Page 1 of 38

2019-NIST-MCVTE-01

Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment

Notice of Funding Opportunity

July 19, 2019

AMENDED NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY (NOFO) FOR NIST Public Safety 

Innovation Accelerator Program - Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment 2019-

NIST-MCVTE-01

NIST is issuing this amendment (Amendment 1) to the NOFO to clarify Application 

Instructions. Specifically, language has been added to address potential submission 

errors associated with the Project Summary/Abstract Field #7. 

Because of the revisions, the submission deadline has been extended to Friday, July 

26, 2019.

# NEW 

PAGE

SECTION WHAT DOES THE 

AMENDMENT DO?

THE NEW TEXT NOW 

READS:

1 3 Executive 

Summary

Extends the application 

due date as a result of 

the evaluation criteria 

revisions.

Applications must be received 

at Grants.gov no later than 

11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, 

Friday, July 26, 2019.

2 14 Research 

and 

Related 

Other 

Project 

Information

Provides instructions to 

address potential 

submission errors 

associated with the 

Project 

Summary/Abstract Field 

#7. 

Please note that the Project 

Summary/Abstract field (#7), 

which has a place to attach an 

optional Project 

Summary/Abstract, is not 

relevant to this competition. 

However, to avoid getting a 

validation error in grants.gov 

applicants will be required to 

attach a blank page to this 

field. Applicants are not 

required to write or provide a 

Project Summary/Abstract, but 

they will be required to attach a 

blank form for the submission 

or else the application will be 

rejected by grants.gov.

3 21 Attachment 

of 

Required 

Documents

Provides instructions to 

address potential 

submission errors 

associated with the 

Project 

Items IV.2.a.(1) through 

IV.2.a.(5) above are part of the 

standard application package 

in Grants.gov and can be 

completed through the 
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2019-NIST-MCVTE-01

Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment

Notice of Funding Opportunity

July 19, 2019

Summary/Abstract Field 

#7. 

download application process. 

Additionally, please attach a 

blank page to field #7 of the 

Project Summary/Abstract field 

of the Research and Related 

Other Project Information form 

to avoid getting a validation 

error in grants.gov.

4 IV.4. Extends the application 

due date as a result of 

the evaluation criteria 

revisions.

Applications must be received 

at Grants.gov no later than 

11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, 

Friday, July 26, 2019.
Page 3 of 38

2019-NIST-MCVTE-01

Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment

Notice of Funding Opportunity

July 19, 2019

NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY (NOFO) -

NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program - Mission Critical Voice Test 

Equipment

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Federal Agency Name: National Institute of Standards and Technology 

(NIST), United States Department of Commerce (DoC)

• Funding Opportunity Title: NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program

– Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment

• Announcement Type: Initial

• Funding Opportunity Number: 2019-NIST-MCVTE-01 AMENDED

• Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 

11.609, Measurement and Engineering Research and Standards

• Dates: Electronic applications must be received at grants.gov no later than 11:59 

p.m. Eastern Time, Friday, July 26, 2019. Applications received after this 

deadline will not be reviewed or considered. Paper applications will not be 

accepted.

Applicants should be aware, and factor in their application submission 

planning, that the Grants.gov system is expected to be closed for routine 

maintenance at the following times:

From 12:01 A.M. Eastern Time

Saturday

To 6:00 A.M. Eastern Time

Monday

July 20, 2019 July 22, 2019

Applications cannot be submitted when Grants.gov is closed.

NIST expects to complete its review, selection of successful applicants, and 

award processing by August 2019. NIST expects the earliest start date for 

awards under this NOFO to be September 2019.

Applicants are strongly urged to read Section IV.2.b. Attachment of Required 

Application Documents of this NOFO with great attention. Applicants should 

carefully follow the instructions and recommendations regarding attachments and 

use the Download Submitted Forms and Applications feature on www.grants.gov 

to check that all required attachments were contained in their submission. 
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2019-NIST-MCVTE-01

Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment

Notice of Funding Opportunity

July 19, 2019

Applications submitted without the required documents will not pass the Initial 

Administrative Review, described in Section V.3.a. of this NOFO. 

When developing the submission timeline, please keep in mind that: (1) all 

applicants are required to have current registrations in the electronic System for 

Award Management (SAM.gov) and Grants.gov; (2) the free annual registration 

process in the SAM.gov (see Section IV.3. and Section IV.7.a.(1).(b) of this 

NOFO) often takes between three and five business days and may take as long 

as two weeks; and (3) applicants will receive e-mail notifications over a period of 

up to two business days as the application moves through intermediate systems 

before the applicant learns via a validation or rejection notification whether NIST 

has received the application. (See grants.gov for full information on application 

and notification through Grants.gov). Please note that a federal assistance award 

cannot be issued if the designated recipient’s registration in the System for 

Award Management (SAM.gov) is not current at the time of the award.

• Application Submission Address: Applications must be submitted using 

Grants.gov.

• Funding Opportunity Description: The NIST Public Safety Innovation 

Accelerator Program: Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment (PSIAP-MCVTE) is 

seeking applications from eligible applicants for activities to produce equipment 

and code required to test communications devices, based on 3rd Generation 

Partnership Project (3GPP) standards, for mission critical push-to-talk technology 

(MCPTT) and related public safety features such as Mission Critical Data 

(MCData) and Mission Critical Video (MCVideo).

• Anticipated Amounts: In FY2019, NIST anticipates funding awards in the range 

of approximately $500,000 to $2,000,000 per year with project performance 

periods of up to 2 years. Total funding for this program is anticipated to be 

approximately $12,000,000.

• Funding Instrument: Cooperative agreement.

• Eligibility: This NOFO is open to all non-Federal entities. Eligible applicants 

include institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, for-profit 

organizations, state and local governments, Indian tribes, hospitals, foreign 

public entities, and foreign governments. Please note that individuals and 

unincorporated sole proprietors are not considered “non-Federal entities” and 

are not eligible to apply under this NOFO. Although Federal entities are not 

eligible to receive funding under this NOFO, they may participate as unfunded 

collaborators.
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2019-NIST-MCVTE-01

Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment

Notice of Funding Opportunity

July 19, 2019

NIST will only consider one application per applicant; however, an applicant 

entity may be proposed as a sub-recipient, contractor, or unfunded 

collaborator within applications submitted by other entities.

• Cost Sharing Requirements: Non-federal cost share is not required for 

awards issued pursuant to this NOFO. However, voluntary committed costshare (e.g., in-kind contributions from partners) may be included in project 

budgets and will be considered as part of the selection factors in Section V.2. of 

this NOFO.

• Public Website, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Webinar: NIST 

has a public website (pscr.gov) that provides information pertaining to this 

Funding Opportunity. NIST anticipates that a “Frequently Asked Questions” 

section or other resource materials will be maintained and updated on the 

website as needed to provide additional guidance and clarifying information that 

may arise related to this Funding Opportunity. Any amendments to this NOFO 

will be announced through Grants.gov.

Applicants must submit all questions pertaining to this funding opportunity via 

e-mail to pscr@nist.gov with ‘MCVTE’ in the subject line. Questions submitted

to NIST may be posted on pscr.gov. Alternatively, applicants may ask 

questions during the informational public webinar as described in the next 

paragraph.

NIST will host a webinar to provide general information regarding this NOFO, 

offer general guidance on preparing applications, and answer questions.

Scheduling details about the webinar will be available at pscr.gov. Proprietary 

technical discussions about specific project ideas will not be permitted during 

the webinar and NIST staff will not critique or provide feedback on specific 

project ideas while they are being developed by an applicant, brought forth 

during the webinar, or at any time before the deadline for all applications. 

However, general questions about the PSIAP, eligibility requirements, 

evaluation and award criteria, selection process, and the general 

characteristics of a competitive application will be addressed at the webinar 

and by e-mail to pscr@nist.gov, as described in the previous paragraph. There 

is no cost to attend the webinar, but participants must register in advance. 

Participation in the webinar is not required and will not be considered in the

application review and selection process.

Table of Contents

I. Program Description................................................................................................ 6

II. Federal Award Information.................................................................................... 11
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2019-NIST-MCVTE-01

Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment

Notice of Funding Opportunity

July 19, 2019

III. Eligibility Information ............................................................................................. 11

IV. Application and Submission Information ............................................................... 12

V. Application Review Information ............................................................................. 28

VI. Federal Award Administration Information ............................................................ 33

VII. Federal Awarding Agency Contacts ...................................................................... 37

VIII. Other Information .................................................................................................. 37

FULL ANNOUNCEMENT TEXT

I. Program Description

The statutory authority for the NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program is 15

U.S.C. § 3706 and 47 U.S.C. § 1443.

The NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program: Mission Critical Voice Test 

Equipment (PSIAP-MCVTE) is seeking applications from eligible applicants for 

activities to develop test equipment and associated code required to test 

communications devices, based on 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) 

standards, for mission critical push-to-talk technology (MCPTT) and related public 

safety features such as Mission Critical Data (MCData) and Mission Critical Video 

(MCVideo). These goals, and specific technical areas of research in the PSIAPMCVTE program, are discussed in detail in Section I.4. of this NOFO.

