LIZANA PIERCE: Good afternoon, and welcome to the webinar. My name is Lizana Pierce, and I'll be co-presenting with Tweedie Doe. Will introduce ourselves here in a moment. But first some introductory information.

This informational webinar is for people interested in applying to the Department of Energy's Office of Indian Energy's Funding Opportunity Announcement or FOA entitled Transitioning Tribal Colleges and Universities to Clean Energy 2023, which was issued on April 12. The intent of this webinar is to cover the basic aspects of the Funding Opportunity Announcement, otherwise known as FOA, and to highlight essential details about the application process, including the types of applications thought, who's eligible to apply, cost share and other requirements, and what the application needs to contain, and how to ask questions and how applications will be reviewed and selected for funding.

Before we begin, I'd like to draw your attention to the email address in the lower right, tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov. This is the official mailbox to direct all of your questions to during the entire FOA process. Please do not contact DOE or DOE laboratory staff or contractors directly with any questions, including myself, as all questions must be in writing.

The reason for this, not only accepting questions from writing is to ensure that you receive a formal response and so that everyone has the benefit of that same response as well. Because if you have a question, other potential applicants may have a similar question. So therefore, we will not have a question/answer session as part of this webinar.

But please capture your questions as they arise and send them via email to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov. And in the subject line of your email, please include the FOA number, DE-FOA-0002978. And unless a similar question has already been asked, responses to the questions received be posted under the frequently asked questions or FAQs web page for this FOA on IE-Exchange. And you'll be notified when they are posted.

We do try to respond as quickly as possible within three days since our target. But before, so many of your questions, please check the FAQ web page as there may already be a similar question that has been answered. We also ask in your questions, please do not include any language that might be business sensitive, proprietary, confidential, or identify. We want to make sure that the information posted is somewhat generic and doesn't identify the inquirer.

Also note that if there are any inconsistencies between the Funding Opportunity Announcement itself, this presentation or statements from DOE or other personnel, the following document is the controlling document. And applicant should rely solely on that FOA language or seek clarification by sending questions to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov.

These slides and an audio recording of the webinar will be posted in the next week or so. And you will be notified when that information is available. So let's get started. Next slide, please.

So for those of you I may not have met yet, my name is Lizana Pierce. I've been in the energy development realm for nearly 30 years and have had the pleasure and the privilege of working with Indian tribes, including many Alaska Native villages in their energy development for nearly 25 years now. I'm a mechanical engineer by degree.

In my current position with the Office of Indian Energy, I'm the senior engineer and deployment supervisor. I support the office by executing the deployment program, which is comprised of financial assistance, technical assistance in education and outreach. Additionally, I manage the national Funding Opportunity Announcements such as this one and act as a project officer for some of the results of grants and agreements.

We also implement outreach through our website, email newsletters, and oversee the support of our laboratory and other to provide our partners. And next, I'm going to ask Tweedie Doe to introduce herself. She is the lead project officer for the office.

And Stephanie Bostwick will be assisting us with Tribal College and University engagement. So, Tweedie, next slide, please.

TWEEDIE DOE: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our webinar on our first TCU FOA here. And thank you again for joining us today. Short introductions for me, Tweedie Doe, I am nearing the start of my 15th year with DOE.

And more than half of it has been spent with the Office of Indian Energy with Lizana and our team. And I get to work directly with many of our tribes to receive grant funding from our office. And you're going to hear a lot from me during this webinar. So I'm going to pass it back to Lizana to really get us started. Next slide, please.

LIZANA PIERCE: Thank you, Tweedie. As I said, Stephanie Bostwick will be assisting with Tribal College and University engagement. She currently is the project manager with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. She also teaches engineering and physics at Northwest Indian College.

She has an MS and a BS in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. And she's a member of the Blackfeet nation. Next slide, please.

So before we get into the specifics of the Funding Opportunity Announcement, I want just a brief intro to the Office of Indian Energy. As advocated for and by the tribes and incorporated in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Office of Indian Energy, which stood up in 2011, as at that time, one of about a dozen assistant secretary level offices within the Department.

The office authorized under the Energy Policy Act is charged by Congress to promote Indian Energy development, efficiency, and use, reduce or stabilize energy costs, enhance and strengthen Indian tribal energy and economic infrastructure, and to bring electric power service to Indian lands and homes. On the right side of the slide, you'll see just a very few pictures of the many tribal energy projects we have the pleasure to co-fund. Next slide, please.

So under the deployment program to achieve our mission to address the barriers the tribes face for energy development, the Office of Indian Energy offers financial assistance usually through competitive grants, technical assistance offered at no charge to Indian tribes and tribal entities, and education and capacity building, which includes our newsletter, our website, monthly webinars, conferences, annual program review, et cetera. These three prongs are intended to assist Indian tribes and tribal entities to overcome those unique regulatory, technical, and economic challenges in developing their vast energy resources if and how they so choose. Next slide, please.

So between 2010 and 2022, DOE's office spending energy has invested over $120 million in more than 210 tribal energy projects across the contiguous 48 states and Alaska. These projects are valued at over $250 million as leveraged by cost share from the recipients of over $93 million.

Through these grants, the Office of Indian Energy continues its efforts in partnership with Native communities to maximize the deployment of clean energy solutions for the benefit of American Indian and Alaska Native. By the way, this slide shows a map of those projects. It's actually on our website. It's an interactive map. You can find information about all of the projects that have been funded. Project summaries, presentations, and completed final reports. Next slide, please.

So of that $122 million invested, over $93 million or 76% of those investment has been in hardware installations or deployment projects. These projects are valued at $175 million have resulted in tangible impacts or results to over 100 American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Specifically with those funds, nearly 46 megawatts of new generation has been installed. 13 megawatt hours of battery storage, over $14.4 million collectively saved every year by those communities, and over the life of those systems, nearly $350 million, is estimated to be saved for those communities, so significant.

And also, for every dollar that is invested, there's a savings of $3.38. And those funds have affected over 8,800 tribal buildings across the United States. Again, some more pictures of the various projects we funded, which you can find out more about on our website. Next slide, please.

This is all about financial assistance or funding opportunities. I wanted to give you an overview of the funding opportunities that we've issued. Since 2010, our office has made 18 Funding Opportunity Announcements, received nearly 700 applications, and funded over 302 or 32% of those applications, which I believe is a pretty high percentage.

My estimate is somewhere between 5% and 10%. And in competitive environments, probably even the smaller percentage. Next slide, please.

Before we get into the Funding Opportunity Announcement itself, this is information that's on IE-Exchange. It's the website that provides information on the funding opportunity, the Funding Opportunity Announcement itself, templates and forms, as well as a link to webinar registrations and where the resulting audio and slide recordings of this webinar will be posted. So I wanted to give you a little bit of an insight.

So once on this page, as shown on the slide, if you're interested in applying, there's an Apply button. There is a registration process, which we'll go through. And as you can see, this particular section is specific to this Funding Opportunity Announcement, the FOA-0002978. And it includes just a brief summary of the FOA itself.

There is a direct link to this funding summary at the bottom of this slide. My apologies for the legibility of the slide. But I will give you a feel for the website.

To apply to the FOA if you're interested, you can start by registering in IE-Exchange and then clicking on the Apply button shown here. And during the process, you'll receive a control number, which will be assigned to you. And you need to retain this control number as you'll need to put it on all of your application documents.

We also have manuals and guides to assist you with screenshots and navigating the registration and submission of an application. Next slide, please. So this is, again, a screenshot of IE-Exchange for this Funding Opportunity Announcement. You can see the first hyperlink up above. You can download the actual FOA document.

There's also an application forms and templates hyperlink. And these forms and templates represent just a portion of the documents that are required for complete application. The remaining documents, which we'll go over in a little bit later, have no specific format, and they're going to be applicant generated.

There's contact information for questions regarding the FOA and for IE-Exchange support as well. And there's a link to the frequently asked questions web page. There's also a general non-FOA specific FAQ page available on the website in the left navigation when you get to the website. The submission deadline for this FOA is July 27, 2023. And that's 5 o'clock Eastern.

