Frequently Asked Questions

Eligibility requirements can be found in section III – Eligibility Information.  In general, foreign entities may apply as a prime recipient if they are incorporated (or otherwise formed) under the laws of a state or territory of the United States and have a physical location for business operations in the United States.  Section III.A.iii – Foreign Entities further details a process to request a waiver to this requirement.  A foreign entity may receive funding as a subrecipient to this funding opportunity.

Additionally, this funding opportunity requires that all work performed under an award must be performed in the United States. This requirement does not apply to the purchase of supplies and equipment; however, the prime recipient should make every effort to purchase supplies and equipment within the United States.  Similar to foreign eligibility, section IV.I.iii - Performance of Work in the United States (Foreign Work Waiver) allows for limited waiver circumstances.

In general, partnering is not a requirement for most subtopics of the FOA. However, partnerships and teaming arrangements may be used to strengthen an approach.  This may especially be true where a teaming arrangement may supplement the prime applicant’s approach to provide critical expertise, capabilities, and other valuable resources.  Proposed applications to the FOA will be evaluated, in part, based on the ability of the team to conduct the proposed research and meet the objectives of the FOA.  See section V.A - Technical Review Criteria. 

Some FOA subtopics do require partnership and/teaming arrangements to meet the objectives of the subtopics.  Two examples are subtopics 2.1 - Mass Produced Highly Efficient Manufactured Homes and Portable Classrooms and 2.3 - Advanced Workforce for Advanced Technology.  The applicant should read the subtopic descriptions found in section I.B - Topic Areas and understand potential teaming requirements.

The Funding Opportunity and can be located at:https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/Default.aspx#FoaIdaff0bc6d-95b0-4aa6-901b-2ef0a53e8f7e
Within the FOA, utilize the “Table of Contents” to navigate the details of the FOA.

A20: If you were unable to join the webinar, the transcript and slides can be located at: https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/Default.aspx#FoaIdaff0bc6d-95b0-4aa6-901b-2ef0a53e8f7e under BENEFIT FY20 FOA Potential Applicant Informational Webinar (Conducted 10/05/20).

This call is separate from the upcoming Connected Communities FOA. 

A group of researchers may be eligible to apply to a single subtopic (see section III.A – Eligible Applicants).  The “group” may apply as a single prime recipient or as a consortium  In the case of a consortium, the consortium is responsible for the overall management and oversight of the project approach.  More commonly, a single entity may take the lead as a prime recipient teaming with the other group members as subrecipients.  In this case, the prime recipient is responsible for the overall management and oversight of the project approach.  The prime recipient will also be responsible for flowing down contractual terms to project subrecipients.

Entity refers to an organization or institution.  Eligible Applicants are found in section III.A.  Regardless of the applicant type, a project must identify a principal investigator to oversee the technical aspects of the approach.  This person will also be the technical point of contact to EERE.  That principal investigator must be associated with the application's prime recipient.  Page 39 (32 based on the page number at the bottom right) refers to Unincorporated Consortia.  In the case of an Unincorporated Consortia, the consortium must "designate one member {entity} of the consortium to serve as the prime recipient..."

Workforce development and technology R&D efforts cannot be integrated into a single application.  The requirements for each, including  project funding size and cost share requirements, are different.  Workforce-based activities must apply to subtopic 2.3 - Advanced Workforce for Advanced Technology.  R&D approaches are applicable to subtopics 1.1-1.9, 2.1 and 2.2.

The Concept Paper is due November 5, 2020.  Concept Paper requirements can be found in section IV.B – Content and Form of the Concept Paper.  Each Concept Paper must be limited to a single concept or technology and conform to the 4-page maximum stated in the guidelines. Unrelated concepts and technologies should not be consolidated into a single Concept Paper.  Additional technical review criteria for the concept paper can be found in section V.A.i

Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their Concept Papers at least 48 hours in advance of the submission deadline and should allow at least 1 hour under normal conditions to submit.  Once the Concept Paper is submitted in EERE Exchange, applicants may revise or update that submission until the expiration of the applicable deadline.

Applications that are determined eligible will be evaluated in accordance with this FOA and by the standards set forth in EERE’s Notice of Objective Merit Review Procedure (76 Fed. Reg. 17846, March 31, 2011).  The names of the Merit Review Panel will not be released to the public, and typically consist of at least three qualified individuals.  In the event multiple panels are needed due to a large number of applications, an Evaluation and Selection Plan will be in place to ensure consistency among the panels, per the 76 Fed. Reg. standard.  The Merit Review Advisory Report is then provided to the Selection Official.

