HBCU-MI Centers of Excellence QAs as of 9-23-2020.pdf

HBCU/MI Centers of Excellence Questions and Answers Document As of 23 Sept 2020

QUESTION: When are whitepapers due for this HBCU/MI Centers of Excellence funding announcement?

ANSWER: October 1, 2020 (4 p.m.). Whitepapers MUST be submitted by the institution/PI, along with a with DoEd eligibility letter to the ARO HBCU/MI Outreach Program at the following e-mail address: usarmy.rtp.ccdc-arl.mbx.hbcu-mi-programs@mail.mil.

QUESTION: Does this funding announcement require U.S. citizenship for the PI to apply for this program?

ANSWER: Thank you for your inquiry. The funding announcement for the HBCU/MI Centers of Excellence does NOT have a requirement that PIs be U.S. Citizens.

QUESTION: Should references be included in the 3-page Project Summary/Abstract or they could be in addition to the 3-page?

ANSWER: References are not considered a part of the 6 page submission regulation.

We encourage you to keep your submission as close to 6 pages as possible.

QUESTION: We submitted a whitepaper about 2 weeks ago, but we did not receive any acknowledgement that the material was received.

ANSWER: We received your whitepaper two weeks ago. and acknowledge receiving this re-submitted one too. Only one submission of the same whitepaper will be evaluated. Please know with the number of anticipated submissions, we plan to send official “acknowledgement” letters to all submitters sometimes AFTER the closing date of this funding announcement.

QUESTION: Will educational aspects be part of the white paper review process?

Should they be mentioned in a very short general statement in the white paper?

ANSWER: Yes. Yes.

QUESTION: Is summer salary for Center director and key personnel an allowed budget item? How detailed do materials and travel estimates have to be?

ANSWER: Yes. Provide enough detail for assessment by the evaluator(s) about the viability of what is being proposed with recognition of budget and travel reasonableness.

QUESTION: I would like to clarify regarding budget outline and justification to be given for one year or for all the 5 years.

ANSWER: Provide budget justification and outline for all five years. Provide enough information for the evaluator to make an assessment on the reasonableness of what is being proposed; and greater detail can be detailed if invited to submit a full proposal.

QUESTION: I am submitting from a HBCU, my question is whether this letter of intent with DoEd eligibility letter be submitted directly by the applicant or by our research administration on your given email address.

ANSWER: Neither. HBCUs and Tribal Colleges are permanently designated institutions and are exempt from submitting a Department of Education eligibility letter for this solicitation.

QUESTION: I would like to clarify regarding budget outline and justification to be given for one year or for all the 5 years.

ANSWER: Provide budget justification and outline for all five years. Provide enough information for the evaluator to make an assessment on the reasonableness of what is being proposed; and greater detail can be detailed if invited to submit a full proposal.

QUESTION: I am submitting from a HBCU, my question is whether this letter of intent with DoEd eligibility letter be submitted directly by the applicant or by our research administration on your given email address.

ANSWER: Neither. HBCUs and Tribal Colleges are permanently designated institutions and are exempt from submitting a Department of Education eligibility letter for this solicitation.

QUESTION: We are preparing a proposal, but we need your advice.

Our main question is can we submit one proposal that will be addressing more than one research topic listed in the solicitation. We would like to submit a proposal that will be equally addressing all of research areas.

ANSWER: The intent of the HBCU/MI funding announcement was for schools to propose a center to address a specific topic area of study as identified in the announcement, not all of them. The intent is for each of our Directorates (Information Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Engineering Sciences) to have a Center of Excellence. While it can be multi-disciplinary, it is highly recommended that it fit exclusively into one of those Directorates. Our recommendation is to pick the Directorate (and topic area) where your whitepaper would resonate the strongest and fit within a topic manager’s portfolio the best. If there are other overlapping disciplines within that Directorate, great! While what you are proposing is not explicitly prohibited, we believe it would be difficult to achieve critical mass in the research activity if the center tried to address more than one topic area.

QUESTION: Our school is planning to submit a white paper to the Army HBCU/MI Research Center of Excellence program. Could you please confirm that since our school is an HBCU, that we are not required to submit a DoEd eligibility letter. This is my interpretation of what is written on page 1.

ANSWER: You are correct, HBCUs are not required to submit an eligibility letter.

QUESTION: We are preparing to submit in response to the Special Funding Announcement Army HBCU/MI Research Centers of Excellence and wanted some clarification regarding subawards. The question is, could you clarify if the 30% limit is per subaward or total subaward?

