Yes, applicants whose applications are not selected may resubmit an application as described in Section II.C of the NOFO.
No, the CCGP is not designed as a subaward pass-through program like the Grantmaker Program. While the NOFO does not specify any minimum or maximum amount of grant funds that must be provided via subawards to Collaborating Entities or other subrecipients, as indicated in Section III.B and throughout the NOFO the Lead Applicant is responsible for grant performance. There are evaluation factors in Section V of the NOFO that focus on the Lead Applicant and Statutory Partner’s role in the grant. These factors include experience and expertise, including those related to the Community Engagement and Collaborative Governance Plan, past performance, programmatic and managerial capability and resources, CBO commitment and experience, and the Compliance Plan.
Also please note this language in Section III.B of the NOFO:
“To ensure effective grant performance to meet the objectives of the Community Change Grants outlined in Section I, subawards from the Lead Applicant to other entities to implement and perform specific grant project activities identified in the application will be necessary. These other entities, including the Statutory Partners, are collectively referred to as Collaborating Entities in the NOFO. Given the community centered focus of the Community Change Grants, applications that do not include Collaborating Entities will likely not score well during the evaluation process.”
Generally, yes. As stated in Section III.D of the NOFO: “Applicants whose applications are deemed ineligible for funding consideration because of the threshold eligibility review will be notified within 15 calendar days of the ineligibility determination.” Due to the volume of applications, we anticipate receiving, EPA does not currently plan to provide interim notifications of the status of applications that pass the threshold eligibility reviews.
The Lead Applicant needs to register with SAM.gov to receive a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). Any subrecipients (including the Statutory Partner) or Collaborating Entities that will receive subaward funding must also have a valid UEI. Contractors do not need to register with SAM.gov but keep in mind that the selection of contractors is governed by competitive procurement requirements as described in Appendix G of the NOFO.
The application requirements are described in Section IV of the NOFO. The only template that is provided is the optional budget template in Appendix G of the NOFO. EPA will not provide templates for other portions of the application, but technical assistance may be available to help with application preparation as described in Section I.E of the NOFO.
This was clarified in the modification to the NOFO that was published on December 21, 2023. The application requirements are described in Section IV.B of the NOFO. The Track I Project Narrative 20- page limit does not include the Community Engagement and Collaborative Governance or Community Strength Plans. There are separate page limits for those plans. Please see the relevant parts of the Section IV.B Track I application requirements.
Yes. There is nothing that prevents a recipient that received a separate award from EPA under another program from applying under the NOFO if the entity meets all requirements listed in the NOFO. However, as required by 2 CFR 200.403(f), recipients must have financial management systems capable of ensuring that the same costs are not charged to more than one EPA grant.
Section II.C.2 of the NOFO states that: “Under this NOFO, Lead Applicants, as defined in Section III.A, may submit a maximum of two eligible applications and receive up to two awards if they demonstrate their capacity and capabilities to effectively perform, manage, oversee, and complete both awards within the three-year grant period of performance. The two applications may be either two Track I applications or two Track II applications, or one of each. Lead Applicants who submit more than two total eligible applications will be asked to withdraw the excess one(s). EPA will not review more than two eligible applications from any one Lead Applicant.”
Yes. As stated in Sections II.C and III.D.15 of the NOFO, Lead Applicants can only submit up to two applications under the NOFO. Further, as stated in Section III.D.15, notwithstanding this limitation, a Lead Applicant may be a Statutory Partner or Collaborating Entity on other applications. There is no limit on how many applications an entity can be a Collaborating Entity on as long as the NOFO requirements are met, and all applications are evaluated based on the criteria in Section V of the NOFO.