30-day FRN Public Comment Summary

Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program – Fiscal Year 2015 Competition

Summary of Public Comments with Responses

Introduction

On February 13, 2015, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) published a notice for the Application Package for Grants Under the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program (MSEIP) (1894-0001) inviting interested persons to submit comments by March 16, 2015. Two comments from the public were received regarding the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program (MSEIP) Notice Inviting Applications (Notice) and the application package for new awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. One comment was substantive and the other comment was identified as uncivil behavior and inflammatory. Therefore, the latter comment will not be addressed in the response summary.

The response summary below includes the public comment and the Department’s response to the comment, including whether any subsequent changes have been made to the Notice and the application package for new awards for FY 2015.

Public Comment

The page limit for the project narrative might be extended to accommodate responses to the competitive and invitational priorities. Since, on pages 64-67 or 103 -104, there is no indication of a separate attachment for priorities, one must assume that responses are to be integrated into the project narrative. The 40 page limit might be extended by four pages per priority response. Additionally, a Table of Contents page might be added to the beginning of the project narrative but not counted towards the total page limit.

Department Response

The Project Narrative is where applicants provide responses to the selection criteria for the Competitive Preference Priority (CPP) and/or Invitational Priority (IP). Within the maximum allotted page limit, the Department expects the applicant to address the CPP and/or IP in an integrated response to the selection criteria. Although the Department recognizes the potential constraint with the page limit, the Department thinks that having the applicant to submit an additional four page justification related to the CPP and/or the IP would be a burden to the applicant. For these reasons, the Department did not increase the page limit.

A page limit does not apply to the Table of Contents as stated in the Content and Form of Application Submission section of the Notice. Although it is optional to include a Table of Contents, the Department will add a section in the Instructions for Completing the Application Package for submitting a Table of Contents with the Project Narrative that will not go towards the page count.

Change

In the Competition Highlights, as well as the Instructions for Project Narrative, the Department will add the sentence “Within the maximum allotted page limit, the Department expects the applicant to address the CPP and/or IP in an integrated response to the selection criteria.”

In Part III of the Instructions for Completing the Application Package, the Department will add a section for the optional Table of Contents. Within this section, the Department will add the instructions “Applicants may include the optional Table of Contents at the beginning of the Project Narrative Attachment Form.” The Table of Contents will not go towards the page count in the Project Narrative.

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