FR Doc E8-10669[Federal Register: May 13, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 93)]
[Notices]
[Page 27515-27518]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Postsecondary Education; Overview Information;
Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program; Notice Inviting
Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2008
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.345A.
DATES: Applications Available: May 13, 2008.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: June 12, 2008.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: August 11, 2008.
Full Text of Announcement
I. Funding Opportunity Description
Purpose of Program: The Underground Railroad Educational and
Cultural Program (URR) makes grants to nonprofit educational
organizations that are established to research, display, interpret, and
collect artifacts relating to the history of the Underground Railroad.
Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1153.
Applicable Regulations: The Education Department General
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80,
82, 84, 85, 86, 97, 98 and 99.
Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 86 apply to institutions of
higher education only.
II. Award Information
Type of Award: Discretionary grants.
Estimated Available Funds: $1,943,510
Contingent upon the availability of funds and the quality of
applications, we may make additional awards in FY 2009 from the list of
unfunded applicants from this competition.
Estimated Average Size of Awards: $500,000-$1,000,000 total for up
to three years.
Estimated Number of Awards: 2.
Note: The Department is not bound by any estimates in this
notice.
Project Period: Up to 36 months.
III. Eligibility Information
1. Eligible Applicants: Nonprofit educational organizations that
are established to research, display, interpret, and collect artifacts
relating to the history of the Underground Railroad.
2. Cost Sharing or Matching: The Federal Government may provide no
more than 20 percent of the total funds for any project funded under
this competition. See 20 U.S.C. 1153(b)(2). Applicants must provide the
remaining 80 percent funding from private entities. As part of the
application process, applicants will be required to demonstrate their
ability to meet the cost sharing requirement.
3. Other: Each nonprofit educational organization awarded a grant
under this competition must create an endowment to fund any and all
shortfalls in the costs of the on-going operations of the facility.
Grantees must establish a network of satellite centers throughout the
United States to help disseminate information regarding the Underground
Railroad. These satellite centers must raise 80 percent of the funds
required to establish the satellite centers from non-Federal public and
private sources. In addition, grantees must establish the capability to
electronically link the facility with other local and regional
facilities that have collections and programs that interpret the
history of the Underground Railroad. As part of the application
process, applicants will be required to document their ability to
create an endowment, establish satellite centers, and establish the
electronic capability described above. For specific requirements on
reporting, please go to
http://www.ed.gov/fund/grant/apply/appforms/appforms.html.
IV. Application and Submission Information
1. Address to Request Application Package: Claire D. Cornell,
Underground Railroad Program, Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary
Education (FIPSE), Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE), U.S.
Department of Education, 1990 K Street, NW., room 6145, Washington, DC
20006-8544. Telephone: (202) 502-7609 or by e-mail:
claire.cornell@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), call the
Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-800-877-8339.
Individuals with disabilities can obtain a copy of the application
package in an alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print,
audiotape, or computer
[[Page 27516]]
diskette) by contacting the program contact person listed in this
section.
2. Content and Form of Application Submission: Requirements
concerning the content of an application, together with the forms you
must submit, are in the application package for this program.
Page Limit: The application narrative is where you, the applicant,
address the selection criteria that reviewers use to evaluate your
application. You must limit the application narrative to the equivalent
of no more than 30 pages, using the following standards:
A ``page'' is 8.5'' x 11'', on one side only, with 1''
margins at the top, bottom, and both sides. Page numbers and an
identifier may be outside of the 1'' margin.
Double space (no more than three lines per vertical inch)
all text in the application narrative, including titles, headings,
footnotes, quotations, references, and captions, as well as all text in
charts, tables, figures and graphs.
Use a font that is either 12-point or larger or no smaller
than 10 pitch (characters per inch).
Use one of the following fonts: Times New Roman, Courier,
Courier New, or Arial. An application submitted in any other font
(including Times Roman or Arial Narrow) will not be accepted.
The page limit does not apply to Part I, the Application
for Federal Assistance Form (SF-424); Part II, the budget section,
including the narrative budget justification; Part IV, the assurances
and certifications; or the one-page abstract, the Table of Contents,
the resumes, the bibliography, or the letters of support. However, the
page limit does apply to all of the application narrative section.
We will reject your application if you exceed the page limit.
3. Submission Dates and Times:
Applications Available: May 13, 2008.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: June 12, 2008.
