Surveys, Studies, Investigations and Special Purpose Grants within the Office of the Administrator

The goals of these assistance programs are to: (1) improve the capability of state environmental agencies and their leadership to protect and improve human health and the environment; (2) develop tools and strategies to reduce interstate barriers to

State environmental agencies are primarily responsible for implementing federal environmental statutes throughout the country. Grants and cooperative agreements awarded under this listing are meant to support state environmental agencies in their day-to-day work of providing clean air, land, and water to every American while fostering innovation and boosting the U.S. economy.

State agencies and local governments, U.S. territories and possessions, universities and colleges, hospitals, laboratories, and other public and private nonprofit institutions.

Grants and cooperative agreements are available to support recipients' allowable direct costs incident to approved surveys, studies, investigations and special purpose assistance, plus allowable indirect costs, in accordance with established EPA policies and regulations. Assistance agreement awards under this program may involve or relate to geospatial information. Geospatial information is information that identifies the geographic location and characteristics of natural or constructed features or boundaries on the earth, or applications, tools, and hardware associated with the generation, maintenance, or distribution of such information. This information may be derived from, among other things, GPS, remote sensing, mapping, charting, and surveying technologies, or statistical data. Further information regarding geospatial information may be obtained by viewing the following website: Geospatial Resources at EPA (https://www.epa.gov/geospatial). Funds awarded under Section 311(b)(3) of CERCLA must be used for projects relating to innovative or alternative treatment technologies that may be utilized in response actions to achieve more permanent protection of human health and welfare and the environment. This program makes Federal awards on a discretionary basis. A discretionary award means an award in which the Federal awarding agency, in keeping with specific statutory authority that enables the agency to exercise judgement ("discretion"), selects the recipient and/or the amount of Federal funding awarded through a competitive process or based on merit of proposals. A discretionary award may be selected on a non-competitive basis, as appropriate. For further information, please contact the Headquarters office.

EPA normally funds grants and cooperative agreements on a 12-month basis. EPA can negotiate the project period with each applicant based on project requirements. EPA has limitations on project periods, and grants and cooperative agreements may be incrementally or fully funded. These determinations are made by EPA.

Regarding pre-application assistance with respect to competitive funding opportunities under this assistance listing, EPA will generally specify the nature of the pre-application assistance, if any, that will be available to applicants in the competitive announcement. For additional information, contact the individual(s) listed in the competitive announcement.

The evaluation and selection criteria for competitive awards under this assistance listing will be described in the NOFO.

For competitive awards, EPA will review and evaluate applications submissions in accordance with the terms, conditions, and criteria stated in the NOFO. Competitions will be conducted in accordance with EPA policies/regulations for competing assistance agreements. For non-competitive awards made under this assistance listing, EPA will conduct an administrative evaluation to determine the adequacy of the application in relation to grant regulations and to technical and program evaluation to determine the merit and relevance of the project. The Agency will then advise the applicant if funding is being considered. A final work plan will then be negotiated with the applicant.

For competitive awards, deadlines will be specified in the Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs). For non-competitive awards, please contact the headquarters or regional location, as appropriate, for application deadlines.

Approximately 180 days after deadline for application submission.

Extensions are subject to EPA approval.

Assistance agreement competition-related disputes will be resolved in accordance with the dispute resolution procedures published in 70 FR (Federal Register) 3629, 3630 (January 26, 2005). Copies of these procedures may also be found at: https://www.epa.gov/grants/grant-competition-dispute-resolution-procedures. Disputes relating to matters other than the competitive selection of recipients will be resolved under 2 CFR 1500 Subpart E, as applicable.