[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 88 (Tuesday, May 8, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26075-26078]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-8715]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[Docket No. 070426092-7092-01; I.D. 043007B]


Program for Professional Development of Educators in Atmospheric 
and Ocean Sciences

AGENCY: Office of Education (OED), Office of the Undersecretary of 
Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere (USEC), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of funding availability.

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SUMMARY: NOAA's Office of Education (OED) is requesting applications to 
establish an institutional award for the purpose of supporting a 
professional development program for pre-service and in-service 
educators that is designed to support NOAA's mission by improving their 
knowledge of atmospheric and ocean sciences. The successful project 
will be national in scale with implementation on a local level. The 
project will include distance-learning and face-to-face components and 
allow teachers to earn graduate-level credit-hours from an accredited 
university in the United States. The project will involve NOAA 
scientists and other members of the scientific community. The 
successful project will build upon existing professional development 
courses; employ vetted classroom instructional materials; use web-based 
technology as a means to deliver cutting-edge scientific content 
directly to their target audience; and enhance teachers' ability to 
extract information from the web. It is anticipated that the final 
recommendation for funding under this announcement will be made by June 
30, 2007, and that the project funded under this announcement will have 
a start date no earlier than September 15, 2007.

DATES: The application must be received by 5 p.m., EDT June 7, 2007.

ADDRESSES: Full applications must be submitted either through 
Grants.gov or as a paper application to: ATTN: Grants Competition 
Manager, NOAA Office of Education, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 
Constitution Ave, NW., HCHB Room 6863, Washington, DC 20230. Please 
note: Hard copies submitted via the U.S. Postal Service can take up to 
4 weeks to reach this office; applicants are recommended to send hard 
copies via expedited shipping methods (e.g., Airborne Express, DHL, 
FedEx, UPS)

[[Page 26076]]


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sarah Schoedinger at 
[email protected], telephone 704-370-3528 or Alyssa Gundersen 
at [email protected], telephone 202-482-3739.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NOAA's Office of Education (OED) is 
requesting applications to establish an institutional award for the 
purpose of supporting an ongoing professional development program in 
the fields of atmospheric and ocean sciences for pre-service and in-
service educators. The intent of this award is to establish and 
maintain a long-term partnership between NOAA and the recipient 
organization. The goals of this project must meet OED's long-term goals 
and objectives common to the programmatic needs of both parties by 
employing the relevant strategies articulated in the NOAA Education 
Plan (http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/NOAA_Ed_Plan.pdf).
    Proposed projects should include components designed to improve 
teachers' understanding of the Earth System through ocean and/or 
atmospheric studies, incorporate existing NOAA data and educational 
materials, and include realistic and relevant inquiry-based learning 
experiences using on-line data products. Proposed projects should 
address one or more of the goals articulated in the NOAA Education 
Plan, build upon existing professional development programs, involve 
partnerships among academic institutions and professional scientific 
organizations, and have an evaluation that both monitors the quality of 
the experience for the participants and also the impact of the program 
on the participants. Projects should be designed to generate and 
sustain a network of educators that allows for rapid, but sustainable 
program growth during the project period. Projects should also ensure 
that the content learned in the professional development courses is 
implemented in the classroom.
    The successful project will:

--Include distance-learning and face-to-face components;
--Allow teachers to earn graduate-level credit-hours from an accredited 
university in the United States;
--Involve NOAA scientists and other members of the scientific 
community;
--Build upon existing professional development courses;
--Employ vetted classroom instructional materials;
--Use web-based technology as a means to deliver cutting-edge 
scientific content directly to their target audience; and
--Enhance teachers' ability to extract information from the web.

    It is anticipated that the final recommendation for funding under 
this announcement will be made by June 30, 2007, and that the project 
funded under this announcement will have a start date no earlier than 
September 15, 2007.