1. Background

The Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) division, housed within the 

NIST Communications Technology Laboratory, conducts research for the first 

responder community. In 2012, NIST was mandated by Congress1to, among other 

things, “accelerate the development of mission critical voice for the nationwide public 

safety broadband network”. PSCR conducted extensive stakeholder engagement 

starting in 2013 to address the requirements of the legislation, including hosting two 

roundtable events in 2016 and 2017 focused on Mission Critical Voice (MCV) with 

stakeholders from public safety, government, and industry. In addition to funding 

internal research addressing these areas, in 2017 the PSIAP awarded $14M for nine 

grants and cooperative agreements to address aspects related to the MCV portfolio 

goals. Specific areas of these awards include research into MCPTT and Device-todevice (D2D) functionality. Outcomes of these awards include the creation of a 

commercial grade MCPTT application server, MCPTT Android applications, and 

 

1 47 U.S.C. § 1443(b)(4) – Public safety wireless communications research and development
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2019-NIST-MCVTE-01

Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment

Notice of Funding Opportunity

July 19, 2019

development of the full Proximity Services (ProSe) Sidelink protocol stack. More 

information about the MCV portfolio, PSIAP, and PSCR can be found at pscr.gov.

Wireless telecommunications service providers, also called mobile network 

operators (MNOs), complete several overlapping testing processes prior to 

releasing new communications devices. These processes include (but are not 

limited to) regulatory testing to meet government standards, industry certification 

by telecommunications industry forums such as the PTCRB2, and user testing 

within the MNO laboratories. The test standards and procedures processes meet 

the needs for commercial devices used under typical circumstances by civilians. 

However, these test standards and procedures cannot ensure a device’s proper 

performance for public safety purposes. Communication devices must work

seamlessly across a broad range of geographic and network conditions to be 

suitable for public safety users, which are not represented in typical test cases.

Although standardized test cases for industry certifications have been written for 

public safety features, the test equipment manufacturers have not yet produced 

equipment to support the test cases for public safety equipment features. Without 

the proper test equipment, public safety features will not be tested in industry 

certifications such the PTCRB. Some aspects of features may be tested later in 

MNO-specific labs, but the scope of testing will be severely limited due to the 

inability to automate the testing and properly manipulate the Radio Frequency (RF)

environment.

The limited availability of fully translated test cases has also hampered progress 

toward a standardized public safety communications device testing process. Test 

cases for public safety features have been written and published in the 3rd 

Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)3, the standards organization responsible 

 

2 PTCRB is now a pseudo-acronym, although it originally stood for PCS Type Certification Review Board. 

PCS is an acronym for Personal Communications Services. See http://www.ptcrb.com.

3 Mission Critical Services test cases in 3GPP are found in technical specifications TS 36.579-1 through 

TS 36.579-7: 

TS 36.579-1 "Mission Critical (MC) services over LTE; Part 1: Common test environment"

TS 36.579-2 "Mission Critical (MC) services over LTE; Part 2: Mission Critical Push To Talk (MCPTT) 

User Equipment (UE) Protocol conformance specification"

TS 36.579-3 "Mission Critical (MC) services over LTE; Part 3: Mission Critical Push To Talk (MCPTT) 

Server Application conformance specification"

TS 36.579-4"Mission Critical (MC) services over LTE; Part 4: Test Applicability and Implementation 

Conformance Statement (ICS) proforma specification"

TS 36.579-5 "Mission Critical (MC) services over LTE; Part 5: Abstract test suite (ATS)"

TS 36.579-6 "Mission Critical (MC) services over LTE; Part 6: Mission Critical Video (MCVideo) User 

Equipment (UE) Protocol conformance specification"

TS 36.579-7 "Mission Critical (MC) services over LTE; Part 7: Mission Critical Data (MCData) User 

Equipment (UE) Protocol conformance specification"
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2019-NIST-MCVTE-01

Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment

Notice of Funding Opportunity

July 19, 2019

for creating 4G LTE and public safety broadband features such as MCPTT. Test 

equipment manufacturers require the test cases to be fully translated into Testing 

and Test Control Notation Code (TTCN) in order to fully support the standardized 

cases on their specific test equipment. Specifically, TTCN-3 is used. TTCN is a test 

specification language and a standardized testing technology designed for testing 

and certification.4 The 3GPP has started to translate the public safety feature test 

cases into TTCN, but translations are still ongoing due to limited resources.

In 2016, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) announced its intention 

to develop device types and applications to meet public safety use cases identified 

by public safety users. FirstNet created its own carrier acceptance test plan that 

focuses on validating a device is safe for use on the Nationwide Public Safety 

Broadband Network (NPSBN), testing device features unique to public safety, and 

testing performance aspects of the NPSBN that are above and beyond the 3GPP 

and other specifications. The FirstNet device approval process includes a variety of 

testing and certification in areas such as interference, operation, environmental 

factors, and security. At the moment, a missing component to the testing 

ecosystem that FirstNet and other MNOs wish to deploy for testing public safety 

features is test equipment that supports 3GPP public safety test cases. The goals 

of this NOFO aim to address this shortcoming.

There has been some, albeit limited, public safety functionality implemented in test 

equipment. For example, some test equipment manufacturers have included the 

ability for high-power user equipment RF conformance tests. However, MCPTT 

and related features has remained unsupported across all test equipment 

manufacturers.

2. Research Opportunity

The intent of this NOFO is to produce test equipment and code required to test 

communications devices for MCPTT and related public safety features such as 

Mission Critical Data (MCData) and Mission Critical Video (MCVideo).

Award recipients will help achieve this by producing test equipment and associated

code that supports the 3GPP-created test cases for MCPTT and, optionally, MCData 

and MCVideo. The test equipment and associated code that supports public safety 

features will enable the industry testing labs to start testing public safety features. The 

projects can include the participation in 3GPP to help translate existing public safety 

feature test cases into the TTCN code, edit existing test cases, and create new public 

 

See http://www.3gpp.org/DynaReport/TSG-WG--R5.htm?Itemid=425

4 See http://www.ttcn-3.org
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safety feature test cases. Award recipients, after the conclusion of the award period, 

will have the ability to market and sell the outputs of their funded projects.

Additionally, award recipients will have the opportunity in the future to compete for a 

second award to further develop their test equipment and code to incorporate offnetwork requirements for 3GPP Release 13, 14, and beyond. 

3. Basic Competition Information

Applicants must address all goals defined in Section I.4.

The recipient P.I. will be required to attend the PSCR Public Safety Broadband 

Stakeholder Meetings (approximately five days) each calendar year during the term 

of the award to meet with stakeholders from public safety, government, industry, and 

academia and to present key plans and findings of their work to date. Other essential 

project staff are encouraged to attend. This event should be reflected in the project 

schedule and budget. 

Once testing is completed at the PSCR Laboratory, if a Recipient wishes to have their 

test equipment returned, NIST will do so at the Recipients’ expense. 

4. Technical Program Goals

Goal 1. On-network Release 13 MCPTT

The Radio Access Network (RAN) Working Group 5 (RAN5)5 within the 3GPP created 

the technical specifications for testing MCPTT. The technical specifications are 3GPP 

TS 36.579-1 through TS 36.579-5 for Release 13. These specifications include the 

creation of TTCN code based on the test cases which is created by the 3GPP Task 

Force 160. Although the creation of the TTCN code is ongoing, the Task Force 160 is 

scheduled to have the TTCN code complete by the end of the calendar year 2019 or 

shortly after. Many test cases are already complete.

To enable testing of public safety devices for on-network MCPTT, applicants must 

create test equipment or add features to existing test equipment that support onnetwork MCPTT test cases which are defined in Chapters 5 and 6 from 3GPP TS 

36.579-2 (Release 13). For the purposes of this NOFO, “on-network” MCPTT means 

that a device-under-test will communicate, via an MCPTT Client, with the test 

equipment's MCPTT Server and associated servers and simulated MCPTT Clients.

Although the LTE Uu interface is preferred, the technology to connect the deviceunder-test with the test equipment is left up to the applicant. For example, an IP-based 

solution can be implemented in lieu of the LTE Uu interface. The system simulator of 

 

5 https://www.3gpp.org/specifications-groups/ran-plenary/ran5-mobile-terminal-conformance-testing
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2019-NIST-MCVTE-01

Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program – Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment

Notice of Funding Opportunity

July 19, 2019

the test equipment will need to support the signaling and procedures as described in 

3GPP technical specifications6 TS 24.379, TS 24.380, TS 24.481, TS 24.482, TS 

24.483, TS 24.484, and TS 33.179.

Goal 2. On-network Release 14 MCPTT, MCVideo, and MCData

RAN5 is currently creating MCVideo and MCData test cases. These test cases are 

defined in Release 14 and included in 3GPP TS 36.579-6 (MCVideo) and 3GPP TS 

36.579-7 (MCData). Currently, RAN5 is scheduled to complete 3GPP TS 36.579-6 and 

TS 36.579-7 by the end of the calendar year 2019 or shortly after. The TTCN should 

be completed shortly after the release of 3GPP TS 36.579-6 and 3GPP TS 36.579-7.