Remember Eastern time, so you need to plan accordingly for whichever time zone you may be in. The reason for that is that's how long people are at the help desk to help you. So that's why we make it 5 o'clock Eastern.

When you get in here, you see dropdown for the application forms and templates will be shown. But I'll show you that on the next slide here. Next slide, please.

So once you click on View Application Forms and Templates, you'll see a variety of templates and forms that need to be included as part of your application. Some of these forms are topic-area specific. And then the remaining application documents will need to be self-generated. And we'll go through all of those documents a little bit later.

So there are specific topic area templates for the summary slide for the technical volume and for the workplan. And in addition to those topic area specific templates, we provided the application for financial assistance form, SF 424. There's an eligibility statement in Evidence File. There's the budget justification workbook form.

There's a subrecipient budget justification workbook form template, budget support template. There's also an application registration certification. And there's a disclosure of lobbying activities. And those all can be downloaded from IE-Exchange.

For a complete list of all of the application the documents that compose the complete application, you can see the table on pages 24, 25, and 26 of the FOA document. I would suggest maybe you use that as a checklist if you're preparing an application. And at the bottom of the screenshot, you also see the frequently asked questions hyperlink. Next slide, please.

So we don't have any questions yet for this FOA, but this is the screenshot, and they'll be both the questions and the responses. You may want to look through those as they may answer some of your questions. You also may want to check that page periodically as we will be posting questions and responses continually throughout the open period in FOA. Next slide, please.

As I mentioned, we have developed some user guides. Once you log on IE-Exchange, the registration place-- sorry about that. Let me start again. Once you're on the IE-Exchange and you log in and complete the registration, there is a two-factor authentication process for registration, just so you're aware. These guides will help you through that process.

You can also access these guides by clicking the manual on the left navigation of the website. Each of these guides has screenshots to help you navigate the registration application process. So please make use of these resources.

And our intent here is to make these guides useful to you. So if there are things that are not clear or could be improved, please, we welcome any feedback. Next slide, please.

OK. Now onto the FOA itself. And on the cover page, you will find some key dates. The FOA has already been posted. We're conducting the information in webinars now.

All applications will be due on the IE-Exchange website no later than 5 o'clock Eastern on July 27. Note again, it's 5 o'clock Eastern. Plan accordingly.

Please note the deal we will not extend the admission submission deadline for applicants who fail to submit the required information due to server or congestion issues. Also, IE-Exchange is designed to enforce that deadline. The appliance submit buttons may be disabled at the submission deadline. Therefore, please ensure you begin uploading your complete application, we recommend, 48 hours in advance to ensure that you complete it and to avoid network congestion issues, allowing at least an hour maybe to upload those documents depending on your network, of course.

And once the application is submitted, you may revise or update your application up until the deadline. So you can submit it early and then revise it. DOE anticipates notifying applicants selected for negotiation of award in the late spring, fall-- sorry, in the fall of 2023 and making awards approximately 90 days after that.

Each and every applicant will receive a notification letter by email to the technical and administrative points of contact, which are designated by you in IE-Exchange. And the notifications will state where the application is non-compliant, ineligible, non-responsive, not selected for funding, selected for funding, postponed, not selected for funding but designated as an alternate, or selected for negotiation and reward. And the notification letters will also state the basis upon which those decisions were made. Next slide, please.

So even though we're going to go through a lot of the information contained in the funding opportunity in this webinar, I'd urge you to read the FOA again and read it again. And use some of the tables as checklists and references as you prepare your application. Next slide, please.

So to apply to the FOA, applicants must register, create an account, and submit all required application documents to IE-Exchange at the URL shown on the slide. The control number, as I said, will be assigned while you're registering. You need to retain this and include it on all your application documents.

The IE-Exchange registration process does not have a delay. However, the other registration requirements could take several weeks to process and are required prior to submitting an application. And an authorized representative will need to certify that those registrations are complete when you submit your application.

Therefore, if you don't have the UEI which replace the DUNS number yet or you're not registered in the system for word management, SAM system, or FedConnect, or grants.gov, urge you to complete those registrations as soon as possible, if you're even considering submitting applications for this or any other DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement.

The grants.gov registration, your application will not be submitted through grants.gov. But if you are registered, you will receive automatic updates if or when amendments to the file are posted, if any. Next slide, please.

So here's some of the registration requirements, as I said. They are also included on page 55 of the Funding Opportunity Announcement. The first one is IE-Exchange, as we discussed. And it is immediate, but some of the others may have a lag.

If you don't have a unique identifier entity ID or you're not registered and Sam or FedConnect, you must complete these prior to submitting an application. It's really important that you get registered in these systems as soon as possible as they're needed prior to submitting an application and could take some time. I think sales backed up now quite a bit. And so that could be a long lead item.

As I said, an authorized representative will need to certify that all of the system registrations have been completed and the certification included as part of your application. There is the applicant registration certification template available under the application forms and templates for the FOA on IE-Exchange as I showed on one of the screenshots on a prior slide. Next slide, please.

Also, I'd encourage that you carefully read the Funding Opportunity Announcement and adhere to all the submission requirements. Although this presentation summarizes the contents of the FOA, if there are any inconsistencies between the FOA or this presentation or even statements from DOE or other personnel, the FOA is the controlling document. And you should rely solely on the FOA language or seek clarification by sending any questions to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov. next slide, please.

So this is the agenda for the webinar. There's a lot of information. Like I said, it will be recorded. The slides will be posted. We're going to go through the Funding Opportunity Announcement itself and some of the Office of Indian Energy's specific requirements, the required application documents.

We'll talk about the topic areas, discuss applications that are not of interest, discuss the word information and go over who's eligible to apply, the cost sharing requirements, discuss the content and form of a complete application, the application eligibility requirements, merit review and selection criteria and the process, registration requirements, which we summarized already, how to submit an application, how to submit questions, best practices, and closing, and hopefully do it in the two-hour time frame that we've allotted for the webinar.

So the webinar's going to follow sort of the sequence of the FOA itself. So you may want to have that document and follow along there. Again we're not going to have questions and answers part of this webinar. So please capture your questions and send up the email to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov.

As I said, the slides and audio recording will be posted. In about a week or so, you'll be notified of where those will be located. And if there's any inconsistencies between the Funding Opportunity Announcement, presentations, or what people have told you, the FOA documents are going to take precedence and be the controlling document. Next slide, please.

The first we're going to do an overview of the Funding Opportunity Announcement and the IE specific requirements. Next slide, please.

So this is in the executive summary, which I think is on page two, maybe one, page one of the FOA document. And it's just the table of key information sort of summarized. There are two topic areas under which to submit an application. And we'll go over those in more detail.

The first is clean energy project and curriculum planning, which is topic area one. And the second one is clean energy technology and curriculum deployment or installation, if you will. Technology installation, that's topic area two.

We do have approximately $15 million in federal funds available for what we estimate would be 10 to 25 award. And we do have a minimum and a maximum amount of federal funds per award. So DOE funding for individual award from topic area one is going to be $100,000 up to a maximum of $250,000 for the planning grant, if you will, topic area one, and a minimum DOE funding amount of $250,000 up to $4 million for the topic area two, which is for the installation of clean energy technology and the implementation of curriculum.

Award into this FOA will be grants, and we anticipate a period of performance between two and four years. And for topic area two, that includes a mandatory 12-month verification period. Next slide, please.

So continued on the slide and the next few slides is the key information, and we'll go over the eligibility applicant requirements in more detail. It is specific for private colleges and universities. Please note that we cannot make eligibility determinations prior to receiving applications.

You can ask clarifying questions, but we will not be able to advise you on your eligibility or make any determinations prior to receiving applications. So the decision on whether to submit an application and whether you think you're qualified in your project is eligible rely solely with the applicant. So next slide, please.

For this FOA, there is a 10% cost share of the total allowable project cost. The total project costs are going to be DOE share plus the recipient cost share. So for instance, if the proposed project is estimated at $500,000, the required cost share would be $50,000 or 10% of that $500,000 there's also some additional information in Appendix B on cost share on FOA too to help you.

