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Financial Assistance Program Grant Application Guide APPLICATION CONTENTS
424 R&R
The 424 R&R must be completed, along with any other required forms
as identified in the Funding Opportunity Announcement.
The items included on the 424 R&R are self-explanatory.
However, if the project contains research involving human subjects
or vertebrate animals, please refer to the assurance and certification
section of this guide for additional requirements.
Budget
Financial Assistance awards operate under a project period concept.
Project period means the total approved period of time that the Office of Science
will provide support. The project period may be divided into several
budget periods. A budget period is an interval of time (usually
12 months) into which the project period is divided for funding
and reporting purposes. For example, if an application is approved
for three years of support, the total project period is three
years with typically three 12-month budget periods.
Applicants must prepare their budgets using the Budget Pages provided in Grants.gov.
For multi-year projects, the applicant shall submit a Budget Page
for each year of requested funding.
It is particularly important to provide a
written justification for each budget item; especially travel, items of equipment, and other direct costs.
DOE may request additional budgetary information from an applicant
for clarification or to make informed pre-award determinations.
As a general policy, the Office of Science recognizes that salaries of the personnel
associated directly with the project constitute appropriate direct
costs in proportion to the overall effort.
The names of the principal investigator(s), key personnel and
other required personnel including the estimated number of person-months
for which funding is requested should be listed. Salaries requested
must be consistent with the organization's regular practices.
Research Assistantships
In applications submitted by colleges and universities, the budget
may request funds for support of graduate students (research assistants)
to help carry out the proposed project. Compensation classified
as salary payments should be requested in the salaries and wages
category. Any direct costs requested for tuition remission may
be listed separately under "Other Direct Costs," or
"Fringe Benefits," as appropriate.
Fringe Benefits
If the applicant's usual accounting practices provide that its
contributions to employee benefits (social security,
retirement, etc.) be treated as direct costs. Funds may be
requested to defray such expenses as a direct cost.
Equipment
DOE defines equipment as an item of tangible personal
property that has a useful life of more than two years and an
acquisition cost of $5000 or more. Special purpose equipment
is equipment which is used only for research, medical, scientific,
or other technical activities. Items of needed equipment should,
to the extent possible, be individually listed by description
and estimated cost, including tax, and adequately justified. Allowable
items ordinarily will be limited to scientific equipment and apparatus
not already available for the conduct of the work.
Domestic Travel
Travel and its relation to the proposed activity
should be specified. Funds may be requested for field work, attendance
at meetings and conferences, other travel associated with the
proposed work, and subsistence. In order to qualify for support, however,
attendance at meetings or conferences must enhance the investigator's
ability to perform the work, plan extensions of it, or disseminate
its results. Consultants' travel costs also may be requested.
Foreign Travel
Foreign travel is any travel outside Canada and the United States
and its territories and possessions or, for recipients located
in another country, travel outside that country. Foreign travel
may be approved only if it is directly related to the project
objectives.
The application should include relevant information including
countries to be visited, dates of visit, if known,
and justification for any foreign travel planned in connection
with the project.
Other Direct Costs
The items in this category must be reasonable and directly allocable to
the supported activity. The budget should identify and itemize other
anticipated direct
costs not included under the headings above, including materials and
supplies, publication costs, computer services, and consultant
services. Other examples are: aircraft
rental; space rental at establishments away from the grantee organization;
minor building alterations; payments to human subjects;
service charges; and construction of equipment or systems not available off
the shelf. Reference books and periodicals may be charged
to the grant only if they specifically relate to the project.
The budget should indicate in general terms the type of
expendable materials and supplies required with their estimated costs.
The breakdown should be more detailed when the cost is substantial.
2. Publication/Documentation/Dissemination
The budget may request funds for the cost of preparing and publishing
the results of the work conducted under the award, including costs
of reports, reprints, page charges, or other journal costs,
and necessary illustrations.
3. Consultant Services
Anticipated consultant services should be justified and information
furnished on each individual's expertise, primary organizational
affiliation, daily compensation rate and number of days of expected
service. Consultants' travel costs should be listed separately
under travel in the budget.
4. Computer (ADP) Services
The cost of computer services, including computer based retrieval
of scientific and technical information, may be requested. A justification
based on the established computer service rates at the proposing
organization should be included. The budget also may request costs,
which must be shown to be reasonable, for leasing automated data-processing
equipment (ADP). The purchase of computers or associated hardware
should be requested as items of equipment.
5. Subcontracts
Subcontracts should be disclosed in the application so that they
can be properly evaluated. There should be complete, detailed budgets for each
budget period with an explanation of the costs for each subcontract.
The total amount of each subcontract should also appear as a line item under
"Other Direct Costs" for the entire project.
Indirect Costs
The appropriate, applicable indirect cost rate negotiated by the organization
with the cognizant Federal agency must be used in computing indirect costs
for an application. Determinations of the appropriate indirect
cost rate depends on a combination of factors including, but not
limited to, physical location of the work. If your organization
has no established indirect cost rate, contact the Grants
and Contracts Division, Office of Science,
at 301-903-5212.