RAN5 is also updating 3GPP TS 36.579-2 for Release 14 MCPTT test cases.

To enable testing of public safety devices for on-network MCVideo and MCdata, 

applicants must create test equipment or add features to existing test equipment that 

support on-network MCVideo and MCData test cases which are defined in 3GPP TS 

36.579-6 and 3GPP TS 36.579-7. For the purposes of this NOFO, “on-network” 

MCVideo means that a device-under-test will communicate, via an MCVideo Client, 

with the test equipment's MCVideo Server and associated servers and simulated 

MCVideo Clients. “On-network” MCData means that a device-under-test will 

communicate, via an MCData Client, with the test equipment's MCData Server and 

associated servers and simulated MCData Clients. Although the LTE Uu interface is 

preferred, the technology to connect the device-under-test with the test equipment is 

left up to the applicant. For example, an IP-based solution can be implemented in lieu 

of the LTE Uu interface. The system simulator of the test equipment will need to 

support the signaling and procedures as described in 3GPP technical specifications 

TS 24.281, TS 24.581, TS 24.282, TS 24.582, TS 24.481, TS 24.482, TS 24.483, TS 

24.484, and TS 33.180.

To enable testing of public safety devices for on-network Release 14 MCPTT, 

applicants must create test equipment or add features to existing test equipment that 

support on-network MCPTT test cases which are defined in Chapters 5 and 6 from 

3GPP TS 36.579-2 (Release 14). For the purposes of this NOFO, “on-network” 

MCPTT means that a device-under-test will communicate, via an MCPTT Client, with 

the test equipment's MCPTT Server and associated servers and simulated MCPTT 

Clients. Although the LTE Uu interface is preferred, the technology to connect the 

device-under-test with the test equipment is left up to the applicant. For example, an 

IP-based solution can be implemented in lieu of the LTE Uu interface. The system 

simulator of the test equipment will need to support the signaling and procedures as 

described in 3GPP technical specifications TS 24.379, TS 24.380, TS 24.481, TS 

24.482, TS 24.483, TS 24.484, and TS 33.180. 

5. Subsequent Competition for Award Recipients

 

6 https://www.3gpp.org/DynaReport/status-report.htm
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Organizations that receive awards through this competition will have the exclusive 

opportunity to compete for additional funding. The subsequent competition, which will 

take place at or near the conclusion of the period of performance for the awards made 

from this competition, will focus on incorporating off-network 3GPP Release 13 

MCPTT and off-network 3GPP Release 14 and beyond MCPTT, MCData, and 

MCVideo technologies into the test equipment and code developed in the 2019-NISTMCVTE-01 competition.

NIST will publish a separate NOFO for the subsequent competition at the appropriate 

time. Award recipients from this competition will be notified when that NOFO becomes 

available. Only award recipients from the 2019-NIST-MCVTE-01 competition will be 

eligible to compete in the subsequent competition. 

II. Federal Award Information

1. Funding Instrument

The funding instrument used in this program will be cooperative agreements. The 

nature of NIST’s “substantial involvement” will generally include collaboration 

with the recipients in conducting the approved scope of work.

2. Multi-Year Funding Policy

When an application for a multi-year award is approved, funding will usually be 

provided for only the first year of the project. If a project is selected for funding, 

NIST has no obligation to provide any additional funding with that award. 

Continuation of an award to increase funding or extend the period of 

performance is at the sole discretion of NIST. Continued funding will be 

contingent upon satisfactory performance, continued relevance to the mission 

and priorities of the Public Safety Communications Research Division, and the 

availability of funds. Under this NOFO, NIST may elect to fully fund awards or to 

fund awards in accordance with the Multi-Year Funding policy.

3. Funding Availability

In FY2019, NIST anticipates funding awards in the range of approximately

$500,000 to $2,000,000 per year with project performance periods of up to 2

years. Total funding for this program is anticipated to be approximately 

$12,000,000.

III. Eligibility Information

1. Eligible Applicants

This NOFO is open to all non-Federal entities. Eligible applicants include 

institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, 
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state and local governments, Indian tribes, hospitals, foreign public entities, and 

foreign governments. Please note that individuals and unincorporated sole 

proprietors are not considered “non-Federal entities” and are not eligible to apply 

under this NOFO. Although Federal entities are not eligible to receive funding 

under this NOFO, they may participate as unfunded collaborators.

NIST will only consider one application per applicant; however, an applicant entity 

may be proposed as a subrecipient, contractor, or unfunded collaborator within 

applications submitted by other entities.

2. Cost Sharing or Matching

Matching funds are not required. However, voluntary committed cost-share (e.g., 

in-kind contributions from partners) may be included in project budgets and will be 

considered as part of the selection factors in Section V.2. of this NOFO.

IV. Application and Submission Information

1. Address to Request Application Package

The application package is available at grants.gov under Funding Opportunity 

Number 2019-NIST-PSIAP-MCVTE-01. 

2. Content and Form of Application Submission

a. Required Forms and Documents. The Application must contain the 

following:

(1) SF-424 (R&R), Application for Federal Assistance. The SF-424 (R&R) 

must be signed by an authorized representative of the applicant 

organization. 

For SF-424 (R&R), Items 5, 14, and 19, use the Zip Code + 4 format 

(##### -####) when addresses are called for.

For SF-424 (R&R), Item 17, the list of certifications and assurances is 

contained in the SF-424B (item 3 below).

SF-424 (R&R), Item 18. If the SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities 

form (item (6) below) is applicable, attach it to field 18. 

Instructions for filling in the SF-424 (R&R) can be found in the 2019-NISTPSIAP-MCVTE-01 Application Instructions document found on 

Grants.gov, as well as at Instructions SF-424 (R&R), Application for 

Federal Assistance. 
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(2) Research & Related Budget (Total Fed + Non-Fed). The budget 

should reflect anticipated expenses for the full term of the project, 

considering all potential cost increases, including cost of living 

adjustments. 

The budget should be detailed in these categories:

A. Senior/Key Person;

B. Other Personnel;

C. Equipment Description;

D. Travel;

E. Participant/Trainee Support Costs;

F. Other Direct Costs;

G. Direct Costs (automatically generated);

H. Indirect Costs;

I. Total Direct and Indirect Costs (automatically generated);

J. Fee (not relevant to this competition);

K. Total Costs and Fee (automatically generated);

L. Budget Narrative and Justification document (item (8) below) should be 

attached to field L.

A separate detailed R&R Budget must be completed for each budget 

period during the proposed award (e.g. annual basis). To add additional 

budget periods (e.g. year 2), click “Add Period” embedded at the end of 

the form. Instructions for completing the Research & Related Budget 

(Total Fed + Non-Fed) form can be found in the 2019-NIST-MCVTE-01

Application Instructions document on Grants.gov, as well as at Instructions 

Research & Related Budget (Total Fed + Non-Fed) – Budget.

(3) SF-424B, Assurances – Non-Construction Programs. The SF-424B is 

required for all applicants that have not updated their System for Award 

Management (SAM.gov) entity registration since February 2, 2019 to 

include the Federal financial assistance certifications and representations 

(certs and reps). If an applicant has updated their SAM.gov entity 

registration since February 2, 2019 to include the certifications and 

representations, then the SF-424B is not required. 

(4) CD-511, Certification Regarding Lobbying. Enter “2019-NIST-PSIAPMCVTE-01” in the Award Number field. Enter the title of the application, 

or an abbreviation of that title, in the Project Name field.

(5) Research and Related Other Project Information. Answer the 

highlighted questions and use this form to attach the Project Narrative

(item (7) below), the Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (item (9) below), and 
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the Data Management Plan (item (11) below). Instructions for completing 

the Research and Related Other Project Information can be found in the 

2019-NIST-PSIAP-MCVTE-01 Application Instructions document on 

Grants.gov, as well as at Instructions Research and Related Other Project 

Information. Please note that the Project Summary/Abstract field (#7), 

which has a place to attach an optional Project Summary/Abstract, is not 

relevant to this competition. However, to avoid getting a validation error in 

grants.gov applicants will be required to attach a blank page to this field. 

Applicants are not required to write or provide a Project 

Summary/Abstract, but they will be required to attach a blank form for the 

submission or else the application will be rejected by grants.gov.

(6) SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities (if applicable). 

(7) Project Narrative.

Section Page Limit

Project Narrative 

- Quad Chart 1

Project Narrative 

- Executive Summary 1

Project Narrative 

- Technical Proposal (total) 24

- Project Description 15

- Project Execution 6

- Qualifications 3

A. Cover Page. The cover page should include the project title, identify 

the primary applicant, PI, and partner organizations, and any 

statements regarding confidentiality.

B. Table of Contents.

C. Quad Chart. The quad chart must consist of the following four 

sections, clockwise from top-left: 1) a problem statement; 2) the 

concept of the proposed project; 3) the potential impact of the project; 

4) key milestones and/or deliverables. The quad chart must not 

exceed one (1) page. Any material provided beyond the one (1) page 

limit will be redacted and not provided to the reviewers.