So in addition to our program policy factors and in addition to geographic and technology diversity and the optimum use of DOE funding, the selection official may, through the application of those program policy factors, also give consideration in the selection of applications for funding on whether a proposed project for tribal communities with high energy costs and the degree to which the projects will employ for topics related to procurement of US iron steel and manufactured projects and construction materials and also for applicants who have not previously received the grant from the Office of Indian Energy. Next slide, please.

We also offer technical assistance at no charge to tribes and tribal entities. And if you've applied, you may receive priority if you submit a technical assistance request. Also be aware that you may only submit one application to this FOA under either of the topic areas, but one application. And concept papers are not required. Next slide, please.

As I mentioned before, applications will only be accepted through the IE-Exchange. And the required forms and templates are available on IE-Exchange, as we discussed, under Application Forms and Templates for the DOE on IE-Exchange which is at IE-Exchange.energy.gov.

Remember those forms and templates represent only a portion of the documents required for complete application. The remaining documents, you will need to self-generate. We will go through each of those documents in more detail further into the presentation. DOE will notify all applicants of its eligibility and selection decisions, and you'll be notified via letter by email. Next slide, please.

So there are a few requirements. And these are included on page three through five of the FOA. And they're listed here. They're not all inclusive. So you do need to review the entire FOA.

But for pre-award costs, we wanted to make you aware that except for pre-award costs, you must have prior DOE approval. And only those cost share contributions made during the period of performance of the grant that award can be considered. We can't consider investments prior to the award or after the grant period. And we cannot consider any costs incurred prior to the selection.

Eligibility statements and evidence, as I said, this is one of the templates we provide. It will give us information on the applicant and their eligibility and the campus and that kind of information will support our eligibility determination. We do require an applicant commitment and cost sharing. And we'll discuss this a little bit later.

But all applicants are required to submit a commitment and cost sharing, which will must include an executed statement of commitment and cost sharing by the applicant. In addition, letters of commitment and cost sharing are required from all other project participants, except for vendors, contractors who provide supplies under the Participant Letters and Commitment and Cost Sharing file.

Letters of support by anyone that's not participating in the project are not required or are desired. So please, just don't submit letters of support. Thank you.

Payments, reimbursement, payment will be made electronically on a reimbursement basis through the automatic clearinghouse, ACH. And the requisite support is provided. We try to reimburse that within 7 to 10 days. However, it could take up to 30 days.

Post-award reporting requirements, selected applicants will be required to document progress and quarterly reports and project outcomes in a comprehensive final report as well as present at our annual program review, which we hold in the fall in Colorado. It's an opportunity for all of our project recipients to get together, share with other tribes your experiences, learn, share in the successes. It's a good time.

But you must include the travel for that one week review for each year of the grant period in your budget. So just make you aware of that. A couple other things that I think are important is equipment and title and vested interests. So subject to the conditions provided in 2 CFR 200.313 title to the equipment acquired under a federal award will be conditionally vest upon acquisition with the non-federal entity.

The non-federal entity or the recipient of the grant cannot encumber that property, which means you cannot use that equipment for a loan or anything like that because DOE still holds the vested interest. If any of the recipients are for-profit entities, and they received more than a million dollars from DOE, they also have to record the equipment under the Uniform Commercial Code or UCC financial statements for that equipment.

For cost share, every cost share contribution must be allowable under the applicable federal cost principles as described in section III.B of the FOA. Also, the cost share must be available or accessible at the time of the application, meaning it can't be based [AUDIO OUT] or loan that you've applied for. The funds should be available. You can also obviously have in-kind contributions that could comprise that cost share as well. Next slide, please.

The next, I'm going to hand it off to Tweedie to present the next section. Thank you.

TWEEDIE DOE: All right. I'll give Lizana a little break before she comes back. We're going to discuss next here the application documents.

All right. We are on slide looks like slide 29, to confirm where we are. The content and form of an application will be covered in detail later on in our presentation, but we want to give you the required application documents summary here on the next slide. And you'll also find it in section 4 of the FOA document that begins on page 22, so page 22 of the FOA.

And we also recommend that you take a look at table 2. And table 2 is labeled required application documents on pages 24 through 26 of the FOA document. And you can use this as a checklist as Lizana mentioned earlier, when you are preparing your application.

Remember that the forms and templates, again, can be found on IE-Exchange under Application Forms and Templates for this FOA. The screenshot that Lizana showed earlier. And all of the other required application documents are generated by the applicant.

The application documents for which a form or template has been provided in IE-Exchange are shaded light gray, if you can see that on your screen, the ones that are shaded lightly gray. And also the ones that must be executed or signed by an authorized representative are noted with an asterisk next to the document type. So I'll give you just a second to look at those. And then we will move on next to the next slide, slide 30.

Here are the remaining documents that comprise a complete application. And we'll go over each of these in more detail later on in the presentation. You may submit an application at any time before the due date, as Lizana mentioned earlier. And you'll be able to go back in and update it as needed up until the deadline.

Please allow sufficient time to ensure that you have uploaded all the required documents and that your application is complete prior to the due date and time. And a reminder again that if there are any inconsistencies between the Funding Opportunity Announcement, the FOA, this presentation or statements from DOE or other personnel, the FOA document is the controlling document. And applicants should rely solely on that FOA language or seek clarification by sending your questions to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov.

And again, these slides and audio recording of this webinar will be posted in the next week or so. And as a registrant of this webinar, you'll receive an email from us when the material is available. Next slide, please.

All right. We are going to discuss the topic areas next. So let's go on. Let's go on to slide 32 here. We'll get started.

I'm going to read this slide. So bear with me to make sure that I get the language just right. "The Funding Opportunity Announcement, or FOA builds on efforts by DOE to accelerate the deployment of energy infrastructure on tribal lands. Between 2010 and 2022, the DOE office of Indian Energy invested over $120 million in more than 210 tribal energy projects implemented across the contiguous 48 states and Alaska. These projects, valued at nearly $215 million, are leveraged by over $93 million in recipient cost share." I think we saw some of those statistics that listeners talked about earlier. OK, next slide, please, Joe.

The DOE Office of Indian Energy is now soliciting applications from Tribal Colleges and Universities. You'll see us with the acronym TCU for topic area one, which is clean energy project and curriculum planning, and topic area two, clean energy technology and curriculum deployment. Eligible applicants are tribal colleges and universities and on whose campuses the projects will be located.

Please note that applications may also be submitted from a consortium of TCUs. But the application must be submitted by a single TCU acting as the applicant and representing the consortium. Applicant eligibility information is included under Section III.A of the FOA. And we're going to go over some definitions of eligible entities here. Next slide, please.

This slide here shows eligible topic areas that I just mentioned, the two topic areas. And again, we're going to go into them a little bit more under topic area one for clean energy project planning to transition the tribal college or university to a clean energy campus and two, clean energy curriculum planning to complement the transition to clean energy.

Eligible planning activities under topic area one must include clean energy project studies and analysis, including activities for clean energy curriculum planning. And you can see descriptions of planning activities on page 9 of the FOA. The clean energy project planning must result in a specific project plan that is sufficient to implement a clean energy project and implementation of a related clean energy curriculum.

All right. So that is topic area one. Topic area two is for deployment of clean energy technologies to transition the tribal college or university to a clean energy campus and two, to implement related clean energy curriculum. The clean energy technology deployment must result in the installation of clean energy technology on the TCU campus, including the implementation of a related clean energy curriculum.

And for topic area two, the building and/or land to be used for the project must be owned or controlled by the applicant. If the building or land is not owned or controlled by the applicant, a letter of commitment for use of the buildings and/or land from the buildings and land holder must be submitted as part of the application under the participant letter of commitment and cost sharing file.

We're going to go over some definitions here in the next few slides in case you have questions that you are thinking of already as we talk about this. So next slide, please, slide 35.

And I'll have to give credit to BCC. I think we may have some people from Blackfeet Community college. So thank you for letting us use this beautiful picture of building from your campus.

