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Grant Application Guide

Application Contents

424 R&R

The 424 R&R must be completed, along with any other required forms as identified in the Funding Opportunity Announcement. The items included on the 424 R&R are self-explanatory. However, if the project contains research involving human subjects or vertebrate animals, please refer to the assurance and certification section of this guide for additional requirements.

Budget

Financial Assistance awards operate under a project period concept. Project period means the total approved period of time that the Office of Science will provide support. The project period may be divided into several budget periods. A budget period is an interval of time (usually 12 months) into which the project period is divided for funding and reporting purposes. For example, if an application is approved for three years of support, the total project period is three years with typically three 12-month budget periods.

Applicants must prepare their budgets using the Budget Pages provided in Grants.gov. For multi-year projects, the applicant shall submit a Budget Page for each year of requested funding. It is particularly important to provide a written justification for each budget item; especially travel, items of equipment, and other direct costs. DOE may request additional budgetary information from an applicant for clarification or to make informed pre-award determinations.

	Salaries and Wages
	As a general policy, the Office of Science recognizes that salaries of the personnel associated directly with the project constitute appropriate direct costs in proportion to the overall effort.
	The names of the principal investigator(s), key personnel and other required personnel including the estimated number of person-months for which funding is requested should be listed. Salaries requested must be consistent with the organization's regular practices.
	Research Assistantships
	In applications submitted by colleges and universities, the budget may request funds for support of graduate students (research assistants) to help carry out the proposed project. Compensation classified as salary payments should be requested in the salaries and wages category. Any direct costs requested for tuition remission may be listed separately under "Other Direct Costs," or "Fringe Benefits," as appropriate.
	Fringe Benefits
	If the applicant's usual accounting practices provide that its contributions to employee benefits (social security, retirement, etc.) be treated as direct costs. Funds may be requested to defray such expenses as a direct cost.
	Equipment
	DOE defines equipment as an item of tangible personal property that has a useful life of more than two years and an acquisition cost of $5000 or more. Special purpose equipment is equipment which is used only for research, medical, scientific, or other technical activities. Items of needed equipment should, to the extent possible, be individually listed by description and estimated cost, including tax, and adequately justified. Allowable items ordinarily will be limited to scientific equipment and apparatus not already available for the conduct of the work.
	Equipment
	DOE defines equipment as an item of tangible personal property that has a useful life of more than two years and an acquisition cost of $5000 or more. Special purpose equipment is equipment which is used only for research, medical, scientific, or other technical activities. Items of needed equipment should, to the extent possible, be individually listed by description and estimated cost, including tax, and adequately justified. Allowable items ordinarily will be limited to scientific equipment and apparatus not already available for the conduct of the work.
	Domestic Travel
	Travel and its relation to the proposed activity should be specified. Funds may be requested for field work, attendance at meetings and conferences, other travel associated with the proposed work, and subsistence. In order to qualify for support, however, attendance at meetings or conferences must enhance the investigator's ability to perform the work, plan extensions of it, or disseminate its results. Consultants' travel costs also may be requested.
	Foreign Travel
	Foreign travel is any travel outside Canada and the United States and its territories and possessions or, for recipients located in another country, travel outside that country. Foreign travel may be approved only if it is directly related to the project objectives. The application should include relevant information including countries to be visited, dates of visit, if known, and justification for any foreign travel planned in connection with the project.
	Other Direct Costs
	The items in this category must be reasonable and directly allocable to the supported activity. The budget should identify and itemize other anticipated direct costs not included under the headings above, including materials and supplies, publication costs, computer services, and consultant services. Other examples are: aircraft rental; space rental at establishments away from the grantee organization; minor building alterations; payments to human subjects; service charges; and construction of equipment or systems not available off the shelf. Reference books and periodicals may be charged to the grant only if they specifically relate to the project.

	1. Materials and Supplies
	The budget should indicate in general terms the type of expendable materials and supplies required with their estimated costs. The breakdown should be more detailed when the cost is substantial.
	2. Publication/Documentation/Dissemination
	The budget may request funds for the cost of preparing and publishing the results of the work conducted under the award, including costs of reports, reprints, page charges, or other journal costs, and necessary illustrations.
	3. Consultant Services
	Anticipated consultant services should be justified and information furnished on each individual's expertise, primary organizational affiliation, daily compensation rate and number of days of expected service. Consultants' travel costs should be listed separately under travel in the budget.
	4. Computer (ADP) Services
	The cost of computer services, including computer based retrieval of scientific and technical information, may be requested. A justification based on the established computer service rates at the proposing organization should be included. The budget also may request costs, which must be shown to be reasonable, for leasing automated data-processing equipment (ADP). The purchase of computers or associated hardware should be requested as items of equipment.
	5. Subcontracts
	Subcontracts should be disclosed in the application so that they can be properly evaluated. There should be complete, detailed budgets for each budget period with an explanation of the costs for each subcontract. The total amount of each subcontract should also appear as a line item under "Other Direct Costs" for the entire project.

	Indirect Costs
	The appropriate, applicable indirect cost rate negotiated by the organization with the cognizant Federal agency must be used in computing indirect costs for an application. Determinations of the appropriate indirect cost rate depends on a combination of factors including, but not limited to, physical location of the work. If your organization has no established indirect cost rate, contact the Grants and Contracts Division, Office of Science, at 301-903-5212.
	Indirect Cost Limitations
	Awards for conferences and scientific/technical meetings will NOT include payment for indirect costs.
	Fees
	A fee is an allowable charge only under awards to small businesses. DOE Contracting Officers will determine whether a fee is appropriate and the amount of fee to be allowed.
	Cost Sharing Policy
	While cost sharing is encouraged, it is not required nor will it be considered as a criterion in the evaluation and selection process unless otherwise provided in a notice of availability or in a specific Funding Opportunity Announcement/solicitation.

