§ 3015.204 - Federal Register publications.

(a) Program regulations. Most grant programs have program-specific regulations, which are published in the  Federal Register  and codified in the Code of Federal Regulations. In some cases the program-specific regulations are promulgated in the form of agency directives or manuals which may be obtained from the awarding agency.

(b) Program announcements. For each program, the awarding agency may publish in the  Federal Register  one or more program announcements. Program announcements invite applications for one or more stated program objectives. They include at least the following information:

(1) An estimate of how much money will be available for competing awards, and the expected size of the awards, broken down by subprogram or priority area when appropriate;

(2) Who is eligible;

(3) How to obtain application kits;

(4) Where to submit applications; and

(5) The deadline for submitting applications.

(c) Cooperative agreements. If any or all of the awards are likely to be cooperative agreements rather than grants, the program announcement so states. In that case, if feasible, the program announcement also describes the anticipated substantial Federal involvement in performance. (This paragraph does not prevent the award of cooperative agreements under a program announcement that mentioned only grants. Nor does it prevent the award of grants under a program announcement that mentioned only cooperative agreements.)

(d) Evaluation criteria. The awarding agency publishes its criteria for evaluating grant applications either in the program regulations or the program announcement. If the criteria are not all equal in importance, their relative weights are also published. The criteria cover at least the following factors (except where the nature of the eligible projects makes one or more of these factors irrelevant):

(1) How well qualified the project's personnel will be;

(2) The adequacy of the applicant's facilities and resources;

(3) The adequacy of the project plan or methodology;

(4) The cost-effectiveness of the project; and

(5) How closely the project objectives fit the objectives for which applications were invited.

(e) Funding priorities. If the awarding agency will give priority to one or more particular kinds of projects, the priority (and how it will be applied in deciding which applications to fund) is described in the program announcement.

(f) Competing continuations vs. “new” projects. If the awarding agency will give a preference to competing continuation applications over applications for projects not already receiving support under the program, or vice versa, the preference is described in the program announcement.

(g) Programs with few potential applicants. In some programs the number of potential applicants is relatively small. (For example, in some programs only the States are eligible.) In these situations the awarding agency may send a copy of the program announcement directly to every potential applicant instead of publishing it in theFederal Register.

(h) Register—Other information which is available. In addition to the items specified above, each awarding Agency makes available to the public the following information and materials for each program:

(1) A copy of, or reference to, the authorizing statutes for the program;

(2) All guidelines of general applicability for administration of the program;

(3) A description of the procedures the awarding agency will use for evaluating applications; and

(4) Any other information that the awarding agency believes will be helpful.

(i) Consulting with applicants. Each awarding agency publishes as much information as practicable to reduce the need for consultation by applicants. If the awarding agency does provide consultation, its staff members try to give consistent interpretations and fair treatment to all requestors.