D. Executive Summary. This section should summarize key aspects of 

the technical approach and qualifications of the team. This section 

must not include any proprietary or sensitive business information as 

NIST may make the executive summary available to the public after 
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selection of awards. The executive summary must not exceed one 

(1) page. Any executive summary material provided beyond this onepage limit will be redacted and not provided to the reviewers.

E. Technical Proposal. The Technical Proposal is a document that is 

responsive to the program description (see Section I. of this NOFO) 

and the evaluation criteria (see Section V.1. of this NOFO). Any 

material provided beyond the specified page limits (see Section 

IV.2.c.(4) of this NOFO) will be redacted and not provided to the 

reviewers. The Technical Proposal must contain the following 

information:

i. Project Description. This is a detailed description of the 

proposed project and potential impacts. This section must 

include:

(a) Detailed description of the approach to address 

the goals and requirements of this NOFO and 

how the proposed activities will impact and 

benefit public safety.

(b) Proposed list of technical outputs, details on how these 

outputs will be made available to the broader public 

safety and R&D communities, and how their adoption 

and impact will be tracked.

(c) Expected long-term impacts beyond the NOFO award 

period to include stimulating additional R&D and 

market investment.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the 

Technical Merit evaluation criteria: (see Section V.1.a. of this 

NOFO). The Project Description section must not exceed 

fifteen (15) pages. Any Project Description material 

provided beyond this fifteen-page limit will be redacted and 

not provided to the reviewers.

ii. Project Execution. This section should provide clear and 

quantifiable goals, milestones, timelines, and methods to 

assess progress and performance towards achieving the 

objectives in the Technical Proposal. This section must 

include:

(a) A summary of the overall approach to executing 

the goals of this NOFO and how the schedule, 

deliverables, milestones, and risk management 

will maximize the applicant's chances of 

achieving the goals of this NOFO.
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(b) A detailed project schedule (Gantt chart or

similar) for the entire prize competition.

(c) A deliverable summary table identifying all 

deliverables, a description of each, and due 

dates.

(d) A milestone summary table identifying all 

milestones, a description of each, due dates, and 

clear, measurable criteria to verify milestone 

completion.

(e) A risk summary table identifying major risks 

during each phase of the prize competition and 

mitigation strategies.

(f) A description of the cost effectiveness and value 

of the proposed project in terms of meeting the 

stated objectives.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Project 

Execution evaluation criterion (see Section V.1.b. of this 

NOFO). The Project Execution section must not exceed 

six (6) pages. Any Project Execution material provided 

beyond this six-page limit will be redacted and not provided 

to the reviewers.

iii. Qualifications. This section should provide detailed 

examples demonstrating:

(a) Qualifications of the individuals, teams, and 

organizations that will be executing or supporting 

the proposed project relative to the program 

goals.

(b) Demonstrated success executing projects similar 

in scope and magnitude to the proposed project.

(c) Access to the necessary staff, equipment, 

facilities, support, and resources to accomplish 

the proposed objectives.

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the 

Qualifications evaluation criterion (see Section V.1.c. of this 

NOFO). The Qualifications section must not exceed 

three (3) pages. Any Qualifications material provided 

beyond this three-page limit will be redacted and not 

provided to the reviewers.

F. Resume(s). 
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Resumes are required for all key personnel, including the principal 

investigator/project lead. Awardees are advised that any changes to 

individuals deemed ‘key personnel’, including disengagement from the 

project for more than three months or a 25% reduction of effort, will 

require prior approval, in writing, by the NIST Grants Officer. 

This section will be evaluated in accordance with the Qualifications 

evaluation criterion (see Section V.1.c. of this NOFO). There are no page 

limits for resumes. However, any material considered inappropriate for 

inclusion in a resume (e.g. supplementary text for another section) will be 

redacted and not provided to the reviewers.

Resumes do not count against the page limit of the Technical Proposal.

(8) Budget Narrative and Justification. 

There is no set format for the Budget Narrative and Justification; however, 

further explanation must be provided for the specific cost categories and 

line items identified in the Instructions Research & Related Budget (Total 

Fed + Non-Fed) – Budget, as well as any other information you deem 

necessary for NIST’s consideration. The Budget Justification or Budget 

Narrative must be attached to the Research & Related Budget (Total Fed 

+ Non-Fed).

The written justification should include the necessity and the basis for the 

cost. Proposed funding levels must be consistent with the project scope, 

and only allowable costs should be included in the budget. Information on 

cost allowability is available in the Uniform Administrative Requirements, 

Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards at 2 C.F.R. 

Part 200 (http://go.usa.gov/SBYh), which apply to awards in this program.

The Budget Narrative should also address the match of budget to the 

proposed work (see the evaluation criteria in Section V.1.b. of this NOFO).

Information needed for each category is as follows:

A. Senior/Key Person – At a minimum, the budget justification should 

include the following: name, job title, commitment of effort on the 

proposed project in terms of average number of hours per week or 

percentage of time, salary rate, total direct charges on the proposed 

project, description of the role of the individual on the proposed project 

and the work to be performed.

Fringe benefits should be identified separately from salaries and 

wages and based on rates determined by organizational policy. The 
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items included in the fringe benefit rate (e.g. health insurance, parking, 

etc.) should not be charged under another cost category.

B. Other Personnel - Data is requested at the project role level, and 

not at the individual level for Other Personnel. The budget justification 

should include the following: job title, commitment of effort on the 

proposed project in terms of average number of hours per week or 

percentage of time, salary rate, total direct charges on the proposed 

project, description of the role of the position on the proposed project 

and the work to be performed.

Fringe benefits should be identified separately from salaries and 

wages and based on rates determined by organizational policy. The 

items included in the fringe benefit rate (e.g. health insurance, parking, 

etc.) should not be charged under another cost category.

C. Equipment Description – Equipment is defined as an item of 

property that has an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more (unless the 

organization has established lower levels) and an expected service life 

of more than one year. Any items that do not meet the threshold for 

equipment can be included under the supplies line item. The budget 

justification should list each piece of equipment, the cost, and a 

description of how it will be used and why it is necessary to the 

successful completion of the proposed project. Please note that any 

general use equipment (computers, etc.) charged directly to the award 

should be allocated to the award according to expected usage on the 

project. Applicants should provide at least two (2) quotes, if available, 

for equipment costing $25,000 or more. If two (2) quotes are not 

available, please provide a statement as to why two (2) quotes are not 

available.

Any items that do not meet the threshold for equipment can be 

included under the Materials and Supplies line item in Section F, Other 

Direct Costs.

D. Travel - For all travel costs, required by the recipient to complete 

the project, including attendance at any relevant conferences, the 

budget justification for travel should include the following: destination; 

names or number of people traveling; dates and/or duration; mode of 

transportation, lodging and subsistence rates; and description of how 

the travel is directly related to the proposed project. For travel that is 

yet to be determined, please provide best estimates based on prior 

experience. If a destination is not known, an approximate amount may 

be used with the assumptions given for the location of the meeting. 
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F. Other Direct Costs – For costs that do not easily fit into the other 

cost categories, please list the cost, and the breakdown of the total 

costs by quantity or unit of cost. Include the necessity of the cost for 

the completion of the proposed project. Only allowable costs can be 

charged to the award. 

Each subaward or contractual cost or should be treated as a separate 

item in the Other Direct Costs category. Describe the services to be 

provided and the necessity of the subaward or contract to the 

successful performance of the proposed project. Contracts are for 

obtaining goods and services. Subawardees perform part of the project 

scope of work. For each subaward, applicants must provide budget 

detail justifying the cost of the work performed on the project.

H. Indirect Costs - Commonly referred to as Facilities & 

Administrative Costs, Indirect Costs are defined as costs incurred by 

the applicant organization that cannot otherwise be directly assigned or 

attributed to a specific project. For more details, see Section IV.2.a.(9) 

of this NOFO).

(9) Indirect Cost Rate Agreement. 

If indirect costs are included in the proposed budget, provide a copy of the 

approved negotiated agreement if this rate was negotiated with a 

cognizant Federal audit agency. If the rate was not established by a 

cognizant Federal audit agency, provide a statement to this effect. If the 

successful applicant includes indirect costs in the budget and has not 

established an indirect cost rate with a cognizant Federal audit agency, 

the applicant will be required to obtain such a rate in accordance with the 

Department of Commerce Financial Assistance Standard Terms and 

Conditions dated April 30, 2019, accessible HERE.

Alternatively, in accordance with 2 C.F.R. § 200.414(f), applicants that 

have never received a negotiated indirect cost rate may elect to charge 

indirect costs to an award pursuant to a de minimis rate of 10 percent of 

modified total direct costs (MTDC), in which case a negotiated indirect 

cost rate agreement is not required. Applicants proposing a 10 percent de 

minimis rate pursuant to 2 C.F.R. § 200.414(f) should note this election as 

part of the budget portion of the application.

(10) Letters of Commitment. 

