

Specifically, JFSP-funded research addresses the Secretary of Interior’s priority to “create a conservation stewardship legacy second only to Teddy Roosevelt [by using] science to identify best practices to manage land and water resources and adapt to changes in the environment.”

and Secretary of Agriculture’s priorities to “foster productive and sustainable use of our National Forest System lands and to strengthen the stewardship of private lands through technology and research.” In addition, with respect to wildland fire in particular JFSP research priorities address both Secretaries’ goals of reducing the occurrence and impacts of catastrophic wildfire through active management by contributing to the underlying scientific understanding and decision support tools needed to make informed decisions.

Finally, JFSP research priorities, as demonstrated by the task statement included in this FOA, directly and indirectly support the three goals of the 2014 National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (“Cohesive Strategy”):

II. FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION

The JFSP solicits and funds proposals from both government and non-government entities.

In accordance with the Legislative Authority, an inter-agency agreement will be used for federal awards.

A cooperative agreement will be used for non-federal awards and substantive Bureau of Land Management (BLM) involvement will consist of the following:

· The BLM Program Officer (PO) will collaborate with the recipient's Project Manager/Principal Investigator (RPM/PI) to manage technical execution of the project, recommended changes to objectives or technical execution.

· The JFSP program office is in contact with Principal Investigators to ensure projects are progressing according to the submitted proposals including occasional field trips and meetings with Project Manager/Principal Investigator.

· Responsibility for project management, control, and direction will be shared by the recipient and the BLM, however the BLM will have the right to intervene by modifying the project management plan if the project is not staying on schedule and/or technical issues arise.

A. Anticipated Federal Program Funding Based on prior year data, BLM anticipates between $400,000 to $500,000 in funding for FY 2020. Individual award amounts will depend on the merit review process of application packages and proposed budget. Funding for this program is not guaranteed and is subject to the availability of funds.

BLM is not obligated to make any Federal award as a result of the announcement and only Grants Management Officers and Agreement Specialists can bind the Federal Government to the expenditure of funds.

BLM reserves the right to fund projects in the following fiscal year. These awards will not require further competition.

B. Estimated Number of Agreement to be Awarded Based on prior year data, BLM anticipates between 16 to 20 agreements for FY 2020. The actual number of awards will depend on the number of meritorious applications and the availability of appropriated funds.

C. Estimated Amount of Funding Available Per Award The award size will depend on the number of meritorious applications and the availability of appropriated funds. Individual awards made under this announcement are capped at $25,000 per award.

D. Anticipated Start Date:

Projects funded through this FOA will start once funding is secured and awards issued. Agreements are not effective until fully executed with signature from the BLM Grants Management Officer (GMO). The JFSP anticipates a late-August to mid-September start date for awards.

E. Anticipated Term of the Agreement:

Agreement terms for funded projects are estimated to be accomplished within two years or less, depending on the negotiated project proposal.

F. Additional Funding Information Funding for this project(s) is not guaranteed and is subject to the availability of funds and evaluation of proposals is based on the review criteria in this announcement. In appropriate circumstances, BLM reserves the right to partially fund proposals in discrete portions or phases of proposed projects. If BLM chooses to partially fund a proposal, it will do so in a manner that does not prejudice any applicants or affect the basis upon which the proposal or portion thereof was evaluated and selected for award and therefore maintains the integrity of the competition and selection process. Funded proposals through this competitive announcement is not a guarantee of future funding.

When or if additional funding becomes available, BLM reserves the right to issue additional awards under this announcement through the next fiscal year.

Any additional selections must be made in accordance with the terms of this announcement and BLM and JFSP policies.

III. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

A. Eligible Applicants

· The JFSP encourages proposals from all eligible parties and partners. Funds will be awarded through a university, tribal government, non-governmental organization (NGO), state agency or federal agency.

· Proposals with a PI from states or that have any international funding, also must identify a funding cooperator from the United States to receive and process the funds.

· Proposals with a university, tribal government, or NGO PI that do not include funding for federal agencies do not need a funding cooperator and funds will route through the PI’s institution.

· Proposals that include budgeted funds to be spent by a federal agency and that do not have a federal PI, must list a funding cooperator from the federal agency requesting funds. Any funds awarded to a federal agency will be issued under an Interagency Agreement.