ANSWER: Yes. It is the total 30% subaward amount.

QUESTION: I would like to submit a white paper in response to the solicitation described in the attached document, which is restricted to HBCU/MI institutions. My institution is a Minority serving institution and we have a recent letter from the Department of Education stating that we are eligible for Title III or Title V assistance.

I would like to partner with colleagues from two HBCUs, but it seems they do not have such a letter from the DoE. Is this sufficient or do they need an official letter from the DoE?

ANSWER: HBCUs and Tribal colleges are NOT required to submit an eligibility letter from the Department of Education. They are designated these types of institutions forever, and the student enrollments, etc…don’t impact their designation like a Minority Serving Institution. HBCUs and Tribal Colleges don’t need the letter, MI institutions do.

Please be sure (as the lead institution) the letter submitted from the DoEd is dated November 2019 or later, for your application to be responsiveness and compliant to the solicitation.

QUESTION: We would like to propose the following team:

Lead Institution: A Minority Serving institution.

Collaborator 1: A HBCU institution Collaborator 2: A HBCU institution

Can we fund both collaborators? I interpreted the language “HBCUs/MIs applying under this Special Funding Announcement may propose collaborations with up to one degree-granting Institution of Higher Education (IHE)" to imply that the limit to one collaborator is for IHE that are not necessarily HBCU/MI. It would be great if you could help us clarify.

ANSWER: Pursuant to your interpretation of the language in the announcement AND a recent amendment (9-23-2020) in the funding announcement to fund more than one collaborating institution. Specifically, the amended announcement states: “This subaward may be used to fund more than one collaborating institution or agency, but should not exceed the allowable 30%. For example, if the maximum amount of $450K per year were awarded, then the total combined subaward(s) allowed with other institutions of higher education would be 30% of the total effort ($135K of $450K). The subaward(s) are not required to be with another HBCU/MI.

As such, please proceed with the submission to include the funded collaborations/partnerships which will not exceed the 30% total subaward amount per year.

QUESTION: I see that "a cover sheet and a final page should include a budget outline and justification". Are Indirect Costs allowed with the PO?

ANSWER: Pursuant to your question, indirect costs are allowed.

QUESTION: According to the RFP on page 4 "For example, if the maximum amount of $450K per year were awarded, then the total combined subaward allowed with another institute of higher education would be 30% of the total effort ($135K of $450K)." Does this mean I can only have one collaborator or one Co-PI from another institution or I can have two Co-PIs from two other institutions?

ANSWER: The “initial” funding announcement stated that “HBCUs/MIs applying under this Special Funding Announcement may propose collaborations with up to one degree-granting Institution of Higher Education (IHE)." Therefore, one outside collaborator (i.e., sub-award to an institution other than the proposing institution) is allowed.

HOWEVER: the amended announcement dated 9-23-3030 states: “This subaward may be used to fund more than one collaborating institution or agency, but should not exceed the allowable 30%. For example, if the maximum amount of $450K per year were awarded, then the total combined subaward(s) allowed with other institutions of higher education would be 30% of the total effort ($135K of $450K). The subaward(s) are not required to be with another HBCU/MI.

QUESTION: Also, on page 4 of the RFP, it states "HBCUs/MIs applying under this Special Funding Announcement may propose collaborations with up to one degree-granting Institution of Higher Education (IHE)." I would like to propose a COE (Center of Excellence) in collaboration with two other institutions or partners.

ANSWER: NO, initially. HOWEVER, the recently (9-23-2020) amended announcement states: “This subaward may be used to fund more than one collaborating institution or agency, but should not exceed the allowable 30%. For example, if the maximum amount of $450K per year were awarded, then the total combined subaward(s) allowed with other institutions of higher education would be 30% of the total effort ($135K of $450K). The subaward(s) are not required to be with another HBCU/MI.

QUESTION: I guess my question is that can the COE be a collaboration or a collaborative proposal between two HMCUs/MIs and have a sub-award to a third institution (non-HBCU) + $157.5K + $135K (GMU) per year if funded at the maximum amount of $450K per year?

ANSWER: NO, only one (1) outside collaborator (i.e., sub-award to an institution other than the proposing institution) was allowed. HOWEVER, the recently (9-23-2020) amended announcement states: “This subaward may be used to fund more than one collaborating institution or agency, but should not exceed the allowable 30%. For example, if the maximum amount of $450K per year were awarded, then the total combined subaward(s) allowed with other institutions of higher education would be 30% of the total effort ($135K of $450K). The subaward(s) are not required to be with another HBCU/MI.