Alaska National Wildlife Refuges Science and Culture Camp Cooperative Agreements by Department of the Interior

Program Objectives:
1.Increased awareness and understanding of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and regional natural and cultural history among school children and participating in adults in communities neighboring refuges.

2.Increased skills among children related to scientific inquiry and traditional cultural practices.

3.Participants and the host community will have a positive experience interacting with Service staff and volunteers.

Content and Form of Application Submission
A complete application package will include the following:
1.A project proposal (4 pages maximum) including:
*Statement demonstrating established partnership with one or more of Alaska National Wildlife Refuge including: (contact information of local refuge staff, a description of past successful partnership(s)

*Statement demonstrating community (physical, economic, social, financial, institutional) need for the program. The results or benefits expected ones that solution has been achieved.

*Statement demonstrating that environmental education programming will provide a quality environmental education experience. In other words, the environmental education opportunity must offer learning opportunities which support behavioral objectives that compliment management and outreach objectives of the refuge.

*Statement demonstrating a partnership with other Fish and Wildlife Service programs or private partners to not only leverage dollars to maximize impacts but to, where possible, combine staff efforts to achieve common goals and remove duplicative efforts in communities. Science camps are encouraged to demonstrate at least a 25 percent nonfederal match.

Budget Narrative
A.Applicant’s contribution (Include both monetary and in-kind services. Please indicate whether the funds are federal or non-federal).
B.Other partners’ contributions (Include monetary and in-kind services. Please indicate whether the funds are federal or non-federal)
C.Funds requested from the Fish and Wildlife Service
D.Total Project Cost (Sum of A, B, and C)
E.Total value of non-federal contribution
F.Total value of federal contribution
G.Non-federal percent of total project cost [calculated as (E/E+F)*100]

Contact
Include name, agency or organization, address, phone, FAX, e-mail.

Submission Dates and Times, effect of missing a deadline
Application must be postmarked, faxed, transmitted through Grants.govAPPLY by 4:00 p.m. Alaska Time, February 29, 2012. It is the applicant’s responsibility to confirm receipt of their proposal with the designated Agency Contact.

Funding Restrictions
Projects may not involve political advocacy or litigation. Reasonable indirect/administrative costs are allowable. Limited reimbursement of pre-award costs is allowable; such costs are incurred at the risk of the applicant should the grant application not be selected for funding.

Application Review
Proposals will be evaluated by a regional visitor services panel. Panel members will review each proposal and judge the project’s ability to:

1.Science camp funding will first be distributed to long standing camps with committed partners, measureable behavioral objectives and demonstrated successes.

2.Strong partnerships are greatly encouraged and will be given priority. Please be advised that the ratio of federal to nonfederal dollars is one of the criteria the panel will review when analyzing proposals.

3.New or expanded camps will be funded through this program unless the request for funding exceeds the dollars available. If requests for proposals exceed the funding amount then the Service will rank the proposals. Funding priority will be based on the following criteria:
a.Population size of communities based on the 2010 Census data (e.g. Camps serving communities with less than 5,000 people will be given more consideration than larger communities – based on the premise that large communities have more opportunities and resources available to them);
b.Number of students the camp will reach;
c.Demonstration of a benefit to a refuge’s purpose;
d.Number of partners involved in the camp. Top rank proposals will be funded using the science camp allocation. The remaining proposals will be considered and ranked with the general CCS projects by the CCS panel if they propose a 50 percent or greater nonfederal match.