Deadline: 13-Jun-21
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting applications for a single eligible entity to develop and administer a sub award grant program on behalf of the Southeast New England Program (SNEP) to support the Program’s collaborative goals and priorities for coastal watershed restoration.
The SWIG program is intended to provide EPA funding for local, on-the-ground projects that best support the SNEP goals and priorities laid out in its Strategic Plan. In addition to establishing a regional vision and goals, the plan also articulates desired outcomes, priority actions, and a framework for target-setting over the next five years that together provide a pathway for SNEP and its many diverse partners to work towards a thriving and resilient region. They recognize that conditions in the region will change over time, in part in response to SNEP partners’ efforts, and they expect the SWIG program to take an adaptive management approach that both creates and responds to experience and data.
SNEP SWIG Goals
EPA is seeking cost-effective proposals from eligible applicants to solicit, support, and manage subaward projects focused on activities that: address the challenges and opportunities facing the SNEP region ecosystems and communities, including analyzing how well existing efforts are succeeding; contribute to achieving the SNEP vision and goals; and implement projects that carry out SNEP priority actions.
Applicant should demonstrate their ability and approach for managing a SWIG subawards program, including describing how they would work within the existing SNEP partnership framework of the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, two National Estuary Programs, the Cape Cod Commission, and multiple municipalities and environmental organizations; how their efforts would result in improved water quality and restoration of resilient habitat and ecosystem functions; and how projects would address the outcomes and priority actions identified in the SNEP Strategic Plan in a cost-effective and inclusive manner, including actions to:
- increase local capacity to undertake and complete projects and adopt new policies;
- expand use and availability of successful environmental restoration practices, as well as provide opportunities to test and apply innovative approaches;
- ensure diverse representation in program activities and decision-making;
- demonstrate ways to address common challenges; and
- increase community leaders’ understanding of the benefit of restoration projects.
Funding Information
- Funding Amount and Expected Number of Awards: Subject to the availability of appropriated funding and Agency priorities, they expect the total estimated funding available for awards under this competitive opportunity will be up $15 million over a seven-year project period. They expect to provide up to $2 million the first year of the award, and up to $3.25 million annually for the next four years of the project period.
- Expected Project Period: For this RFA, it is EPA’s expectation that the award will have a total project period of up to seven years (October 2021 – September 2028 with funding provided on an annual basis for up to five years. No commitment of funding will be made beyond the first year. The expected start date for the award resulting from this RFA is October 1, 2021.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants under this RFA are state, local, and tribal governments; institutions of higher education; nonprofit institutions and organizations; and interstate agencies. Your organization does not have to be located in the SNEP region.
- For-profit organizations and private businesses, federal agencies, and individuals are not eligible to apply; additionally, non-profit organizations described in Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that engage in lobbying activities are not eligible to apply.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=332725