[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 130 (Monday, July 8, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45093-45095]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-16987]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No. 011204291-2159-02]
RIN 0693-ZA47


Fire Research Grants Program; Availability of Additional Funds

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: On December 27, 2001, the National Institute of Standards and 
Technology (NIST) announced in the Federal Register the availability of 
fiscal year 2002 funding for its small grants programs, including the 
Fire Research Grants Program. NIST has recently received from the 
Department of Defense (DoD) $100,000 for the award of a grant or 
cooperative agreement as part of work conducted by NIST and DoD's Next 
Generation Fire Suppression Technology Program. NIST will award these 
funds under the Fire Research Grants Program. However, some of the 
requirements for the additional funds differ slightly from those 
announced for the Fire Research Grants Program. Therefore, all 
requirements and procedures applicable to proposals for this $100,000 
appear in this notice.

DATES: Proposals must be received no later than 3:00 PM Eastern 
Daylight Time on August 7, 2002.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:   

ADDRESSES: Submit one signed original and two copies of the proposal 
to: Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL), Attn.: Ms. Wanda 
Duffin, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau 
Drive, Stop 8660, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-8660, Tel: (301) 975-
6863, e-mail: [email protected], Web site: http://www.bfrl.nist.gov.
    One of the copies submitted may be in electronic format on a 3\1/
2\ diskette or CD-ROM (DOS-formatted, with text in Word 97 
or 2000).

    Authority: As authorized by 15 U.S.C. 278f, the NIST Building 
and Fire Research Laboratory conducts directly and through grants 
and cooperative agreements, a basic and applied fire research 
program.

Program Description and Objectives

    On December 27, 2001, the National Institute of Standards and 
Technology (NIST) announced in the Federal Register the availability of 
fiscal year 2002 funding for its small grants programs, including the 
Fire Research Grants Program (66 FR 66874). NIST has recently received 
from the Department of Defense (DoD) $100,000 for the award of a grant 
as part of work conducted by NIST and DoD's Next Generation Fire 
Suppression Technology Program. NIST will award these funds under the 
Fire Research Grants Program. A full description of the program is 
found in the December 27, 2001 Federal Register notice (66 FR 66874).
    Environmentally Acceptable Fire Suppressants: The objective is to 
identify candidate fire suppressant chemicals that are effective, 
environmentally acceptable, and user-safe and that meet the operational 
requirements currently satisfied by halon 1301 in aircraft. In 
particular, NIST is seeking proposals to examine families of chemical 
compounds and determine by examination of the published literature, 
calculation and/or experiment (a) whether there are any potentially 
effective suppressants in the examined family(ies) and (b) the optimal 
such chemicals.
    The proposal should, at a minimum, identify the family(ies) of 
compounds to be considered, the rationale for their selection, why 
there is reason to believe they will be effective, and how the 
attributes of the chemicals will be screened. The proposer should then 
describe how the optimal candidates will be identified, how many of 
these chemicals will be procured in sufficient quantity to verify the 
fire suppression efficiency, and how this verification will be 
performed. No testing on humans or animals is to be included. All 
partner and subcontractor

[[Page 45094]]

