[Federal Register: April 22, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 77)]
[Notices]
[Page 20867-20869]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr22ap05-37]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[Docket No.: 000616180-5104-11]
NOAA Climate and Global Change Program for FY 2006
AGENCY: Office of Global Programs (OGP), Oceanic and Atmospheric
Research (OAR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Initial notice.
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SUMMARY: The Climate and Global Change (C&GC) Program represents a NOAA
contribution to evolving national and international programs designed
to improve our ability to observe, understand, predict, and respond to
changes in the global environment. This program builds on NOAA's
mission requirements and long-standing capabilities in global change
research and prediction. The NOAA Program is a key contributing element
of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), which is coordinated
by the interagency Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources.
NOAA's program is designed to complement other agencies' contributions
to that national effort.
DATES: Submission Dates and Times (for ALL Competitions): Letter of
Intent Due Date: May 20, 2005 by 5 p.m. eastern time.
Application Due Date: July 15, 2005 by 5 p.m. eastern time.
Anticipated Award Date: March 14, 2006.
ADDRESSES: Submission: Letters of Intent should be e-mailed to
ogpgrants@noaa.gov or may be mailed or faxed to the OGP Grants Manager
(see the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).
Proposal applications shall be submitted through Grants.gov APPLY,
a date time receipt indication is included and will be the basis of
determining timeliness. If the applicant does not have access to
electronic submission, please contact the OGP Grants Manager (see the
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section below) for instructions on a
paper format submission; in such case, it must be mailed to the OGP
Grants Manager and received by the deadline. Facsimile transmissions of
full proposals will not be accepted. To apply for this NOAA federal
funding opportunity, please go to http://www.grants.gov and use the
following funding opportunity OAR-OGP-2006-2000116.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please visit the OGP Web site for
further information http://www.ogp.noaa.gov or contact the OGP Grants
Manager, Diane Brown, NOAA/OGP, 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1210, Silver
Spring, MD 20910-5603, Phone: 301-427-2357, Fax: 301-427-2222, e-mail:
ogpgrants@noaa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Electronic Access
Applicants should read the full text of the full funding
opportunity announcement which can be accessed at the OGP Web site:
http://www.ogp.noaa.gov or the central NOAA site: http://www.ofa.noaa.gov/amd/SOLINDEX.HTML.
This announcement will also be
available through Grants.gov at http://www.Grants.gov.
Funding Availability
NOAA believes that the C&GC program will benefit significantly from
a strong partnership with outside investigators. Please be advised that
actual funding levels will depend upon the final FY 2006 budget
appropriations. In FY 2004, $10M in first year funding was available
for 62 new awards; similar funds and number of awards are anticipated
in FY 2005. Total anticipated Federal Funding for FY 2006 is $8M in
first year funding for 40-60 awards. Federal Funding for FY 2007 may be
used in part to fund some awards submitted under this
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competition. Current plans assume that 100% of the total resources
provided through this announcement will support extramural efforts,
particularly those involving the broad academic community. Past or
current grantees funded under this announcement are eligible to apply
for a new award which builds on previous activities or areas of
research not covered in the previous award. Current grantees should not
request supplementary funding for ongoing research through this
announcement. We anticipate that the annual cost of most funded
projects will fall between $50,000 and $200,000 per year. The exact
amount of funds that may be awarded will be determined in pre-award
negotiations between the applicant and NOAA representatives. Neither
NOAA nor the Department of Commerce is responsible for proposal
preparation costs if this program is not funded for whatever reason.
Publication of this announcement does not oblige NOAA to award any
specific project or to obligate any available funds.
Statutory Authority: 49 U.S.C. 44720, 33 U.S.C. 883d, 15 U.S.C.
2904, 15 U.S.C. 2931-2934.
CFDA: No. 11.431, Climate and Atmospheric Research.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants are institutions of higher education, other
nonprofits, commercial organizations, international organizations,
state, local and Indian tribal governments. Federal agencies or
institutions are not eligible to receive Federal assistance under this
notice.
Cost Sharing Requirements
Cost Sharing is only required in one program element competition
which is the NOAA Climate Transition Program (NCTP) where the Cost
Share Percentage must be at least 5% of the total costs. The other
seven Competitions have no cost sharing requirement.
