The Grant Issuing Department is Offering a General Purpose Grant for Broad Initiatives

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Having in place an effective system for warning and informing the American public of impending natural and man-made disasters is an essential part of America’s emergency preparedness. FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) is the national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency and life-saving information to the public. Local radio and TV stations, along with cable, direct broadcast satellite and wireless service providers, disseminate the public safety messages they receive from IPAWS. 

The pace of innovation in communications technology is faster than ever before making it imperative that the providers of the nation’s alert and warning information – public broadcasting entities – have the capacity to acquire and implement emerging technologies that advance the Nation’s public alert and warning system. The Next Generation Warning System Grant Program (NGWSGP) makes Federal funds available to enable the adoption of emerging digital broadcast technology and standards and furthers the 2020-2024 DHS Strategic Plan Goal 5 (Strengthen Preparedness and Resilience). It also supports the 2022-2026 FEMA Strategic Plan Goal 1: Instill Equity as a Foundation of Emergency Management and Goal 3: Promote and Sustain a Ready FEMA and a Prepared Nation.

The NGWSGP will support projects that result in the adoption of the Common Alerting Protocol standard (CAP) which permits a single CAP compatible message to activate multiple compliant warning systems. Television broadcasters may leverage NGWSGP funding to upgrade to the Advanced Television Systems Committee broadcast standard (ATSC 3.0) allowing broadcast to reach a greater number of differing types of communication devices along with incorporating multimedia in alert and warning messaging. This program will support investments that improve the resilience and security of public broadcasting networks and systems. Projects that enable the capability to alert, warn and provide equivalent information to individuals with disabilities, individuals with access and functional needs, and individuals with limited-English proficiency, are within the priorities of the NGWSGP. The NGWSGP will further support projects that enable alerts and warnings on the basis of geographic location as well as those projects that improve the ability of remote rural areas to receive alerts and warnings.

Upgrading to this advanced technology requires investments in technology, training, and support equipment that may create burdens for broadcasters, especially small stations in rural and underdeveloped areas. In these areas, public broadcast stations often serve a much larger role in providing critical emergency information than in other areas with greater concentrations of private broadcasters. The NGWSGP is intended to ease this burden for qualified public broadcast recipients of grant funding.

FEMA intends to award this grant to a single awardee. That awardee will then manage a competitive process to solicit sub-grant applications from eligible sub-grantees to use these funds in accordance with the requirements and priorities set forth in this notice. The awardee will describe their intended approach for managing this process in their grant application, which FEMA will approve as part of the overall grant award. Ongoing program reporting to FEMA will assess performance of the sub-grant process and of sub-grantee’s effective use of funds.

Having in place an effective system for warning and informing the American public of impending natural and man-made disasters is an essential part of America’s emergency preparedness. FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) is the national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency and life-saving information to the public. Local radio and TV stations, along with cable, direct broadcast satellite and wireless service providers, disseminate the public safety messages they receive from IPAWS. 

The pace of innovation in communications technology is faster than ever before making it imperative that the providers of the nation’s alert and warning information – public broadcasting entities – have the capacity to acquire and implement emerging technologies that advance the Nation’s public alert and warning system. The Next Generation Warning System Grant Program (NGWSGP) makes Federal funds available to enable the adoption of emerging digital broadcast technology and standards and furthers the 2020-2024 DHS Strategic Plan Goal 5 (Strengthen Preparedness and Resilience). It also supports the 2022-2026 FEMA Strategic Plan Goal 1: Instill Equity as a Foundation of Emergency Management and Goal 3: Promote and Sustain a Ready FEMA and a Prepared Nation.

The NGWSGP will support projects that result in the adoption of the Common Alerting Protocol standard (CAP) which permits a single CAP compatible message to activate multiple compliant warning systems. Television broadcasters may leverage NGWSGP funding to upgrade to the Advanced Television Systems Committee broadcast standard (ATSC 3.0) allowing broadcast to reach a greater number of differing types of communication devices along with incorporating multimedia in alert and warning messaging. This program will support investments that improve the resilience and security of public broadcasting networks and systems. Projects that enable the capability to alert, warn and provide equivalent information to individuals with disabilities, individuals with access and functional needs, and individuals with limited-English proficiency, are within the priorities of the NGWSGP. The NGWSGP will further support projects that enable alerts and warnings on the basis of geographic location as well as those projects that improve the ability of remote rural areas to receive alerts and warnings.

Upgrading to this advanced technology requires investments in technology, training, and support equipment that may create burdens for broadcasters, especially small stations in rural and underdeveloped areas. In these areas, public broadcast stations often serve a much larger role in providing critical emergency information than in other areas with greater concentrations of private broadcasters. The NGWSGP is intended to ease this burden for qualified public broadcast recipients of grant funding.

FEMA intends to award this grant to a single awardee. That awardee will then manage a competitive process to solicit sub-grant applications from eligible sub-grantees to use these funds in accordance with the requirements and priorities set forth in this notice. The awardee will describe their intended approach for managing this process in their grant application, which FEMA will approve as part of the overall grant award. Ongoing program reporting to FEMA will assess performance of the sub-grant process and of sub-grantee’s effective use of funds.