RFA_Guidelines_Revised.pdf

This document is the NOAA Grants Management Division's Budget Narrative Guidance for federal grant applications. It provides detailed instructions for preparing budget narratives that must accompany all NOAA grant applications, explaining and justifying all federal and non-federal expenditures by object class category as listed on the SF-424A (Section B) for non-construction awards or SF-424C for construction awards. The guidance specifies that budget narratives must match dollar amounts on all required forms, explain each calculation, and provide cost justifications at the same level of detail for both federal and non-federal funds. For multi-year awards, applicants must provide separate budgets and justifications for each year. All costs must be reasonable, allowable, allocable, and necessary to the supported activity in accordance with 2 CFR §200.

The document details budget requirements for specific object class categories: Personnel costs must include position names, annual and total salary amounts, percentage of time, number of months, and program justifications; fringe benefits must be clearly calculated and broken down if exceeding 35% unless covered by a Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA); domestic and foreign travel must include origin, destination, purpose, number of trips, transportation costs, per diem, and lodging details with foreign travel requiring Fly America Act compliance; equipment purchases over $5,000 must include lease versus purchase analysis; supplies must be itemized with unit costs and quantities, with amounts exceeding $5,000 or 5% of the award requiring detailed explanation; contractual costs require separate budgets per contract with descriptions of services, selection method, performance period, scope of work, and accountability measures; construction costs are limited to awards with specific legislative or DOC authorization and require supporting documentation including drawings and estimates; and other miscellaneous expenses must be itemized with justification. The guidance also covers indirect cost rate calculations (fixed, provisional, or pre-determined), cost sharing or matching requirements, and the requirement that total direct costs plus indirect costs equal the total budget amount.