Funding Opportunities

The Office of Indian Energy will provide funding to and partner with up to four eligible regional nonprofit intertribal organizations. Selected regional nonprofit intertribal organizations will dedicate a staff member to serve as a “Tribal Energy Liaison/Coordinator/Navigator” who will work in collaboration with member Tribes and the Office of Indian Energy. This role will develop and provide expertise to help identify relevant clean energy opportunities for member Tribes and will equitably create and implement education and engagement opportunities. Activities may include:

Tracking and disseminating DOE funding and technical assistance opportunities to member Tribal governments and helping them to navigate which opportunities meet their goals.
Assisting in the assessment of member Tribes’ clean energy needs and interests and effectively connecting them to DOE programs and funding opportunities.
Creating opportunities for dialogue among Tribes, the energy community, and DOE, such as organizing conferences, workshops, events, and small group briefings to support Tribal collaboration, and Tribe-to-Tribe learning and networking opportunities.
Effectively sharing Tribal clean energy information and opportunities with member Tribes though electronic newsletters, website, emails, printed materials, etc.
Enhancing DOE Tribal engagement and communications activities with member Tribal governments by organizing regular engagement opportunities for DOE leadership and staff to communicate DOE energy policy and program information and opportunities during general session and breakout sessions.
In collaboration with the Office of Indian Energy, collectively identifying information to be disseminated to member Tribal governments during the funded period.

Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) solicits applications to lead a consultative process and create a Sustainable Agriculture Action Plan to document the research, regulatory, infrastructure, and educational needs and priorities required to increase sustainable agriculture practices in a specific industry/commodity or geographical location in the Western SARE region. The Sustainable Agriculture Action Plan (SAAP) intends to provide important stakeholder-derived feedback about the sustainable agriculture needs and priorities of specific industries and geographic locations to university researchers, Extension specialists, regulators, non-governmental agencies, elected officials, the USDA, and other potential funders. Western SARE seeks to fund two applications: 1. An application focused on a specific regionally important agricultural industry or commodity 2. An application focused on a specific, limited geographic area in the Western Region that includes multiple crops or production systems. The geographic area must be limited and logical, for example, a specific watershed, a Soil and Water Conservation District, an island or island system, etc. Each successful application will be funded for a maximum of $20,000 which will be awarded as a costreimbursable subaward agreement from Montana State University, Western SARE Host Institution

The overarching goal of the WCAHS Pilot/Feasibility Program is to encourage the development of creative research projects while nurturing researchers—particularly early-career and under-represented researchers—interested in improving agricultural health and safety for the western U.S. It is designed to fund short-term research projects to support the collection of preliminary data, attract new investigators to WCAHS and the field of agricultural health and safety, facilitate the exploration of innovative research directions, and engage and mentor early stage investigators as defined by the NIH.

Request for Proposals (RFP)

SUMMARY: The Secretary of the Department of the Interior (Secretary), through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Trust Services, Branch of Tribal Climate Resilience (TCR) solicits funding proposals from Federally recognized Tribes and authorized Tribal organizations (including Tribal consortia) to support Tribal climate resilience. This program will provide $120 million in funding in FY24 to support Tribal climate resiliency. Since 2020, TCR has funded 568 Tribal projects totaling $194.3M – peaking in FY23 at $120.8M (150 awards). FY24 marks the final year of increased available funding made possible through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Funds will be awarded on a competitive basis. Evaluations of project proposals will be based on the ranking criteria specified below.

The funding will support Tribes and authorized Tribal organizations as they prepare for and address climate change impacts on Tribal Treaty and Trust resources, economies, regenerative agriculture and food sovereignty, conservation practices, infrastructure, and human health and safety. Funding will be prioritized for projects that address imminent climate-related threats to human health and safety (including relocation, managed retreat, and protect-in-place efforts) and Tribal capacity to address such threats. Funds may also support projects addressing (but not limited to) environmental justice and equity, sustainability, sovereignty (e.g., energy, food), infrastructure, vulnerable economies, natural and cultural resources, agriculture, conservation, habitat restoration or improvements. These awards are critical to transforming America for the better, creating good-paying jobs, building and strengthening economies and infrastructure, and ensuring safety and security for local communities and Tribes.

The purpose of this notice is to solicit applications for Stage Two Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grants. Funds for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 SMART Grants Program are to be awarded on a competitive basis to prior 2022 Stage One recipients in order to implement the plans and prototypes previously developed in Stage One that will advance smart city or community technologies and systems to improve transportation efficiency and safety.