Encourage/Discourage notifications for the concept paper will occur approximately a month after concept paper submission (subject to actual review time).  Applicants will have approximately 30 days from receipt of the Concept Paper Encourage/Discourage notification on EERE Exchange to prepare and submit a Full Application. Regardless of the date the applicant receives the Encourage/Discourage notification, the submission deadline for the Full Application remains the date and time stated on the FOA cover page: 01/20/2021 5 pm ET.  Applicants may submit a Full Application even if they receive a notification discouraging them from doing so.  Such assessments do not necessarily reflect the judgements on the merits of the proposed project; EERE intends only to convey its lack of programmatic interest in the proposed project.

Generally, if each concept, approach, or technology can stand on its own (be successful independent of another) then they should not be combined into a single application.  Potential applicants will need to make that determination on their own.  Unrelated concepts and technologies should not be consolidated into a single Concept Paper or Full Application.  An entity may submit more than one Concept Paper and one Full Application to this FOA, provided that each concept paper/application describes a unique, scientifically distinct project, and provided that an eligible Concept Paper was submitted for each Full Application. Further selection criteria can be found in section V. 

The FOA spans TRL levels 3-7.  TRL does not apply to subtopic 2.3 - Advanced Workforce for Advanced Technology.  TRL definitions can be found at: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/07/f33/technology_readiness_levels.docx

Subtopic 2.3 has an estimated funding of $7M available to be awarded, with no one award to exceed $750,000; subject to the availability of appropriated funds.  EERE may issue one, multiple, or no awards under the subtopic area.

Local Governments are eligible.  General competitive guidance is the same for all entity types: 1) make sure to read, understand, and comply with all FOA requirements; 2) approaches must address specific FOA, topic, and subtopic objectives and goals; 3) applications must follow the requirements set forth in section IV.B and IV.C - Content and Form of the Concept Paper/Full Application; and 4) address the Technical Review Criteria set forth in section V.A.

Yes, however, the Principal Investigator (PI) can be changed during the negotiation period and other times during the project (should one receive an Award).   However, the application will be evaluated, in part, according to "the capability of the Principal Investigator(s) and the proposed team to address all aspects of the proposed work with a high probability of success" (see section V.A.ii).  As a key personnel, EERE would need to agree to any changes to the PI based on the new PI's qualifications to conduct the project workplan and to meet overall objectives.

Subtopic 1.3 is agnostic as to whether a water heater is instantaneous (tankless), and therefore proposals for that technology should not be submitted to Subtopic 1.9. However, crankcase heaters, circulation pumps, and other auxiliary electric devices we do not consider under “heating, ventilation, air condition, light, water heating, and refrigeration” and therefore are eligible for Subtopic 1.9.

Without full insight into the joint appointment and recognizing that the national laboratory and university have different accounting structures, it appears from the question (“full-time employee of a DOE FFRDC”) that the particular individual would need to be proposed as an FFRDC participant and that the FFRDC would need to be a teaming partner.

The individual could participate as either a national laboratory employee or as a university employee as long as that national laboratory or university is a teaming member to the application.  The organization to which the individual is proposed must have an established rate and the ability to appropriately account for billable hours.  

The applicant must make this determination on their own using the subtopic objective/goals and the evaluation criteria.   Generally, as this subtopic points out, cost reduction is an important requirement of the subtopic area.  For many new envelope technologies, cost has been recognized as roadblock to implementation.   In those cases, the application will be evaluated, in part, against the ability to reduce costs versus other advanced envelope technologies.  If the approach is based upon improvement of conventional technologies, with costs in line with those conventional approaches, cost reduction may be less important.

The purpose of the energy savings calculation is not to determine the savings of the entire US building sector.  Rather, it is specific to the technology proposed.  The calculation should be applied to the baseline technology represented within the subtopic proposed.  Applicants are encouraged to use the free calculator tool Scout (https://scout.energy.gov).  The FOA allows for applicants to also use other tools or methodologies to calculate the technical energy savings potential.  In this case, the applicant will need to define baseline metrics including the 2040 market size for the specific technology.   In either approach, all assumptions and baselines should be fully detailed in the technical narrative to allow proper evaluation.   As every application will propose a different technology and/or approach, you are correct that every submission will give different answers (energy savings potential) due to different 2040 market sizes as well as % energy savings.  Finally, you are correct:  The percent energy savings is meant to be taken in the decimal form (per 100) rather than the absolute percentage.