All right. Some definitions here. TCU. "For the purpose of this FOA, eligible Tribal Colleges and Universities, TCUs, must be, one, institutions of higher education located in the 48 contiguous United States or Alaska, and 2, be defined and eligible based on the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978." And I believe this is under 25 United States Code Section 1801(a) part 4 and the Higher Education Act of 1965 respectively.

We'll go into more detail on the eligibility section of the presentation later. Consortium or the plural form, consortia, means a group of organizations or individuals that have chosen to submit a single application in response to a FOA. All right. Let's go to more definitions on the next slide, slide 36.

Campus. What is the campus? "For the purposes of this FOA, means a collection of buildings and land that are part of a Tribal College or University." And what is the curriculum? "And for the purpose of this FOA means the subjects comprising a course of study in a school or college which covers knowledge, attitude behavior, manner, performance, and skills that are imparted or inculcated in a student and may include, but is not limited to teaching methods, lesson, assignments, physical and mental exercises, activities, projects, tutorials, presentations, assessments, tests, theories, other methods used to evaluate student learning, study supplies kits, and materials used to organize and teach a particular course."

Next slide, please. So some definitions specific to topic area one. Under topic area one, the DOE office of Indian Energy is soliciting applications for, again, one clean energy project planning to transition the Tribal College or University to a clean energy campus and two, to clean energy curriculum planning to complement the transition to clean energy, topic area one.

Eligible planning activities under topic area one must include clean energy project studies and analysis, such as energy efficiency or renewable energy, including activities for clean energy curriculum planning. The clean energy project planning must result in a specific project plan that's sufficient to implement a clean energy project and implementation of a related clean energy curriculum.

Under topic area one, the applicant must develop clean energy curriculum or modify an existing curriculum to complement the planned clean energy project. The types of clean energy project studies and analysis can be found on page 9 of the FOA document and types of curriculum planning activities begin, I think, on the bottom of page 9 of the FOA. Next slide, please.

So now we're going to move to some definitions for topic area two. Topic area two, we are seeking applications for one, the deployment of clean energy technology or technology to transition the tribal college or university to a clean energy campus and two, to implement related clean energy curriculum. The clean energy technology deployed must result in the installation of clean energy technology on the campus, including the implementation of a related clean energy curriculum.

Again, the building and/or land to be used for the project must be owned or controlled by the applicant. And if the buildings or land is not owned or controlled by the applicant, a letter of commitment for use of the buildings and land must come from the landholder submitted as part of a letter under the participant letter of commitment and cost sharing file. Own and control, I want to give you a definition here.

For the purpose of this FOA is where the eligible entity has or has given certain rights or has been given certain rights and duties specifically the ability to exercise authority, direction, and control. The ownership may be private, collective, or common. And some of those rights and duties may be held by different parties. Next slide, please.

All right. We are now on slide 39. For purposes of this FOA. We're going to give you some more definitions here for topic area two, clean energy technology may include clean energy generating system or systems. Two, energy efficiency measures or three, integrated clean energy systems.

Clean energy generating systems include renewable energy systems or combined heat and power systems using renewable fuels, such as biomass, biogas, renewable natural gas, or renewable hydrogen. And energy efficiency measures, what that means is the implementation of building efficiency measures or an industrial process efficiency measure or measures. I'll let that sink in a little bit.

All right. Slide 40. Next slide, please. Integrated clean energy systems under topic area two, as a minimum, must provide power to buildings that make up in part or in whole of a TCU campus and include one clean energy generating systems and two, controls and management systems and three, energy storage systems. Such systems may also include conventional energy generation devices.

However, conventional energy generation devices are eligible only if used solely as a dispatchable standby power source. Note that some components of a proposed integrated clean energy systems may already exist. And therefore, not all of the components must be proposed for DOE funding. However, the integrated clean energy system as a whole must meet the requirement under topic area two. Next slide, please.

Application under topic area two must include the implementation of a related clean energy curriculum that may include, but is not limited to the activities that are listed on this slide. They include lessons, assignments, physical and mental exercises, activities, projects, tutorials, presentations, assessments, tests, other methods used to evaluate student learning, study supplies and kits or materials used to organize and teach a particular course.

And my apologies for some repetition that we have here. We want to make sure that you understand the requirements that we are asking depending on which topic area you are applying to. The costs associated with the implementation of a clean energy curriculum, such as supplies, kits, and materials may be included in the proposed budget. Next slide, please.

OK, next, we are on the agenda here. We're going to talk about applications that are not of interest on this FOA. So let's go to the next slide, please.

The types of applications on this and the next few slides are specifically not of interest and will be deemed non-responsive and will not be reviewed or considered by our office. Applications that fall outside the technical parameters specified in section I.B of the FOA are not of interest. Applications proposing energy conservation where energy conservation for the purpose of this FOA means decreasing energy consumption by using less energy or going without the save energy. Energy conservation typically involves a behavioral change and may include energy use monitors or other indicators to induce that behavioral change.

Third type of applications not of interest are the applications proposing the evaluation of product marketing opportunities, assessment of manufacturing opportunities, research, product development or the construction of manufacturing facilities or building. Next slide, please.

For topic area one, specifically applications proposing the purchase or installation of clean energy technology are not of interest. Such activities would need to be proposed under topic area two. Next slide, please.

Under topic area two, applications that are not specifically of interest include applications proposing planning activities, including but not limited to studies, design, and engineering, excluding final design and engineering or development, such as pre-construction activities or any activities which are not directly related to the installation of clean energy technology. Applications proposing the cost of construction for a building or buildings or structures such as carports.

It's only the incremental costs associated with the installation of clean energy technologies that will be considered applicable to the proposed DOE funded project and not the cost of constructing the building or structures, unless those structures are integral to the proposed project. Next slide, please. And we are on slide 46.

For topic area two, another type of application. not of interest are applications where the applicant has already taken irreversible actions regarding the proposed DOE-funded project, where the proposed DOE-funded projects consists only of the installation of clean energy technology, including irreversible actions related to the construction of a building or structure, again, such as carport if the building or structures are being built specifically to enable the DOE-funded project.

Irreversible actions relative to the proposed DOE-funded project may include but are not limited to site clearing, ground breaking, equipment or system purchase or installation, building renovation, and building retrofits that have already been done or started. Next slide, please.

Some more applications or projects that are not of interest under topic area two. Applications for commercial projects intended solely for revenue generation through the export of electricity off the campus or commercial sale unless revenue from the export of electricity is used to offset the applicant's electricity bills. Applications proposing conventional energy generation devices, and unless used solely as dispatchable standby power source. A conventional energy generation device is only eligible as a dispatchable standby power source under topic area two. Next slide, please.

OK. More types of projects that are not of interest under topic area two. Application that are proposing the use of material, supplies, or equipment which are not commercially proven or warranted, or applications proposing construction as a primary activity. Again, for purposes of this FOA, construction is defined as but not limited to building, erecting, altering, remodeling, or repairing a particular building or structure as well as making major renovations or additions to existing buildings or structures.

Construction does not include the installation of clean energy technology or activities ancillary to those installations. Projects that include construction as a primary activity will not be considered under the FOA unless such activity is integral to meeting the objectives of the FOA and only with prior written authorization from the contracting officer. Next slide, please.

OK, enough of the type of projects that we're not interested in. We're going to move on and discuss some key award information. And a quick reminder, we're not having questions and answer session here as part of the webinar. But please, write down your questions and submit them to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov. Next slide, please.

The award information included on the slide that's in front of you here and is included in the executive summary beginning on page one of the FOA documents that we talked about earlier. Again, we expect to make approximately $15 million in federal funds available and anticipate 10 to 25 awards under this FOA. And we're anticipating between two and four years, and that includes a mandatory 12-month verification period for topic area two.

Please note that there are different restrictions on the minimum and maximum amount of DOE funding to be requested under each topic area. For the clean energy project and curriculum planning under topic area one, the per individual award varies to no less than $100,000 to a maximum of $250,000. And for topic area two, the clean energy technology and curriculum development, DOE funding per individual award will vary from no less than $250,000 to a maximum of $4 million. Next slide, please.