Only recipients of SMART Stage One Planning and Prototyping Grants, or eligible entities designated by Stage One SMART recipients, awarded under the FY22 SMART Stage One NOFO, may apply for this Stage Two Implementation Grants.

For this Notice of Funding Opportunity, the Draft Implementation Report completed by each Stage One Recipient will be assessed. Any applicant that is not required to submit a Draft Implementation Report between July-September 2024, as their period of performance began after October 1, 2023, will not be eligible to respond to this Notice of Funding Opportunity. US DOT anticipates multiple additional Stage Two NOFOs will be released in 2025 and 2026 which other SMART Stage One recipient will be eligible to apply for.

The Arbor Day Foundation is supporting urban forestry projects led by all federally recognized Tribes, Alaska Native Corporations/villages, Tribal organizations, organizations working in Tribal communities, and community-based non-profits. The Community Roots Program, made possible through Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding, makes community-empowering projects possible.

The Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) is pleased to be a recipient of grant funding from the USDA Forest Service Urban & Community Forestry Program, under the Inflation Reduction Act (Funding Opportunity #: USDA-FS-2023-UCF-IRA-01). We will serve as a national pass-through partner of the Forest Service, providing funding for community-based nonprofit organizations, as defined below.

The Arbor Day Foundation is positioned to drive investments in tree planting and maintenance, planning, and capacity building in selected communities. Subawardees will have access to a cohort of peers and experts within the Arbor Day Foundation and the Urban and Community Forestry Society (UCFS)’s networks and the opportunity to connect with mentors/coaches from around the nation. Subawardees will also be invited to attend the annual Partners in Community Forestry conference to further develop their urban forestry network.

The Period of Performance for this opportunity will start no later than September 30, 2024 and must be completed by September 29th, 2027. No-cost extensions may be available if needed and with approval for an additional 6 months.

The USDA SBIR/STTR programs focus on transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial potential and/or societal benefit. Unlike fundamental research, the USDA SBIR/STTR programs support small businesses in the creation of innovative, disruptive technologies and enable the application of research advancements from conception into the market. The STTR program aims to foster technology transfer through formal cooperative R&D between small businesses and nonprofit research institutions.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the opportunity to apply for a total of $1,936,000 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Public Transportation Innovation funds in competitive cooperative agreement awards for projects that enhance mobility innovations for transit. Funds will be awarded for projects that advance emerging technologies, strategies, and innovations in traveler-centered mobility in two distinct areas. Of the total available funds, $968,000 is available for projects to accelerate innovations that improve mobility and enhance the rider experience with a focus on innovative service delivery models, creative financing, novel partnerships, and integrated payment solutions. Another $968,000 is available for projects to develop software solutions that facilitate the provision of integrated demand-response public transportation service that dispatches public transportation fleet vehicles through riders’ mobile devices or other means.

The NSF SBIR/STTR program encourages startups and small businesses to submit proposals across nearly all areas of science and engineering. *

While startups and small businesses face many challenges, the NSF SBIR/STTR funding is intended to specifically focus on challenges associated with technological innovation; that is, on the creation of new products, services, and other scalable solutions based on fundamental science or engineering. A successful Phase I proposal demonstrates how NSF funding will help the small business create a proof-of-concept or prototype by retiring technical risk. Funding from NSF may only be used to conduct research and development (R&D) to demonstrate technical feasibility.

NSF seeks SBIR/STTR proposals that represent success in three distinct, but related merit review criteria: Intellectual Merit, Broader Impacts, and Commercialization Potential.

The Intellectual Merit criterion encompasses the potential to advance knowledge and leverages fundamental science or engineering research techniques to overcoming technical risk. This can be conveyed through the Research and Development (R&D) of the project. R&D is broadly defined in 2 CFR § 200.1, but specified for the NSF SBIR/STTR program as follows:

the application of creative, original, and potentially transformative concepts to systematically study, create, adapt, or manipulate the structure and behavior of the natural or man-made worlds;
the use of the scientific method to propose well-reasoned, well-organized activities based on sound theory, computation, measurement, observation, experiment, or modeling;
the demonstration of a well-qualified individual, team, or organization ready to deploy novel methods of creating, acquiring, processing, manipulating, storing, or disseminating data or metadata; and/or
the novel integration of new theories, analysis, data, or methods regarding cognition, heuristics, and related phenomena.
NSF SBIR/STTR proposals are evaluated via the concepts of Technical Risk and Technological Innovation. Technical Risk assumes that the possibility of technical failure exists for an envisioned product, service, or solution to be successfully developed. This risk is present even to those suitably skilled in the art of the component, subsystem, method, technique, tool, or algorithm in question. Technological Innovation indicates that the new product or service is differentiated from current products or services; that is, the new technology holds the potential to result in a product or service with a substantial and durable advantage over competing solutions on the market. It also generally provides a barrier to entry for competitors. This means that if the new product, service, or solution is successfully realized and brought to the market, it should be difficult for a well-qualified, competing firm to reverse-engineer or otherwise neutralize the competitive advantage generated by leveraging fundamental science or engineering research techniques.