· JFSP encourages proposals from any eligible party or partner that is part of a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) program. CESUs are partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education. If a cooperative agreement is awarded to a CESU partner under a formally negotiated Master CESU agreement, indirect costs are limited to a rate of no more than 17.5 percent of the indirect cost base recognized in the partner's Federal Agency-approved Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA).

JFSP will enter into only one agreement per project with the PI institution or the funding cooperator institution.

· The PI institution or funding cooperator institution will be responsible for entering into sub-agreements with collaborating institutions.

· Budgets must be reviewed and approved by the institution’s Budget contact and Agreements contact prior to proposal submission. If a funding cooperator is involved, the Agreements contact and Budget contact must be from the funding cooperator’s institution.

· If the funding cooperator is from the Forest Service, the cooperator must be from a Forest Service Research Station. Work with your station funding cooperator to ensure you meet the station requirements for submission.

· JFSP will not provide additional funds to cover budget errors discovered after the proposal submission deadline.

· The end date and indirect costs for all sub-awards must match the end date and indirect costs in the original funding award document. The PI’s institution should take into account any potential delays anticipated in executing sub-agreements when proposing project timelines. (See funding cooperator flowchart below)

B. Cost Sharing or Matching Cost sharing or matching is not required for this funding opportunity; however, it is strongly encouraged.

CESU partners are encouraged to show the difference between their formal Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate and the 17.5% rate agreed upon as a CESU partner as their voluntary cost share.

Applicants may attribute the difference between the JFSP approved indirect cost rate deviation and their formal negotiated indirect cost rate as a voluntary committed cost-share/match (see below).

C. Other Eligibility Restrictions:

JFSP approved indirect cost rate deviation: JFSP has an approved indirect cost rate deviation that limits proposals to a maximum of twenty (20) percent of the direct costs for each institution. Proposals requesting funds for indirect rates higher than twenty (20) percent will not be considered. This memo can be found on the JFSP website at this link: http://www.firescience.gov/documents/BLM_Iindirect_cost_rate_exception_signed.pdf. Proposal funding through a federal funding cooperator must reflect either the prevailing indirect rate for the cooperating federal agency or the JFSP maximum limit of twenty (20) percent, whichever is less.

Pass-through costs are charged only by the PI institution or funding cooperator institution for administrative costs associated with managing sub-agreements. Pass-through costs are limited to ten (10) percent of the sub-agreement total costs.

Unrecovered indirect costs can be used as contributed funds in the budget.

Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM.gov) Registration: All applicants are required to obtain a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number from Dun & Bradstreet and then register in SAM.gov prior to submitting a Federal award application. Federal award recipients must continue to maintain an active SAM.gov registration with current information through the life of their Federal award(s). See the “Submission Requirements” section of this document below for more information on SAM.gov registration. The BLM may not make a Federal award to an applicant that has not completed the SAM.gov registration. If an applicant selected for funding has not completed their SAM.gov registration by the time the BLM is ready to make an award, the program may determine that the applicant is not qualified to receive an award. The program can use that determination as a basis for making an award to another applicant. This requirement does not apply to individuals applying for funds as a private citizen (i.e., unrelated to any business or nonprofit organization you may own or operate in your name) or any entity with an exception approved by the BLM under 2 CFR 25.110(d).

D. Excluded Parties: The BLM conducts a review of the SAM.gov Exclusions database for all applicant entities and their key project personnel prior to award. The BLM cannot award funds to entities or their key project personnel identified in the SAM.gov Exclusions database as ineligible, prohibited/restricted or otherwise excluded from receiving Federal contracts, certain subcontracts, and certain Federal assistance and benefits, as their ineligibility condition applies to this Federal program.

IV. APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

NOTE: It is recommended, prior to submitting an application, that proposers contact the program experts at JFSP if they have questions regarding the relevancy of their proposal to the task statement in this FOA.

A. Requesting Paper Application Package All proposals must be submitted through the JFSP electronic submission process provided on the JFSP website (www.firescience.gov) not grants.gov. This announcement includes all information, documents, and information needed to submit an application. Paper copies will not be considered.

B. Application and Content Requirements

1. Proposal Submission and Agency Contact All proposals must be submitted by December 5, 2019, 5:00 p.m. MST, using the electronic submission process provided on the JFSP website (www.firescience.gov). Proposals should not be submitted through Grants.gov. No exceptions are allowed to this closing date and time.

All proposals must meet all requirements in this FOA (see especially Section V below). Proposals that do not meet all requirements in this section will not be considered for funding.

