[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 205 (Wednesday, October 24, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60317-60321]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-20973]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[Docket No. 071018607-7608-01]


New NOAA Cooperative Institutes (CIs): (1) Alaska and Related 
Arctic Regions Environmental Research and (2) Earth System Modeling for 
Climate Applications

AGENCY: Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of availability of funds.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) publishes 
this notice to provide the general public with a consolidated source of 
program and application information related to two competitive 
cooperative agreement (CA) award offerings. Both announcements will 
also be available through the Grants.gov Web site.

Cooperative Institute Competitions

    NOAA is accepting applications for two separate competitions to 
establish: (1) A CI to study environmental issues associated with 
Alaska and related Arctic regions and (2) a CI focused on the 
development and use of Earth System Modeling applied to climate 
applications with timescales of decadal or longer. The application and 
award processes for each CI will be covered in this announcement. Both 
CIs are expected to provide the necessary capabilities to complement 
NOAA's current and planned activities in support of the 5-year Research 
Plan and the 20-year Research Vision.
    NOAA's Climate Mission Goal in the Arctic requires knowledge of 
atmospheric circulation throughout the entire region; inflow and fate 
of Pacific and Atlantic water masses throughout the central Arctic 
Basin and peripheral seas; sea ice dynamics in all ice covered waters 
of the Arctic; and state of land cover, permafrost, glaciers and ice 
sheets throughout the Arctic region. NOAA's Ecosystem Mission Goal 
proposes documentation of population trends in exploited and protected 
species wherever they live in order to assess and manage these species. 
NOAA's Weather and Water Mission Goal proposes research to understand 
the coastal hazards, storms, and tsunamis that affect Alaska's 
population, ecosystems and coast. To achieve its mission in the Arctic, 
NOAA will need to engage many international partners. The regional 
Alaska CI will be

[[Page 60318]]

a very useful organization for promoting and facilitating international 
collaboration of all types. Political boundaries are not the primary 
determinant of the geographic scope of this regional CI focused on 
Alaska and neighboring Arctic issues; rather boundaries are established 
by the science problem being addressed.
    The proposed CI for Earth System modeling will be focused on 
climate applications for decadal or longer timescales and will 
contribute to research leading to operational Earth System Models that 
will have many benefits for NOAA. These would include improved 
forecasting of ecosystem conditions; new analytical and predictive 
capabilities for water resources, hydrology, climate and oceans; and 
improved understanding the links between climate and regional impacts, 
including drought, hurricanes, fires, and weather extremes.
    Both CIs will facilitate a long-term collaborative environment 
between NOAA and the recipients within which broad-based research, 
modeling, and education and outreach capabilities that focus on the 
NOAA priorities identified above can be developed and sustained. 
Because of the breadth of the capabilities needed for these CIs, it may 
be difficult for some applicants to provide all of the capabilities 
required to support NOAA's needs. Given this, NOAA will also consider 
applications from a consortium of research institutions working 
together as one CI. Any proposals involving a consortium will require a 
rationale for that configuration.

DATES: Proposals must be received by the OAR no later than 5 p.m., 
E.T., Monday, December 24, 2007. Proposals submitted after that date 
will not be considered.

ADDRESSES: Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply online through 
the Grants.gov Web site (http://www.grants.gov) but paper submissions 
are acceptable if internet access is not available. If a hard copy 
application is submitted, the original and two unbound copies of the 
proposal should be included. Paper submissions should be sent to: NOAA, 
OAR, 1315 East West Highway, Room 11326, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, 
Attn: Dr. John Cortinas. No e-mail or facsimile proposal submissions 
will be accepted. The complete federal funding opportunity 
announcements associated with this notice can be found at the 
Grants.gov Web site, http://www.grants.gov, and the NOAA Web site at 
http://www.nrc.noaa.gov/ci.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For a copy of the federal funding 
opportunity announcement and/or application kit for each of these 
Cooperative Institutes, please go to http://www.Grants.gov, via NOAA's 
Web site, or contact Dr. John Cortinas, 1315 East West Highway, Room 
11326, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910; Telephone: (301) 734-1090; 
facsimile: (301) 713-3515; e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: All applicants must comply with all 
requirements contained in the federal funding opportunity announcements 
for each of these CIs.

