[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 210 (Thursday, October 30, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58774-58776]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-28721]


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UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY


Summer Institute for Foreign Policy Officials: The United States 
Today

ACTION: Notice--Request for Proposals (RFP).

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Information Agency's Branch for the Study of the 
United States announces an open competition for an assistance award 
program entitled: ``Summer Institute for Foreign Policy Officials: The 
United States Today.'' Public and private non-profit organizations 
meeting the provisions described in IRS regulation 26 CFR 1.501(c) may 
apply to develop and implement a three-week post-graduate level program 
designed for a multinational group of 18 experienced mid-level foreign 
affairs professionals. The program is intended to provide participants 
with a deeper understanding of American life and institutions through 
an examination of contemporary political, economic, social and cultural 
issues, with special reference to domestic trends and issues in 
American life and their relationship to U.S. policies and actions in 
the international arena. Tentative program dates are any three week 
period between May 15 and July 31, 1998.
    USIA is seeking detailed proposals from colleges, universities, 
consortia of colleges and universities, and other not-for-profit 
academic organizations that have an established reputation in a 
scholarly discipline related to the subject of the institute and that 
can demonstrate expertise in conducting post-graduate programs for 
foreign educators. Applicant institutions must have a minimum of four 
years experience in conducting international exchange programs. The 
project director or one of the key program staff responsible for the 
academic program must have an advanced degree in a relevant discipline. 
Staff escorts traveling under the USIA cooperative agreement must be 
U.S. citizens with demonstrated qualifications for this service.
    Overall grant making authority for this program is contained in the 
Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, Pub. L. 87-256, 
as amended, also known as the Fulbright-Hays Act. The purpose of the 
Act is ``to enable the Government of the United States to increase 
mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the 
people of other countries * * *; to strengthen the ties which unite us 
with other nations by demonstrating the educational and cultural 
interests, developments, and achievements of the people of the United 
States and other nations * * * and thus to assist in the development of 
friendly, sympathetic and peaceful relations between the United States 
and the other countries of the world.''
    Programs and projects must conform with Agency requirements and 
guidelines outlined in the Solicitation Package. USIA projects and 
programs are subject to the availability of funds.
    Announcement Name and Number: All communications with USIA 
concerning this announcement should refer to the above title and 
reference number E/AAS-98-04.
    Deadline for Proposals: All copies must be received at the U.S. 
Information Agency by 5:00 p.m. Washington D.C. time on Friday, January 
16, 1998. Faxed documents will not be accepted, nor will documents 
postmarked by the due date but received at a later date. It is the 
responsibility of each applicant to ensure that proposal submissions 
arrive by the deadline.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
U.S. Information Agency, Office of Academic Programs, Branch of the 
Study of the United States, E/AAS--Room 252, 301 4th Street, S.W., 
Washington, D.C. 20547, Attention: William Bate, Telephone number: 
(202) 619-4557, Fax number: (202) 619-6790, Internet address: 
[email protected].
    Please use the above information to request a Solicitation Package 
containing more detailed award criteria, required application forms, 
and standard guidelines for preparing proposals (including specific 
information on budget preparation).
    Please specify USIA Program Officer William Bate on all inquiries 
and correspondence. Interested applicants should read the complete 
Federal Register announcement before addressing inquiries to the office 
listed above or submitting proposals. Once the RFP deadline has passed, 
USIA staff may not discuss this competition in any way with applicants 
until after the Bureau proposal review process has been completed.

To Download a Solicitation Package Via Internet

    The entire Solicitation Package may be downloaded from USIA's 
website at http://www.usia.gov/education/rfps. Please read all 
information before downloading.

To Receive a Solicitation Package Via Fax on Demand

    The entire Solicitation Package may be received via the Bureau's 
``Grants Information Fax on Demand System'', which is accessed by 
calling 202/401-7616. Please request a ``Catalog'' of available 
documents and order numbers when first entering the system.

Submissions

    Applicants must follow all instructions given in the Solicitation 
Package. The original and 13 copies of the complete application should 
be sent to: U.S. Information Agency, Ref.: E/AAS-98-04, Office of 
Grants Management, E/XE, Room 326, 301 4th Street, S.W., Washington, 
D.C. 20547.
    Applicants must also submit the ``Executive Summary'' and 
``Proposal Narrative'' sections of the proposal on a 3.5'' diskette, 
formatted for DOS. This material must be provided in ASCII text (DOS) 
format with a maximum line length of 65 characters.

