[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 77 (Friday, April 22, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20867-20869]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-8112]


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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 
[email protected] 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: 
[email protected].

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

[[Page 20868]]

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]
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