30 C.F.R. Subpart C—Application, Evaluation, and Management Procedures
Title 30 - Mineral Resources
(a) Only those applications for grants that are in response to and meet the guidelines of specific USGS announcements will be considered for funding appropriated for this program. (b) The USGS program announcements will identify priorities, matching requirements, particular areas of interest, criteria for evaluation, OMB regulations as appropriate, assurances, closing date, and proposal submittal instructions. Program announcements may also include criteria for high-priority subjects of a basic nature that may be funded on other than a dollar-for-dollar basis. Program announcements will be distributed to names on the current USGS mailing list for the Water-Resources Research Program announcements, including new requests received in response to published notices of upcoming program announcements. (c) Notification of the availability of the program announcement will be published in the Commerce Business Daily and/or (d) The application for funds must be signed by an individual or official authorized to commit the applicant and it must contain: (1) A Standard Form 424 “Federal Assistance,” sections I and II completed by applicant, used as the cover sheet for each proposal. (2) A project summary of no more than one typed, single-spaced page providing the following specific information: (i) Identification of the water or water-related problems and the problem-solution approach; (ii) Identification of the proposed scientific contribution of the problem solution; (iii) Concise statement of the specific objectives of the project; (iv) Identification of the approach to be used to accomplish the work; and (v) Identification of potential users of the proposed work. (3) Narrative information, as specified in the published program announcement, such as project title, project objectives, background information, research tasks, methodology to conduct the research task, the relevancy of the proposed project to water-resources problems, qualifications of the principal investigators and their organizations, and proposed budget with supporting information sufficient to allow evaluation of costs. (a) Grant awards will be used to support those portions of the program for which the principal purpose is other than as described in §402.11(b). Program announcements and applications will be governed by the same procedures provided in §402.10. (b) If it is determined that the principal purpose of a planned award (or awards) is to acquire goods or services for the direct benefit or use of the Government, the action must be regarded as a procurement contract. A competitive solicitation prepared in accordance with applicable acquisition regulations will be issued to interested parties. Notification of the availability of any contract solicitation will be published in the Commerce Business Daily, unless waived in accordance with §5.202 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Contracts may be awarded without full and open competition only if justified in accordance with FAR subpart 6.3. (a) Grants. (1) Each grant application will receive technical evaluations from Government and/or non-Government scientific or engineering personnel. Utilizing the criteria for evaluation identified in the applicable announcement, each reviewer will assign a technical score. (2) Grant applications with low technical ratings will be screened out, and the remaining grant applications will be rank-ordered by review panels. (3) USGS program officials will compile a single, consolidated rank-ordered list of the grant applications based on technical scoring, program needs and published priorities, and the available Federal funds. (b) Contracts. Proposals for contract awards will be evaluated by a USGS panel. Contracts will be awarded according to procedures contained in the FAR, the Department of the Interior Acquisition Regulation, and in acquisition policy releases issued by the Department and by the USGS. (a) After the conclusion of negotiations, the USGS will transmit a grant or contract-award document, as appropriate, setting forth the terms of the award. (b) Grants. Recipients will be required to execute funded projects in accordance with OMB Circulars governing cost principles, administrative requirements, and audit, as applicable to their organization type. In addition, OMB Circular A–67, Coordination of Federal Activities in the Acquisition of Certain Water Data, is applicable to awards under these programs. (c) Contracts. Administrative requirements for performance of research contracts will be established in the contract clauses in conformance with applicable procurement regulations and other interior or USGS acquisition policy documents. OMB Circular A–67 will also apply to some contract awards under this program.
Title 30: Mineral Resources
PART 402—WATER-RESOURCES RESEARCH PROGRAM AND THE WATER-RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
Subpart C—Application, Evaluation, and Management Procedures
§ 402.10 Research-project applications.
§ 402.11 Technology-development project applications.
§ 402.12 Evaluation of applications for grants and contracts.
§ 402.13 Program management.
§ 402.14 [Reserved]