Background

    A CI is a NOAA-supported, non-federal organization that has 
established an outstanding research program in one or more areas that 
are relevant to the NOAA mission. CIs are established at research 
institutions that also have a strong education program with established 
graduate degree programs in NOAA-related sciences. The CI provides 
significant coordination of resources among all non-government partners 
and promotes the involvement of students and postdoctoral scientists in 
NOAA-funded research. The CI provides mutual benefits with value 
provided by all parties.
    For both the Alaska CI and the Earth System Modeling CI, NOAA has 
identified the need to establish a CI to focus on scientific research 
associated in support of NOAA's Strategic Plan, NOAA's 5-year Research 
Plan, and NOAA's 20-year Research Vision. (All documents are available 
at http://www.spo.noaa.gov/.)

Alaska and Related Arctic Regions Environmental Research CI

    The proposed Alaska CI should possess outstanding capabilities to 
provide research under three themes: (1) Ecosystem studies and 
forecasting, (2) coastal hazards, and (3) climate change and 
variability. To conduct research under these themes, the proposed CI 
should possess the flexibility needed to work on multi-disciplinary 
research in collaboration with NOAA's Climate Program Office, the 
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, the NWS Alaska and Pacific regions, 
the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, the Alaska Center for 
Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska--Fairbanks, a 
NOAA-funded Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center. In 
addition, the CI should collaborate with other NOAA partners including 
other CIs and Alaska Sea Grant. NOAA requires substantial flexibility 
from the CI to provide both scientific depth to existing programs and 
to add new capabilities when NOAA is faced with new drivers (e.g., need 
to advance climate impacts science or climate information services for 
the region or develop hazard resilient coastal communities).
    The CI should have resident or affiliated faculty with broad 
expertise in conducting research in all three themes. Research under 
these themes will require expertise in physical oceanography, sea ice, 
marine biology, remote sensing, land surface hydrology, permafrost, 
terrestrial biology (including vegetative land cover), atmospheric 
chemistry (including trace substances and fluxes between atmosphere and 
ocean and atmosphere and land), glaciology, meteorology, cloud physics, 
space physics (including aurora research), regional climate modeling 
(including linkages between physical processes and ecological 
processes), and technology and engineering for in-situ observing 
systems. Staff of the CI should have experience in field operations in 
cold environments with a permanent or seasonal cryosphere, including 
ship-based operations, terrestrial camps and permanent stations, and 
ice camps. The CI should have staff experience in managing and 
implementing large-scale, multi-investigator Arctic science programs 
involving both domestic and foreign sponsors and scientists. The CI 
must have the capability to conduct research related to improving the 
detection of tsunamigenic earthquakes using a digital broadband seismic 
network.
    The CI is expected to have or have access to ice breaking research 
vessels necessary to research ice-covered areas of the Arctic Ocean and 
the Bering/Chukchi/Beaufort Seas, as well as access to supercomputing 
facilities needed to run complex tsunami and climate models. The CI 
should also have the ability and desire to provide rapid-response 
products to address Arctic science issues of immediate importance, for 
example by working with NOAA scientists to test applicability of 
research results in an operational environment using a test bed model. 
This CI will play an important role in helping NOAA keep its 
operational and information services at the state of the art in science 
and technology by providing research that is needed for the 5- to 20-
year time frame and working with NOAA to identify promising research 
that can be transitioned to operations 2 to 5 years prior to 
implementation.

