Smith-Lever Special Needs Competitive Grants Program

A. Eligibility Requirements Applicants for the SLSN Grant must meet all the requirements discussed in this RFA. 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 Grants Overview provides highly recommended information about grants and other resources to help understand the Federal awards process. Applications may only be submitted by 1862 Land-grant Institutions in the 50 states and the U.S. territories, American Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Award recipients may subcontract to organizations not eligible to apply, provided such organizations are necessary for the conduct of the project. The 1862 land-grant institutions may partner with each other as well as with other land-grant institutions (e.g., 1890s and 1994s), non-land-grant institutions, and non-governmental organizations within their state or their region on joint proposals. Failure to meet an eligibility criterion by the application deadline may result in the application being excluded from consideration or, even though an application may be reviewed, will preclude NIFA from making an award. Duplicate or Multiple Submissions – duplicate or multiple submissions are not allowed. NIFA will disqualify both applications if an applicant submits duplicate or multiple submissions. Duplicate submission refers to an institution submitting the same application more than once in the cycle (we accept for review the proposal with the latest submitted time stamp before the deadline and reject any earlier submissions). Multiple submission refers to a project director from an institution submitting more than one proposal with different scopes in the same cycle. In such rare instances, all proposals from this PD would be declined review. For those new to Federal financial assistance, NIFA’s Grants Overview provides highly recommended information about grants and other resources to help understand the Federal awards process. For those new to Federal financial assistance, a Grants Overview Page is available on the NIFA website. This page includes information about free Grants 101 Training and other resources that are highly recommended for those seeking to increase understanding of Federal awards.