Applicants for the GusNIP-NI must meet all the requirements discussed in this NOFO. Failure to meet the eligibility criteria by the application deadline may result in exclusion from consideration or, preclude NIFA from making an award. For those new to Federal financial assistance, NIFA’s About Grants provides highly recommended information about grants and other resources to help understand the Federal awards process. 1. Eligible Entity Eligibility to apply for a GusNIP-NI grant is limited to governmental agencies and non-profit organizations. 2. Partners and Collaborators Applicants for GusNIP grants may seek and create partnerships with public or private, nonprofit or for-profit entities, including links with academic institutions (including Tribal colleges and universities) and/or other non-government entities; and/or partnering entities for the purposes of providing additional resources . GusNIP-NI applicants may partner with or make subgrants to public, private, nonprofit, or for-profit entities; including an emergency feeding organization, an agricultural cooperative, a producer network or association, a community health organization, a public benefit corporation, an economic development corporation, a farmers market, a community-supported agriculture program, a buying club, a retail food store participating in SNAP/NAP, and a Tribal, state, territory, or local agency. Subgrants are subject to NIFA approval. Only the applicant must meet the requirements specified above for grant eligibility. When planning partnerships and collaborations, applicants may subaward to organizations not eligible to apply directly to the GusNIP-NI provided such organizations are necessary for the successful completion of the project, will complete and maintain active registration with SAM, and are otherwise eligible to receive federal assistance awards. All organizations not eligible to receive a federal award are listed in SAM with the Exclusion Type. See SAM Exclusion Types. See Part IV, C of this NOFO for the subaward funding restriction. Fiscal Agent. If a nonprofit organization cannot accept federal funds directly, a letter must be included in the application stating that in the event the application results in an award, the award funds must be administered through a fiscal agent organization on its behalf. This agent must be identified in the letter from the applicant and the letter must be countersigned by an authorized representative of the fiscal agent organization. The letter must include the fiscal agent’s point of contact, address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address. This letter is to be included as an attachment to Field 12, Other Attachments (See Part IV, B of this NOFO) of the application. In the event an application is recommended for funding, NIFA will request that both the applicant institution/organization and the fiscal agent organization submit complete management information (see Part V, C of this NOFO). Include documents showing the applicant organization’s nonprofit status when responding to this request.USDA will not accept applications for grants and cooperative agreements for dangerous gain-of-function research, as defined in Section 8 of E.O. 14292. Duplicate or Multiple Submissions – Limit one submission per eligible entity. An entity is an autonomous organization. Organizations with a hierarchical structure of multiple locations/offices grouped under the authority of a larger system/main office may submit one application from the autonomous system/main office. For academic institutions, this is defined as the Higher Education Directory System Office, published by Higher Education Publications, Inc., 6400 Arlington Boulevard, Suite 648, Falls Church, Virginia 22042 (703-532-2300). Applicants seeking to increase reach and scale should consider partnering and collaborating on a single multi-county, territory, statewide, Tribal Nation, or regi

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