Direct questions to:

Administrative questions:

Becky Jenison, Program Analyst Phone: 208-387-5958 Email: bjenison@blm.gov

Task statement questions:

2. Steps to Create and Complete a JFSP Proposal Multiple steps are necessary to create a JFSP proposal, some of which are dependent on prior steps. Proposals must be submitted electronically via the JFSP website (www.firescience.gov). For full list of requirements see Section V C below.

Step 1 – PI establishes profile, updates password.

Step 2 – PI initiates proposal (select task, receive proposal #, enter proposal title).

Step 3 – Enter contacts (all contacts establish profiles, update passwords; PI assigns roles). Once the PI enters a contact, they will have access to sign into the database and access the proposal. Note: For required contacts, see Section V.

Step 4 – Proposal development (templates, requirements).

Step 5 – Complete budget (template, narrative).

Step 6 – Attach all documents (proposal overview, proposal body, advisor letter, advisor certification statement, literature cited, budget, budget narrative, data management plan, CVs, list of acronyms (optional), support letters (optional).

Step 7 – PI enters final details (project location, budget summary, start/end dates, abstract, task statement relevancy, and project category).

Step 8 – Budget Contact and Agreements Contact sign into the database and certify review of budget and budget narrative.

Step 9 – PI submits proposal (you must convert to Final Draft status first before hitting the Submit Proposal Button).

Notes

· Many steps can be in progress concurrently

· All information, including attachments, can be saved as Draft and edited later

3. Task Statement(s) Graduate Research Innovation (GRIN) Award The Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) invites current master and doctoral students enrolled at colleges or universities within the US in the field of wildland fire and related physical, biological, and social sciences to apply for a Graduate Research Innovation (GRIN) award. The purpose of a GRIN award is to enhance student exposure to the management and policy relevance of their research to achieve beneficial outcomes of funded work.

Specific objectives related to management are to enhance student exposure to and interaction with fire and fuels managers, develop appreciation and understanding of fire and fuels managers information and research needs, and augment already planned and funded master or doctoral research to develop information and/or products useful to managers. The JFSP also is interested in understanding the science needs of decision-makers, which provides an opportunity for students to enhance their understanding of how science can be used to inform fire-related policy. As a result, these awards are intended to enable graduate students to conduct research that will supplement and enhance the quality, scope, or applicability of their thesis or dissertation to develop information and products useful to managers and decision-makers. Proposals must demonstrate relevance to fire, fuels, or resource management and include means to directly communicate with managers, when applicable, regarding project outcomes.

Proposals must be directly related to the mission and goals of JFSP to be considered. Applicants are encouraged to search the JFSP website (www.firescience.gov) to learn more about the scope of JFSP activities. In addition, proposals must directly address management- or policy-related questions related to one or more of the following topic areas:

· Fuels management and fire behavior

· Changing fire environment

· Emissions and air quality

· Fire effects and post-fire recovery

· Relative impacts of prescribed fire versus wildfire

· Human dimensions of fire

Proposals on topics not listed above will not be reviewed.

Proposals must describe new, unfunded work that extends ongoing or planned research that is the subject of a thesis or dissertation that has been approved by the graduate student’s advisory committee. For example, GRIN funding might allow a graduate student to add an additional related area of inquiry to an already planned thesis project. Proposals that are unconnected to ongoing or planned research, or that appear to describe an entire thesis/doctoral project rather than an add-on, will not be funded. In addition, students that previously received a GRIN award are not eligible for additional GRIN awards. Only one GRIN proposal per student will be accepted.

Proposals must be authored predominately by the student; however, they also must be reviewed and submitted by the student’s advisor, who acts as the formal Principal Investigator (PI) for the project. Student exposure to proposal writing is considered part of the GRIN experience; as such, proposals that are written predominately by the advisor and not the student are discouraged. A letter of recommendation from the student’s advisor also is required. If the student cannot complete the project, the student’s advisor (project PI) must return unspent funds to JFSP. The student must be listed as a Student Investigator on the proposal.

In addition, letters of support from managers, when applicable, are encouraged.

Funds are intended for student use and support. Funds cannot be used for faculty salary. Funding can be used to conduct a significant field or laboratory data collection campaign; to complete a comprehensive synthesis, modeling, or data analysis; to conduct a policy analysis; or to develop an appropriate application or tool for fire and fuels managers. Appropriate budget items include: graduate student stipend, field or laboratory assistance, research equipment or materials, and travel. Funds cannot be used for student tuition. Each award is capped at $25,000, including university indirect costs as described in the proposal instructions.

Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of student qualifications, scientific merit, relevance to managers/decision-makers, extent to which the proposed work extends or enhances an approved thesis or dissertation, and feasibility of the proposed work (see Section E, Application Review Information). details the review process.

Recipients of the GRIN award are required to produce at least one management/policy-oriented tool or summary guide based on the funded project. Awardees also are expected to present their work at one regional, national, or international fire conference or workshop. Finally, the awardee is expected to write an acceptable final report for the JFSP prior to the project end date. These are one-time awards, and no supplemental funds will be granted.

4. Budget and Funding Policy

a) Funding Cooperator Proposal may require a funding cooperator. See Section III A above.

b) Indirect Costs The JFSP recognizes that agencies and organizations participating in the program need to recover reasonable indirect costs. Budget feasibility (cost effectiveness) of the individual projects, however, is a determining factor in the final selection process. JFSP has an approved indirect cost rate deviation that limits proposals to a maximum of twenty (20) percent of the direct costs for each institution. Proposals requesting funds for indirect rates higher than twenty (20) percent will not be considered. This memo can be found on the JFSP website at this link: http://www.firescience.gov/documents/BLM_Iindirect_cost_rate_exception_signed.pdf

Proposal funding through a federal funding cooperator must reflect either the prevailing indirect rate for the cooperating federal agency or the JFSP maximum limit of twenty (20) percent, whichever is less.

If your organization has never had a NICRA, the BLM Grants Management Officer (GMO) may allow an indirect cost rate of up to 10% of your base modified total direct costs (MTDC). MTDC includes all salaries and wages, fringe benefits, materials and supplies, services, travel, and subgrants and subcontracts up to the first $25,000 of each. Include the computational basis for the indirect expense pool and corresponding allocation base for your rate.

Pass-through costs are charged only by the PI institution or funding cooperator institution for administrative costs associated with managing sub-agreements. Pass-through costs are limited to ten (10) percent of the sub-agreement total costs. (See indirect cost example below)

Unrecovered indirect costs can be used as contributed funds in the budget.

Indirect costs example

Scenario

· The PI is from a university or federal agency (lead institution)

· Co-PI is from a cooperating university or NGO (cooperating institution)

· The calculated expenses in the Budget for the lead institution are $200,000 (salary, fringe benefits, travel, equipment, etc.)

· The calculated expenses in the Budget for the cooperating institution are $40,000

Calculation of indirect costs

1. Cooperating institution

Note: If multiple cooperating institutions are involved this calculation would be performed for each institution.

2. Lead institution

3. Total Budget = $244,800 + $48,000 = $292,800

Points of emphasis

· Lead institutions can include pass-through costs for each cooperating institution in their budget.

· Pass-through costs are calculated based on the total budget for each cooperating institution, including the indirect costs calculated by the cooperating institution.

· Cooperating institutions typically do not include pass-through costs in their budgets.

· Institutions should use their negotiated indirect cost rates with their cooperating institutions, but cannot exceed JFSP maximums.

c) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Costs Certain proposals may be required to pay a percentage of the project’s costs into the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Proposals for which the funds are transferred to a Forest Service institution and subsequently a portion of the total budget is awarded to a non-federal entity through a sub-agreement or sub-contract may be required to pay the prevailing rate of the total funds awarded externally to the SBIR program. PIs should check with their Agreements contact to determine if this applies to your proposal and to determine the current rate.

d) Equipment Policy Investigators are encouraged to contribute equipment (see 2 CFR Part 200.313) to conduct research studies funded by JFSP from existing equipment inventories. Contributed equipment should be included as “contributed costs” in JFSP budget spreadsheets and on the budget tab.

If necessary equipment is not available, JFSP will partially or fully fund equipment needed to conduct research funded by JFSP. In no case will JFSP pay more than $5,000 for a piece of equipment. If a new piece of equipment costing more than $5,000 is needed for the proposed project, proposal investigators are expected to contribute the remaining costs in excess of $5,000.