All right, eligibility. We're going to talk about that. Next slide, please. OK, who's eligible to apply? Remember, one of the files that comprise an application is the eligibility statement and evidence file. You will be required to complete the template and provide evidence of to support DOE's eligibility determination.

You can see we've got the template. It's a Microsoft Word template that's under Application, Forms, and Templates for this FOA that's found on IE-Exchange. And note that the use of the template is not required, but the information included within the template is required. So we try to outline there to simplify that for you to provide the information that we need to make the eligibility determination.

As we mentioned earlier, DOE we will not make eligibility determinations prior to an application being submitted. Eligibility for award under this Funding Opportunity Announcement is restricted to one, tribal colleges and universities and two, on whose campuses the proposed projects will be located.

And again, campus for the purpose of this FOA means a collection of buildings and land that are part of a tribal college or a university. And applications from a consortium of tribal colleges and university or consortium will be accepted, but the application must be submitted by a single tribal college or university acting as the applicant representing the consortium. Next slide, please.

More specifically, tribal colleges and universities, again, for the purposes of this FOA are institutions of higher education located in the 48 contiguous United States or Alaska and defined and eligible based on the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978 and the Higher Education Act of 1965.

And I'm going to go into the specific language here. Tribal colleges and universities means institution of higher education, which are formally controlled or have been formally sanctioned or chartered by the governing body of an Indian tribe or tribe, except that no more than one such institution shall be recognized with respect to any such tribe, including those institutions cited in section 532 of the equity in Educational Land Grant Status Act of 1994. Any other institution that qualifies for funding under the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978 and any college authorized in the Navajo Community College Assistance Act of 1978 Public Law 95-471 Title 2. And all of these definitions that I just read off can be found under Section III.A of the FOA document or under Appendix A for you to review. Next slide, please.

Reminder, again, DOE will not make eligibility determinations for potential applicants prior to the date on which applications to this FOA must be submitted. The decision of whether to submit an application in response to the FOA lies solely with the applicant. And again, we're not having a Q&A session, but please, please capture your questions as we go along here and email them to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov. We want to clarify any questions that you have. Next slide, please.

All right. I want to talk about a requirement. This is the Buy America requirement, which may be applicable to topic area two, which is again for clean energy technology and curriculum deployment. Federally assisted projects which involve infrastructure work undertaken by applicable recipient types require that all iron, steel, and manufactured products used in the infrastructure work are produced in the United States, and all construction materials used in the infrastructure work are manufactured in the United States.

Whether a given project must apply this requirement is project specific and dependent on several factors, such as the recipient's entity type, whether the work involves infrastructure, quote unquote, as that term is defined in section 70914 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and whether the infrastructure in question is publicly owned or serves a public function. Applicants are strongly encouraged to consult Appendix C of this FOA to determine whether their project may have to apply this requirement both to make an early determination as to the need of a waiver as well as to determine what impact, if any, this requirement may have on the proposed project's budget.

So that's the Buy America requirement. Next slide, please. All right. I think I gave Lizana long enough of a break. So I'm going to ask her to come back in to talk about cost share. Lizana, are you on?

LIZANA PIERCE: Thank you. Thank you, Tweedie. I'm not sure with long enough, but thank you anyway. OK, moving on. Next slide, please.

So cost share. As I mentioned before, a 10% cost share of the total allowable cost of the project and the total allowable production cost of the project are going to be not only the federal share, but also the cost share. So it's a combination of both.

For example, if the requested Doe costs $900,000, the cost share would be $100,000 or 10% of the total proposed project cost, which would be a million dollars. This is not 10% of the DOE request. So again, cost is 10% of the total project costs, which, in this example, are a million dollars.

Please also refer to section III.B for instances where federal funds may be permissible for use as cost share, such as the Indian Self-Determination Act, Tribal Self-governance Funding Agreements, Self-Determination Contract Funding, Compact Funding, and the funds as well. There's quite a few sources of funds for tribes that have within the statute the ability to use those funds as cost share as well as in-kind contributions of labor or unrecovered indirect costs and those kinds of things as well.

Also, you can see appendix B of the FOA which gives you some examples of calculating cost share notes and so forth. Next slide, please

OK, so we're looking at 10% of the total project cost. All costs must come from non-federal sources unless otherwise allowed by law. Like I said, there are a number of funds for tribes that do specifically allow them to be used as cost share.

So note that except in very limited situations and only with prior DOE approval, all cost share must be made during the period of performance of the grant. The FOA provides additional information on cost share types, liability, verification, and payment under Section III.B. Cost share must also be either available or accessible at the time you submit the application.

As I said, it can't be based on a future event such as receiving a grant, or obtaining loan, or securing an investor, those kinds of things. And you must have a written assurance or commitment provided as part of the application. And that written assurance is going to be a binding guarantee by the applicant that the funds are available or with respect to the use of equipment and contributed labor hours or unrecovered indirect costs as it's accessible. Next slide, please.

So although the project or the cost share requirement applies to the project as a whole, including work by members of the project team other than the applicant, those who receive a grant the recipient is ultimately and legally responsible for the entire amount of the cost share of the orders made. And if an award is made, that cost share will be verified when funds are invoiced.

Documentation for all costs or the evidence of expenditures associated with the project will be required with each and every request for reimbursement from DOE or DOE's portions of the costs, meaning you must provide documentation not only for the DOE requested, but your contributions as well. DOE requires recipients to contribute cost share amount incrementally over the life of the award on an invoice-by-invoice basis, meaning that for every request for DOE funds, you must also show your 10% cost share.

However, in limited instances and where it is in the government's interest, the DOE contracting officer may approve a request for recipients to meet its cost share requirements on a less frequent basis. And this is true, especially if your cost share contributions are in-kind. And those would depend on when those contributions are made as opposed to cash, which would be available for contribution with every DOE request for reimbursement. Hope that makes sense. Next slide, please.

So the total budget included in the application must include both the federal and non-federal share combined, which is the total project cost. Bottom line is we review with the same scrutiny the cost share as we do for the DOE funds. So all the funds associated with the project are federalized, if you will. And all have the same requirements.

All costs must be verifiable from the recipients records. They must be necessary and reasonable for the accomplishment of the proposed project. Every cost share contribution must be reviewed and approved in advance by the contracting officer and incorporated in the project budget before expenditures are incurred. You need to have that cost share in your budget in your application. Next slide, please.

As I said, all sources of cost share are considered part of the total project cost. And if selected for funding, cost share dollars will be scrutinized into the same federal regulations as federal funds are requested. Specifically, all costs, whether they be requested for reimbursement with DOE or contributor's cost share will require the same level of documentation to support those costs, as well as undergo the same level of review to determine the allowability, eligibility, and reasonableness of those costs. Next slide, please.

Pardon me. So cost share must be allowable. It also must be verifiable. So please refer to the chart here for your entity's applicant type and the associated cost principles. It's imperative that you follow the applicable cost principles when creating your budget and obviously retaining records and invoicing as well. Next slide, please.

As I mentioned before, cost share can be provided either as cash or as in-kind contributions. It can be provided by the recipient, subawardee, vendors, or third parties. Allowable in-kind contributions may include but are not limited to the contribution of time, i.e. labor, unrecovered indirect costs, unrecovered facilities administrative costs, and other type of indirect overhead.

The rental value of buildings, lands, or equipment, not the purchase price, but the rental or the lease value during the grant period can be applied as cost share or must be supported. The value of a service or other resource or third party in-kind contribution as well. Again, only the rental or lease value of buildings, land, or equipment and only for the period of the grant is allowable, not the contribution of the total purchase price of those items. Next slide, please.

So be aware that there are items that are considered unallowable cost share. And it's a cost is considered unallowable, it cannot be requested from DOE or counted as cost share. And this slide provides some examples of cost share that is unallowable. For more examples, you can see page 19 in FOA. And I'll give you just a moment to look through those.

