Learn the Issues
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What is the definition of ‘management fees’, as listed as an unallowable cost?
‘Management fees’ are expenses which exceed the direct costs and allowable indirect costs (per their indirect cost rate agreement). These costs are used to accommodate ongoing business expenses, unforeseen liabilities, and other similar expenses. These costs fall outside the scope of the proposed project and/or are unforeseeable. Management fee costs…
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For the Project Manager requirement -- we usually have someone in the Environmental Dept as the project manager and someone else in the Finance Dept deal with the financial end. Can we put two people down for this "Project Manager" requirement?
One person should be listed as the project manager within the project narrative and should match the contact as listed in the mandatory ‘key contact form’ attachment. When asked about project manager experience in section 3 of the project narrative, the applicant should include any relevant experience to budget and…
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Both project narrative sections 1 and 2 request information related to ‘business and/or administrative needs’; how does the requested information in these sections differ?
The first section of the project narrative asks for a list of some general business needs and administrative needs of the applicant organization that will be met through the proposed project. Then, in section two, it asks that those general needs be linked to the proposed goals. So, for each…
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Is the purchase of equipment allowed for this grant program?
Yes, the purchase of equipment is allowed. Equipment is tangible personal property (including information technology systems) having a useful life of more than one year and a cost that equals or exceeds $10,000 per unit. Necessary items that are less than $10,000 per unit should be categorized in the project…
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Does this grant cover personnel costs, including the hiring of a staff member?
EN grant funds may be used for personnel costs, including the hiring of staff to support the grant project, the hiring of an individual consultant, or the use of a contractor. Applicants should review Appendix E for more information on what to include in the application when a portion of…
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For Additional Attachment E: List of Prior Exchange Network Assistance Agreements, is this for EN grants or all EPA assistance agreements?
The EN Grant Program is only asking applicants to list past Exchange Network grants in the attachment ‘List of Prior EN Assistance Agreements’. Applicants should include a bulleted list of prior EN awards, with the grant number, fiscal year in which they were awarded, and, if available, the original project…
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When listing prior EN grants under Additional Attachment E, do we list these agreements at the agency level or at the program office?
We ask that you list EN agreements received by your agency at large, not your specific division or program office. This is because applicants are identified by the UEI number assigned to their organization on SAM.gov. If you are not fully aware of the number of EN grants received by…
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What documents are required to charge an indirect cost?
If you wish to include indirect costs in your proposed budget when applying for a grant or cooperative agreement, you must (1) Provide a copy of your current approved indirect cost rate agreement valid until at least September 30th of the current year, or (2) Provide a copy of documentation…
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Is an Indirect Cost Rate required to apply?
An Indirect Cost Rate is not required to apply for a grant unless your budget includes indirect costs.
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Can you expand on the funding restriction around ‘operations and maintenance (O&M)’?
During O&M an asset is in operation and produces the same product or provides a repetitive service. Maintenance is the activities necessary to keep an IT asset functioning as designed. This includes operating system upgrades, technology refreshes, and security patch implementations. Maintenance excludes activities that expand the capacity of an…
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Can you expand on the funding restriction ‘development and deployment of physical nodes’?
In data communication, a physical node is a node (an electronic device which creates, receives, and/or transmits information) which can be physically touched. General examples of a physical node include a modem, hub, bridge, switch, or data terminal equipment (DTE) such as a digital telephone handset or printer. In the…
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Does the EN Grant Program have a cost match requirement?
There is no match requirement for Exchange Network grants; nonfederal funds should not be included on application attachment forms (such as the SF 424 and SF 424a forms).
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Do I need to list out prior EN assistance agreements in project narrative section 8?
In the Past Performance section of the project narrative, please clearly indicate the number of prior Exchange Network assistance agreement(s) or put zero (0) if the organization has never received an EN assistance agreement since 2002. Applicants that have received prior Exchange Network assistance agreements must provide an additional attachment…
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Is the funding restriction on duplicative work in regard to EN grants or all received EPA grants?
During our annual application review process, we have application review panels score applications against the evaluation criteria as well as subject matter experts who conduct a separate technical review. These subject matter experts (SMEs) are from the applicable EPA National Program Office (e.g., the Office of Air and Radiation) and…
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Is the cost per project output breakout mandatory? Can we choose to leave this out or only provide costs per goal?
Costs per project output are scored under our evaluation criteria and therefore should be included. We also recognize that not everything is known at the time of proposal development; please just do the best you can in estimating costs and scheduled completion dates over the three-year period of performance (as…
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Can you provide more information on ‘enhancing data sharing and availability for other organizations on the Exchange Network’?
Specific examples cannot be given for this, as it relates directly to our scored evaluation criteria. However, we do ask applicants to provide details on how the proposed work could enhance data sharing/availability for (1) immediate stakeholders (your organization and any formal EN partners, if applicable) and (2) organizations outside…
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What are ‘business and/or administrative Needs’?
In the context of the EN Grant Program, this phrase indicates statements that define organizational requirement(s) that must be met in order to get an organization from where they currently are to where that organization would like to be. This could be improvements to or the implementation of programmatic workflows…
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Are scoring benefits given to a partnership (coalition) application over an individual application?
There are no scoring benefits or priorities given to an individual EN assistance agreement verses an eligible EN partnership assistance agreement; there are simply different funding thresholds available and some additional information required in the application attachments (see Solicitation Notice Appendix E for more details on this). Each application is…
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Does it affect credibility/scoring of our application if this is the first time we are applying for the grant?
No, the credibility of first-time applicants is not affected by this; we have many new grantees each fiscal year. Please be sure to state you have never received a prior EN grant in the Past Performance section of your Project Narrative (Section 8). Please note, however, that there is an…
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Can states or instrumentalities of the state apply under Funding Area 3?
The opportunities found within Funding Area 3 are only available to U.S. Territories, federally recognized Tribes and Alaska Native Villages, instrumentalities of the Tribe, and inter-Tribal consortia of federally recognized Tribes (e.g., the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission). Neither states nor instrumentalities of the state may apply under Funding Area 3…