Applications for grants under this program must be submitted
electronically using the Grants.gov Apply site (Grants.gov). For
information (including dates and times) about how to submit your
application electronically, please refer to section IV. 6. Other
Submission Requirements in this notice.
We do not consider an application that does not comply with the
deadline requirements.
Individuals with disabilities who need an accommodation or
auxiliary aid in connection with the application process should contact
the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT in section VII
in this notice.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: August 11, 2008.
We will not consider an application that does not comply with the
deadline requirements.
4. Intergovernmental Review: This program is subject to the
requirements of Executive Order 12372 and the regulations in 34 CFR
part 79. Information about Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs
under Executive Order 12372 is in the application package for this
program.
5. Funding Restrictions: We specify unallowable costs in 34 CFR
74.27. We reference additional regulations outlining funding
restriction in the Applicable Regulations section in this notice.
6. Other Submission Requirements: Applications for grants under
this program must be submitted electronically unless you qualify for an
exception to this requirement in accordance with the instructions in
this section.
a. Electronic Submission of Applications.
Applications for grants under the Underground Railroad Educational
and Cultural Program, CFDA Number 84.345A, must be submitted
electronically using the Government wide Grants.gov Apply site at
http://www.Grants.gov. Through this site, you will be able to download
a copy of the application package, complete it offline, and then upload
and submit your application. You may not e-mail an electronic copy of a
grant application to us.
We will reject your application if you submit it in paper format
unless, as described elsewhere in this section, you qualify for one of
the exceptions to the electronic submission requirement and submit, no
later than two weeks before the application deadline date, a written
statement to the Department that you qualify for one of these
exceptions. Further information regarding calculation of the date that
is two weeks before the application deadline date is provided later in
this section under Exception to Electronic Submission Requirement.
You may access the electronic grant application for The Underground
Railroad Educational and Cultural Program at http://www.Grants.gov. You
must search for the downloadable application package for this program
by the CFDA number. Do not include the CFDA number's alpha suffix in
your search (e.g., search for 84.345, not 84.345A).
Please note the following:
When you enter the Grants.gov site, you will find
information about submitting an application electronically through the
site, as well as the hours of operation.
Applications received by Grants.gov are date and time
stamped. Your application must be fully uploaded and submitted and must
be date and time stamped by the Grants.gov system no later than 4:30
p.m., Washington, DC time, on the application deadline date. Except as
otherwise noted in this section, we will not accept your application if
it is received--that is, date and time stamped by the Grants.gov
system--after 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time, on the application
deadline date. We do not consider an application that does not comply
with the application requirements. When we retrieve your application
from Grants.gov, we will notify you if we are rejecting your
application because it was date and time stamped by the Grants.gov
system after 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time, on the application
deadline date.
The amount of time it can take to upload an application
will vary depending on a variety of factors, including the size of the
application and the speed of your Internet connection. Therefore, we
strongly recommend that you do not wait until the application deadline
date to begin the submission process through Grants.gov.
You should review and follow the Education Submission
Procedures for submitting an application through Grants.gov that are
included in the application package for this program to ensure that you
submit your application in a timely manner to the Grants.gov system.
You can also find the Education Submission Procedures pertaining to
Grants.gov at
http://e-Grants.ed.gov/help/GrantsgovSubmissionProcedures.pdf.
To submit your application via Grants.gov, you must
complete all steps in the Grants.gov registration process (see
http://www.grants.gov/applicants/get_registered.jsp). These steps include
(1) Registering your organization, a multi-part process that includes
registration with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR); (2)
registering yourself as an Authorized Organization Representative
(AOR); and (3) getting authorized as an AOR by your organization.
Details on these steps are outlined in the Grants.gov 3-Step
Registration Guide (see
http://www.grants.gov/section910/Grants.govRegistrationBrochure.pdf).
You also must provide on your
application the same D-U-N-S Number used with this registration.
Please note
[[Page 27517]]
that the registration process may take five or more business days to
complete, and you must have completed all registration steps to allow
you to submit successfully an application via Grants.gov. In addition
you will need to update your CCR registration on an annual basis. This
may take three or more business days to complete.
You will not receive additional point value because you
submit your application in electronic format, nor will we penalize you
if you qualify for an exception to the electronic submission
requirement, as described elsewhere in this section, and submit your
application in paper format.
You must submit all documents electronically, including
all information you typically provide on the following forms:
Application for Federal Assistance (SF 424), the Department of
Education Supplemental Information for SF 424, Budget Information--Non-
Construction Programs (ED 524), and all necessary assurances and
certifications. Please note that two of these forms--the SF 424 and the
Department of Education Supplemental Information for SF 424--have
replaced the ED 424 (Application for Federal Education Assistance).
