Fiscal Year 2025 National Environmental Information Exchange Network Grant Program Solicitation Notice

Description

The Exchange Network (EN) was launched in 2002 as an intergovernmental, collaborative partnership of EPA, states, territories, and Tribes to foster better environmental management and decision-making through increased access to timely, high quality environmental information. This was achieved through a standards-based approach to facilitate environmental data sharing among EPA, states, Tribes, and territories. The framework adopted allows organizations to exchange data over the Internet regardless of the specific information technology used. (See https://www.epa.gov/exchangenetwork and http://www.exchangenetwork.net/). The EN continues to evolve to adapt to emerging technologies and to meet new programmatic needs. Applicants are encouraged to participate in EPA’s EN Forum which is a call that is held monthly to discuss how to improve and better use the EN services and partnerships. The Forum is open to all participants; see https://exchangenetwork.net/exchange-network-forum/. The EPA EN Grant Program is soliciting project applications to:  Facilitate sharing of environmental data, especially through shared and reusable services.  Reduce burden and avoid costs for co-regulators and the regulated community.  Streamline data collection and exchanges to improve its timeliness for decision making.  Increase the quality and access to environmental data through discovery, publishing, outbound and analytical services so it is more useful to environmental managers.  Increase data and IT management capabilities needed to fully participate in the EN. CRITICAL UPDATE: Revised FY25 Application Due Date and Updates to Project Strategic Alignment (More Details to Come) March 20th, 2025 The Exchange Network Grant Program has been informed that the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Exchange Network (EN) Grant Program Solicitation Notice (SN) must be revised in accordance with updated Agency priorities. As such, the application due date will be extended until October 22, 2025. An updated Solicitation Notice is not yet available but will be posted to the grants.gov listing (and linked on the EN website) as soon as possible. Please note that we are anticipating updates to Section 3B, Program Goals and Objectives, which will further impact evaluation criterion 1A (see SN page 17) and the project description section of the project narrative (see SN page 67). If additional changes are reflected in the new Solicitation Notice, the EN Grant Program will clearly state these edits on the EN website at: https://www.epa.gov/exchangenetwork/exchange-network-grant-program#solicitation. Applicants who have already submitted an application for the FY25 cycle will be able to resubmit their application, with the updated requirements, following the publication of the revised FY25 EN Solicitation Notice. The EN Grant Program has included an optional project narrative template to reflect SN changes; other EN resources on the EN website will be reviewed and updated as necessary. Please note that the new FY25 EN Solicitation Notice, once published to Grants.gov, will be the official Notice, with the most up-to-date information and applicant instructions. EPA only accepts project proposals for EN grants submitted electronically through Grants.gov, unless applicants have a waiver. Please allow for enough time to successfully submit your application and allow for unexpected errors requiring you to resubmit. EPA anticipates that it will announce selection decisions in Summer 2025 and tentatively plans to issue awards by Fall 2025. For more information, please contact: Erin McGown EN Grants Program Manager U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Email: ENGrantProgram@epa.gov

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