And as I said, that generally, any cost before or after the DOE grant period generally cannot be considered cost share. Next slide, please.

So next on to the content in the form of the application, this is where we go through all the documents. Just a reminder, no question and answer period. Submit questions to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov. We respond and post the responses and let when those are posted. The slides and audio recording will be posted for this webinar. And you will receive an email where that information will be located.

Just again, if there are any inconsistencies between the FOA, this webinar, or people tell you, et cetera, the FOA document is to be the controlling document. And if there's any inconsistencies or unique clarifications again, send the questions to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov. Next slide, please.

OK. These are going to get long and windy. I know why Tweedie gave me this section to do. [LAUGHS]

OK, we're going to go through each of the forms and the documents that are going to comprise your application. Note that there are topic areas specific templates, which includes a summary slide, the technical volume, and the workplan. And those are all posted on IE-Exchange. I'm going to go over each of the documents.

Each of the files or documents shown on this slide and the next are required to complete an application. And a similar table is included on pages 24, 25, 26 for FOA. Again, you could use that as a checklist when you're preparing and uploading your application to ensure all relevant documents of a complete application are submitted.

And please bear with me. There's a lot of information on this slide and the next. OK, here we go.

So all the application documents which we provided a form or template in IE Exchange are shaded in light gray. You could see that. And those that must be executed or signed by an authorized representative are denoted by an asterisk mark. So make sure you allow time for those signature processes if you're planning to submit an application.

So the first required document is the application for federal assistance as form SF-424, pretty standard for federal grants. The application for federal assistance is a formal application for funding. It must be signed by an authorized representative of the applicant. And by signing that, authorized representative is making certain certifications and assurances and therefore the form must either be digitally signed or manually signed in ink and scanned before being uploaded. We need a real signature. Bottom line, typed signatures will not constitute a digital signature in this case.

So the summary slide is the next one. And we have a template both for topic are one and topic area two. So depending on which topic area you're interested, just be aware. This is a single PowerPoint slide that provides some quick facts about your proposed project.

The slide content requirements are provided in the FOA and a template for each of the topic areas provided under Application Forms and Templates on IE-Exchange. The technical volume, which is the bulk, the key project proposal, we provided a template for that and one for each of the topic areas.

And this is the key submission document that describes your proposed project and addresses the merit review criteria under which applications will be reviewed. The technical volume must not exceed 15 pages, excluding the cover page and the table of contents. We're only going to review the first 15 pages. So if it exceeds that amount, we will redact those extra pages, and they will not go for review.

So the template provides instructions, but briefly, a technical volume includes the cover page are not counted as part of the 15-page limit. The table of contents, again, not counted as part of the 15-page limit. There'll be an executive summary, project description, and outcomes, and roles, responsibilities, capabilities, and commitment. These are directly correlated to the criteria that's in the FOA upon which the application will be reviewed.

The workplan is the next document. This is also provided a template with instructions and one for each topic area. The workplan is part of the technical volume, but it's to be included as a separate file. The work plan should describe the work to be accomplished in narrative format and how the applicant will achieve project milestones. It also must not exceed five pages, excluding the milestone table.

And you see the template for instructions for that. It can be downloaded on from IE-Exchange under Application, Forms, and Templates again. The fifth required document is the eligibility statement and evidence file. All applicants are required to submit eligibility statements that document and provide evidence of the applicant's eligibility as well as the land status eligibility. And this information will be used to support the eligibility determination.

It's a Microsoft Word template. And again, it's on IE-Exchange for download. As with all the templates, the use of these templates is not required, but the information in those templates is required.

Also note that the eligibility statement and evidence file will also need to be signed by an authorized representative either digitally or manually and then need to be scanned before uploading. Typed signatures do not constitute a digital signature.

The sixth document will be all applicants are required to submit the applicant commitment of cost sharing, which must include an executed statement of commitment and cost sharing by the applicant. If you see page 29 of the FOA, you can see very specific instructions on what needs to be in that commitment. And remember that cost share that you're committing must be available or accessible at the time you submit the application.

And the cost share that the applicant or the recipient, if an award is made, is ultimately legally responsible for the entire amount of the cost share, even if the expectation is it will be coming from another party. The participant letters of commitment and cost sharing file need to include letters of commitment and cost sharing from all other project participants, except for vendors and there should be equipment suppliers and so forth.

The letters must be specific to this FOA. And of course share is committed by those entities must include a statement of the amount and type of cost share they're committing and a detailed estimate of the cash value or basis or nature of those contributions.

And remember, letters of support by anyone not participating in the project are not required. They're not desired. And please don't include them.

Also, number eight, required document is the resume file. All applicants are required to provide a resume for the business contact and the project manager. For the applicant, each of these persons proposed, including tribal staff, need to include those resumes.

A key person is any individual who contributes in a substantive measurable way to the execution of the project. And each resume must not exceed two pages. You need to save all the resumes into a single file and upload those as the eighth required document of your application.

The ninth one is the budget justification workbook. This is a required form and must include both the funds being requested as well as the cost share. It can't be cost share if it's not in the budget, if you will. So that is a multi-tab Excel workbook that includes instructions on how to complete that. But it needs to include all project costs, regardless of who's contributing them.

In addition to the amount, you need to include the basis of those cost estimates, is that a quote, is it an estimate, that kind of thing. And the forms are available for download off of IE-Exchange. And remember that there's a table of these documents on page 24 of the FOA. You can use that as a checklist. Next slide, please.

Yes, more documents. So these are the remaining components of the complete application. Again, there's a lot of information to go over. Please bear with me.

The 10th, a document that the application must provide separate budget justification for each subrecipient. It's expected to perform work, but for only those that are estimated to provide work for more than $250,000 or 25% of the total work effort, whichever is less. And a subrecipient is one who's providing cost share or who has a vested interest in the project.

This is not an entity that's just providing goods or services. If none of the proposed subrecipients meet the threshold or you don't have any subrecipients, just vendors, for instance, the forms are not required. So you would submit a statement saying that no subrecipients are being proposed or meet the threshold. Therefore, there's no subrecipient budget form being provided.

Vendor information should be included in the applicant's budget justification workbook, not in the subrecipient one. A vendor, as I said, is an entity contracted to provide goods and services within their normal business operations. They provide similar goods and services to everybody. They operate in a competitive environment.

So it could be an equipment supplier, for instance, that kind of thing. The budget support file is required by all applicants. This provides us additional information on the cost.

So questions as well as the ability to provide supplemental information like an indirect trade agreement or break down of the fringe costs for labor, also any cost documentation if you have quotes, for instance, if you have any budget support for your vendors or other relevant supplemental information. So the budget support file is a Microsoft Word template. And again, it can be downloaded from IE-Exchange.

The registration certifications, I think we've mentioned this before, that those registrations need to be completed and that a authorized representative of the applicant needs to certify that those are completed. And we provided a template for that. It can be downloaded from IE-Exchange. We're getting closer here. Bear with me.

The 13th document is disclosure of lobbying activity. I think this is fairly common across the federal grant funding requirements. It's from SF-LLL. And it's required to be submitted regardless of whether the funds are being paid or will be paid for influencing or attempted that includes persons in connection with the application.

The bottom line is recipients or subrecipients may not use federal funds to influence or attempt to influence directly or indirectly congressional actions on any legislative or appropriation matters. All applicants are required to complete and submit acceptable disclosure and lobbying activities form and disclose if any non-federal funds have been paid or will be paid to any person for influencing or attempting to influence and the following in connection with this particular application an officer or an employee of the federal agency, a member of Congress, or an officer employee of Congress, or an employee of a member of Congress.

If no non-federal funds have been paid or will be paid to any person for influencing or attempting to influence any of the above in connection with the application, you just indicate "none." You sign and date the form and you upload.

This 14th document, which is the potentially duplicate funding file, is a new requirement we found out with just right before we were going to issue this FOA. So this is kind of new to us. But if the applicant or project team member has any other activities of federal funds, the applicant must determine whether those activities of those awards potentially overlap with the activities set forth of the application to the FOA. So if there's a potential overlap, you must notify DOE in writing of this and state how you will ensure that project funds, either cost share or federal, will not be used for identical cost items under multiple awards.