Yes.  A foreign national is eligible to fill the role of principal investigator for the project.  The eligibility for the PI does not vary with organization type.  However, all foreign nationals identified to work on a project, regardless of role, must be approved prior to beginning to work on the project.  This includes foreign nationals with all subrecipient organizations.  It may also include foreign nationals at contractor/vendor organizations that will be exposed to Official Use Only (OUO) or business sensitive information, or information or technology developed under the Award that may be included under any category of national or state security.  For more information, see section VI.B.iii - Foreign National Access – Unclassified Foreign Visits and -Assignments Program.

The lead PI is expected to be employed by the prime applicant to the FOA.  The lead PI is responsible for the technical oversight of the project and will act as a single point of contact to EERE.  If the question refers to a co-PI acting for a subrecipient, all subrecipients must provide a commitment letter (see section IV.C.iv - Letters of Commitment).  Other documents are required of subrecipients including a project budget and disclosure of lobbying activities.  For more information, see section IV.C - Content and Form of the Full Application.

The FOA does not state a requirement amount for participation of the lead (prime) organization.  However, note that the team structure/organization (as a whole) is part of the evaluation process (see Technical Review Criteria of section V.A.ii - Full Applications).  In general, this would include the ability of the lead (prime) organization to successfully manage and conduct the overall approach proposed. 

Ownership of the subject invention is determined by the organization type of the inventor (prime or sub-recipient).  Domestic small businesses, educational institutions, and nonprofits may elect to retain title to their subject inventions.  For other organization types, the government typically obtains title to new inventions.  However, this FOA has been granted a class patent waiver that allows organizations to retain title to their subject inventions.  See section VIII.J - Title to Subject Inventions.  Where the inventor retains their intellectual property, the government retains certain rights (see section VIII.K - Government Rights in Subject Inventions).  Standard Intellectual Property Provisions (section VI.B.xii) for financial assistance awards can be found at https://www.energy.gov/gc/standard-intellectual-property-ip-provisions-financial-assistance-awards. Additionally, see Section IV. Part C. xvi. For assistance related to Data Management Plans and Section VI. Part B x.-xii. for more information related to intellectual property.

Please utilize the following website:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/2/200.448

… to assist in determination of your answer.

Additionally, please assure you utilize Section VI. Part B. x.-xii., of the FOA as well.

Please utilize the following website:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/2/200.466  

… to assist in determination of your answer.

Concept Paper requirements can be found in section IV.B – Content and Form of the Concept Paper.  Each Concept Paper must be limited to a single concept or technology and conform to the 4-page maximum stated in the guidelines.  During the Full Application, you will be required to submit: Project Management Plan Template, Statement of Project Objectives, SF-424: Application for Federal Assistance, Budget Justification Template, Summary Slide Template, FFRDC Work Authorization, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities, Environmental Questionnaire

While the content and form of the Concept Paper does not require proposing a cost share amount during this concept paper submission phase, the EERE Exchange system will require entering a proposed cost share as a step in the submission process. Any proposed cost share at the Concept Paper stage of the application process can be updated or amended at the time of Full Application submission.

As per Appendix R – Glossary, a subrecipient differs from a subcontract. A subrecipient is a non-federal entity that receives a subaward from a pass-through entity to carry out part of a federal program. A subrecipient will be required to adhere to DOE flow down provisions. Applicants must provide a separate budget justification for each subrecipient that is expected to perform work estimated to be more than $250,000 or 25 percent of the total work effort (whichever is less). A subrecipient may provide cost share and is a likely benefactor to the project, as well.

A subcontractor is easily defined as a Vendor. A Vendor is an entity who provides a service. These services would be typical to their function as an entity and provides a specified service in support of the research, not directly responsible to the sponsor for the research or for determining research results, entity markets its services to a range of customers, including those in non-academic fields, etc.

Vendors/subcontractors may not provide cost share. Any partial donation of goods or services is considered a discount and is not allowable. A Prime is not required to produce a separate budget justification for a Vendor/subcontract, however, needs to include them on the Contractual line of their (Prime) Budget Justification. However, should an Applicant receive an Award and become a Recipient, the assigned DOE project team reserves the right to inquire further regarding the Vendor/subcontractor during the negotiation phase.

Yes.  Several of the supplemental documents, identified in Section IV.C.i, will be considered in evaluating full applications.  In some cases, such as the SF-LLL Disclosure of Lobbying Activities, these documents are administrative and will not be reviewed as part of the technical evaluation (see Section V.A.ii).  Primary documents that may be included in the technical evaluation include, but aren’t limited to, the Technical Volume, Resumes, Letters of Commitment, Statement of Project Objectives, U.S. Manufacturing Plan, and Investor Commitment Letter, all where applicable.   