This criterion is to be applied for each and every piece of equipment.

e) Salary Policy Funds are intended for the funded graduate student’s use and support, including, if necessary, hiring undergraduate students to assist in field or laboratory work. Funds cannot be used for faculty salary. Stipends are acceptable costs, but tuition and other university fees will not be funded.

f) Budget The budget spreadsheet and narrative must be reviewed by the Budget contact and Agreements contact to ensure all costs have been included and the budget is correct, including indirect charges. JFSP will not provide additional funds to cover errors discovered after the proposal submission deadline.

Budget spreadsheet must use the provided template and have a separate worksheet for each institution requesting or contributing funds, including all sub-agreements and contracted costs over $10,000. Identify all work that will be accomplished, including a breakdown of all tasks to be completed, and provide a detailed budget estimate in accordance with 2 CFR Parts 200.317 through 200.326. Contracted indirect costs and fees are subject to the indirect rate exception. Contracted costs under $10,000 must still be explained in detail in the budget narrative but do not require a separate worksheet in the budget template.

Budget narratives must have the level of detail provided in the example in the budget narrative template. Lump sum costs are not acceptable in any category, without a detail breakdown of how the costs were determined. Funded proposals will be closely scrutinized for allowable and reasonable costs before an award is issued. The JFSP also reserves the right to negotiate final budget numbers based on the final approved work scope.

The Budget contact and Agreements contact must sign in to the JFSP system and certify the budget is correct and that they understand their role in receiving funds and facilitating agreements. Proposals cannot be submitted by the PI if both contacts have not completed this task in the database. (See screen print below)

Proposals will be funded via cooperative agreement or Interagency Agreement. Budget contact and agreements contact must ensure that budgets have the correct indirect rates for your circumstances.

The JFSP does not fund projects that are, or should be, funded internally from existing accounts (such as routine agency monitoring) or operational portions (such as the installation of fuels treatments or development of fire management plans) of other projects.

Funding is usually distributed in late summer or early fall. Budgets should be planned with this timing in mind.

5. Data Management Plan (DMP)

It is the intent of JFSP that all data collected, generated, or compiled through JFSP funds are of high quality and made freely available to others within a reasonable time period. The JFSP recognizes that preparation of data and metadata for publication is a time consuming process. Adequate funds to support this work should be included in proposal budgets.

A Data Management Plan must be attached as a separate document and is limited to two pages maximum. The DMP will be considered in the proposal review process. See the DMP template and instructions for further details.

Investigators must select a data repository well suited for long-term archival, publication, and data sharing of data collected, generated, or compiled through JFSP funding. The JFSP recommends use of the Forest Service Research & Development (R&D) data archive (http://www.fs.usda.gov/rds/archive/). To discuss the archive’s services, please contact archivist Dave Rugg (drugg@fs.fed.us) or associate archivist Laurie Porth (lporth@fs.fed.us).

The Forest Service R&D data archive will provide the central metadata catalog for all JFSP projects. Submission of initial metadata to be provided ultimately to the Forest Service R&D data archive will be required as part of final report submission to the JFSP, regardless of final data repository used. The JFSP will review these initial metadata to ensure that all required information is provided (including a pointer to the intended archival location of the data). Final reports will not be considered completed until these metadata have been reviewed and accepted by the JFSP. Failure to meet the preceding submittal requirements may affect student investigator eligibility to submit for consideration future JFSP proposals.

Submission of the project’s metadata and associated data sets to the chosen repository should occur within six months of final report acceptance. For submittals to the Forest Service R&D data archive, Forest Service R&D will work with the PI and student investigator to ensure final acceptability of the metadata and associated data sets. No matter the chosen repository, the PI and student investigator are responsible for ensuring that final metadata are provided to Forest Service R&D. For all collected, generated, or compiled data PIs and students must ensure that they are evaluated for errors, as well as subjected to data proofing and validation procedures, prior to submittal. The PI and student are responsible for keeping the metadata in the official catalog current over time.

It is JFSP’s policy that PIs and student investigators can limit release of data sets for up to two years following submission and acceptance of the project’s final report and metadata for their personal publication in peer-reviewed journals and for quality assurance purposes. At the end of this period, all data sets must be made publicly available no matter where they are archived.