You must attach any narrative sections of your application
as files in a .DOC (document), .RTF (rich text), or .PDF (Portable
Document) format. If you upload a file type other than the three file
types specified in this paragraph or submit a password-protected file,
we will not review that material.
Your electronic application must comply with any page-
limit requirements described in this notice.
After you electronically submit your application, you will
receive from Grants.gov an automatic notification of receipt that
contains a Grants.gov tracking number. (This notification indicates
receipt by Grants.gov only, not receipt by the Department.) The
Department then will retrieve your application from Grants.gov and send
a second notification to you by e-mail. This second notification
indicates that the Department has received your application and has
assigned your application a PR/Award number (an ED-specified
identifying number unique to your application).
We may request that you provide us original signatures on
forms at a later date.
Application Deadline Date Extension in Case of Technical Issues
with the Grants.gov System: If you are experiencing problems submitting
your application through Grants.gov, please contact the Grants.gov
Support Desk, toll free, at 1-800-518-4726. You must obtain a
Grants.gov Support Desk Case Number and must keep a record of it.
If you are prevented from electronically submitting your
application on the application deadline date because of technical
problems with the Grants.gov system, we will grant you an extension
until 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time, the following business day to
enable you to transmit your application electronically or by hand
delivery. You also may mail your application by following the mailing
instructions described elsewhere in this notice.
If you submit an application after 4:30:00 p.m., Washington, DC
time, on the application deadline date, please contact the person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT in section VII in this
notice and provide an explanation of the technical problem you
experienced with Grants.gov, along with the Grants.gov Support Desk
Case Number. We will accept your application if we can confirm that a
technical problem occurred with the Grants.gov system and that problem
affected your ability to submit your application by 4:30 p.m.,
Washington, DC time, on the application deadline date. The Department
will contact you after a determination is made on whether your
application will be accepted.
Note: The extensions to which we refer in this section apply
only to the unavailability of, or technical problems with, the
Grants.gov system. We will not grant you an extension if you failed
to fully register to submit your application to Grants.gov before
the application deadline date and time or if the technical problem
you experienced is unrelated to the Grants.gov system.
Exception to Electronic Submission Requirement: You qualify for an
exception to the electronic submission requirement, and may submit your
application in paper format, if you are unable to submit an application
through the Grants.gov system because--
You do not have access to the Internet; or
You do not have the capacity to upload large documents to
the Grants.gov system; and
No later than two weeks before the application deadline
date (14 calendar days; or, if the fourteenth calendar day before the
application deadline date falls on a Federal holiday, the next business
day following the Federal holiday), you mail or fax a written statement
to the Department, explaining which of the two grounds for an exception
prevent you from using the Internet to submit your application.
If you mail your written statement to the Department, it must be
postmarked no later than two weeks before the application deadline
date. If you fax your written statement to the Department, we must
receive the faxed statement no later than two weeks before the
application deadline date.
Address and mail or fax your statement to: Claire D. Cornell, U.S.
Department of Education, 1990 K Street, NW., room 6145, Washington, DC
20006-8544. FAX: (202) 502-7877.
Your paper application must be submitted in accordance with the
mail or hand delivery instructions described in this notice.
b. Submission of Paper Applications by Mail.
If you qualify for an exception to the electronic submission
requirement, you may mail (through the U.S. Postal Service or a
commercial carrier) your application to the Department. You must mail
the original and two copies of your application, on or before the
application deadline date, to the Department at the applicable
following address:
By mail through the U.S. Postal Service: U.S. Department of Education,
Application Control Center, Attention: (CFDA Number 84.345A), 400
Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20202-4260; or
By mail through a commercial carrier: U.S. Department of Education,
Application Control Center, Stop 4260, Attention: (CFDA Number
84.345A), 7100 Old Landover Road, Landover, MD 20785-1506.
Regardless of which address you use, you must show proof of mailing
consisting of one of the following:
(1) A legibly dated U.S. Postal Service postmark.
(2) A legible mail receipt with the date of mailing stamped by the
U.S. Postal Service.
(3) A dated shipping label, invoice, or receipt from a commercial
carrier.
(4) Any other proof of mailing acceptable to the Secretary of the
U.S. Department of Education.