Diversity, Freedom and Democracy Guidelines

    Pursuant to the Bureau's authorizing legislation, programs must 
maintain a non-political character and should be balanced and 
representative of the diversity of American political, social, and 
cultural life. ``Diversity'' should be interpreted in the broadest 
sense and encompass differences including, but not limited to 
ethnicity, race, gender, religion, geographic location, socio-economic 
status, and physical challenges. Applicants are strongly encouraged to 
adhere to the advancement of this principle both in program 
administration and in program content. Please refer to the review 
criteria under the `Support for Diversity'' section for specific 
suggestions on incorporating diversity into the total proposal. Pub. L. 
104-319 that ``in carrying out programs of educational and cultural 
exchange in countries whose people do not fully enjoy freedom and 
democracy'', USIA ``shall take appropriate steps to provide 
opportunities for participation in such

[[Page 58775]]

programs to human rights and democracy leaders of such countries.'' 
Proposals should account for advancement of this goal in their program 
contents, to the full extent deemed feasible.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Overview and Objectives

    ``The Summer Institute for Foreign Policy Officials: The United 
States Today,'' is intended to provide mid-career foreign affairs 
professionals with the opportunity to increase their understanding of 
the politics, society, economy, and culture of the United States at the 
end of the 20th century. Our working assumption is that the foreign 
policy decisions of the United States and its actions in the 
international arena are to a significant degree a reflection of 
fundamental, albeit shifting, cultural values, embedded in U.S. 
institutions, public and private, and that a fuller understanding of 
those institutions will lead in turn to a better understanding of U.S. 
policies and actions abroad. Accordingly, the Institute should provide 
participants with both a broad-gauged historical overview of major U.S. 
institutional and cultural trends--political, economic, social, 
cultural, religious--and the opportunity for a more intensive treatment 
and discussion of particular issues and themes that might be subsumed 
under each of the major ``institutional clusters'' above, e.g., the 
role of the Presidency and the Congress in the making of foreign 
policy; immigration and labor in the United States; church, state and 
American politics; ethnicity, race and the American identity; and the 
social impact of technology and the media, to mention only a few of the 
possible areas for study and discussion. Throughout the seminar, the 
program should seek to explore how certain aspects of the national 
debate on political, social and cultural issues bear on the formation 
and development of American policies in the international arena. At the 
program's end, participants should have a fuller and more nuanced 
understanding of the diversity and complexity of contemporary American 
life, as well as a greater appreciation of the manifold ways in which 
contemporary American institutional arrangements and cultural values 
influence U.S. actions abroad.
    Accordingly, the Institute should be designed as a coherent, 
thoughtfully integrated and academically stimulating program that 
presents a multi-dimensional view of the United States through a series 
of lectures, readings, panel presentations, and round table 
discussions. While the program is intended to be an intensive academic 
seminar designed for a nonacademic audience, the program organizers are 
encouraged to include a mix of presenters, including university 
scholars as well as other professionals from government, the private 
sector, and the media.
    The program should be three weeks in length, including at least two 
weeks of residency at a U.S. college or university, and, depending on 
the program's design, an integrated study tour segment not to exceed 
one week in length. Part of that study tour should include a trip to 
Washington, D.C., where the program content should extend and 
complement the residency portion of the program. With the exception of 
the Washington segment, alternately, organizers might choose to spend 
the entire three-week period in campus residence, with occasional week-
end or single-day trips to relevant institutions, sites and cities near 
the host institution.

Program Dates

    Tentative program dates are any three-week period between May 15 
and July 31, 1998. The institute must be a total of 21 program days in 
length. USIA will make every effort to award the approved cooperative 
agreement by March 1, 1998.

Participants

    The program should be designed for 18 highly-motivated and 
experienced mid-level professionals whose day-to-day work focuses on 
some aspect of their country's bi-lateral relationship with the United 
States. Many will come from their country's Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs; others will be professionals employed by universities of other 
non-governmental organizations concerned with international and foreign 
affairs issues. While participants will not be required to possess 
either a formal or in-depth knowledge of American life and 
institutions, most are likely to have a working understanding of the 
United States by virtue of their professional work. Some may have had 
substantial prior study or work experience in U.S. Participants will be 
drawn from all regions of the world and will be fluent in English.
    Participants will be nominated by U.S. Information Service posts 
abroad, and selected by the staff of USIA's Branch of the Study of the 
United States in Washington, D.C. USIA will cover all international 
travel costs directly.

Guidelines

    The conception, design, structure and, ultimately, the content of 
the institute program is entirely the responsibility of the organizers. 
However, given the many possible approaches to the development of such 
a program, organizers are expected to submit proposals that articulate 
in concrete detail how they intend to organize and implement the 
institute.

    Please refer to the Solicitation Package for further details on 
program design and implementation, as well as additional information 
on all other requirements.