6. Indirect Costs

Required Indirect Cost Statement and Documentation:

All applicants must include in their budget justification narrative the following indirect cost rate statement and attach to their application any required documentation identified in the applicable statement:

A [insert your organization type] that is submitting this proposal for consideration under the “Wildland Fire Research and Studies” which has a Department of the Interior-approved indirect cost rate cap of 20% rate. If we have an approved indirect cost rate with our cognizant agency, we understand that we must apply this reduced rate against the same direct cost base as identified in our approved indirect cost rate agreement. If we do not have an approved indirect cost rate with our cognizant agency, we understand that we must charge indirect costs against the modified total direct cost base defined in 2 CFR 200.68 “Modified Total Direct Cost (MTDC)”. We understand that we must request prior approval from the BLM to use the 2 CFR 200 MTDC base instead of the base identified in our approved indirect cost rate agreement. We understand that BLM approval of such a request will be based on: 1) a determination that our approved base is only a subset of the MTDC (such as salaries and wages); and 2) that use of the MTDC base will still result in a reduction of the total indirect costs to be charged to the award. In accordance with 2 CFR 200.405, we understand that indirect costs not recovered due to a voluntary reduction to our federally negotiated rate are not allowable for recovery via any other means.

7. Single Audit Reporting Statement All U.S. states, local governments, federally recognized Indian tribal governments, and non-profit organizations expending $750,000 USD or more in Federal award funds in the applicant’s fiscal year must submit a Single Audit report for that year through the Federal Audit Clearinghouse’s Internet Data Entry System. U.S. state, local government, federally recognized Indian tribal government, and non-profit applicants must state if your organization was or was not required to submit a Single Audit report for the most recently closed fiscal year. If your organization was required to submit a Single Audit report for the most recently closed fiscal year, provide the EIN associated with that report and state if it is available through the Federal Audit Clearinghouse website.

8. Certification Regarding Lobbying Applicants requesting more than $100,000 in Federal funding must certify to the statements in 43 CFR Part 18, Appendix A-Certification Regarding Lobbying. If this application requests more than $100,000 in Federal funds, and is ultimately funded via cooperative agreement the Authorized Official’s signature on the appropriate SF-424, Application for Federal Assistance form will be required when submitted at a later date and will also represents the entity’s certification of the statements in 43 CFR Part 18, Appendix A.

9. Disclosure of Lobbying Activities Applicants and recipients must not use any federally appropriated funds (annually appropriated or continuing appropriations) or matching funds under a Federal award to pay any person for lobbying in connection with the award. Lobbying is influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any U.S. agency, a Member of the U.S. Congress, an officer or employee of the U.S. Congress, or an employee of a Member of the U.S. Congress connection with the award. Applicants and recipients must complete and submit the SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities if the Federal share of the proposal or award is more than $100,000 and the applicant or recipient has made or has agreed to make any payment using non-appropriated funds for lobbying in connection with the application or award. See 43 CFR, Subpart 18.100 for more information on when additional submission of this form is required.

10. Overlap or Duplication of Effort Statement Bureau of Land Management will not fund any project for which any overlap (duplication of effort) exists between this Federal application and any other Federal application, or funded project, in regards to activities, costs, or time commitment of key personnel.

11. APPLICANTS MAY BE REQUIRED TO SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING FORMS :

If a proposal is selected for funding and the award mechanism is a cooperative agreement the following forms will be required at a later date by the issuing Grants Management Officer:

Form Name and Number

SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance

SF-424A Budget Information - Non-Construction Programs

SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities (when applicable)

Project Proposal

Budget Detail

Indirect Cost Statement and related Federal Agency-approved Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA) (when applicable)

Overlap or Duplication of Effort Statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosure (when applicable)

Single Audit Reporting Statement (when applicable)

NOTE: Failure to provide complete information may cause delays, postponement, or rejection of the application.

V. Submission Requirements Proposals must meet all of the following requirements to be considered. Incomplete proposals will not be considered. No exceptions will be made to either the submission deadline or other submission requirements.

A. Proposal Submission Proposals must be submitted electronically via the JFSP website (www.firescience.gov). Proposals cannot be submitted in Grants.gov. Hard copy, email, or facsimile proposals will not be accepted. Proposals can be created in the database at any time and saved as a draft for submission any time prior to the closing date and time.

· A JFSP database login and password is required to submit a proposal (see section b below). Requests for profiles will be processed in approximately 24 hours.

· The Budget contact must sign into the system and certify the budget is correct before the proposal can be submitted. Note that the PI will not be able to complete this task for the Budget contact. The PI must assign this contact on the contact tab before the Budget contact can sign in to complete this process.

