This is part of a series highlighting funding opportunities for school districts and universities. Find related resources here.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics announced a new funding opportunity for providing technical assistance to businesses (e.g., information, training, expert advice) on source reduction, also known as pollution prevention (P2) to improve human health and the environment in disadvantaged communities.
Full details and requirements for the application are available here.
The deadline for applications is June 6, 2023, at 11:59 pm EST.
FUNDS AVAILABLE
The EPA anticipates $8 million to be awarded in 2023. Individual grant awards may range from $100,000 to $800,000 for the funding period, or up to $1.2 million for multi-state or multi-tribal projects.
ELIGIBILITY
Eligible applicants include states, state entities (i.e. colleges and universities recognized as instrumentalities of the state), the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, any territory or possession of the U.S., and federally recognized tribes and intertribal consortia.
Colleges and universities must be chartered, commissioned, or publicly owned or operated by the state or the federally recognized tribe to be eligible.
APPLICATIONS
Applications can be submitted via grants.gov and must include:
| Section | Points | Description |
| 1.0 Strategy and Approach | ||
| Description of Proposed Project and Technical Assistance Approach | 11 | The quality and extent to which the project narrative provides a clear description of the project, how the project is consistent with the definition of P2, and how the technical assistance will be delivered to businesses, such as through: direct on-site technical assistance to businesses; offsite or remote technical assistance to businesses; developing and delivering training courses or webinars and developing or delivering written materials or online content |
| Environmental and Human Health Concern | 6 | The quality and extent to which the project narrative describes the anticipated human health and/or environmental concern(s) affecting disadvantaged communities and explains in general terms how the project(s) is intended to address those concerns. |
| Effectiveness and Efficiency of the P2 Technical Assistance Approach | 11 | The quality and extent to which: the project narrative describes an effective and efficient approach for how the technical assistance is provided; how that approach is likely to encourage the targeted businesses to adopt P2 practices that can improve human health and the environment in disadvantaged communities and how the expected outputs and outcomes can be achieved. |
| Identifying Businesses and Products Impacting Disadvantaged Communities. | 10 | The quality and extent to which the project narrative describes the methodology and criteria the applicant intends to use to identify the businesses with public health and environmental impacts on disadvantaged communities. |
| Engagement with Disadvantaged Communities | 3 | The quality and extent to which the project narrative describes how they intend to engage disadvantaged communities that are expected to benefit from technical assistance provided to businesses. |
| Leveraging Expertise through Partnerships | 4 | The quality and extent to which the project narrative describes a plan to leverage the expertise of partners and stakeholders in the project or explains why partnerships are not needed for the proposed work. |
| Documenting P2 Best Practices | 9 | The quality and extent to which the project narrative describes a plan to develop at least one case study and any other materials (e.g., outreach materials, videos, trainings, etc.) to document adopted P2 practices. |
| Amplifying P2 Best Practices | 8 | The quality and extent to which the project narrative describes a plan and clearly demonstrates a commitment to widely share P2 best practices and outreach materials developed during the grant (e.g., webinars, toolkits, assessment checklists, training modules, videos) and share lessons learned from the grant implementation (e.g., insights, challenges, successes, recommendations) to encourage project replication. |
| 2.0 Environmental Results, Measurement, & Reporting | ||
| Environmental Results, Measurement, & Reporting | 14 | Applications will be evaluated based on the quality and extent that the reporting plan provides a comprehensive and effective approach for documenting, tracking, measuring, and reporting outputs and outcomes |
| 3.0 Programmatic Capability & Environmental Results Past Performance | ||
| Project Completion | 3 | Past performance in successfully completing and managing assistance agreements (federal and non-federal grant agreements). |
| Reporting History | 3 | History of meeting the reporting requirements under prior federal and non-federal assistance agreements. |
| Organizational Excellence and Plan | 3 | Organizational experience and plan for timely and successfully achieving the objectives of the proposed project. |
| Staff Experience | 6 | Staff expertise/qualifications, staff knowledge and resources or the ability to obtain them to successfully achieve the goals of the proposed project. |
| 4.0 Timeline | ||
| Timeline | 3 | Applications will be evaluated based on the quality and extent to which project narratives set forth a reasonable timeline for executing tasks associated with the project. |
| 5.0 Budget | ||
| Budget Description | 3 | Applicants will be evaluated based on the quality and extent to which their budget description addresses the following components: A description of the procedures and controls to ensure awarded grant funds will be expended in a timely and efficient manner; and A description of why budget costs are integral and necessary to carry out the proposed project(s), where additional information may be needed to determine if they are eligible, adequate, reasonable and cost-effective to implement the project. |
| Budget Table | 3 | Applicants will be evaluated based on the quality and extent to which the budget table provides estimated costs (by budget category) that are eligible, adequate, reasonable and cost-effective to implement the project. |
Questions on the Environmental Justice in Communities Grant and this Funding Opportunity Announcement can be directed to kelly.bridget@epa.gov.
Funding Opportunity # EPA-I-OCSPP-OPPT-FY2023-001