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    The CI should have doctoral-level education programs in fields 
relevant to NOAA's high latitude missions. The CI is expected to 
promote student and postdoctoral involvement in research projects in 
ways to train the next generation of scientists and NOAA employees. The 
CI should provide support for graduate and undergraduate students and 
post-doctoral scientists that will provide a ``hands-on'' opportunity 
for the development of a wide range of expertise. NOAA can capitalize 
on this expertise, as CI employees and students will work with NOAA to 
conduct research that complements NOAA's mission needs. The CI should 
also have the capability to share research results conducted at the CI 
with the stakeholders and decision makers.

Earth System Modeling for Climate Applications CI

    NOAA has established itself as the premier Federal provider of 
climate information. Its expertise in long term climate was recently 
showcased in the International Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth 
Assessment Report on Climate Change. It is clear, however, that current 
state-of-the-art physical coupled climate models, particularly those 
that are used to forecast climate conditions on decadal and longer time 
scales, lack important features that are crucial for understanding how 
a warming world will affect the world's terrestrial and oceanic 
ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles, and importantly, how ecosystems 
can affect climate change. This understanding can be achieved in part 
by a vigorous climate observing program, and by a world class Earth 
System modeling capability. The proposed Earth System Modeling CI will 
address these needs by providing capabilities in Earth System Modeling 
research and Analysis to develop and improve climate models that 
simulate and predict chemical, physical, and ecosystem changes in the 
whole Earth system. The proposed Alaska CI should possess outstanding 
capabilities to provide research under three themes: (1) Earth system 
modeling and analysis, (2) data assimilation, and (3) earth system 
modeling applications. The CI should have capabilities and conduct 
research in data assimilation to develop and improve techniques to 
assimilate environmental observations, including aerial, terrestrial, 
oceanic, and biological observations, to produce the best estimate of 
the environmental state at the time of the observations for use in 
analysis, modeling, and prediction activities associated with climate 
predications. The CI should also have capabilities to conduct research 
on model applications including focus on the use of Earth System Models 
to study physical processes associated with long-term (decadal or 
longer) climate change and its impacts, including abrupt change, 
coastal processes, carbon management, sea-level rise, drought, the 
frequency of hurricanes and other extreme events, and climate 
predictability, as well as attributing climate change to natural and 
anthropogenic forces.
    The proposed CI must strongly support ``a strategic approach that 
attracts and maintains a competent and diverse workforce and creates an 
environment that develops, encourages, and sustains employees as they 
work to accomplish NOAA's strategic goals,'' as described in NOAA's 
latest Strategic Plan. The CI must also have a strong education program 
with established graduate degree programs in NOAA-related sciences. 
These programs must provide outstanding opportunities to train the next 
generation of scientists and NOAA employees by giving undergraduate, 
graduate students, and post-doctoral scientists a ``hands on'' 
opportunity to participate in NOAA research activities. To strengthen 
the collaborations between NOAA and the CI, most of these students and 
postdocs should be located close enough to allow them to work with GFDL 
scientists in Princeton, New Jersey at least weekly. This training is 
extremely important for NOAA as it strives to attract and maintain a 
competent and diverse scientific workforce.
    Electronic Access: Applicants can access, download, and submit 
electronic grant applications, including the full funding opportunity 
announcement, for NOAA programs at the Grants.gov Web site: http://www.grants.gov. The closing date will be the same as for the paper 
submissions noted in this announcement. For applicants filing through 
Grants.gov, NOAA strongly recommends that you do not wait until the 
application deadline date to begin the application process through 
Grants.gov. Registration may take up to 10 business days. More details 
on how to apply are provided in the NOAA June 30, 2005 Federal Register 
Notice on ``Availability of Grant Funds for Fiscal Year 2006,'' which 
can be found at: http://www.Grants.gov or http://www.ago.noaa.gov/grants/funding.shtml.
    Proposals must include elements requested in the full Federal 
Funding Opportunity announcement on the grants.gov portal. If a hard 
copy application is submitted, NOAA requests that the original and two 
unbound copies of the proposal be included. Proposals, electronic or 
paper, should be no more than 75 pages (numbered) in length, excluding 
budget, investigators, vitae, and all appendices. Federally mandated 
forms are not included within the page count. Facsimile transmissions 
and electronic mail submission of full proposals will not be accepted.
    Funding Availability: For the proposed Alaska CI, NOAA expects that 
approximately $2-3M will be available for the CI in the first year of 
the award. For the proposed Earth System Modeling CI, NOAA expects that 
approximately $3M will be available in the first year of the award. For 
each proposed CI the annual Task I budget should not exceed $300,000. 
The final amount of funding available for Task I will be determined 
during the negotiation phase of the award based on availability of 
funding and any NOAA policies on Task I funding. Funding for subsequent 
years is expected to be constant throughout the period, depending on 
the quality of the research, the satisfactory progress in achieving the 
stated goals described in the proposal, continued relevance to program 
objectives, and the availability of funding.