· The Agreements contact must sign into the system and certify the budget is correct before the proposal can be submitted. Note that the PI will not be able to complete this task for the Agreements contact. The PI must assign this contact on the contact tab before the Agreements contact can sign in to complete this process. Only the PI can submit the proposal.

· Proposals can be saved in the JFSP system and submitted prior to the closing date and time. Submitted proposals can be reverted back to Final Draft by the PI prior to the closing date. If you revert a proposal back to Final Draft you must resubmit the proposal before the closing date and time.

· The JFSP proposal submittal system will not allow proposals to be submitted after the closing date and time.

B. Profiles

· All contacts must have a profile in the JFSP database that must be entered on the contacts tab by the PI.

· Proposals cannot be submitted if all required contacts (see Contacts below) are not entered on the contacts tab by the PI.

· It can take up to 24 hours to get a profile created. It is advisable to request profiles early in the process.

· To request a profile or password reset go to the JFSP website and click on the sign in link in the upper right hand corner of the page. Use the appropriate link for requesting a password reset or requesting a new user registration.

C. Contacts Proposals may be required to have the following contacts on the contacts tab (see Section IX. Other Information for definitions to understand the role of each contact) assigned to a proposal:

· Principal Investigator (required, only one Principal Investigator can be assigned)

· Student Investigator (required)

· Funding Cooperator (may be required, see Section III. A)

· Budget Contact (required); in some cases this may be the same as the Agreements contact

· Agreements Contact (required); in some cases this may be the same as the Budget Contact

· Co-PIs and Collaborators (required, when applicable).

It is the PI’s responsibility to ensure all correct contacts are entered into the proposal database. Please read Section IX. Other Information for definitions carefully to ensure you have the correct contact from the correct institution listed.

D. Confirmation Page When the PI submits the proposal they will receive a confirmation page. It is highly recommend that PIs save or print that page for their records. If this confirmation page is not received the proposal has not been submitted correctly. It is the responsibility of the PI to ensure the proposal has been submitted correctly by the closing date and time.

E. Abstract Proposers must copy and paste the first three subsections of the proposal overview template (Problem Statement, Objectives, and Benefits) into the Abstract field in the Details tab of the JFSP database. The Abstract will become the publicly accessible description of the project.

F. Task Statement Relevancy Proposers must copy and paste the fourth subsection of the proposal overview template (Task Statement Relevancy) into the Task Statement Relevancy field in the Details tab.

G. Attachments All required documents and templates must be attached before the proposal can be submitted. All attachments except the budget must be attached as an adobe pdf document; the budget template is in an Excel format. The PI should ensure that no loss of information occurred upon conversion to a pdf document. Attachments over the page limits cannot be submitted. All information in a template must be included as part of that attachment and must be within the page limit. Extraneous materials (e.g., extra graphs and text) are not permitted and will not be reviewed.

Required attachments for all proposals must use templates provided to be considered:

· Proposal overview

· Proposal body

· Literature cited

· Certification by Advisor

· Budget spreadsheet (Excel spreadsheet, include a separate worksheet for each institution or contract requesting funding greater than $10,000)

· Budget narrative (explanation of specific budget assumptions and costs)

· Data Management Plan (see below)

· Letter from student’s advisor (see task description)

· CurriculumVitae (CV) for PIs, Student Investigator, and Co-PIs (two pages maximum for each person; include relevant publications)

Additional attachments:

· Letter(s) of support (optional, but recommended)

· List of acronyms (optional, but recommended)

· Specific to a task statement (check this year’s task statement for additional requirements, if any) H. Data Management Plan All proposals are required to submit a Data Management Plan (DMP) using the instructions, template, and example provided (See Section IV.B.5) above).

I. Budget Budget summary numbers summarized by institution type requesting funds must be entered in the JFSP database on the Budget tab. The budget spreadsheet and budget narrative must be attached on the attachments tab using the spreadsheet template provided.

Proposals cannot be submitted without completing these required fields and attachments. Do not edit spreadsheet formulas and formatting without first contacting Becky Jenison (bjenison@blm.gov).

J. Task Statement Intent Proposals that do not clearly and directly meet the intent of the task statement will not be forwarded to peer review or considered for funding. The PI for a proposal that does not meet the intent of the task statement will receive a rejection notice after the administrative review has been completed. In addition, PIs should ensure they are submitting their proposal for the correct task statement in the JFSP database.

K. Format Proposals not following the required template(s) will not be considered. Proposals must use an 11 point font or larger. Additional guidance is included in the beginning of each template.