And likewise, for projects that receive funding under this FOA, if a recipient or team member receives any other award or federal funds for activities that potentially overlap with activities funded under the DOE award if awarded, the recipients must properly notify DOE in writing of the potential overlap. Estate worth or project funds from any of those other federal awards have been, are being, or are to be used in all or part of one or more of the identical cost items under the DOE award.

If there are identical cost items, the recipient must promptly notify the DOE contracting officer in writing of the potential duplication and eliminate any inappropriate duplication of funding. If that situation doesn't apply here, then we would just need a statement saying that the FOA gives you very specific language that the applicant and project team members do not have other activities that potentially overlap with activities proposed in this application. Therefore, a potentially duplicate funding notice is not being provided. So you have to upload something just to say it doesn't apply.

The 15th one is site resource maps and graphic file. This again, is, going to be in your own format or generated. And all applicants must include a file, even if it states that you're not providing any additional information.

But this is an opportunity for you to provide site maps, or resource maps, or graphics to help supplement your technical volume. It won't be counted as part of the page limit for the technical volume. So again, it's just another opportunity to provide maps, photographs, or other visuals on the project location or the buildings affected or any other background or supplemental information as well.

Again, a file must be uploaded. If you choose not to have any graphics, or maps, or so forth, then you just need to upload a statement saying "no additional site resource, maps, or graphic information is being provided as an attachment." And upload that instead.

The 16th document of an application is the studies and analysis file. And this is only for topic area to applicants, not for the planning grants, if you will. Under topic area two, you're required to submit a comprehensive feasibility study is specifically required.

And so this submission must include for topic area two a minimum of energy audits or energy assessments feasibility studies to show that you have resources and those kinds of things. Any past studies or analysis as well can be included.

Number 17, again, is for topic area two. Only this is design and engineering for the proposed project. You can include copies of the hardware performance, specification, warranties, engineering drawings, or any other designer engineering data to supplement your technical volume to show technical viability. As well as material and equipment list for energy efficiency measures should be included here as well. But you have the option not to attach anything, and that will be considered during the review. So you can upload a file that says that there's no additional design and engineering information being provided and upload that instead.

And lastly, again for topic area two, now you know why Tweedie gave me this part, huh. For topic area two, lastly, is the economic file. Again, a file must be provided even if it just states that you choose not to submit one.

So when this would be in a supplemental data to support the economic analysis that you choose to include. It could be performance for the project. It could be payback periods, net price and value, those kinds of economic analysis. And again, this same sort of table of documents is on page 24. And we recommend you use that as the checklist.

And you can actually submit your application any time. Nobody does. They always wait till the last minute. But you can submit it early. And then if you need to updated or revise that as you go, you can do that as well up until the due date and time. Next slide, please.

OK. We're going to talk about application eligibility requirements next. Next slide, please. So as previously discussed, applications must be submitted no later than 5 o'clock Eastern. Eastern time, remember. You need to account for that on July 27. So please plan accordingly if you're in a different time zone.

Once the applications are submitted, DOE will conduct an eligibility review. And the application will be deemed eligible only if the applicant is an eligible entity, the cost share requirement is met, the application complies with the content form, submission requirements is complete and submitted on time. The application is successfully uploaded and all required documents. And you click Submit.

The proposed project is responsive to the intent of the FOA. And that the application meets the other eligibility requirements identified as Section III of the FOA. So we will review all the applications thoroughly during that eligibility review. And any applications that do not pass that eligibility review will be notified and be given the reasons for that decision. Next slide, please.

OK. So next is merit review and selection criteria and process. This is how we're going to review the applications. And this is all in the Funding Opportunity Announcement.

So the merit review and selection process consists of a series of reviews, including an initial eligibility review, a rigorous technical review, and then a programmatic review. The rigorous technical reviews are conducted by reviewers that are subject matter experts. And then ultimately, the selection official will consider those recommendations along with any other considerations, such as program policy factors, to make the selection decisions. Next slide, please.

Next slide, I'm sorry. On slide 73. 73. Thank you. So next, we're going to go over the merit review criteria. This is how each of the applications will be reviewed.

Since topic area one and topic area two have varying scopes, there are differences in what is being thought under each. But the four criteria is the same for all for both of the topic areas.

The first criteria is goals and objectives. This is weighted at 10% of the project description and outcome. That's where we have technical viability, economic viability, and the outcomes section. That's going to be weighted at 50%. The roles, responsibilities, capabilities, and commitment is 30%. And then the work plan is 10%.

And at Section V.A of the FOA beginning on page 46, it identifies all the sort of technical criteria upon which it's going to be reviewed. I would look at that and consider that when you're preparing-- consider that when you're preparing the technical volume and the weights of each of those criteria as well. Obviously, the project description outcomes and the roles, responsibility, commitments, combined that 80% are the bulk of the scoring. Next slide, please.

So as I mentioned, the selection official may consider the merit review recommendations as well as program policy factors and the amount of funds available in arriving at his or her decision. Next slide, please.

So here's the program policy factors that could be considered. And they are also included on page 49 of the FOA. So selection official may consider, in no particular order, the geographic distribution of recommended applications, the technology diversity, the degree to which the proposed project optimizes the use of daily funding, and whether the proposed project serves tribal communities with high energy costs or tribal communities that aren't connected to the traditional centralized electric power grid, and the degree to which the proposed project will employ procurement of US iron steel manufactured projects and construction materials, and applicants who have not previously received a grant from the office.

And I know this is kind of small font, so I apologize for that. Next slide, please. Well, go ahead. Tweedie, start again. Yay.

TWEEDIE DOE: OK. All right, Lizana. You deserve it. That was a lot of talking. But I want to make sure you got to address all the important stuff. And thank you again, everyone, for sticking with us here. We are getting towards the end here.

And just a page check, we are on slide 76. If you want to go back and listen to us again, if this is not enough for you and you want to go back and listen to us again and again. All right, next slide, please. Slide 77.

The following registrations are required before you submit an application. First one is IE-Exchange. You have to register and create an account on IE-Exchange, which we provided the URL up there. So you can see in that first bullet.

And this account will then allow you as the user to register for any open FOAs that are currently in IE-Exchange. Remember, applications will only be accepted through IE-Exchange. This is the only portal, not any other portal where you submit your application.

A control number will be assigned while you register in IE-Exchange. Retain this number, as it will be required on all application documents that you submit. The IE-Exchange registration does not have a delay, but remaining registration requirements below, though, could take several weeks to process. And they are required prior to submitting an application.

So if you are thinking of applying, and you don't have a UEI number, that's a unique entity ID number, or if you haven't registered in SAM yet or if FedConnect or Grants.gov, please, we encourage you to complete those registrations as soon as possible.

The next one, obtain a unique entity ID, again this is the UEI number. And this replaced the DUNS. Many of people out there are familiar with the DUNS. The UEI has replaced that for entities doing business with the federal government. And you do this during the SAM registration or if you are renewing your account on SAM. The system will assign a UEI which is required for all entities, again, doing business with the federal government.

The next one, system for award management. This is SAM. And register with Sam at the URL that we provided there if you haven't already done so.

You have to designate an electronic business point of contact. I think they call it an EBiz POC to obtain a special password called an MPIN and obtaining the UEI that we just talked about. And these are important steps in your SAM registration. And also, I'll mention that SAM registration is required to be renewed annually.

It does contain a lot of the sensitive banking information. And so an annual renewal is required with SAM. Next, FedConnect. Register in FedConnect at that URL there that we provided on screen.

This is to create an organization account, your organization's SAM MPIN. SAM is required to do this. And for more information about the SAM MPIN, M-P-I-N, or other registration requirements, you can review a document that's called FedConnect Ready, Set, Go. It's a guide that's available on FedConnect.net at the URL there.

