Federal employees are unable to receive funding toward their salary, and federal contractors may not request funding toward their salary to perform work directly for their federal agency. Cooperative institute employees are eligible to receive funding for their salary as university employees. Federal employees may not request funding for travel to conferences, workshops, etc. Federal employees may only request travel funding for project-critical travel for field work sites.

Federal agencies may request funding for infrastructure support such as costs of hosting a non-NOAA team member, purchasing project-critical equipment, or travel for participants in a project-critical testbed activity. The sum of these costs must total no greater than 20% of the total project budget. Funding to cover overhead costs charged by Cooperative Institutes or NOAA Laboratories does not apply to this 20% cap and is not limited.

Funding for testbed evaluations may include travel expenses for test subjects, such as NWS forecasters. However, after proposal selections are made, WPO will coordinate with NOAA testbed managers to evaluate the need for subjects to participate in upcoming planned testbed experiments. If multiple projects or other funding sources are expected to support a sufficient number of participants, then the requested amount of participant travel support may be negotiated downward for one or more projects. The proposed project’s total costs must include all requested internal costs, including infrastructure, computing, equipment, and office space costs. If a NOAA federal institution is requesting any funding, the federal collaborator should submit a letter explicitly requesting the funding (one per collaborating institution requesting funding).

NOAA federal collaborators not requesting funding are no longer required to submit a letter of support. Instead, each collaborating federal institution should submit a signed Collaborator Acknowledgement Form (attached to the NOFO on grants.gov). If the proposed project intends to participate in a NOAA testbed at any point, then the local testbed manager is considered a collaborator and should submit a Collaborator Acknowledgement Form.

A section Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Accessibility is required for each proposal. Applicants should articulate how the proposed project furthers their institution’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. The purpose of this section is to encourage increased involvement in WPO’s research and development of a diverse range of participants. This may be accomplished through recruitment of a diverse team, partnerships with diverse and/or underrepresented institutions, identification of broad societal benefits, and any other initiatives that build the capacity of and materially foster a diverse and inclusive research team and environment.