U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Research Financial Assistance Program

The objectives of the NRC Grant and Cooperative Agreement Program have been—

(1) To support the coordination between state and Federal activities to achieve solutions to present and future radiation control issues;
(2) To foster the exchange of ideas and information among the states and the Federal Government concerning radiation control;
(3) To support effective research and information dissemination regarding unwanted and orphan material to ensure the safe use of radioactive materials for beneficial civilian purposes.
(4) To support the development of voluntary consensus standards that establish safety and risk criteria and methods for probabilistic analysis, risk analysis, risk assessment, and risk management.
The NRC Program is currently on pause since the issuance of E.O. 14222 and pending the wholesale review of the Program’s policies, procedures and documents to comply with E.O. 14332, “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking” and with E.O. 14303, “Restoring Gold Standard Science” and associated Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance. No new awards were made after January 2025. There are currently two active grants previously awarded under this Program.

Under the prior Program - Private nonprofit institution/organization, Quasi-public nonprofit organization, Native American Organizations
No new awards were made since September 11, 2023, but two existing cooperative agreements remain open and are still active, subject to periodic reviews, audits, and termination if the cooperative agreements no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities, or if it is determined that the remaining portion of the Federal award will not accomplish the purposes for which the Federal award was made.

Beneficiary eligibility were the same as applicant eligibility

The selection criteria included: (1) the significance of the study, including how public safety would be benefitted; (2) whether the program framework, methods, and processes were adequately developed, well integrated, well-reasoned, and appropriate to the objectives of the project; and (3) whether the proposed work could be accomplished within the budget proposed by the applicant, given the applicant’s experience, expertise, past progress, available resources, institutional and organizational commitment, and access to technologies.

Applications were evaluated and rated individually by a panel of peer reviewers comprised of both Federal and non-Federal experts in the field, and award recommendations were made by the NRC Selecting Official, based on a set of criteria established by the NRC, as stated in the NOFO.