COVID Operational Assessment – Community Services

This Broad Agency Announcement is a mechanism to encourage research, education and outreach, innovative projects, or sponsorships that are not addressed through NOAA’s competitive discretionary programs. This announcement is not soliciting goods or services for the direct benefit of NOAA. Funding for activities described in this notice is contingent upon the availability of appropriations in the fiscal years applicable to the application. Applicants are hereby given notice that funds have not yet been appropriated for any activities described in this notice. Publication of this announcement does not oblige NOAA to review an application beyond an initial administrative review, or to award any specific project, or to obligate any available funds.NOAA Ocean Exploration is dedicated to exploring the unknown ocean, unlocking its potential through scientific discovery, technological advancements, and data delivery. By working closely with partners across public, private, and academic sectors, we are filling gaps in our basic understanding of the marine environment. This allows us, collectively, to protect ocean health, sustainably manage our marine resources, accelerate our national economy, better understand our changing environment, and enhance appreciation of the importance of the ocean in our everyday lives. NOAA Ocean Exploration operates an education program to raise awareness of the importance of the ocean, ocean exploration, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and is committed to improving America’s environmental literacy by bringing the excitement of ocean exploration and discovery to a wide variety of diverse audiences. Educators and public and private partnerships are essential to this mission. NOAA Ocean Exploration offers many opportunities for educators to learn about NOAA science and technology associated with exploring the ocean in their classrooms. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, school systems have largely reopened but the landscape of the classroom has changed. While many educators and classrooms have evolved to hybrid learning environments, so too have NOAA Ocean Exploration’s education product and delivery methods. Virtual and online offerings have expanded the education program’s audience, reaching previously untapped educators increasing accessibility and inclusion for increasingly-diverse classrooms. Successful proposals directly support NOAA Ocean Exploration priorities including increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the education program; and developing education resources to complement virtual and hybrid education delivery. In addition, successful proposals typically involve multiple partners; are characterized by an interdisciplinary and innovative exploration approach; frequently leverage other programs and organizations with compatible objectives; produce information that will be valuable to state and federal marine resource managers; give consideration to environmental impacts in the project planning and represent the applicant's ability to acquire all necessary permits; explain the plan for making data and results publicly available to advance scientific knowledge and inform environmental management decisions; and provide a plan for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) activities. Funding Opportunity Number: NOAA-NOS-MB-27779. Assistance Listing: 11.015. Funding Instrument: CA,G. Category: ENV,NR,ST.

CDC seeks to enhance the nation’s ability to rapidly mobilize, surge, and respond to public health emergencies (PHEs) as identified by CDC by establishing a roster of approved but unfunded (ABU) applicants that may receive rapid funding to respond to PHEs of such magnitude, complexity, or significance that they would have an overwhelming impact upon, and exceed resources available to, the jurisdictions. Applicants will undergo an objective merit review process, and entities that successfully meet the requirements for approval will be placed on the ABU list. CDC will use this ABU list for emergencies that require federal support to effectively respond to, manage, and address identified public health threats. CDC will make funding related to this NOFO available once it has determined a public health emergency exists or is considered imminent and will be contingent upon the availability and stipulations of appropriations. CDC will provide additional guidance and information to those on the ABU list when this NOFO is funded. Since this NOFO is designed to collect applications prior to a PHE, applicants are encouraged to submit work plans and budgets that demonstrate their ability to respond to a PHE. COVID-19 public health response plans, such as plans funded under CDC-RFA-TP18-1802 in 2020 are acceptable for this purpose. If this NOFO is funded for a specific PHE, CDC will develop supplemental guidance that outlines additional work plan and budget requirements tailored to the emergency. This NOFO is not a capacity-building funding mechanism, and it is not intended to create or establish new public health (PH) emergency management programs. It may be used to re- establish capacity lost or diminished because of the public health crisis. It is designed to support the surge needs of existing programs responding to a significant PHE. CDC will provide supplemental guidance to entities on the ABU list when this NOFO is activated regarding specific activities intended to address the emergency. CDC has strong relationships with governmental PH departments, community-based organizations, and other domestic partners and supports them for planning, capacity-building, preparedness, and response to PHEs. This NOFO complements these ongoing capacity-building preparedness and response programs by providing a mechanism for CDC to rapidly mobilize and fund PH organizations for specific response needs. Applicants must describe how this funding will not duplicate or supplant other federal funding. Upon occurrence of a PHE, CDC can rapidly fund specific applicants to accelerate public health crisis response activities such as coordinating emergency operations, hiring surge staff, and conducting needs assessments to determine the resources necessary to address the public health crisis. The NOFO also provides funding for specialized public health emergency response activities tailored to the specific public health crisis. Funding Opportunity Number: CDC-RFA-TP22-2201. Assistance Listing: 93.354. Funding Instrument: CA. Category: HL. Award Amount: $50K – $5M per award.