Proposed Budget

    Unless special circumstances warrant, based on a group of 18 
participants, the total USIA-funded budget (program and administrative) 
should not exceed $145,000, and USIA-funded administrative costs as 
defined in the budget details section of the solicitation package 
should not exceed $38,500. Justifications for any costs above these 
amounts must be clearly indicated in the proposal submission. Any 
grants awarded to eligible organizations with less than four years of 
experience in conducting international exchange programs will be 
limited to $60,000. Applicant proposals should try to maximize cost-
sharing in all facets of the program and to stimulate U.S. private 
sector, including foundation and corporate, support. Applicants must 
submit a comprehensive line item budget for the entire program, based 
on the specific guidance provided in the Solicitation Package. The 
Agency reserves the right to reduce, revise, or increase proposal 
budgets in accordance with the needs of the program, and availability 
of U.S. government funding.

    Please refer to the ``POGI'' in the Solicitation Package for 
complete budget guidelines and formatting instructions for the 
institute program.

Review Process

    USIA will acknowledge receipt of all proposals and will review them 
for technical eligibility. Proposals will be deemed ineligible if they 
do not fully adhere to the guidelines stated herein and in the 
Solicitation Package. Eligible proposals will be forwarded to panels of 
USIA officers for advisory review. All eligible proposals will be 
reviewed by the program office, as well as the USIA Geographic Area 
Offices. Proposals may be reviewed by the Office of the General Counsel 
or by other Agency elements. Funding decisions are at the discretion of 
the USIA Associate Director for Educational and Cultural Affairs. Final 
technical authority for assistance

[[Page 58776]]

awards (grants or cooperative agreements) resides with the USIA grants 
officer.

Review Criteria

    Technically eligible applications will be competitively reviewed 
according to the criteria stated below. These criteria are not rank 
ordered, and all carry equal weight in the proposal evaluation:
    1. Overall Quality: Proposals should exhibit substance and 
originality, consonant with the highest standards of American teaching 
and scholarship. Program should reflect an overall design whose various 
elements are coherently and thoughtfully integrated. Lectures and 
panels, taken as a whole, should offer a balanced presentation of 
issues, reflecting both the continuity of the American experience as 
well as the diversity and dynamism inherent in it.
    2. Program Planning: Proposals should demonstrate careful planning. 
The organization and structure of the institute should be clearly 
delineated and be fully responsive to all program objectives. The 
travel component should be an integral and substantive part of the 
program, reinforcing and complementing its academic segment.
    3. Institutional Capacity: Proposed personnel, including faculty 
and administrative staff as well as outside presenters, should be fully 
qualified to achieve the project's goals. Library and media resources 
should be accessible to participants; housing, transportation and other 
logistical arrangements should be fully adequate to the needs of 
participants and should be conducive to a collegial atmosphere.
    4. Diversity: Proposals should demonstrate the recipient's 
commitment to promoting the awareness and understanding of diversity 
throughout the program. This can be accomplished through documentation, 
such as a written statement, summarizing past and/or on-going 
activities and efforts that further the principle of diversity within 
the organization and its activities. Program activities that address 
this issue should be highlighted.
    5. Experience: The proposal should demonstrate an institutional 
record of successful exchange program activity, indicating the 
experience that the organization and its professional staff have had in 
working with foreign educators.
    6. Evaluation and Follow-up: The proposal should include a plan for 
evaluating activities during the Institute and at its conclusion. 
Proposals should comment on provisions made for follow-up with returned 
grantees as a means of establishing longer-term individual and 
institutional linkages.
    7. Administration and Management: The proposals should indicate 
evidence of continuous on-site administrative and managerial capacity 
as well as the means by which program activities will be implemented.
    8. Cost Effectiveness: The proposals should maximize cost-sharing 
through direct institutional contributions, in-kind support, and other 
private sector support. Overhead and administrative components of the 
proposal, including salaries and honoraria, should be kept as low as 
possible.

Notice

    The terms and conditions published in this RFP are binding and may 
not be modified by any USIA representative. Explanatory information 
provided by the Agency that contradicts published language will not be 
binding. Issuance of the RFP does not constitute an award commitment on 
the part of the Government. The Agency reserves the right to reduce, 
revise, or increase proposal budgets in accordance with the needs of 
the program and the availability of funds. Awards made will be subject 
to periodic reporting and evaluation requirements.

Notification

    Final awards cannot be made until funds have been appropriated by 
Congress, and allocated and committed through internal USIA procedures.

    Dated: October 24, 1997.
Robert L. Earle,
Deputy Associate Director for Educational and Cultural Affairs.
[FR Doc. 97-28721 Filed 10-29-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8230-01-M