U.S. Embassy in Norway

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for Fiscal Year 2022 – AICHI

• Funding Opportunity Title: Arctic Indigenous Cultural Heritage Initiative (AICHI)
• Funding Opportunity Number: PDS-OSL-NOR-FY22-AICHI-01
• Application Deadline: June 15th 2022
• Funding: The Cultural Heritage Center (CHC), Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)
• CDFA: 19.036
• Total Amount Available:
  • Maximum for Each Award: USD 50,000
  • Minimum for Each Award: USD 10,000

This notice is subject to funding availability

Program Description

The Cultural Heritage Center (CHC) in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), in coordination with the bureaus of European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR) and Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA), launched the Arctic Indigenous Cultural Heritage Initiative (AICHI) in 2021 to support the protection, preservation, and perpetuation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage within Arctic Indigenous communities. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications to the participating U.S. embassies for projects in their country.

The U.S. Embassy in Norway invites proposals for cultural heritage protection, preservation, and perpetuation projects that will strengthen people-to-people relationships to advance cooperation between the United States and Arctic Indigenous communities across a spectrum of issues, including education, culture, and the environment.

Priority Program Areas

Indigenous communities, museums, governmental institutions, NGOs, or other Indigenous-focused organizations.

Length of performance period: 1-12 months

ELIGBILITY INFORMATION

The Public Diplomacy Section encourages applications from organizations in Norway: 

• Not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society/non-governmental organizations with programming experience
• Non-profit or governmental educational institutions
• Governmental institutions

APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

U.S. Embassy Oslo invites Statements of Interest (SOI) for the Arctic Indigenous Cultural Heritage Initiative (AICHI) program. This is a three-tier competitive process, where the submission of the SOI is the first step.

An SOI is a concise proposal designed to communicate program ideas and objectives. Upon a merit review of eligible SOIs, selected applications will be invited to submit a full grant application to be considered by the Embassy’s Grants Committee. Competitive grant proposals will then be submitted to the Cultural Heritage Center at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for final selection.

Step One

 Please follow all instructions below carefully. SOIs that do not meet the requirements of this announcement or fail to comply with the stated requirements will be ineligible.

Content of Statement of Interest must include:

• A brief project description summarizing goals, objectives outcomes, performance indicators, beneficiaries, and proposed timeline
• A clear statement of the applicant’s organizational capacity to carry out the proposed activity and manage U.S. Government funds
• Documents in English
• A detailed budget including the anticipated total budget amount request (in U.S. dollars)

Submission Dates and Times: 
SOIs are due no later than June 15, 2022, to oslogrants@state.gov. Please submit at least two months before the start of the program.

You may use the grant proposal template or submit your own application letter. The SOI should not exceed four pages.

The Grants Committee will review all SOI’s within two weeks of the submission deadline.

The proposal should contain sufficient information that anyone not familiar with it would understand exactly what the applicant wants to do. You may use your own proposal format, but it must include all the items below.

• Proposal Summary: Short narrative that outlines the proposed program, including program objectives and anticipated impact.

• Introduction to the Organization or Individual applying: A description of past and present operations, showing ability to carry out the program, including information on all previous grants from the U.S. Embassy and/or U.S. government agencies.
• Problem Statement: Clear, concise, and well-supported statement of the problem to be addressed and why the proposed program is needed
• Program Goals and Objectives:  The “goals” describe what the program is intended to achieve.  What aspect of the relationship between the U.S. and Norway will be improved? The “objectives” refer to the intermediate accomplishments on the way to the goals. These should be achievable and measurable.
• Program Activities: Describe the program activities and how they will help achieve the objectives.
• Program Methods and Design: A description of how the program is expected to work to solve the stated problem and achieve the goal.
• Proposed Program Schedule:  The proposed timeline for the program activities.  Include the dates, times, and locations of planned activities and events.
• Key Personnel: Names, titles, roles and experience/qualifications of key personnel involved in the program.  What proportion of their time will be used in support of this program?
• Program Partners:  List the names and type of involvement of key partner organizations and sub-awardees.
• Program Monitoring and Evaluation Plan: This is an important part of successful grants. Throughout the time-frame of the grant, how will the activities be monitored to ensure they are happening in a timely manner, and how will the program be evaluated to make sure it is meeting the goals of the grant?
• Future Funding or Sustainability: Applicant’s plan for continuing the program beyond the grant period, or the availability of other resources, if applicable.
• Detailed Budget, including amount requested from the U.S. Embassy.

If a SOI is accepted, you will be asked to complete a full proposal application.

Step Two

APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

Following the SOI review, successful applicants will be contacted and instructed to submit a full application. A full application will include:

• SF-424 (Application for Federal Assistance)
• SF-424A (Budget Information for Non-Construction Programs)
• SF-424B (Assurances for Non-Construction Programs)
• Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM.gov)

Please note that in some cases you might get an error message when you open these PDF forms.  We have been informed that this could be circumvented by downloading the PDF and open it in the normal reader (not browser based).

Required Registrations:
In order to apply, all organizations must complete the mandatory application forms, and have a unique entity identifier (UEI), as well as a valid registration on https://www.sam.gov. As this process can take several weeks, we recommend starting the process as soon as possible. Please note there is no cost associated with UEI or SAM.gov registration. Please follow the following steps to obtain the UEI and SAM registration:

1. Select the Get Started with Registration on sam.gov to create a User account and obtain and a Unique Entity ID.

2. Obtain a NCAGE number by contacting NCB Norge at ncboncage@mil.no or use the NCAGE application page:

NCAGE application: Application page here:

https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/AC135Public/scage/CageList.aspx

Instructions for the NCAGE application process: https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/AC135Public/Docs/US%20Instructions%20for%20NSPA%20NCAGE.pdf

For NCAGE help from within the United States, call 1-888-227-2423

For NCAGE help from outside the United States, call 1-269-961-7766

Email NCAGE@dlis.dla.mil for any problems in getting an NCAGE code.

3. After receiving the NCAGE Code, proceed to register as “federal assistance only” entity in SAM by logging onto: http://www.sam.gov. Please make sure that the information and spelling entered in all systems is identical, otherwise you will receive error messages.

SAM registration must be renewed annually.

Any applicant listed on the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) in the System for Award Management (SAM) is not eligible to apply for an assistance award in accordance with the OMB guidelines at 2 CFR 180 that implement Executive Orders 12549 (3 CFR, 1986 Comp., p. 189) and 12689 (3 CFR, 1989 Comp., p. 235), “Debarment and Suspension.” Additionally, no entity listed on the EPLS can participate in any activities under an award.  All applicants are strongly encouraged to review the EPLS in SAM to ensure that no ineligible entity is included.

Please contact oslogrants@state.gov if you have any further questions about the application process.