Indirect Cost Limitations
Awards for conferences and scientific/technical meetings will
NOT include payment for indirect costs.
Fees
A fee is an allowable charge only under awards to small businesses.
DOE Contracting Officers will determine whether a fee is appropriate
and the amount of fee to be allowed.
Cost Sharing Policy
While cost sharing is encouraged, it is not required nor will
it be considered as a criterion in the evaluation and selection
process unless otherwise provided in a notice of availability
or in a specific Funding Opportunity Announcement/solicitation.
Project Description
The main body of the application should be a clear statement
of the work to be undertaken and should include: objectives for
the period of the proposed work and expected significance;
relation to the longer-term goals of the principal investigator of the
project; and relation
to the present state of knowledge in the field, to work
in progress by the investigator under other support, and
work in progress elsewhere. The statement should outline the
general plan of work, including the broad design of experiments
to be undertaken, and an adequate description of experimental
methods and procedures.
For those applications requesting financial support for conferences
or workshops, the following information must be included as part
of the application.
b) Provisional agenda with list of known chairpersons, speakers,
papers to be presented, and the expected attendance;
c) A written justification of the proposed conference or workshop;
d) For persons whose participation will be funded under the conference
grant, list the full name, address, place of employment and expected
contribution to the conference or workshop; and
e) The Budget Page should include the total amount needed for
travel and per diem, consultant or participant fees and administrative
costs under item "F" "Trainee/Participant Costs."
Please be sure to provide a breakdown of each item of cost under
this category on budget justification pages. Also include on continuation
pages the total cost of the whole conference or workshop and list
the amounts from other organizations involved.
Bibliography
A bibliography is required of literature cited in the application's
project description and other pertinent literature, as appropriate
to the planned project.
Biographical Sketches
A biographical sketch is required for the principal investigator/project director (PI/PD)
and for each senior/key person listed in Section A on the budget for at the organization
submitting the application, as well as any subcontractors. The biographical
sketch is limited to a maximum of two pages.
It must contain name and position title,
organization, degree, years and field of study for each academic degree;
a listing of research and professional positions, awards, and honors; and
references to all publications for the past three years along with any
earlier publications pertinent to this application. If this list causes
the biographical sketch to exceed two pages, select the most pertinent
publications to stay within the page limit.
Facilities and Resources
The application should describe available facilities and major
items of equipment to be used in the research or educational activity.
Applications requesting equipment should, whenever appropriate,
describe comparable equipment already at the proposing organization
and explain why it cannot be used. The degree of utilization also
should be discussed to allow comparison of its capabilities with
the needs of the project. Whenever possible, the application should
specify manufacturer and model number.
Current and Pending Support
The PI/PD(s) are requested to list all their
current and pending non-Federal and Federal support.
If the project for which support is being sought is being or has
been funded previously by a source other than the Office of Science, identify such
support. This information will help the Office of Science analyze shifts in research
support and educational activities. If the application is being
submitted to other possible sponsors, list all of them. Concurrent
submission of an application to other organizations will not prejudice
its review by DOE.
Identification of Potential Conflicts of Interest/Bias in Selection of Reviewers
Provide the following information:
Graduate and Postdoctoral Advisors and Advisees: List the names and current
organizational affiliations of your graduate advisor(s) and principal postdoctoral sponsor(s)
during the last 5 years. Also, list the names and current organizational affiliations of
your graduate students and postdoctoral associates during the past 5 years.
Special Information and Supplementary Documentation
The application should address each special consideration relevant
to the project, and provide information on the status of any special
permissions, clearances, or certifications. If part of the project
is to be performed off-campus or away from organizational headquarters,
this should be explained. Documentation of collaborative arrangements should
be included.
In addition, the application should alert Office of Science officials to unusual
circumstances requiring special treatment, including, for example,
proprietary or other privileged information in the application,
matters affecting individual privacy, required intergovernmental
review under E.O. 12372 for activities that directly affect state
or local governments, or possible national security implications.
Assessment of environmental impact should be included where appropriate.
Proprietary Information
An application that results in a DOE award becomes part of the
record of the transaction and will be available to the public,
except as described below. Information or material that DOE and
the awardee mutually agree to be of a privileged nature will be
held in confidence to the extent permitted by law, including the
Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). Without assuming any
liability for inadvertent disclosure, DOE will seek to limit dissemination
of such information to its employees and, when necessary for evaluation
of the application, to outside reviewers.
Any information such as technical data, trade secrets, privileged
or confidential commercial or financial information, which the
applicant does not want disclosed to the public or used by the
Government for any purpose other than application evaluation,
must be identified. To protect such data, the application should
specifically identify each page including each line or paragraph
thereof containing the data to be protected and mark the cover
sheet of the application with the following Notice as well as
referring to the Notice on each page to which the Notice applies.
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