Letters of Commitment must be submitted by all funded and unfunded 

entities that will have an active role in executing the activities outlined in 
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the Technical Proposal. Letters of Commitment must address the level of 

participation, qualifications of the personnel who will be actively involved, 

and how successful completion of this project would positively impact their 

profession or community. Letters of Commitment must also specify any 

voluntary committed cost-share, including the specific services and/or 

products to be used in the project. Letters of Commitment must be signed 

by an individual with sufficient authority to legally bind the organization to 

its commitment. 

Letters of Commitment will be evaluated in accordance with the 

Qualifications evaluation criteria (see Section V.1.c.) of this NOFO).

Letters of commitment do not count against the twenty (20) page limit of 

the Technical Proposal.

(11) Data Management Plan. 

Consistent with NIST Policy 5700.007, Managing Public Access to Results 

of Federally Funded Research, and NIST Order 5701.008, Managing 

Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research”, applicants must

include a Data Management Plan (DMP).

The DMP is a supplementary document of not more than two pages that 

must include, at a minimum, a summary of proposed activities that are 

expected to generate data, a summary of the types of data expected to be 

generated by the identified activities, a plan for storage and maintenance 

of the data expected to be generated by the identified activities, and a plan 

describing whether and how data generated by the identified activities will 

be reviewed and made available to the public. As long as the DMP meets 

these NIST requirements, it may take the form specified by the applicant’s 

institution or some other entity (e.g., the National Science Foundation9 or 

the National Institutes of Health10).

All applications for activities that will generate scientific data using NIST 

funding are required to adhere to a DMP or explain why data sharing 

and/or preservation are not within the scope of the project.

For the purposes of the DMP, NIST adopted the definition of “research 

data” at 2 C.F.R. § 200.315(e)(3) (available at http://go.usa.gov/3sZvQ). 

Reasonable costs for data preservation and access may be included in 

the application.

 

7 https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017/05/09/Final-P-5700.pdf

8 https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017/05/09/Final-O-5701_0.pdf 

9 http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp

10 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_sharing/data_sharing_guidance.htm
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The inclusion of the DMP will be considered as part of the administrative 

review (see Section V.3.a. of this NOFO); however, the DMP will not be 

evaluated against any evaluation criteria.

(12) Subaward Budget Form. The Research & Related Subaward Budget 

Attachment Form is required if sub-recipients and contractors are included 

in the application budget. Instructions for completing subaward budget 

forms are found at: Subaward Budget Instructions .

(13) Current and Pending Support Form.

Any application that includes investigators, researchers, and key 

personnel must identify all sources of current and potential funding, 

including this proposal. Any current project support (e.g. Federal, state, 

local, public or private foundations, etc.) must be listed on this form. The 

proposed project and all other projects or activities requiring a portion of 

time of the Principal Investigator (PI), co-PI, and key personnel must be 

included, even if no salary support is received. The total award amount for 

the entire award period covered, including indirect costs, must be shown 

as well as the number of person-months per year to be devoted to the 

project, regardless of the source of support. Similar information must be 

provided for all proposals already submitted or that are being submitted 

concurrently to other potential funders.

Applicants must complete the Current and Pending Support Form, using 

multiple forms as necessary to account for all activity for each individual 

identified in the PI, co-PI and key personnel roles. A separate form should 

be used for each identified individual. 

Applicants must download the Current and Pending Support Form from 

the NIST website:

https://www.nist.gov/oaam/grants-management-division/current-andpending-support and reference the guidance provided as it contains 

information to assist with accurately completing the form. 

b. Attachment of Required Documents

Items IV.2.a.(1) through IV.2.a.(5) above are part of the standard application 

package in Grants.gov and can be completed through the download 

application process. Additionally, please attach a blank page to field #7 of the 

Project Summary/Abstract field of the Research and Related Other Project 

Information form to avoid getting a validation error in grants.gov.

Item IV.2.a.(6), the SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities form, is an 
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optional application form which is part of the standard application package in 

Grants.gov. If item IV.2.a.(6), the SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities 

form is applicable to this proposal, attach it to field 18 of the SF-424 (R&R), 

Application for Federal Assistance.

Item IV.2.a.(7), the Project Narrative, should be attached to field 8 (Project 

Narrative) of the Research and Related Other Project Information form by 

clicking on “Add Attachment”.

Item IV.2.a.(8), the Budget Narrative and Justification, should be attached to 

field L (Budget Justification) of the Research and Related Budget (Total Fed + 

Total Non-Fed) form by clicking on “Add Attachment”.

Items IV.2.a.(9), the Indirect Cost Rate Agreement, IV.2.a.(10), Letters of 

Commitment, and IV.2.a.(11), the Data Management Plan, must be 

completed and attached by clicking on “Add Attachments” found in item 12 

(Other Attachments) of the Research and Related Other Project Information 

form. 

Item IV.2.a.(12), the Subaward Budget Form(s), if applicable to the 

submission, should be attached to the Research & Related Subaward Budget 

(Total Fed + Non-Fed) Attachment(s) Form in the application package.

Item IV.2.a.(13), the Current and Pending Support Form must be completed 

and attached by clicking on “Add Attachments” found in item 13 (Other 

Attachments) of the Research and Related Other Project Information form.

Following these directions will create zip files which permit transmittal of the 

documents electronically via Grants.gov. 

Applicants should carefully follow specific Grants.gov instructions at 

www.grants.gov to ensure the attachments will be accepted by the 

Grants.gov system. A receipt from Grants.gov indicates only that an 

application was transferred to a system. It does not provide details concerning 

whether all attachments (or how many attachments) transferred successfully. 

Applicants using Grants.gov will receive a series of e-mail messages over a 

period of up to two business days before learning whether a Federal agency’s 

electronic system has received its application.

Applicants are strongly advised to use Grants.gov’s “Download Submitted 

Forms and Applications” option to check that their application’s required 

attachments were contained in their submission.
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After submitting the application, check the status of your application here: 

CHECK APPLICATION STATUS

If any, or all, of the required attachments are absent from the submission, 

follow the attachment directions found above, resubmit the application, and 

check again for the presence of the required attachments. 

If the directions found at the Grants.gov help page are not effective, please 

contact the Grants.gov Help Desk immediately. If calling from within the 

United States or from a U.S. territory, please call 800-518-4726. If calling from 

a place outside the United States or a U.S. territory, please call 606-545-

5035. E-mails should be addressed to support@grants.gov. Assistance from 

the Grants.gov Help Desk will be available around the clock every day, with 

the exception of Federal holidays. Help Desk service will resume at 7:00 a.m. 

Eastern Time the day after Federal holidays.

Applicants can track their submission in the Grants.gov system by following 

the procedures at the Grants.gov site (http://go.usa.gov/cjamz). It can take up 

to two business days for an application to fully move through the Grants.gov 

system to NIST.

NIST uses the Tracking Numbers assigned by Grants.gov and does not issue 

Agency Tracking Numbers.

c. Application Format

(1) Paper, E-mail and Facsimile (fax) Submissions. Will not be accepted.

(2) Figures, Graphs, Images, and Pictures. Should be of a size that is 

easily readable or viewable and may be landscape orientation. Any 

figures, graphs, images, or pictures will count toward the fifteen (15) page 

limit for the Project Description.

(3) Font. Easy to read font (12-point minimum). Smaller type may be used in 

figures and tables but must be clearly legible.

(4) Page Limits. See the table below:

Section Page Limit

Project Narrative 

- Quad Chart

1

Project Narrative 

- Executive Summary

1
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Project Narrative 

- Technical Proposal (total)

24

- Project Description 15

- Project Execution 6

- Qualifications 3

Data Management Plan 2

(5) Page Limit Excludes: SF-424 (R&R), Application for Federal Assistance; 

Research & Related Budget (Total Fed + Non-Fed); SF-424B, Assurances 

– Non-Construction Programs; CD-511, Certification Regarding Lobbying; 

Research and Related Other Project Information; SF-LLL, Disclosure of 

Lobbying Activities (if applicable); Cover Page of the Project Narrative; 

Table of Contents of the Project Narrative; Budget Narrative and 

Justification; Indirect Cost Rate Agreement; Letters of Commitment; 

Subaward Budget Form (if applicable); and Current and Pending Support 

Form.

(6) Page size. 21.6 centimeters by 27.9 centimeters (8 1⁄2 inches by 11 

inches).

(7) Application language. All documents must be in English, including but 

not limited to the initial application, any additional documents submitted in 

response to a NIST request, all reports, and any correspondence with 

NIST.

d. Application Replacement Pages. Applicants may not submit replacement 

pages and/or missing documents once an application has been submitted. 

Revisions can only be made by submitting a complete new application that is 

received by NIST before the submission deadline.

e. Pre-Applications. Pre-applications will not be accepted. 

f. Statement of Intent. To assist NIST in gauging interest and planning for the 

evaluation process, all potential applicants are strongly encouraged to send 

an e-mail to pscr@nist.gov with ‘MCVTE’ in the subject line indicating intent to 

apply. The statement of intent will only be used for competition planning 

purposes; it will not be used as part of the evaluation process or to eliminate 

any applicants from consideration under this NOFO. An applicant will receive 

full consideration under this NOFO if they do not submit a statement of intent. 

g. Certifications Regarding Federal Felony and Federal Criminal Tax 

Convictions, Unpaid Federal Tax Assessments and Delinquent Federal 

Tax Returns. In accordance with Federal appropriations law, an authorized 

representative of the selected applicant(s) may be required to provide certain 
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pre-award certifications regarding Federal felony and Federal criminal tax 

convictions, unpaid Federal tax assessments, and delinquent Federal tax 

returns.

