Standards Coordination Office (SCO) Grant Program

The SCO Grant Program provides financial assistance to support the broad areas of standards development and conformity assessment activities, coordination activities with the private sector and federal agencies on standards activities and programs, and other standards-related activities. Financial support may be provided for the development of standards-related training materials, publications, policy analysis, studies, and related research and information services. Areas of interest include the development of pre-standard documents for critical and emerging technologies. Financial support may be provided to organizations sponsoring conferences, workshops, experiential learning programs, or other technical events that are relevant to the mission of the SCO.

Eligibility for all programs listed in this NOFO is open to all non-Federal entities. Eligible applicants include institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, state and local governments, Indian tribes, hospitals, foreign public entities, and foreign governments. NIST seeks to collaborate with a wide range of organizations consistent with 15 U.S.C. §§ 278g-1(a) and (e). Please note that individuals and unincorporated sole proprietors are not considered “non-Federal entities” and are not eligible to apply under this NOFO.

All applications that are determined to be eligible, complete, and responsive will proceed for full reviews in accordance with the review and selection processes set forth below for each of the respective programs.

NIST reserves the right to negotiate the budget costs with the applicants that have been selected to receive awards, which may include requesting that the applicant remove certain costs. Additionally, NIST may request that the applicant modify objectives or work plans and provide supplemental information. For international applications, NIST will follow applicable U.S. laws and policies. NIST also reserves the right to reject an application where information is uncovered that raises a reasonable doubt as to the responsibility of the applicant. NIST may select some, all, or none of the applications, or part(s) of any particular application. In some cases, NIST may ask applicants to consider combining projects. The final approval of selected applications and issuance of awards will be by the NIST Grants Officer. The award decisions of the NIST Grants Officer are final.

At least three (3) objective individuals knowledgeable about the particular area described in the application will review the merits of each application, based on the evaluation criteria (see Section V.1.m. of this NOFO). The reviewers may discuss the applications with each other, but scores will be determined on an individual basis, not as a consensus.

The Selecting Official, who is the SCO Director or designee, will make final application selections, taking into consideration the results of the reviewers’ evaluations, relevance to the objectives described in the SCO Grant Program Description (see Section I.13. of this NOFO), and the availability of funds