If you mail your application through the U.S. Postal Service, we do
not accept either of the following as proof of mailing:
(1) A private metered postmark.
(2) A mail receipt that is not dated by the U.S. Postal Service.
If your application is postmarked after the application deadline
date, we will not consider your application.
Note: The U.S. Postal Service does not uniformly provide a dated
postmark. Before relying on this method, you should check with your
local post office.
c. Submission of Paper Applications by Hand Delivery.
[[Page 27518]]
If you qualify for an exception to the electronic submission
requirement, you (or a courier service) may deliver your paper
application to the Department by hand. You must deliver the original
and two copies of your application by hand, on or before the
application deadline date, to the Department at the following address:
U.S. Department of Education, Application Control Center, Attention:
(CFDA Number 84.345A), 550 12th Street, SW., Room 7041, Potomac Center
Plaza, Washington, DC 20202-4260.
The Application Control Center accepts hand deliveries daily
between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC time, except Saturdays,
Sundays, and Federal holidays.
Note for Mail or Hand Delivery of Paper Applications: If you
mail or hand deliver your application to the Department--
(1) You must indicate on the envelope and--if not provided by
the Department--in Item 11 of the SF 424 the CFDA number, including
suffix letter, if any, of the competition under which you are
submitting your application; and
(2) The Application Control Center will mail to you a
notification of receipt of your grant application. If you do not
receive this notification within 15 business days from the
application deadline date, you should call the U.S. Department of
Education Application Control Center at (202) 245-6288.
V. Application Review Information
Selection Criteria. The selection criteria for this program are
from 34 CFR 75.210 and include: Project significance (10 points);
quality of the project design (40 points); adequacy of project
resources (20 points); quality of project personnel (10 points); and
quality of the project evaluation (20 points). Additional information
regarding these criteria is in the application package for this
competition.
In making grant awards for this program, the Department will
consider information concerning the applicant's performance and use of
funds from a prior grant in this program or in any other Department
program and will consider the applicant's failure to submit an
acceptable performance report for a grant in this program or in any
other Department program. 34 CFR 75.217(d)(3).
VI. Award Administration Information
1. Award Notices: If your application is successful, we notify your
U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators and send you a Grant Award
Notification (GAN). We may notify you informally, also.
If your application is not evaluated or not selected for funding,
we notify you.
2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements: We identify
administrative and national policy requirements in the application
package and reference these and other requirements in the Applicable
Regulations section in this notice.
We reference the regulations outlining the terms and conditions of
an award in the Applicable Regulations section in this notice and
include these and other specific conditions in the GAN. The GAN also
incorporates your approved application as part of your binding
commitments under the grant.
3. Reporting: At the end of your project period, you must submit a
final performance report, including financial information, as directed
by the Secretary and as outlined in the text below.
For each fiscal year for which an organization receives funding
under this program, those organizations must submit to the Department a
report that contains: (a) A description and evaluation of the programs
and activities supported by the funding; (b) the audited financial
statement of the organization for the preceding fiscal year; and (c) a
plan for the programs and activities to be supported by the funding.
The Secretary may also require more frequent performance reports under
34 CFR 75.720(c). For specific requirements on reporting, please go to:
http://www.ed.gov/fund/grant/apply/appforms/appforms/appforms.html and
review a more detailed explanation in the application package.
4. Performance Measures: Under the Government Performance and
Results Act (GPRA), the following measure will be used by the
Department in assessing the performance of the Underground Railroad
Educational and Cultural Program:
The extent to which funded projects have been
institutionalized and continued after URR funding ends.
VII. Agency Contact
For Further Information Contact: Claire D. Cornell, Underground
Railroad Educational and Cultural Program, FIPSE, OPE, U.S. Department
of Education, 1990 K Street, NW., room 6145, Washington, DC 20006-8544.
Telephone: (202) 502-7609 or by e-mail: claire.cornell@ed.gov.
If you use a TDD, call the FRS, toll free, at 1-800-877-8339.
VIII. Other Information
Alternative Format: Individuals with disabilities can obtain this
document and a copy of the application package in an alternative format
(e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer diskette) on
request to the program contact person listed in this section.
Electronic Access to This Document: You may view this document, as
well as all other documents of this Department published in the Federal
Register, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on the
Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister.
To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in
the Washington, DC, area at (202) 512-1530.
Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.
Dated: May 8, 2008.
Diane Auer Jones,
Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. E8-10669 Filed 5-12-08; 8:45 am]
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