Aa.For this scenario, regardless of budget category, if the HWH are a part of the scope of work being proposed, then an Applicant may do so. All costs will be reviewed for allowability, allocability, and reasonableness in accordance with the applicable federal cost principles as described in Section IV.I.i. of the FOA.

Ab.Should an Applicant become a Recipient, you as the Recipient will be required to track real property. This will require accounting for items such as purchase price, depreciation method, and eventually a remaining life/salvage value at the end of the Award. Property disposition will be required at the end of a project if the current fair market value of property exceeds $5,000. Therefore, any equipment that has a fair market value lower than $5,000 at the close of the Award is of no interest to the Government. For those items above $5,000 at the close of the Award, the Recipient reserves the right to request “continued use” (i.e.- turned over) during disposition for the Government’s consideration. 

There is nothing in the FOA that would restrict having TBD participants in the project.  However, this may impact the merit review of a full application.  The degree of impact would be relative to how critical the role of the unidentified participant is to the achieving the overall objectives of the approach.  Additionally, this may have other impacts to the application, such as the overall project budget.  It may also affect potentially necessary application components such as letters of commitment, FFRDC work proposals, and foreign work waivers.

An entity may submit more than one Full Application to this FOA, provided that each application describes a unique, scientifically distinct project that is not dependent or contingent upon another application.  Each application will be evaluated based on the capabilities of the proposed team to address all aspects of the proposed work, as well as the level of participation by project participants.  Applicants within a single entity may work on more than one full application/project, with care taken that overlap between the two does not occur, and hours billed are commensurate to each project (assuming both applications were selected).

If an Applicant is selected for Award, Applicants may aim to negotiate and be granted a later than anticipated Effective Date. However, if required by fiscal appropriations, the DOE integrated project will not jeopardize allocating funding prior to the end of a respective fiscal year. This could result in a conditioned Award in order to allocate the funding and then revisit removing the conditions through a definitization process. For proposal purposes, please use a 10/1/2020 start date, with the understanding that this may be subject to change.

You may propose unestablished rates (either loaded rates or separate fringe as well as indirect). For proposal purposes, you may simply plug in the percentage’s within the Budget Justification, however, should you be selected for an Award, the integrated project team will request detailed information regarding the rates. They will be thoroughly reviewed. This would apply to the Prime and likely any Subrecipients (dependent upon Subrecipient Award value).

For profit margin, the DOE follows the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for Grants/Cooperative Agreements which differs from the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) for Contracts. Under a Grant/Cooperative Agreement and usage of CFR’s, a Prime or Subrecipient cannot propose profit. A minimal, reasonable profit can be negotiated for a subcontractor who is operating as a Vendor under the Agreement.

MTDC is the base to which F&A (indirect cost) rates are applied. MTDC means all direct salaries and wages, applicable fringe benefits, materials and supplies, services, travel, and up to the first $25,000 of each subaward (regardless of the period of performance of the subawards under the award). MTDC excludes equipment, capital expenditures, charges for patient care, rental costs, tuition remission, scholarships and fellowships, participant support costs and the portion of each subaward in excess of $25,000. Other items may only be excluded when necessary to avoid a serious inequity in the distribution of indirect costs, and with the approval of the cognizant agency for indirect costs.

The de minimis rate can be charged at 10% of Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC). If utilized, an organization will want to ensure that direct costs of the Federal grant do not already include recovery of indirect costs (double charging) when using the de minimis rate. 2 CFR 200.414(f) should be referenced. Within that regulation, it should be noted that if chosen, this methodology (once elected) must be used consistently for all Federal awards until such time as a non-Federal entity chooses to negotiate for a rate, which the non-Federal entity may apply to do at any time.

As per Section IV. Part I.viii., Recipients and subrecipients may not use any federal funds to influence or attempt to influence, directly or indirectly, congressional action on any legislative or appropriation matters.

Furthermore, the SF-LLL Disclosure of Lobbying Activities is utilized to ensure that non-federal funds have not been paid and will not be paid to any person for influencing or attempting to influence any of the following in connection with the application:

• An officer or employee of any federal agency;

• A Member of Congress;

• An officer or employee of Congress; or

• An employee of a Member of Congress.

This document is to ensure that none of these have occurred in connection with the Application.