3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM)

Pursuant to 2 C.F.R. part 25, applicants and recipients (as the case may be) are 

required to: (i) be registered in SAM before submitting its application; (ii) provide 

a valid unique entity identifier in its application; and (iii) continue to maintain an 

active SAM registration with current information at all times during which it has an 

active Federal award or an application or plan under consideration by a Federal 

awarding agency, unless otherwise excepted from these requirements pursuant 

to 2 C.F.R. § 25.110. NIST will not make a Federal award to an applicant until the 

applicant has complied with all applicable unique entity identifier and SAM 

requirements and, if an applicant has not fully complied with the requirements by 

the time that NIST is ready to make a Federal award pursuant to this NOFO, 

NIST may determine that the applicant is not qualified to receive a Federal award 

and use that determination as a basis for making a Federal award to another 

applicant.

4. Submission Dates and Times

Applications must be received at Grants.gov no later than 11:59 p.m. 

Eastern Time, Friday, July 26, 2019. Applications received after this deadline 

will not be reviewed or considered. NIST will consider the date and time recorded 

by Grants.gov as the official submission time. Paper applications will not be 

accepted. 

Applicants should be aware, and factor in their application submission planning, 

that the Grants.gov system is expected to be closed for routine maintenance at 

the following times:

From 12:01 A.M. Eastern Time

Saturday

To 6:00 A.M. Eastern Time

Monday

July 20, 2019 July 22, 2019

Applications cannot be submitted when Grants.gov is closed.

When developing the submission timeline, please keep in mind that: (1) all 

applicants are required to have current registrations in the electronic System for 

Award Management (SAM.gov) and Grants.gov; (2) the free annual registration 

process in the SAM.gov (see Sections IV.3. and IV.7.a.(1).(b). of this NOFO) 

often takes between three and five business days and may take as long as two 

weeks; and (3) applicants will receive e-mail notifications over a period of up to 

two business days as the application moves through intermediate systems before 
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the applicant learns via a validation or rejection notification whether NIST has 

received the application. (See grants.gov for full information on application and 

notification through Grants.gov.). Please note that a Federal assistance award 

cannot be issued if the designated recipient’s registration in the System for 

Award Management (SAM.gov) is not current at the time of the award.

5. Intergovernmental Review

Applications under this Program are not subject to Executive Order 12372.

6. Funding Restrictions

Profit or fee is not an allowable cost. 

7. Other Submission Requirements

a. Applications must be submitted electronically.

(1) Applications must be submitted via Grants.gov at grants.gov.

(a) Applicants should carefully follow specific Grants.gov instructions to 

ensure that all attachments will be accepted by the Grants.gov system. 

A receipt from Grants.gov indicating an application is received does 

not provide information about whether attachments have been 

received. For further information or questions regarding applying 

electronically for the 2019-NIST-MCVTE-01 announcement, contact 

Leon Sampson by phone at 301-975-3086 or by e-mail at 

grants@nist.gov.

(b) Applicants are strongly encouraged to start early and not wait until the 

approaching due date before logging on and reviewing the instructions 

for submitting an application through Grants.gov. The Grants.gov 

registration process must be completed before a new registrant can 

apply electronically. If all goes well, the registration process takes three 

to five business days. If problems are encountered, the registration 

process can take up to two weeks or more. Applicants must have a 

valid unique entity identifier number and must maintain a current 

registration in the Federal government’s primary registrant database, 

the System for Award Management (https://www.sam.gov/), as 

explained on the Grants.gov Web site (also see Section IV.3. of this 

NOFO). After registering, it may take several days or longer from the 

initial log-on before a new Grants.gov system user can submit an 

application. Only individuals authorized as organization representatives 

will be able to submit the application, and the system may need time to 

process a submitted application. Applicants should save and print the 

proof of submission they receive from Grants.gov. If problems occur 
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while using Grants.gov, the applicant is advised to (a) print any error 

message received and (b) call Grants.gov directly for immediate 

assistance. If calling from within the United States or from a U.S. 

territory, please call 800-518-4726. If calling from a place other than 

the United States or a U.S. territory, please call 606-545-5035. 

Assistance from the Grants.gov Help Desk will be available around the 

clock every day, except for Federal holidays. Help Desk service will 

resume at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time the day after Federal holidays. For 

assistance using Grants.gov, the applicant may also contact 

support@grants.gov.

(c) To find instructions for submitting an application on Grants.gov, 

Applicants should refer to the “Applicants” tab in the banner just below 

the top of the www.grants.gov home page. Clicking on the “Applicants” 

tab produces two exceptionally useful sources of information, Applicant 

Actions and Applicant Resources, which applicants are advised to 

review.

Applicants will receive a series of e-mail messages over a period of up 

to two business days before learning whether a Federal agency’s 

electronic system has received its application. Closely following the 

detailed information in these subcategories will increase the likelihood 

of acceptance of the application by the Federal agency’s electronic 

system.

Applicants should pay close attention to the guidance under “Applicant 

FAQs,” as it contains information important to successful submission 

on Grants.gov, including essential details on the naming conventions 

for attachments to Grants.gov applications.

All applicants should be aware that adequate time must be factored 

into applicants’ schedules for delivery of their application. Applicants 

are advised that volume on Grants.gov may be extremely heavy 

leading up to the deadline date.

The application must be both received and validated by Grants.gov. 

The application is “received” when Grants.gov provides the applicant a 

confirmation of receipt and an application tracking number. If an 

applicant does not see this confirmation and tracking number, the 

application has not been received. After the application has been 

received, it must still be validated. During this process, it may be 

“validated” or “rejected with errors”. To know whether the application 

was rejected with errors and the reasons why, the applicant must log in 

to Grants.gov, select “Applicants” from the top navigation, and select 
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“Track my application” from the drop-down list. If the status is “rejected 

with errors,” the applicant may still seek to correct the errors and 

resubmit the application before the deadline. If the applicant does not 

correct the errors, the application will not be forwarded to NIST by 

Grants.gov.

Refer to important information in Section IV.4. Submission Dates and 

Times, to help ensure the application is received on time.

b. Amendments. Any amendments to this NOFO will be announced through 

Grants.gov. Applicants may sign up on Grants.gov to receive amendments by 

e-mail or may request copies by e-mail from pscr@nist.gov.

V. Application Review Information

1. Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation criteria that will be used in evaluating applications and assigned 

weights are as follows:

Evaluation 

Criteria

Maximum 

Points Weight

Total

Technical 

Merit 10 4 40

Project

Execution 10 2 20

Qualifications 10 4 40

Maximum

score: 100

For example, an application receiving criterion scores of 8, 7, and 10, 

(respectively) would receive a total score of 86 according to the following 

calculation: (8x4) + (7x2) + (10x4) = 86.

Subcriteria within each criterion will be weighted equally. 

a. Technical Merit: Reviewers will evaluate:

(1) The extent to which the proposal demonstrates a clear 

understanding of the program goals.

(2) The extent to which the approach is cohesive, comprehensive,

innovative, feasible, and likely to achieve the NOFO’s stated

objectives.

(3) The likelihood and extent to which the proposal will further the 
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development of MCV equipment testing systems or the development 

of devices with mission critical services capabilities, or both. 

(4) The extent to which the outputs will be available, traceable, and 

extendable for industry certification labs, original equipment 

manufacturers (OEMs), and any other interested parties.

b. Project Execution: Reviewers will evaluate:

(1) The feasibility and appropriateness of the proposed goals, milestones, 

timelines, and methods that would be used to assess project

performance.

(2) The appropriateness and cost effectiveness of the budget with 

respect to executing the proposed project.

(3) The degree to which the budget reflects a clear understanding of the 

objectives of the NOFO.

c. Qualifications: Reviewers will evaluate:

(1) The relevance and the appropriateness of the qualifications and 

experience of the key personnel and technical experts participating in 

the project, and the likelihood that they will be able to fulfill the 

objectives of this NOFO.

(2) The applicant’s access to the necessary staff, equipment, facilities, 

support, and resources to accomplish the proposed objectives.

(3) Letters of Commitment (if required) for the appropriateness of the 

partnership, the relevance of their expertise, and their ability to 

contribute effectively to the project.

2. Selection Factors

The Selecting Official, the Chief of the PSCR Division, shall generally select 

and recommend the most meritorious applications for an award based upon 

the final adjectival ratings prepared by the Evaluation Panel and one or more 

of the five (5) selection factors listed below. The Selecting Official also retains 

the discretion to select and recommend applications out of order (i.e. from a 

lower adjectival category) based on one or more of the following selection 

factors:

a. Results of the merit reviewers’ evaluations;

b. The availability of funding;

c. Whether the project duplicates other projects funded by NIST, DoC, or by 

other Federal agencies;

d. The extent to which matching funds and/or in-kind contributions (voluntary 

committed cost share) would help ensure potential success of the project;
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e. Alignment with the NOFO objectives;

f. Diversity of entity types within the PSCR R&D portfolio;

g. Geographic diversity within the PSCR R&D portfolio.