L. Page Limits Attachments exceeding the page limits cannot be submitted. Check the page limit in the template and JFSP database. Everything required as part of the template is included in the page limit.

M. Project Location Project location fields must be completed on the location tab for a proposal to be successfully submitted. Instructions are listed on the project location tab.

N. Signatures Handwritten signatures are not required. When Principal Investigators (PIs) submit proposals they will be prompted to enter their password. By typing in the password and submitting a proposal, PIs are certifying that all contacts on the proposal have reviewed the proposal and understand the requirements of their respective roles.

O. Indirect Costs Proposals must follow JFSP indirect cost guidelines. (See Section III. C above) P. Contributed Costs See Section III. B above.

Q. Support Letters Support letters are encouraged, but not required. Support letters are useful if they show understanding of the proposed work and the letter author articulates how the work will benefit them. Support letters that appear to be ghost-written by the PI or are form letters are much less useful. If submitted, letters must be combined into one pdf document and attached on the attachments tab. Support letters sent by hard copy or email directly to JFSP will not be considered.

R. Past-Due Projects The JFSP past-due and extension policy does not apply to GRIN submissions. Note that this is for GRIN proposals only.

VI. APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

A. SAM.gov Registration The BLM may not make a Federal award to an applicant that has not completed the SAM.gov registration. If an applicant selected for funding has not completed their SAM.gov registration by the time the BLM is ready to make an award, the program may determine that the applicant is not qualified to receive an award. The program can use that determination as a basis for making an award to another applicant.

B. Automated Standard Application for Payment (ASAP) Projects awarded via cooperative agreement cannot be finalized until awardee finalizes their enrollment in the Department of the Treasury, ASAP System. See the following website: http://www.fms.treas.gov/asap.

If your organization is not enrolled in ASAP contact the GMO in Section VIII. Federal Awarding Agency Contacts of this funding opportunity.

C. Review and Section Process:

The Government reserves the right to reject any and all proposals that do not meet the requirements of this FOA and are determined to be outside the scope of the authority under which this announcement is posted.

The evaluation process will consist of the following four screening levels:

1. First Level Screening—Basic Eligibility

b. Applications must satisfy basic eligibility screening requirements to be considered for further review.

Note: The relevancy check includes assessing whether the proposal (1) responds to the intent of the task statement and (2) falls within JFSP’s mission to support fundamental and applied research and science delivery. The relevancy check is a threshold review and if determined not to be relevant, no further evaluation of the proposal will occur.

2. Second Level Evaluation—Merit Review Evaluation via External Peer Review

Review Criteria Note: Review criteria are not arithmetically scored or weighted. Applicants, however, should note that the scientific merit criterion is given particular attention. Proposals that do not receive strong scientific merit reviews are unlikely to be funded.

Student Qualifications

· Academic

· Work experience

· Research experience

Scientific Merit

· Potential contribution to scientific understanding

· Merit of hypothesis, question, or objective

· Tied to state of the science

· Well described and appropriate methods

· Creativity

Management/Policy Relevance and Science Delivery

· Utility of results to managers/decision-makers

· Communication with managers

· Effective delivery of project outcomes to end users

· Management/policy-oriented tool or summary guide is included as a deliverable

Linkage to Ongoing or Planned Thesis or Dissertation

· Ongoing or planned thesis or dissertation clearly described

· Proposed work extends and enhances thesis/dissertation

Feasibility

· Administrative adequacy

· Budget

· Skills and qualifications

· Schedule

· Barriers to execution and contingencies

· Necessary manager/scientist and scientist/scientist relationships

3. Third Level Review—Program Review

The JFSP Office and Governing Board assess the external peer review. The Board makes selection decisions based on the peer review and programmatic priorities.

4. Fourth Level Review—Pre-award Clearance and Approvals

Following the described preceding, three-level review process above, BLM also will complete a business evaluation and determination of responsibility. During these evaluations the Grants Management Officer will evaluate variables such as:

a. Risk Management. The BLM uses a risk-based approach to evaluate the risk posed by the supporting applicants’ projects before it awards Federal funds.

2) Budget review is based on the following:

If the results of all pre-award reviews and clearances are satisfactory, an award of funding will be made once the agreement is finalized. If the BLM determines that a Federal award will be made, special conditions that correspond to the degree of risk assessed may be applied to the Federal award

If the results…