The Broader Impacts criterion encompasses the potential benefit to society and contribution to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes as outlined in the NSF PAPPG Merit Review Broader Impacts Criteria.

The NSF SBIR/STTR program funds the development of new, high-risk technology innovations intended to generate positive societal and economic outcomes. Proposers should also consider the Broader Impacts Review Criterion at 42 U.S.C. §1862p-14:

Increasing the economic competitiveness of the United States.
Advancing of the health and welfare of the American public.
Supporting the national defense of the United States.
Enhancing partnerships between academia and industry in the United States.
Developing an American STEM workforce that is globally competitive through improved pre-kindergarten through grade 12 STEM education and teacher development and improved undergraduate STEM education and instruction.
Improving public scientific literacy and engagement with science and technology in the United States.
Expanding participation of groups underrepresented in STEM.
The Commercialization Potential of the proposed product or service is the potential for the resulting technology to disrupt the targeted market segment by way of a strong and durable value proposition for the customers or users.

The proposed product or service addresses an unmet, important, and scalable need for the target customer base.
The proposed small business is structured and staffed to focus on aggressive commercialization of the product/service.
The proposed small business can provide evidence of good product-market fit (as validated by direct and significant interaction with customers and related stakeholders).
More details and information regarding the NSF SBIR/STTR merit review criteria can be found in Section VI of this solicitation.

* The NSF SBIR/STTR program does not support clinical trials or proposals from companies whose commercialization pathway involves the production, distribution, or sale by the company of chemical components, natural or synthetic variations thereof, or other derivatives related to Schedule I controlled substances.

The NSF SBIR/STTR programs support moving scientific excellence and technological innovation from the lab to the market. By funding startups and small businesses, NSF helps build a strong national economy and stimulates the creation of novel products, services, and solutions in private, public, or government sectors with potential for broad impact; strengthens the role of small business in meeting federal research and development needs; increases the commercial application of federally supported research results; and develops and expands the US workforce, especially by fostering and encouraging participation by socially and economically disadvantaged and women-owned small businesses.

The NSF SBIR/STTR Phase II programs provide non-dilutive funding for the development of a broad range of technologies based on discoveries in science and engineering with potential for societal and economic impacts. Unlike fundamental or basic research activities that focus on scientific and engineering discovery itself, the NSF SBIR/STTR programs support the creation of opportunities to move use-inspired and translational discoveries out of the lab and into the market or other use at scale, through startups and small businesses. The NSF SBIR/STTR programs do not solicit specific technologies or procure goods and services. The funding provided is non-dilutive. Any invention conceived or reduced to practice with the assistance of SBIR/STTR funding is subject to the Bayh/Dole Act. For more information, refer to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), #75.

NSF encourages input and participation from the full spectrum of diverse talent that society has to offer which includes underrepresented and underserved communities.

NSF seeks unproven, leading-edge, technology innovations that demonstrate the following characteristics:

The innovations are underpinned and enabled by a new scientific discovery or meaningful engineering innovation.
The innovations still require intensive technical research and development to be fully embedded in a reliable product or service.
The innovations have not yet been reduced to practice by anyone and it is not guaranteed, at present, that doing so is technically possible.
The innovations provide a strong competitive advantage that are not easily replicable by competitors (even technically proficient ones).
Once reduced to practice, the innovations are expected to result in a product or service that would either be disruptive to existing markets or create new markets/new market segments.
The NSF SBIR/STTR programs focus on stimulating technical innovation from diverse entrepreneurs and start-ups and small businesses by translating new scientific and engineering concepts into products and services that can be scaled and commercialized into sustainable businesses with significant societal benefits. The program provides non-dilutive funding for research and development (R&D) of use-inspired scientific and engineering activities for startups and small businesses. In Phase I, the emphasis is on de-risking those aspects preventing the innovation from reaching technical feasibility and driving the intended impact. In Phase II, R&D continues, but the emphasis starts to shift away from research and to development challenges which, if solved, would result in new sustainable competitive advantages to allow the company to differentiate itself and drive new value propositions to the market and society.

This NSF program is governed by 15 USC 638 and the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (42 USC §1861, et seq.).