3. Review and Selection Process

Proposals, reports, documents and other information related to applications 

submitted to NIST and/or relating to financial assistance awards issued by NIST 

will be reviewed and considered by Federal employees, or non-Federal 

personnel who have entered into conflict of interest and confidentiality

agreements covering such information, when applicable.

a. Initial Administrative Review of Applications. Applications received by the 

deadline will be reviewed to determine eligibility, completeness, and 

responsiveness to this NOFO and to the scope of the stated program 

objectives (see Section I. of this NOFO). Applications determined to be 

ineligible, incomplete, and/or nonresponsive may be eliminated from further 

review. However, NIST, in its sole discretion, may continue the review process 

for an application that is missing non-substantive information, the absence of 

which may easily be rectified during the review process.

b. Full Review of Eligible, Complete, and Responsive Applications.

Applications that are determined to be eligible, complete, and responsive will 

proceed for full reviews in accordance with the review and selection process 

below: 

(1) Merit Review. At least three (3) objective reviewers, who may be Federal 

employees or non-Federal personnel, with appropriate professional and 

technical expertise relating to the topics covered in this NOFO, will 

evaluate and score each eligible, complete, and responsive application 

based on the evaluation criteria (see Section V.1. of this NOFO). While 

every application will have at least three (3) reviewers, applications may 

have more than three (3) reviewers if specialized expertise is needed to 

evaluate an application. During the review process, the reviewers may 

discuss the applications with each other, but scores will be determined on 

an individual basis. Reviewers may consult as a panel with Federal or 

non-Federal subject-matter experts to seek clarification or explanation of 

specific issues identified during the initial review process. Applications will 

be ranked by averaging the scores of all reviewers for each application. 

(2) Evaluation Panel. Following the merit review, an evaluation panel 

consisting of NIST staff and/or other Federal employees with the 
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appropriate technical expertise will conduct a panel review of the ranked 

applications. The evaluation panel may contact applicants via e-mail or 

teleconference to clarify contents of an application. The evaluation panel 

will provide a final adjectival rating and written evaluation of the 

applications to the Selecting Official (see Section V.2. of this NOFO) for 

further deliberation, considering: 

(a) All application materials. 

(b) Results of the merit reviewers’ evaluations, including scores and 

written assessments.

(c) Any relevant publicly available information. 

(d) Any clarifying information obtained through e-mail or teleconferences 

with the applicants.

The adjectival ratings are:

o Outstanding

o Very Good 

o Average

o Deficient

For decision-making purposes, applications receiving the same adjectival 

rating will be considered to have an equivalent ranking, although their 

review scores may not necessarily be the same. 

(3) Selection. The Selecting Official will make final award recommendations 

to the NIST Grants Officer. The Selecting Official shall generally select 

and recommend the most meritorious applications for an award based on 

the final adjectival ratings prepared by the Evaluation Panel and one or 

more of the selection factors described in Section V.2. of this NOFO. The 

Selecting Official retains the discretion to select and recommend an 

application out of order (i.e., from a lower adjectival category) based on 

one or more of the selection factors.

NIST reserves the right to negotiate the budget costs with any applicant 

selected to receive an award, which may include requesting that the 

applicant removes certain costs. Additionally, NIST may request that 

successful applicants modify objectives or work plans and provide 

supplemental information required by the agency prior to award. NIST also 

reserves the right to reject an application where information is uncovered 

that raises a reasonable doubt as to the responsibility of the applicant. 

NIST may select some, all, or none of the applications, or part(s) of any 

application. The final approval of selected applications and issuance of 
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awards will be by the NIST Grants Officer. The award decisions of the 

NIST Grants Officer are final.

c. Federal Awarding Agency Review of Risk Posed by Applicants. After 

applications are proposed for funding by the Selecting Official, the NIST Grants 

Management Division (GMD) performs pre-award risk assessments in 

accordance with 2 C.F.R. § 200.205, which may include a review of the 

financial stability of an applicant, the quality of the applicant’s management 

systems, the history of performance, and/or the applicant’s ability to effectively 

implement statutory, regulatory, or other requirements imposed on non-Federal 

entities. 

In addition, prior to making an award where the total Federal share is expected 

to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold (currently $150,000), NIST GMD 

will review and consider the publicly available information about that applicant 

in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System 

(FAPIIS). An applicant may, at its discretion, review and comment on 

information about itself previously entered into FAPIIS by a Federal awarding 

agency. As part of its review of risk posed by applicants, NIST GMD will 

consider any comments made by the applicant in FAPIIS in making its 

determination about the applicant’s integrity, business ethics, and record of 

performance under Federal awards. Upon completion of the pre-award risk 

assessment, the Grants Officer will make a responsibility determination 

concerning whether the applicant is qualified to receive the subject award and, 

if so, whether appropriate special conditions that correspond to the degree of 

risk posed by the applicant should be applied to an award.

4. Anticipated Announcement and Award Date

Review of Applications, selection of successful applicants, and award 

processing is expected to be completed by August 30, 2019. The earliest start 

date for awards under this NOFO is expected to be September 2019.

5. Additional Information

a. Safety. Safety is a top priority at NIST. Employees and affiliates of award 

recipients who conduct project work at NIST will be expected to be safetyconscious, to attend NIST safety training, and to comply with all NIST safety 

policies and procedures, and with all applicable terms of their guest research 

agreement.

b. Notification to Unsuccessful Applicants. Unsuccessful applicants will be 

notified by e-mail and will have the option to receive a debriefing after the 

opportunity is officially closed. Applicants must submit their request within 10 

business days of the email notification to receive a debrief from the program 
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office. The program office will then work with the unsuccessful applicant in 

arranging a date and time of the debrief.

c. Retention of Unsuccessful Applications. Unsuccessful applications will be 

retained in accordance with the General Record Schedule 1.2/021.

VI. Federal Award Administration Information

1. Federal Award Notices. Successful applicants will receive an award package 

from the NIST Grants Officer.

2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

a. Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit 

Requirements. Through 2 C.F.R. § 1327.101, the Department of Commerce 

adopted Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit 

Requirements for Federal Awards at 2 C.F.R. Part 200, which apply to 

awards in this program. Refer to http://go.usa.gov/SBYh and 

http://go.usa.gov/SBg4.

b. Department of Commerce Financial Assistance Standard Terms and 

Conditions. The Department of Commerce will apply to each award in this 

program, the Financial Assistance Standard Terms and Conditions in effect on 

the date of award. The current version, dated April 30, 2019, is accessible 

here. Refer to Section VII. of this NOFO, Federal Awarding Agency Contacts, 

Grant Rules and Regulations, if you need more information. 

c. Pre-Award Notification Requirements. The Department of Commerce will 

apply the Pre-Award Notification Requirements for Grants and Cooperative 

Agreements dated December 30, 2014 (79 FR 78390), accessible at 

http://go.usa.gov/hKkR. Refer to Section VII. of this NOFO, Federal Awarding 

Agency Contacts, Grant Rules and Regulations, for more information.

d. Funding Availability and Limitation of Liability. 

NIST or the Department of Commerce will not be responsible for application 

preparation costs, including but not limited to if this program fails to receive 

funding or is cancelled because of agency priorities. Publication of this NOFO 

does not oblige NIST or the Department of Commerce to award any specific 

project or to obligate any available funds.

e. Collaborations with NIST Employees. If an applicant proposes 

collaboration with NIST, the statement of work should include a statement of 

this intention, a description of the collaboration, and prominently identify the 
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NIST employee(s) involved, if known. Any collaboration by a NIST employee 

must be approved by appropriate NIST management and is at the sole 

discretion of NIST. Prior to beginning the merit review process, NIST will 

verify the approval of the proposed collaboration. Any unapproved 

collaboration will be stricken from the application prior to the merit review. Any 

collaboration with an identified NIST employee that is approved by 

appropriate NIST management will not make an application more or less 

favorable in the competitive process.

f. Use of NIST Intellectual Property. If the applicant anticipates using any 

NIST-owned intellectual property to carry out the work proposed, the 

applicant should identify such intellectual property. This information will be 

used to ensure that no NIST employee involved in the development of the 

intellectual property will participate in the review process for that competition. 

In addition, if the applicant intends to use NIST-owned intellectual property, 

the applicant must comply with all statutes and regulations governing the 

licensing of Federal government patents and inventions, described in 35 

U.S.C. §§ 200-212, 37 C.F.R. Part 401, 2 C.F.R. §200.315, and in Section 

C.03 of the Department of Commerce Financial Assistance Terms and 

Conditions dated April 30, 2019, accessible at: Department of Commerce 

Standard Terms and Conditions.

