Rural Emergency Medical Communications Demonstration Project

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 (HSA) assigns CISA with the responsibilities of promoting the ability of emergency response providers and relevant government officials to continue to communicate in the event of disasters, fostering the development of interoperable emergency communications capabilities, and promoting the development of standard operating procedures and best practices for using interoperable emergency communications capabilities for incident response. The HSA also assigns CISA with the responsibility to develop and update a National Emergency Communication Plan (NECP) to support and promote the ability of emergency response providers and relevant government officials to continue to communicate in the event of disasters.

To carry out these responsibilities, CISA established the REMCDP to make cooperative agreements to non-federal entities to pursue rural emergency medical communications demonstration projects to meet various program objectives: (1) enhancing current statewide or regional emergency communications systems to address NECP implementation gaps and deliver rural medical care and services; (2) developing trainings and exercises to enable first responders and personnel to effectively use emergency medical communications system and equipment; (3) collaborating with whole community representatives to support NECP activities; (4) collaborating with state leaders to address the adoption of broadband communications to supplement current communications systems; (5) experimenting with innovative solutions to ensure emergency responders and medical practitioners can communicate in various geographies, operating conditions, and scenarios; and (6) identifying, documenting, and sharing lessons learned and best practices. The REMCDP supports Goal 5: Strengthen Preparedness and Resilience in the 2020-2024 Department of Homeland Security Strategic Plan and Goal 2: Risk Reduction and Resilience in the CISA Strategic Plan 2023-2025.

Public institution of higher education; State; U.S. Territory; Local Government (e.g. County, City, Township); Indian/Native American Tibal Government (Federally Recognized)

A participant would include an entity that is involved in carrying out the project's scope of work under this award that does not receive any funding. For example, an applicant may partner with a medical facility that provides rural emergency medical care to execute the REMCDP project, and this partner would be an unpaid participant. There are no limitations or eligibility criteria for REMCDP participants consistent with the program’s focus on whole community involvement.
Beneficiaries are those that will experience the benefits of a federal award. Direct beneficiaries of REMCDP project(s) may include, but are not limited to, first responders and personnel who participate in trainings or exercises, adopt innovative solutions, or incorporate best practices to improve rural emergency medical care. Individuals receiving medical care in the rural community in which the scope of work under the federal award takes place would be incidental beneficiaries of the REMCDP project(s).

The Notice of Funding Opportunity will provide the application procedures for REMCDP. The following summarizes the typical application procedures for this competitive program. An applicant must submit a grant application online via www.grants.gov. The documents required to be submitted in the application include various standard forms, such as the Standard Forms (SF) 424 (Application for Financial Assistance), SF 424A (Budget Information for Non-Construction Programs), SF 424B (Assurances for Non-Construction Programs), and SF LLL (Disclosure of Lobbying Activities). They will also include a proposed program narrative and budget narrative.

CISA will initially screen applications to determine whether an applicant is eligible; an applicant submitted its application on time; and the application conforms to content requirements. Any application not meeting these requirements will not be considered and will not move forward to the objective review evaluation phase. Following this initial screening, a CISA objective review panel will evaluate and score applications using the programmatic criteria detailed in the Notice of Funding Opportunity. The applications will also go through a financial review. CISA, during the objective review process, may communicate with applicants about their applications. The objective review panel will use the results of the review process to make funding recommendations to the DHS awarding official. The DHS awarding official will make all final funding decisions. Following any necessary pre-award communications and clarifications, CISA will issue and communicate via email a federal award notice to each successful recipient.

CISA communicates the Notices of Award to recipients for which CISA has made federal awards. Payments to a recipient under the federal award are made via an electronic system as detailed above in the Length and Time Phasing of Assistance section. A recipient may not contract out any work under the federal award unless described in the application and funded in the approved federal award or approved by CISA after the federal award. There is no negotiation of terms and conditions or any other parts of the federal award communicated to the recipient.

The range of time required for CISA to process applications for a federal award is approximately 30-60 days. CISA will make and communicate all federal awards on or before September 30.