Letters of Intent (LOI)
The purpose of the LOI process is to provide information to
potential applicants on the relevance of their proposed project to the
Climate and Global Change Program and the likelihood of it being funded
in advance of preparing a full proposal. While it is in the best
interest of the applicants and their institutions to submit an LOI
explaining the work they propose to carry out and how much it will
cost, it is not a requirement; applicants who do not submit an LOI are
allowed to submit a full proposal. A panel of program managers will
review each LOI to determine its responsiveness to the program goals as
advertised in this notice and will provide an e-mail or letter
response.
Evaluation and Selection Procedures
NOAA published its first omnibus notice announcing the availability
of grant funds for both projects and fellowships/scholarships/
internships for Fiscal Year 2005 in the Federal Register on June 30,
2004 (69 FR 39417). The evaluation criteria and selection procedures
contained in the June 30, 2004 omnibus notice are applicable to this
solicitation. For a copy of the June 30, 2004 omnibus notice please go
to: http://fedgrants.gov/ EPSData/DOC/ Synopses/1250/ 11420GRF063004/
june%26%23032%3B30% 26%23032%3B2004.pdf or contact the OGP Grants
Manager (see the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section above).
Limitation of Liability
Funding for the programs listed in this notice are contingent upon
the availability of FY 2006 appropriations. In no event will NOAA or
the Department of Commerce be responsible for proposal preparation
costs if these programs fail to receive funding or are cancelled
because of other agency priorities. Publication of this announcement
does not oblige NOAA to award any specific project or to obligate any
available funds.
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
NOAA must analyze the potential environmental impacts, as required
by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for applicant projects
or proposals which are seeking NOAA federal funding opportunities.
Detailed information on NOAA compliance with NEPA can be found at the
following NOAA NEPA Web site: http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/, including our NOAA Administrative Order 216-6 for NEPA, http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/
NAO216--6--TOC.pdf, and the Council on Environmental Quality
implementation regulations, http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/ nepa/regs/ ceq/toc--
ceq.htm. Consequently, as part of an applicant's package, and under
their description of their program activities, applicants are required
to provide detailed information on the activities to be conducted,
locations, sites, species and habitat to be affected, possible
construction activities, and any environmental concerns that may exist
(e.g., the use and disposal of hazardous or toxic chemicals,
introduction of non-indigenous species, impacts to endangered and
threatened species, aquaculture projects, and impacts to coral reef
systems). In addition to providing specific information that will serve
as the basis for any required impact analyses, applicants may also be
requested to assist NOAA in drafting of an environmental assessment, if
NOAA determines an assessment is required. Applicants will also be
required to cooperate with NOAA in identifying feasible measures to
reduce or avoid any identified adverse environmental impacts of their
proposal. The failure to do so shall be grounds for not selecting an
application. In some cases if additional information is required after
an application is selected, funds can be withheld by the Grants Officer
under a special award condition requiring the recipient to submit
additional environmental compliance information sufficient to enable
NOAA to make an assessment on any impacts that a project may have on
the environment.
The Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notification Requirements for
Grants and Cooperative Agreements: The Department of Commerce Pre-Award
Notification Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreements
The Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notification Requirements for
Grants and Cooperative Agreements contained in the Federal Register
notice of December 30, 2004 (69 FR 78389) are applicable to this
solicitation.
Paperwork Reduction Act
This document contains collection-of-information requirements
subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). The use of Standard Forms
424 and 424A, 424B, SF-LLL, and CD-346 have been approved by OMB under
the respective control numbers 0348-0043, 0348-0044, 0348-0040, 0348-
0046, and 0605-0001. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no
person is required to respond to, nor shall any person be subject to a
penalty for failure to comply with, a collection of information subject
to the requirements of the PRA unless that collection of information
displays a currently valid OMB control number.
Executive Order 12866
This notice has been determined to be not significant for purposes
of Executive Order 12866.
Executive Order 13132 (Federalism)
It has been determined that this notice does not contain policies
with Federalism implications as that term is defined in Executive Order
13132.
Intergovernmental Review
Applications under this program are not subject to Executive Order
12372,
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``Intergovernmental Review of federal programs.''
Administrative Procedure Act/ Regulatory Flexibility Act
Prior notice and an opportunity for public comments are not
required by the Administrative Procedure Act or any other law for this
rule concerning grants, benefits, and contracts (5 U.S.C. section
553(a). Because notice and opportunity for comment are not required
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553 or any other law, the analytical requirements
of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. section 601 et seq) are
inapplicable. Therefore, a regulatory flexibility analysis has not been
prepared.
Dated: April 19, 2005.
Louisa Koch,
Deputy Assistant Administrator, OAR, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
[FR Doc. 05-8112 Filed 4-21-05; 8:45 am]