Any use of NIST-owned intellectual property by a recipient of an award under 

this announcement is at the sole discretion of NIST and will be negotiated on 

a case-by-case basis if a project is deemed meritorious. The applicant should 

indicate within the statement of work whether it already has a license to use 

such intellectual property or whether it intends to seek one.

If any inventions made in whole or in part by a NIST employee arise in the 

course of an award made pursuant to this NOFO, the United States 

government may retain its ownership rights in any such invention. Licensing 

or other disposition of NIST's rights in such inventions will be determined by 

NIST.

g. Collaborations Making Use of Federal Facilities. All applications should 

include a description of any work proposed to be performed using Federal 

facilities.

If an applicant proposes use of NIST facilities, the statement of work should 

include a statement of this intention and a description of the facilities. Any 

use of NIST facilities must be approved by appropriate NIST management 

and is at the sole discretion of NIST. Prior to beginning the merit review 

process, NIST will verify the availability of the facilities and approval of the 

proposed usage. Any unapproved facility use will be stricken from the 
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application prior to the merit review. Examples of some facilities that may be 

available for collaborations are listed on the following NIST Web site: 

https://www.nist.gov/labs-major-programs/user-facilities.

3. Reporting

a. Reporting Requirements. The following reporting requirements described 

in Sections A.01, Reporting Requirements, of the Department of 

Commerce Standard Terms and Conditions (dated April 30, 2019), apply to 

awards in this program.

(1) Financial Reports. Each award recipient will be required to submit an SF425, Federal Financial Report on a quarterly basis for the periods ending 

March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31 of each year. 

Reports will be due within 30 days after the end of the reporting period to 

the NIST Federal Program Officer, Grants Officer and Grants Specialist 

named in the award documents. A final financial report is due within 90 

days after the end of the project period.

(2) Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR). Each award recipient 

will be required to submit a RPPR to the Federal Program Officer, NIST 

Grants Officer and Grants Specialist named in the award documents on a 

quarterly basis for the periods ending March 31, June 30, September 30, 

and December 31 of each year. Reports will be due within 30 days after 

the end of the reporting period. The RPPR shall conform to the 

requirements in 2 C.F.R. § 200.328 (http://go.usa.gov/xkVgP) and 

Department of Commerce Financial Assistance Standard Terms and 

Conditions, Section A.01.

A final RPPR shall be submitted within 90 days after the expiration date of 

the award, and publication citation information as well as links to publicly 

available data shall be submitted as soon as they become available. 

If a recipient’s Data Management Plan (DMP) has changed since their last 

submission of a technical progress report, the recipient must include their 

revised DMP in the next technical progress report following the revision to 

the DMP. The revised DMP must include all the requirements described in 

Section IV.2.a.(10). of this NOFO.

(3) Patent and Property Reports. From time to time, and in accordance with 

the Uniform Administrative Requirements (see Section VI.2.a of this 

NOFO) and other terms and conditions governing the award, the recipient 

may need to submit property and patent reports.
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(4) Recipient Integrity and Performance Matters. In accordance with 

section 872 of Public Law 110-417 (as amended; see 41 U.S.C. 2313), if 

the total value of a recipient’s currently active grants, cooperative 

agreements, and procurement contracts from all Federal awarding 

agencies exceeds $10,000,000 for any period of time during the period of 

performance of an award made under this NOFO, then the recipient shall 

be subject to the requirements specified in Appendix XII to 2 C.F.R. Part 

200, http://go.usa.gov/cTBwC, for maintaining the currency of information 

reported to SAM that is made available in FAPIIS about certain civil, 

criminal, or administrative proceedings involving the recipient.

b. Audit Requirements. The Department of Commerce Financial Assistance 

Standard Terms and Conditions, Section D.01.b., and 2 C.F.R. Part 200 

Subpart F, adopted by the Department of Commerce through 2 C.F.R. § 

1327.101, require any non-Federal entity (i.e., including non-profit institutions 

of higher education and non-profit organizations) that expends Federal 

awards of $750,000 or more in the recipient’s fiscal year to conduct a single 

or program-specific audit in accordance with the requirements set out in the 

Subpart. Additionally, unless otherwise specified in the terms and conditions 

of the award, entities that are not subject to Subpart F of 2 C.F.R. Part 200 

(e.g., for-profit commercial entities) that expend $750,000 or more in DOC 

funds during their fiscal year must submit to the Grants Officer either: (i) a 

financial related audit of each DOC award or subaward in accordance with 

Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards; or (ii) a project specific 

audit for each award or subaward in accordance with the requirements 

contained in 2 C.F.R. § 200.507. Applicants are reminded that NIST, the 

Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General, or another authorized 

Federal agency may conduct an audit of an award at any time.

c. Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. In 

accordance with 2 C.F.R. Part 170, all recipients of a Federal award made on 

or after October 1, 2010, are required to comply with reporting requirements 

under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 

(Public Law No. 109-282). In general, all recipients are responsible for 

reporting sub-awards of $25,000 or more. In addition, recipients that meet 

certain criteria are responsible for reporting executive compensation. 

Applicants must ensure they have the necessary processes and systems in 

place to comply with the reporting requirements should they receive funding. 

Also see the Federal Register notice published September 14, 2010, at 75 FR 

55663 available here http://go.usa.gov/hKnQ.
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VII. Federal Awarding Agency Contacts

Questions should be directed to the following:

Subject Area Point of Contact

Programmatic and Technical 

Questions

E-mail: pscr@nist.gov with ‘MCVTE’ in 

subject line

Technical Assistance with Grants.gov 

Submissions

Grants.gov

Phone: 800-518-4726

E-mail: support@grants.gov

Grant Rules and Regulations Scott McNichol 

Phone: 303-497-3444

Fax: 303-497-5470

E-mail: scott.mcnichol@nist.gov

VIII. Other Information

1. Personal and Business Information

The applicant acknowledges and understands that information and data 

contained in applications for financial assistance, as well as information and data 

contained in financial, performance and other reports submitted by applicants, 

may be used by the Department of Commerce in conducting reviews and 

evaluations of its financial assistance programs. For this purpose, applicant 

information and data may be accessed, reviewed and evaluated by Department 

of Commerce employees, other Federal employees, and also by Federal agents 

and contractors, and/or by non-Federal personnel, all of whom enter into 

appropriate conflict of interest and confidentiality agreements covering the use of 

such information. As may be provided in the terms and conditions of a specific 

financial assistance award, applicants are expected to support program reviews 

and evaluations by submitting required financial and performance information 

and data in an accurate and timely manner, and by cooperating with Department 

of Commerce and external program evaluators. In accordance with 2 C.F.R. § 

200.3I 03(e), applicants are reminded that they must take reasonable measures 

to safeguard protected personally identifiable information and other confidential 

or sensitive personal or business information created or obtained in connection 

with a Department of Commerce financial assistance award.

In addition, Department of Commerce regulations implementing the Freedom of 

Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552, are found at 15 C.F.R. Part 4, Public 

Information. These regulations set forth rules for the Department regarding 
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making requested materials, information, and records publicly available under 

the FOIA. Applications submitted in response to this Federal Funding 

Opportunity may be subject to requests for release under the Act. If an 

application contains information or data that the applicant deems to be 

confidential commercial information that should be exempt from disclosure under 

FOIA, that information should be identified, bracketed, and marked as 

Privileged, Confidential, Commercial or Financial Information. In accordance 

with 15 CFR § 4.9, the Department of Commerce will protect from disclosure 

confidential business information contained in financial assistance applications 

and other documentation provided by applicants to the extent permitted by law.

2. Public Website, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) and Webinar

NIST I.APSCR has a public website, pscr.gov, that provides information 

pertaining to this Funding Opportunity11. NIST anticipates that a “Frequently 

Asked Questions” section or other resource materials will be maintained and 

updated on the website as needed to provide additional guidance and clarifying 

information that may arise related to this Funding Opportunity. Any amendments 

to this NOFO will be announced through Grants.gov.

Applicants must submit all questions pertaining to this funding opportunity in 

writing to pscr@nist.gov with ‘MCVTE’ in the subject line. Questions submitted to 

NIST may be posted on pscr@nist.gov. Alternatively, applicants may ask 

questions during the informational public webinar as described in the next 

paragraph.

NIST will host a webinar to provide general information regarding this NOFO, 

offer general guidance on preparing applications, and answer any questions. 

Proprietary technical discussions about specific project ideas will not be 

permitted and NIST staff will not critique or provide feedback on specific project 

ideas while they are being developed by an applicant or brought forth during the 

webinar or at any time before the deadline for all applications. However, 

questions about the 2019-NIST-MCVTE-01 eligibility requirements, evaluation 

and award criteria, selection process, and the general characteristics of a 

competitive application can be addressed at the webinar and by e-mail to 

pscr@nist.gov as described in the previous paragraph. There is no cost to attend 

the webinar, but participants must register in advance. Participation in the 

webinar is not required, and will not be considered in the application review and 

selection process. Additional information on the 2019-NIST-MCVTE-01 and 

webinar is available at pscr@nist.gov.

 

11 Refer to Section VII. of this NOFO, Federal Awarding Agency Contacts, Programmatic and Technical 

Questions, if more information is needed.