Electronic Access

    The full text of the full funding opportunity announcement for this 
OED program can be accessed via the Grants.gov web site. That 
announcement will also be available at the NOAA Web site: http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/funding_opps.html or by contacting the program 
officials identified under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. Applicants 
must comply with all requirements contained in the full funding 
opportunity announcement. This Federal Register notice is available 
through the NOAA home page at: http://www.noaa.gov/.
    Statutory Authority: 15 U.S.C. 1540.
    CFDA: 11.469, Congressionally Identified Awards and Projects.
    Funding Availability: NOAA anticipates the availability, contingent 
upon appropriations, of approximately $3,000,000 of Federal financial 
assistance total over the five year period of FY 2007 to FY 2011 for an 
institutional award that will support professional development of 
educators related to improving their knowledge of atmospheric and ocean 
sciences. Approximately $600,000 will be available annually for the 
five year award period. Only one award in the form of a grant or 
cooperative agreement will be made. NOAA will only consider projects 
that have a duration of 5 years. The total Federal amount for all years 
that may be requested from NOAA for the direct and indirect costs of 
the proposed project shall not exceed $600,000 annually. The minimum 
Federal amount that must be requested from NOAA per year for the direct 
and indirect costs is $300,000. Applications requesting Federal support 
from NOAA of less than $300,000 total or more than $600,000 annually 
for 5 years will not be considered for funding.
    The amount of funding available through this announcement will be 
dependent upon the final appropriations for FY 2007 through FY 2011. 
Publication of this notice does not oblige the Department of Commerce/
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (DOC/NOAA) to award any 
specific project or to obligate any available funds. If an applicant 
incurs any costs prior to receiving an award agreement approved by an 
authorized NOAA Grants Officer, the applicant would do so solely at 
one's own risk of such costs not being included under the award. The 
exact amount of funds that may be awarded will be determined in pre-
award negotiations between the applicant and NOAA representatives.
    Eligibility: Eligible applicants are institutions of higher 
education, other nonprofits, and state, local and Indian tribal 
governments in the United States. For-profit organizations, individuals 
not affiliated with an eligible organization, foreign institutions, 
foreign organizations and foreign government agencies are not eligible 
to apply. Federal agencies are not eligible to receive Federal 
assistance under this announcement, but may be project partners.
    The Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (DOC/NOAA) is strongly committed to increasing the 
participation of Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), i.e., 
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving 
institutions, Tribal colleges and universities, Alaskan Native and 
Native Hawaiian institutions, and institutions that work in underserved 
communities.
    Institutions may submit only one application to this funding 
opportunity.
    Cost Sharing Requirements: There are no cost-sharing requirements.
    Evaluation and Selection Procedures: The general evaluation 
criteria and selection factors that apply to applications to this 
funding opportunity are summarized below. Further information about the 
evaluation criteria and selection factors can be found in the full 
funding opportunity announcement.

Evaluation Criteria for Projects:

    1. Importance and/or relevance and applicability of proposed 
project to the program goals: This ascertains whether there is 
intrinsic value in the proposed work and/or relevance to NOAA, federal, 
regional, State, or local activities.
    2. Technical/scientific merit: This assesses whether the approach 
is technically sound and/or innovative, if the methods are appropriate, 
and whether there are clear project goals and objectives.
    3. Overall qualifications of applicants: This ascertains whether 
the applicant possesses the necessary education, experience, training, 
facilities, and administrative resources to accomplish the project.
    4. Project costs: The Budget is evaluated to determine if it is 
realistic and commensurate with the project needs and time-frame.

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    5. Outreach and education: NOAA assesses whether this project 
provides a focused and effective education and outreach strategy 
regarding NOAA's mission to protect the Nation's natural resources.

Review and Selection Process

    Upon receipt of an application by NOAA, an initial administrative 
review will be conducted to determine compliance with requirements and 
completeness of the application. All applications that meet the minimum 
eligibility requirements and that are ascertained to be complete will 
be evaluated and scored by independent reviewers. The reviews will be 
conducted by a panel of individuals, who may be government or non-
government representatives, each having relevant expertise. The 
reviewers will score each proposal using the evaluation criteria and 
relative weights provided above. The individual reviewers' ratings will 
be averaged for each application to establish rank order. No consensus 
advice will be given by the review panel. The Program Officer will 
neither vote nor score applications as part of the review panel nor 
participate in discussion of the merits of any proposal.
    The Program Officer will make his/her recommendations for funding 
based on rank order and the selection factors listed below to the 
Selecting Official for the final funding decision.

Selection Factors for Projects

    The panel review ratings shall establish the rank order that the 
Selecting Official will use for final recommendation to the NOAA Grants 
Officer. The Selecting Official shall award in the rank order unless 
the proposal is justified to be selected out of rank order based upon 
one or more of the following factors:
    1. Availability of funding.
    2. Balance/distribution of funds:

a. Geographically
b. By type of institutions
c. By type of partners
d. By research areas
e. By project types

    3. Whether this project duplicates other projects funded or 
considered for funding by NOAA or other Federal agencies.
    4. Program priorities and policy factors.
    5. Applicant's prior award performance.
    6. Partnerships and/or Participation of targeted groups.
    7. Adequacy of information necessary for NOAA staff to make a NEPA 
determination and draft necessary documentation before recommendations 
for funding are made to the Grants Officer.

Intergovernmental Review

    Applications under this program are not subject to Executive Order 
12372, ''Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs.''

Limitation of Liability

    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 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, 424A, 424B, and SF-LLL and CD-346 has been approved by the Office 
of Management and Budget (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, nor shall a 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.

Administrative Procedure Act/Regulatory Flexibility Act

    Prior notice and an opportunity for public comment are not required 
by the Administrative Procedure Act or any other law for rules 
concerning public property, loans, grants, benefits, and contracts (5 
U.S.C. 553(a)(2)). Because notice and opportunity for comment are not 
required pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553 or any other law, the analytical 
requirements for the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) 
are inapplicable. Therefore, a regulatory flexibility analysis has not 
been prepared.


[[Page 26078]]


    Dated: May 2, 2007.
Daniel Clever,
Deputy Director, NOAA Acquisitions and Grants, U.S. Department of 
Commerce.
 [FR Doc. E7-8715 Filed 5-7-07; 8:45 am]
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