The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering this grant to fund Black Duck conservation and ecology research.

To be competitive for funding, proposals should include both cash match and in-kind support. Currently the only source of general funding for the BDJV is U.S. Congress-appropriated funds directed to USFWS for BDJV use – we are expected to demonstrate effective leveraging of these funds, preferably with non-U.S.-federal resources. Proposals citing a match contribution which has its origin from other US Government Federal awards will be ranked less competitively than proposals citing a match funded through non- federal (i.e. not originally US Government in origin) funds.

Proposal submission must be completed electronically via email to the contact listed below by midnight Eastern Standard Time February 1, 2013. All proposals should include the budget (and associated budget tables) and a completed Standard Form (SF) 424. The SF 424 can be obtained (as a word document) on the grants.gov website. The Government does recognize that some applicants may not have access to email and in those cases we will accept proposals by fax or mail provided they are postmarked by midnight Eastern Standard Time February 1, 2013. Should you wish to submit a proposal via fax or mail service, you MUST call the contact listed prior to close of business February 1,
2013 (5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time) to inform them that you have submitted a proposal as a fax or via standard mail. Proposals submitted later than midnight Eastern Standard Time February 1, 2013 will not be considered for evaluation. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure Service receipt of their proposal by the deadline. The Service bears no responsibility for misplaced or mishandled proposals when the applicant did not alert the Service to the incoming proposal and method of transmission prior to the submission deadline.

Applications will be evaluated and scored by the BDJV Technical Committee during their February 2013 meeting. A suite of proposals receiving the highest scores will be recommended to the BDJV Management Board for funding approval in March 2013.
It is important for applicants to review the evaluation criteria that will be used to score proposals received. Criteria have been organized into 4 categories. A score of 0-10 (0 being lowest and 10 highest) is assigned to each criteria multiplied by its weight. Next the weighted scores are summed to calculate an overall score.

Interested parties should download and review the attached “Full Announcement” which provides detailed instructions on the application process, high priority needs, and award administration.