    Authorities: 15 U.S.C. 313, 15 U.S.C. 1540; 15 U.S.C. 2901 et 
seq., 16 U.S.C. 753a, 33 U.S.C. 883d, 33 U.S.C. 1442, 49 U.S.C. 
44720(b).

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance: 11.432, Office of Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Joint and Cooperative Institutes.)

    Eligibility: Eligibility is limited to non-federal public and 
private non-profit universities, colleges and research institutions 
that offer accredited graduate level degree-granting programs in NOAA-
related sciences.
    Cost Sharing Requirements: To stress the collaborative nature and 
investment of a CI by both NOAA and the research institution, cost 
sharing is required. There is no minimum cost sharing requirement; 
however, the amount of cost sharing will be considered when determining 
the level of CI commitment under NOAA's standard evaluation criteria 
for overall qualification of applicants. Acceptable cost-sharing 
proposals include, but are not limited to, offering a reduced indirect 
cost rate against activities in one or more Tasks, waiver of indirect 
costs assessed against base funds and/or Task I activities, waiver or 
reduction of any costs associated with the use of facilities at the CI, 
and full or partial salary funding for the CI director, administrative 
staff,

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graduate students, visiting scientists, or postdoctoral scientists.
    Intergovernmental Review: Applications under this program are not 
subject to Executive Order 12372, ``Intergovernmental Review of Federal 
Programs.''
    Evaluation Criteria and Review and Selection Procedures: NOAA's 
standard evaluation criteria and the review and selection procedures 
contained in NOAA's June 30, 2005, omnibus notice are applicable to 
this solicitation and are as follows:

A. Evaluation Criteria for Projects

    Proposals will be evaluated using the standard NOAA evaluation 
criteria. Various questions under each criterion are provided to ensure 
that the applicant includes information that NOAA will consider 
important during the evaluation, in addition to any other information 
provided by the applicant. Note that information on how the proposal 
addresses issues related to the National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA) will not be needed in this submission but will be required when 
individual projects are proposed.
    1. Importance and/or relevance and applicability of proposed 
project to the program goals (25 percent): This criterion ascertains 
whether there is intrinsic value in the proposed work and/or relevance 
to NOAA, Federal, regional, State, or local activities.
     Does the proposal include research goals and projects that 
address the critical issues identified in NOAA's 5-year Research Plan, 
NOAA's Strategic Plan, and the priorities described in the federal 
funding opportunity announcement published at http://www.grants.gov?
     Is there a demonstrated commitment (in terms of resources 
and facilities) to enhance existing NOAA and CI resources to foster a 
long-term collaborative research environment/culture?
     Is there a strong education program with established 
graduate degree programs in NOAA-related sciences that also encourages 
student participation in NOAA-related research studies?
     (For the Earth System Modeling CI only) Will most of the 
staff at the CI be located near a NOAA facility, particularly the 
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, to 
enhance collaborations with NOAA?
    2. Technical/scientific merit (30 percent): This criterion assesses 
whether the approach is technically sound and/or innovative, if the 
methods are appropriate, and whether there are clear project goals and 
objectives.
     Does the project description include a summary of clearly 
stated goals to be achieved during the five-year period that reflect 
NOAA's strategic plan and goals?
     Does the CI involve partnerships with other universities 
or research institutions, including Minority Serving Institutions and 
universities with strong departments that can contribute to the 
proposed activities of the CI?
    3. Overall qualifications of applicants (30 percent): This 
criterion ascertains whether the applicant possesses the necessary 
education, experience, training, facilities, and administrative 
resources to accomplish the project.
     If the institution(s) and/or principal investigators have 
received current or recent NOAA funding, is there a demonstrated record 
of outstanding performance working with NOAA scientists on research 
projects?
     Is there internationally recognized expertise within the 
appropriate disciplines needed to conduct the collaborative/
interdisciplinary research described in the proposal?
     Is there a well-developed business plan that includes 
fiscal and human resource management as well as strategic planning and 
accountability?
     Are there any unique capabilities in a mission-critical 
area of research for NOAA?
     Has the applicant shown a substantial investment to the 
NOAA partnership, as demonstrated by the amount of the cost sharing 
contribution?
    4. Project costs (5 percent): The budget is evaluated to determine 
if it is realistic and commensurate with the project needs and time-
frame.
    5. Outreach and education (10 percent): 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.

B. Review and Selection Process

    An initial administrative review/screening is conducted to 
determine compliance with requirements/completeness. All proposals will 
be evaluated and individually ranked in accordance with the assigned 
weights of the above evaluation criteria by an independent peer panel 
review. At least three experts, who may be Federal or non-Federal, will 
be used in this process. If non-Federal experts participate in the 
review process, each expert will submit an individual review and there 
will be no consensus opinion. The merit reviewers' ratings are used to 
produce a rank order of the proposals. The Selecting Official selects 
proposals after considering the peer panel reviews and selection 
factors listed below. In making the final selections, the Selecting 
Official will award in rank order unless the proposal is justified to 
be selected out of rank order based upon one or more of the selection 
factors.

C. Selection Factors

    The merit review ratings shall provide a rank order to the 
Selecting Official for final funding recommendations. 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.
    Applicants must comply with all requirements contained in the full 
funding opportunity announcements for each project competition in this 
announcement.
    Universal Identifier: Applicants should be aware that, they are 
required to provide a Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering 
System (DUNS) number during the application process. See the October 
30, 2002 Federal Register, Vol. 67, No. 210, pp. 66177-66178 for 
additional information. Organizations can receive a DUNS number at no 
cost by calling the dedicated toll-free DUNS Number request line at 1 
(866) 705-5711 or via the internet (http://www.dunandbradstreet.com).
    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 NOAA's NEPA 
Web site, http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/, and the Council

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on Environmental Quality implementation regulations, http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/nepa/regs/ceq/toc_ceq.htm.
    While not part of this initial application, upon award and 
subsequent submission of projects, the CI is 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 such 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 cooperate with 
NOAA 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.

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.
    Limitation of Liability: Funding for years 2-5 of the Cooperative 
Institute is contingent upon the availability of appropriated funds. In 
no event will NOAA or the Department of Commerce be responsible for 
application 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.
    Paperwork Reduction Act: This notification involves collection of 
information requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act. 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) respectively 
under Control Numbers 0348-0043, 0348-0044, 0348-0040, and 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: It has been determined that this notice is 
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, grants, benefits, and contracts (5 U.S.C. 553 (a)(2)).
    Because notice and opportunity for comments 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. 601 et seq.) are 
inapplicable. Therefore, a regulatory flexibility analysis is not 
required and none has been prepared.

    Dated: October 18, 2007.
Terry J. Bevels,
Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
 [FR Doc. E7-20973 Filed 10-23-07; 8:45 am]
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