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Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 7.13.09     By Gregory Monroe - July 13, 2009 11:06 am Greetings! Welcome back to Merit Network's continuing coverage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This post is just one of many weekly updates intended to keep you informed on the latest developments in funding opportunities for cyber-infrastructure, research and education. There is not a great deal of new information to report on this week as everyone, I presume, is scrambling to sort through the joint BIP-BTOP NOFA. There are a heap of complex requirements—to apply for funding and especially to comply with Federal standards, reporting and auditing post-award. To compound complication, there is not very much time to prepare a proposal. The deadline for this first of three rounds of funding is August 14th. One element which will help those preparing proposals, the Official BIP-BTOP Application is now available for download at the BroadbandUSA.gov portal. It was only brought to my attention this morning (released late Friday night), so we'll try and deliver a more comprehensive summary of its contents next week. One thing that I can say from a first glance, is that it certainly looks rather bulky. If you were discouraged by the 118 page NOFA, the application and guidelines are more of the same. If your organization is planning to apply you will need to obtain a DUNS number if your organization is not already registered. The DUNS number is a tool for the federal government to track how federal money is distributed. Most large organizations, libraries, colleges and research universities already have DUNS numbers. If your organization does not have a DUNS number, use the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Online Registration to receive one free of charge. After obtaining your DUNS number, you also need to register with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR). If your organization is not already registered, you'll need to register before you can submit a grant application through Grants.gov. Go to the CCR Websiteand select the "Start New Registration" option to begin the registration process. If you have the information ready, online registration will take about 30 minutes, depending on the complexity of your organization. Last week, I wrote to the lack of consideration community anchor institutions received in the NOFA, contrary to language in the ARRA legislation. There has been more light shed on the matter this week. Reports received from contacts attending the series of BroadbandUSA Workshops have noticed a considerable amount of frustration on the part of NTIA and RUS officials relating to what they believe should be done and what the NOFA actually states. What has been determined (tentatively) is that the definition of Middle Mile projects encompasses connectivity to community anchors such as, but not limited to, schools and libraries. The stipulation for building Middle Mile to these institutions is that there must be included an interconnection point (or termination point) in an unserved or underserved census block. This would be keeping with the definition of Middle Mile and providing connections to last mile providers to homes and businesses. But it still could be a problem for some, given the narrow definitions. Another point of difficulty for the submission of applications has to do with Census Data (as mentioned last week). The current debate is contained in the question of how much latitude one has in the definition of their service area. The language in the NOFA stipulates that a proposal must identify corresponding contiguous census block information associated with the middle mile span. So once you find that one underserved census block in your service area, all of the census blocks you serve must be contiguous? Census blocks are very small (though bigger in rural and sparsely populated areas), it may be unreasonable to provide an interconnection point to every census block in a middle mile span. Though, to reiterate, all of the latter still seems to be up in the air at this point. The common consensus of those who attended the workshops is that this has not been thoroughly thought through by the Fed and that their answers to questions posed appear sometimes conceived on the spot. That's all for this week. Read the NOFA and Application Guidelines thoroughly. We'll keep you posted with the latest as it becomes available via email updates and Merit's Stimulus Legislation Guide. Thanks for reading and have great week! Post a Comment   Blog Archive   Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 11.16.09 By Gregory Monroe - November 16, 2009 9:50 am Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 11.12.09 By Gregory Monroe - November 12, 2009 12:35 pm Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 11.3.09 By Gregory Monroe - November 03, 2009 12:21 pm Merit Network Blog Members in the News 10.30 By Brian Warkoczeski - October 29, 2009 4:28 pm Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 10.26.09 By Gregory Monroe - October 26, 2009 10:42 am Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 10.19.09 By Gregory Monroe - October 19, 2009 10:58 am Merit Network Blog Members in the News 10.08 By Brian Warkoczeski - October 08, 2009 1:03 pm Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 10.6.09 By Gregory Monroe - October 06, 2009 1:19 pm Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 9.29.09 By Gregory Monroe - September 29, 2009 12:33 pm Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 9.21.09 By Gregory Monroe - September 21, 2009 12:35 pm Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 9.16.09 By Gregory Monroe - September 16, 2009 12:41 pm Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 9.8.09 By Gregory Monroe - September 08, 2009 11:25 am Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 8.24.09 By Gregory Monroe - August 24, 2009 10:36 am Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 8.17.09 By Gregory Monroe - August 17, 2009 12:09 pm Merit Network Blog Members in the News 8.14 By Brian Warkoczeski - August 14, 2009 9:14 am Professional Learning MJTS Call for Presentations By Brian Warkoczeski - August 06, 2009 12:53 pm Merit Stimulus Blog Members in the News 7.24 By Brian Warkoczeski - July 24, 2009 12:47 pm Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 7.21.09 By Gregory Monroe - July 21, 2009 11:29 am Merit Network Blog Members in the News 7.16 By Brian Warkoczeski - July 16, 2009 11:05 am Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 7.7.09 By Gregory Monroe - July 07, 2009 11:19 am Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 7.2.09 By Gregory Monroe - July 02, 2009 11:55 am Merit Network Blog Members in the News 6.30 By Brian Warkoczeski - June 30, 2009 4:20 pm Merit Network Blog NANOG46 Videos Available By Brian Warkoczeski - June 25, 2009 9:31 am Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 6.23.09 By Gregory Monroe - June 23, 2009 11:54 am Professional Learning Archived Merit Member Conference videos now available By Brian Warkoczeski - June 17, 2009 9:43 am Merit Stimulus Blog Merit Stimulus Blog 6.15.09 By Gregory Monroe - June 15, 2009 11:41 am Professional Learning Merit Member Conference Concludes By Brian Warkoczeski - June 12, 2009 3:57 pm Professional Learning Day Two of Merit Member Conference Begins By Brian Warkoczeski - June 12, 2009 10:32 am Professional Learning Dale Dougherty Brings Ingenuity to Merit Member Conference By Brian Warkoczeski - June 11, 2009 2:47 pm Professional Learning Merit Member Conference Extra! 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