Project Description

The main body of the application should be a clear statement of the work to be undertaken and should include: objectives for the period of the proposed work and expected significance; relation to the longer-term goals of the principal investigator of the project; and relation to the present state of knowledge in the field, to work in progress by the investigator under other support, and work in progress elsewhere. The statement should outline the general plan of work, including the broad design of experiments to be undertaken, and an adequate description of experimental methods and procedures.

For those applications requesting financial support for conferences or workshops, the following information must be included as part of the application.

	a) The name, location, dates, purpose and objectives of the proposed conference or workshop as well as the name of the organization sponsoring the anticipated activity if different from the applicant organization;
	b) Provisional agenda with list of known chairpersons, speakers, papers to be presented, and the expected attendance;
	c) A written justification of the proposed conference or workshop;
	d) For persons whose participation will be funded under the conference grant, list the full name, address, place of employment and expected contribution to the conference or workshop; and
	e) The Budget Page should include the total amount needed for travel and per diem, consultant or participant fees and administrative costs under item "F" "Trainee/Participant Costs." Please be sure to provide a breakdown of each item of cost under this category on budget justification pages. Also include on continuation pages the total cost of the whole conference or workshop and list the amounts from other organizations involved.

Bibliography

A bibliography is required of literature cited in the application's project description and other pertinent literature, as appropriate to the planned project.

Biographical Sketches

A biographical sketch is required for the principal investigator/project director (PI/PD) and for each senior/key person listed in Section A on the budget for at the organization submitting the application, as well as any subcontractors. The biographical sketch is limited to a maximum of two pages. It must contain name and position title, organization, degree, years and field of study for each academic degree; a listing of research and professional positions, awards, and honors; and references to all publications for the past three years along with any earlier publications pertinent to this application. If this list causes the biographical sketch to exceed two pages, select the most pertinent publications to stay within the page limit.

Facilities and Resources

The application should describe available facilities and major items of equipment to be used in the research or educational activity.

Applications requesting equipment should, whenever appropriate, describe comparable equipment already at the proposing organization and explain why it cannot be used. The degree of utilization also should be discussed to allow comparison of its capabilities with the needs of the project. Whenever possible, the application should specify manufacturer and model number.

Current and Pending Support

The PI/PD(s) are requested to list all their current and pending non-Federal and Federal support. If the project for which support is being sought is being or has been funded previously by a source other than the Office of Science, identify such support. This information will help the Office of Science analyze shifts in research support and educational activities. If the application is being submitted to other possible sponsors, list all of them. Concurrent submission of an application to other organizations will not prejudice its review by DOE.

Identification of Potential Conflicts of Interest/Bias in Selection of Reviewers

Provide the following information:

Collaborators and Co-editors: List in alphabetical order all persons, including their current organizational affiliation, who are, or who have been, collaborators or co-authors with you on a research project, book or book article, report, abstract, or paper during the 48 months preceding the submission of this application. Also, list any individuals who are currently, or have been, co-editors with you on a special issue of a journal, compendium, or conference proceedings during the 24 months preceding the submission of this application. If there are no collaborators or co-editors to report, state “None.”

Graduate and Postdoctoral Advisors and Advisees: List the names and current organizational affiliations of your graduate advisor(s) and principal postdoctoral sponsor(s) during the last 5 years. Also, list the names and current organizational affiliations of your graduate students and postdoctoral associates during the past 5 years.

Special Information and Supplementary Documentation

The application should address each special consideration relevant to the project, and provide information on the status of any special permissions, clearances, or certifications. If part of the project is to be performed off-campus or away from organizational headquarters, this should be explained. Documentation of collaborative arrangements should be included.

In addition, the application should alert Office of Science officials to unusual circumstances requiring special treatment, including, for example, proprietary or other privileged information in the application, matters affecting individual privacy, required intergovernmental review under E.O. 12372 for activities that directly affect state or local governments, or possible national security implications. Assessment of environmental impact should be included where appropriate.

Proprietary Information

An application that results in a DOE award becomes part of the record of the transaction and will be available to the public, except as described below. Information or material that DOE and the awardee mutually agree to be of a privileged nature will be held in confidence to the extent permitted by law, including the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). Without assuming any liability for inadvertent disclosure, DOE will seek to limit dissemination of such information to its employees and, when necessary for evaluation of the application, to outside reviewers.

Any information such as technical data, trade secrets, privileged or confidential commercial or financial information, which the applicant does not want disclosed to the public or used by the Government for any purpose other than application evaluation, must be identified. To protect such data, the application should specifically identify each page including each line or paragraph thereof containing the data to be protected and mark the cover sheet of the application with the following Notice as well as referring to the Notice on each page to which the Notice applies.

Notice

The data contained in pages ___ of this application have been submitted in confidence and contain trade secrets and/or privileged or confidential information, and such data shall be used or disclosed only for evaluation purposes, provided that if this applicant receives an award as a result of or in connection with the submission of this application, DOE shall have the right to use or disclose the data herein to the extent provided in the award. This restriction does not limit the Government's right to use or disclose data obtained without restriction from any source, including the applicant.