My Tribe is interested in applying for an EN grant but concerned about requirements around data sharing. Historically, our organization has maintained a policy of NOT sharing data with anyone outside of this tribe. Does this make us ineligible to apply?

There is no current obligation through the EN Grant Program to share data outside of your Tribe. We do have an IT Component and Project Registration form, which is due at project close-out, that does require some summary information about what goals/outputs were accomplished, as well as what technology was either developed and/or reused. But actual data does not have to be shared, nor does specific code or anything else related to IT work that might have been accomplished. You can see examples of that form here: Searchable IT Component and Project Registration Forms.

We would also need details of what the Tribe is proposing to accomplish through the submitted application documents, as well as progress updates through our semi-annual reports and final report. But again, there is no obligation to flow data outside of your Tribe, as long as the proposed project supports one or more of our EN Funding Areas and meets the other requirements of our program. You can speak to the Tribe’s policy on not sharing data externally within the submitted application, as applicable (as there are sections of the project narrative which ask applicants to address this).  

It is important to further note that even Tribes that decide to share some information outside the Tribe, whether for required grant programs, like Clean Water Act §106 funding, or just because the data exchange is mutually beneficial to the tribe, are able to determine which data to share and which data to hold back and not disclose outside the Tribe.