Learn the Issues
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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…
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We are not sure if our project will take a full three years; can we plan our project to finish early?
The 3-year period of performance is a strict requirement for Exchange Network assistance agreements. If an application lists a period of performance shorter than three years, then this would have to be corrected prior to award if selected. Applicants are encouraged to include realistic and generous scheduled completion dates which…
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Does the EN Grant Program have any training requirements?
First time grant recipients or grantees who have not received an EPA assistance agreement since October 1, 2014 are required to complete two courses, the EPA Grants Management Training for Applicants and Recipients and the How to Develop a Budget.
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Our agency is considering applying for two projects within one grant application; is it better to submit them as two separate applications?
If an organization is combining two projects within a single application, all relevant details for both projects must be included within the 10-page project narrative. As such, application reviewers will score on the project as a whole (including both parts). This might impact the application's score if the 10-pages is…
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How do the project activities as listed in the EN project opportunities in Appendices A-C relate to the funding thresholds?
The funding thresholds are set by the application type – it is a limit of $400,000 for anyone applying as an individual applicant and, for eligible EN partnerships (coalition projects) that meet all the requirements in our SN, that funding threshold is increased to $600,000. (Note: we also have one…
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Can work from a previously funded grant be expanded or improved upon?
Applications must not request funds for activities or deliverables for which the applicant has previously received funds. If a proposed goal and/or objective is similar to one(s) that have previously been funded, the application must thoroughly describe: How the proposed activities differ from those previously funded; How the current application…
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If an applicant defined their own project opportunity rather than choosing one listed in Appendices A-C, should we seek pre-approval from epa prior to submitting?
As Exchange Network grants are competitive, we are unable to review any projects or provide project-specific advice prior. Applicants can propose projects that do not fall under one of the EN Project Opportunities as listed in Appendices A-C, so long as they are able to clearly describe how this project…