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Federally Funded Opportunity 2010 - Questions & Answers

Each subject area is listed below along with a subject matter expert who will answer any submitted questions, also posted below.

1. Grants / Administrative Questions - Sid-Ahmed Boukabara

   Q: Our PI from University X is submitting a proposal to the "Research in Satellite Data Assimilation for Numerical Weather, Climate and Environmental Forecast Systems" program due tomorrow. PI has included a NOAA employee as Co-Principal Investigator, and I want to make sure that I am representing him on the budget correctly. Would the Co-PI be direct funded from NOAA? That is to say, the proposal budget would include the university's costs, the NOAA Co-Principal Investigator costs, and then show a project total? Or, would the Co-PI be represented as each appropriate line item (salary, fringe, travel, etc.) throughout the GMU budget?
   (Clarification added: If this project is funded, the project would be funding only the travel and other expenses of one of NOAA's employees, who is acting as Co-PI on this project. We are not seeking salary support for the Co-PI.) (10-19-2009)

   A: It is ultimately up to the applicant to decide on the best approach. Here is my recommendation.
   

   1. Show (in the proposal) the amount sent to the third party (in this case NOAA) in the proposal. If funded, we will send the whole amount directly through Grants On Line (GOL) (to the principal institution) and they will send the NOAA funds directly to the NOAA recipient. This will be awkward as money will be sent out of NOAA and then back to NOAA.

   2. The proposal could be split into two pieces. One part through GOL from the external institution, one part to be sent directly by e-mail to us (from the NOAA part). And in both, mention should be made that these two are linked (they refer to each other) and they constitute one proposal. This way, if funded, we will be sending the part of the federal agency directly by funds transfer, and the part to the external research directly through GOL.

   Each of the budgets would explicitly mention how this money is intended to be spent (contractors, travel, etc.)

   Q: Can a collaborator in an FFO proposal serve as a reviewer in the FFO reviewing process? My FFO proposal have both Dr. X and Dr. Y as collaborators, and so this question is critical for me. (10-19-2009)

   A: We will avoid this potential of conflict of interest as much as practically possible by making sure that all the co-investigators, collaborators, etc., do not serve as reviewers.

   Q: I would appreciate if you could clarify to us one option for the tri-agency submission to the JCSDA. Would it be possible to submit one proposal from all three agencies (Agency X, with Dr. Y as the lead), but to request separate budgets for each agency? If this is acceptable, we would indicate this request on the proposal. (10-15-2009)

   A: It is actually up to the applicant to decide how they want to do it. They must be aware that if 1 application is submitted with partners they have to be submitted as subcontracts and the lead agency would receive funding and they would be responsible for disseminating it to the others. It gets too complicated for us to try and separate funding when there is no application to support it. In the past, there were applicants that submitted together and separately. However, I think separately is probably the best way if they each want to receive separate funding and they need to indicate in the proposal that it's a joint proposal however separate applications are submitted.

2. Radiative Transfer Models - Fuzhong Weng
3. Advanced Instruments - Lars Peter Riishojgaard
4. Clouds and Precipitation - John Derber
5. Oceans - Michele Rienecker
6. Land - Mike Ek

   Q: Document sent to review. (10-1-2009)

   A: I read your document. The concept of a "(blanked because competition-sensitive)" is of course attractive - utilize as much (quality) data as possible, i.e., with different spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions.... One point to remember is that JCSDA research is supposed to lead (readily transition, really) to products that benefit the operational models.

7. Aerosols and Trace Gases - Nancy Baker