organizations and the technical principals shall be identified.
    Travel budgets should include, at a minimum, one trip to the Halon 
Options Technical Working Conference, held each spring in Albuquerque, 
NM, and one trip to NIST in Gaithersburg, MD, in the autumn of each 
year.
    NIST Technical Note 1443, ``Alternative Fire Suppressant Chemicals: 
A Research Review with Recommendations'' provides the most recent 
survey of the field and discusses desirable attributes of the 
chemicals. It should be consulted in preparing a proposal. It and 
additional background information on the research program of which this 
is a part can be found at the web site: http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/866/NGP.
    The Project Leader and contact person for this topic is Richard 
Gann, and he can be reached at (301) 975-6866 or [email protected].
    Eligibility: Eligible applicants are institutions of higher 
education, other non-profits, commercial organizations, international 
organizations, state, local and Indian tribal governments and Federal 
agencies with appropriate legal authority. Applications from non-
Federal and Federal applicants will be competed against each other. 
Proposals selected for funding from non-Federal applicants will be 
funded through a project grant or cooperative agreement under the terms 
of this notice. Proposals selected for funding from non-NIST Federal 
agencies will be funded through an interagency transfer. Please Note: 
Before non-NIST Federal applicants may be funded, they must demonstrate 
that they have legal authority to receive funds from another federal 
agency in excess of their appropriation. As this announcement is not 
proposing to procure goods or services from applicants, the Economy Act 
(31 U.S.C. 1535) is not an appropriate legal basis.
    Funding Availability: A total of $100,000 is available to fund one 
grant or cooperative agreement in fiscal year 2002.
    Award Period: Proposals will be considered for research projects 
from one to three years at a funding level not to exceed $100,000 per 
year. When a proposal for a multi-year project is approved, funding 
will initially be provided for only the first year of the program. If 
an application is selected for funding, DoC has no obligation to 
provide any additional future funding in connection with that award. 
Funding for each subsequent year of a multi-year proposal will be 
contingent on satisfactory progress, continuing relevance to the 
mission of the program, and the availability of funds.
    Proposal Review Process: All applications received in response to 
this announcement will be reviewed to determine whether or not they are 
complete and responsive. Incomplete or non-responsive applications will 
not be reviewed for technical merit. The Program will retain one copy 
of each non-responsive application for three years for recordkeeping 
purposes. The remaining copies will be destroyed.
    Responsive proposals will be forwarded to the Project Leader who 
will assign them to appropriate reviewers. Proposals are evaluated for 
technical merit based on the evaluation criteria by at least three 
reviewers chosen from NIST professionals, technical experts from other 
interested government agencies, and experts from the fire research 
community at large. When non-Federal reviewers are used, reviewers may 
discuss the proposals with each other, but scores will be determined on 
an individual basis, not as a consensus. The Project Leader will make 
funding recommendations to the Chief, Fire Research Division based on 
the technical evaluation score and the relationship of the work 
proposed to the objectives of the program.
    In making application selections, the Chief, Fire Research Division 
will take into consideration the results of the evaluations, the scores 
of the reviewers, the Project Leader's recommendation, the availability 
of funds, and relevance to the objectives of the Fire Research Grants 
Program, as described in the Program Description and Objectives section 
for this program.
    The final approval of selected applications and award of financial 
assistance will be made by the NIST Grants Officer based on compliance 
with application requirements as published in this notice, compliance 
with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, and whether the 
recommended applicants appear to be responsible. Applicants may be 
asked to modify objectives, work plans, or budgets and provide 
supplemental information required by the agency prior to award. The 
award decision of the Grants Officer is final. Applicants should allow 
up to 90 days processing time. The Program will retain one copy of each 
application that is not funded for three years for recordkeeping 
purposes. The remaining copies will be destroyed.
    Evaluation Criteria: The technical evaluation criteria are as 
follows:
    a. Technical quality of the research. Reviewers will assess the 
rationality, innovation and imagination of the proposal and the fit to 
NIST's in-house fire research program and the Next Generation Fire 
Suppression Technology Program (NGP). (0-35 points).
    b. Potential impact of the results. Reviewers will assess the 
potential impact and the technical application of the results to our 
in-house programs, the fire safety community, and the NGP. (0-25 points 
)
    c. Staff and institution capability to do the work. Reviewers will 
evaluate the quality of the facilities and experience of the staff to 
assess the likelihood of achieving the objective of the proposal. (0-20 
points)
    d. Match of budget to proposed work. Reviewers will assess the 
budget against the proposed work to ascertain the reasonableness of the 
request. (0-20 points)
    Matching Requirements: Matching funds are not required.
    Application Kit: For the Fire Research Grants Program, an 
application kit, containing all required application forms and 
certifications is available by contacting Ms. Wanda Duffin, (301) 975-
6863, website: http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/866/extramuralprogram.htm.
    Additional Information: The Department of Commerce Pre-Award 
Notification Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreements 
contained in the Federal Register notice of October 1, 2001 (66 FR 
49917) are applicable to this solicitation. However, please note that 
the Department of Commerce will not implement the requirements of 
Executive Order 13202 (66 FR 49921), pursuant to guidance issued by the 
Office of Management and Budget, in light of a court opinion which 
found that the Executive Order was not legally authorized. See Building 
and Construction Trades Department v. Allbaugh, 172 F.Supp. 2d 138 
(D.D.C. 2001). This decision is currently on appeal. When the case has 
been finally resolved, the Department will provide further information 
on implementation of Executive Order 13202.
    In addition, the following information is applicable to this 
program.

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Name and Number

    Measurement and Engineering Research and Standards--11.609

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: All grants related administration 
questions concerning these programs should be directed to the NIST 
Grants and Agreements Management Division at (301) 975-6328.
    Where websites are referenced within this notice, those who do not 
have access to the internet websites may

[[Page 45095]]

contact the appropriate Program official to obtain information.
    Fees and/or Profit: It is not the intent of NIST to pay fee or 
profit for any of the financial assistance awards that may be issued 
pursuant to this announcement.
    Automated Standardized Application for Payment System (ASAP): 
During FY 2002 and becoming mandatory in FY 2003, the Department of 
Commerce will begin using the Department of Treasury's ASAP. NIST began 
using the ASAP system in July 2001 and continues to establish new 
accounts in ASAP. Awards made pursuant to this announcement may contain 
the ASAP payment clause. In order to receive payments for services 
under these awards, recipients will be required to register with the 
Department of Treasury and indicate whether or not they will use the 
on-line or voice response method of withdrawing funds from their ASAP 
established accounts. More information regarding ASAP can be found on-
line at http://www.fms.treas.gov/asap/index.html.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    The standard forms in the application kit involve a collection of 
information subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act. The use of Standard 
Forms 424, 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 the law, no person is 
required to respond to, nor shall any person be subject to a penalty 
for failure to comply with, a collection subject to the requirements of 
the Paperwork Reduction Act, unless that collection of information 
displays a currently valid OMB Control Number.

Type of Funding Instrument

    The funding instrument will be a grant or cooperative agreement, 
depending on the nature of the proposed work. A grant will be used 
unless NIST is ``substantially involved'' in the project, in which case 
a cooperative agreement will be used. A common example of substantial 
involvement is collaboration between NIST scientists and recipient 
scientists or technicians. Further examples are listed in Section 
5.03.d of Department of Commerce Administrative Order 203-26, which can 
be found at http://www.doc.gov/oebam/GCA manual.htm. NIST will make 
decisions regarding the use of a cooperative agreement on a case-by-
case basis. Funding for contractual arrangements for services and 
products for delivery to NIST is not available under this announcement.

Classification

    This funding notice was determined to be ``not significant'' for 
purposes of Executive Order 12866.
    It has been determined that this notice does not contain policies 
with Federalism implications as that term is defined in Executive Order 
13132.
    Applications under these programs are not subject to Executive 
Order 12372, ``Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs.''
    Because notice and comment are not required under 5 U.S.C. 553, or 
any other law, for notices relating to public property, loans, grants, 
benefits or contracts (5 U.S.C. 553(a)), a Regulatory Flexibility 
Analysis is not required and has not been prepared for this notice, 5 
U.S.C. 601 et seq.

    Dated: July 2, 2002.
Karen H. Brown,
Deputy Director, NIST.
[FR Doc. 02-16987 Filed 7-5-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-P