QandA Round 1.docx

Q&A Round 1

1.) Are applicants for this NOFO required to provide a 50% non-federal match, or is this section referring to the requirements of each Challenge Cost Share project that would be managed under this Cooperative Agreement? Applicants are not required to provide a 50% cost match directly, but are responsible to ensure that all projects undertaken through this program meet the 50% cost match threshold. Thus, almost the entirety of funding will be matched, but it will be matched at the level of individual projects, not of the cooperative agreement.

2.) When you refer to stimulus, are you requesting that the applicant seek additional funds to supplement the available funding available to the Challenge Cost Share Program, or are you hoping that the funding for this NOFO provides a stimulus of other programs and efforts that the applicant organization is doing? ALSO, are you asking the applicant to demonstrate that we have leveraged non-federal funds in the past, or are you asking us to describe how we will leverage funds in this project, or both? Both are true, but the primary hope is that the applicant will seek additional funds to supplement the funding available to the Challenge Cost Share program. Any applicants are free to put together their applications as they see fit, but it would be recommended that you demonstrate that and how you have leveraged non-Federal funds in the past, as applicable, and describe how you would plan to do so if selected for this agreement.