Next is grants.gov. Register in grants.gov to receive automatic updates when amendments to this FOA are posted. However, please note that applications are not accepted through grants.gov. All applications must be submitted through IE-Exchange. And your registration in grants.gov only means that you'll receive email notices and any amendments to this FOA.

The applicants will be required to certify that these registrations have been completed and to include that certification as part of their application. So it's essential that these registrations be complete as soon as possible. And again, as we kept saying, some of these may take several weeks to process.

Failure to complete the registrations-- that's on the slide here-- prior to submitting application could result in DOE determining that the applicant is not qualified to receive a federal grant. And you can see more on this in section VI.B of the FOA. That starts on page 55, I believe, on required registration. Next slide, please.

All right. And that's it for that. And we are going on to applications submission requirements and designated points of contact. Next slide, please, slide 79. So we're on.

All applications must be submitted on IE-Exchange. I know we keep saying that to make sure that you are submitting your application to the right portal. DOE will not review or consider applications submitted through any other link. Must be submitted on IE-Exchange.

Please see the IE-Exchange applicant guide that we have provided for you, which is on IE-Exchange exchange under Manuals. You can navigate to the left hand side of IE-Exchange, and you'll see the word Manual and click on that. And this will provide you a step-by-step guide, including screenshots on how to register, create an account, and submit an application on IE-Exchange.

We have also created an IE-Exchange registration and log in guide to help you through the multi-factor login process. This guide also include screenshots and explain the log in requirements. Next slide, please.

All right. Key information regarding submission of an application. Read check entries in IE-Exchange. The submissions could be deemed ineligible due to any incorrect entries. DOE strongly encourages applicants to submit applications one to two days prior to the deadline to allow for full upload of application documents and to avoid any potential technical issues.

Make sure you push the Submit button. Any changes that's made after you push the Submit button will unsubmit your application, and you will need to push the Submit button again. For your records, print out the IE-Exchange confirmation page at each step, which contains the application's control number.

IE-Exchange is design to enforce the deadline specified in the FOA. The Apply and Submit buttons will be automatically disabled at the defined submission deadline. If applicant experienced problem with IE-Exchange, the following information may be helpful to you.

Applicants that experience issues with submission prior to the FOA deadline in the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the applicant should contact IE-Exchange helpdesk for assistance. And this address is exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov. I'll say that again. exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov.

The Exchange helpdesk will assist applicant in resolving issues. However, those applicants who are unable to submit their applications because they are submitting them at the last minute, when network traffic is probably at its heaviest, will not be eligible for assistance from Exchange helpdesk. The Office of Indian Energy is not able to assist with technical issues associated with the IE-Exchange system or this middle of an application.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in late submissions should also contact Exchange helpdesk for assistance. The Exchange helpdesk and/or the IE-Exchange system administrators may be able to assist you. And we strongly encourage you to keep records and documentation, including screenshots along the way of any issues you experience in submitting your application and any efforts made to resolve those issues. And this is in the event of a late submission that documentation may be factor into whether your submission, your application is considered valid. Next slide, please.

In addition, on page 63 of the FOA, please keep in mind that all information provided by the applicant must, to the greatest extent possible, exclude personally identifiable information. Do not include PII as best as you can. Specifically, applicant must screen resumes to ensure they do not contain PII, personally identifiable information, such as personal addresses, phone cell numbers, personal emails, and/or Social Security numbers. In short, if the PII is not essential to the application, it should not be in the application. Next slide, please.

Applicants must designate a primary and a backup point of contact in IE-Exchange with whom DOE will communicate during the process. Remember, these are the contacts that will be used to notify applicants of whether the applications was deemed non-responsive, noncompliant, unsuccessful, or selected for negotiation of an award. We need to know how to contact you.

On slide 83, next slide, please, Joe. And next, we are going on to FOA-related questions. Next slide, please. As we mentioned, I think, many times questions regarding the FOA should be sent or must be sent by email to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov. But consider before submitting a question, look at the frequently asked questions, the FAQ page, on IE-Exchange to see by chance your question has already been asked and answered. But if not, please send in your questions, and we will attempt to answer your questions within three business days. And you will be notified when a response to your question is posted on IE-Exchange. Next slide, please.

For any problems logging into IE-Exchange or uploading and submitting application documents, you can email exchange helpdesk. Again, that email address is on the slide. It is exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov. And include the full name and number in the subject line, please.

Exchange help can be found in the upper right corner of each web page on IE-Exchange or under Contact Us at the bottom of each web page. We'd also recommend if you are having difficulties that you see the IE-Exchange guide and the IE-Exchange registration and log in guide that can be found on IE-Exchange under Manuals, as these provide a step-by-step guidelines with screenshots and how to log in, to register, to create an account, and submit an application into IE-Exchange.

Specific questions regarding the FOA itself again should be sent to tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov. And please include the FOA number and the subject line. We have a number of FOA out there. And so identifying the specific FOA is very helpful to us.

And also remember to check out the non-FOA specific questions on IE-Exchange under Questions and Answers in the left hand navigation at IE-Exchange. And any specific frequently asked questions also on the FAQs web page for the FOA. Next slide, please.

And we are on slide 86. And there's few slides left, but I'm going to transition back over to Lizana again. I just gave you a quick break, Lizana. But if you wouldn't mind coming back on to close us out.

LIZANA PIERCE: OK. And I know we're running a few minutes late, but just bear with us. There's only a couple more slides left. And I do thank you all for your interest and your attention.

On onto best practices, and then we're almost done. Next slide, please. So a few recommendations, please download the Funding Opportunity Announcement. Read it thoroughly so you understand all the steps and requirements. Do not rely solely on this webinar.

If you're considering submitting an application, please register in IE-Exchange as soon as possible and obtain that control number, as it must be on all your documents. And check the frequently asked questions periodically for any supplemental information or amendments to the FOA. Next slide, please.

And then closing. Next slide. A few final comments. Hopefully, we've answered some of your questions and provided an overview of the FOA and the process. However, if you do have questions, again, send us an email at tribalgrants@hq.doe.gov. Please don't ask me or other office energy staff, contractors, or laboratory personnel about the eligibility of your project or any other questions, as only formal responses posted on the FAQ page on IE-Exchange will be honored.

Again, you want an official response. The purpose of accepting only written questions that typically if you have a question someone else has or potentially a similar question, and this also ensures that everyone has the same information relative to the competitive opportunity.

Consider-- I know this never happens, but consider submitting your application early. And you could always revise it, update it up until the deadline. These slides and audio recording of the webinar, if you really, really want to listen to this again, will be posted in the next week or so, and you'll receive an email of where those information can be obtained.

Just a reminder that your participation in this webinar is completely voluntary. There are no particular advantages or disadvantages to the application evaluation process with respect to your participation in the webinar today. And again, remember if there's any inconsistencies between the Funding Opportunity Announcement, this webinar, or statements by DOE or other personnel, the FOA document is the controlling document. And you should rely solely on that language or seek clarification.

I'd also have you consider subscribing to the Office of Energy email newsletter for information on funding. We have one specific for Tribal colleges as well. So it'd be very geared towards TCUs. And remember registering on grants.gov means that you'll receive email notices if any amendments are made to the FOA, but you also receive them through email if you subscribe to our email list. Next slide, please.

I just want to thank you again for your time and attention. You can reach us on our help desk phone number or email and learn more about the office at energy.gov/indianenergy. I also like to invite you to join the Office of Indian Energy in the list.

You can subscribe on our main page of the website. Again, you'll receive the information on funding opportunities through DOE through other agencies training opportunities, webinars, and upcoming events Using the QR code here, you can subscribe to the TCU newsletter.

And for information on previously funded tribal projects, you can see projects on our website in the top navigation and for a list of other open opportunities under funding using the top navigation. The Office of Indian Energy also offers technical assistance at no charge to tribes and tribal entities. And so if you're interested, please check out the technical assistance section of the website and submit a request, and we'll contact you.

And you can always follow us on Twitter and Facebook at the DOE Indian Energy. Next slide, please. And again, thank you very much. This concludes the webinar. You'll be notified when the slides are recordings are posted. Thank you again. Goodbye