How to Prepare and Submit a CICOES Proposal

Process overview

CICOES-UAF can only process proposals for NOAA non-competitive funding, which is funding received without having to respond to a request for proposals (RFP). The basic steps to funding include:

1. Find a NOAA funder
2. Choose a funding pathway
3. Establish an agreement
4. Submit a proposal by the deadline

Find a NOAA funder

A funder is a NOAA colleague or Program Manager (PM) who agrees to fund the work. For more information on how to connect with a Program Manager, please contact Uma Bhatt.

Choose a funding pathway

Most funded projects result from direct networking with Federal colleagues in regional or national headquarters, understanding NOAA mission/needs, and meeting researchers at the NOAA Laboratories—PMEL, AFSC, NWFSC—that partner with this Cooperative Agreement (CI), via funding pathways:

• Pathway 1: If you collaborate with NOAA colleagues who get a project funded internal to NOAA, they can include funds that would cover your work on the project. Then your colleague would serve as a PM and fund you through the CI to do this work.
• Pathway 2: Your work is recognized by a NOAA PM, then a NOAA PM may approach you to do this work that would be funded through the CI.
• Pathway 3: You identify a project that is critical for NOAA and you convince potential funders at NOAA that they need this done and to fund this work.
• Pathway 4: A NOAA regional or national office identifies a critical need and reaches out to you to do a project. These may include time sensitive operational products that can be created quickly in response to an extreme event or political request.
• Pathway 5: There are also rare occasions where NOAA will issue limited scope RFPs (e.g. Hurricane Sandy, ‘Omics) that are directed to one or more CIs.

Establish an agreement

To contribute a proposal, researchers will first establish an agreement with a NOAA PM before a proposal is submitted. This agreement must include:

• Work to be performed. The scope of work must fall within one of the nine CICOES research themes.
• Period of performance in which the work is to be completed
• Financial amount the NOAA PM is willing and able to fund
• Required documents
  • Routing form
  • Abstract and statement of work
  • Budget and budget justification
  • CICOES-UAF questionnaire
  • Possibly additional documents, such as a CV—check with your PM

Submit a proposal by the deadline

First: Contact Uma Bhatt to communicate your plan to submit a proposal via the CICOES Cooperative Institute. Then work with your department-level proposal coordinator to complete the documents needed, using the CICOES templates provided by Uma.

We have very little flexibility on these due dates, as NOAA requires time to review, process, and fund all of these proposals. If you miss the deadline, we will try to submit the proposal, but cannot guarantee success.

If this timeline is too short or you are initiating potential collaborations with NOAA partners, all  is not lost. There will be an opportunity to submit proposals in the fall for the next fiscal year.