U.S. EPA has published the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Exchange Network (EN) Grant Program Solicitation Notice (SN) to Grants.gov. The SN is available here: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=347503. Applications are due to EPA by 11:59 PM Eastern Time, Friday, June 2, 2023. Additional guidance tools, including optional fillable templates for the cover letter, project narrative (work plan), and budget narrative attachment form, plus a new budget calculation tool and attachment examples, will soon be made available for applicants on EPA’s Exchange Network Grants website. Applicants are encouraged to carefully review the new FY23 SN, as significant updates have been made since the FY22 version. Information on applicant webinars will be provided shortly.

The purpose of the Exchange Network (EN) grant program is to foster better environmental management and decision-making through increased access to timely, high quality, environmental information. An applicant’s proposed project goals and outputs should align with one or more EN Funding Areas as described in Section I-B of the SN and EPA’s FY 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. Applicants are encouraged to read the full text of the EPA Strategic Plan at:  https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/strategicplan. 

EPA expects to award 25-35 grants of up to $500,000 each, totaling approximately $9,500,000 in FY23. The exact number of grants awarded will depend on the number of applications submitted to EPA by the application deadline, the amounts of proposed project budgets, and the quality of proposals. Please be aware: award funding thresholds have increased from prior years by $100,000. Individual applicants can now request up to $300,000 and eligible EN partnerships can request up to $500,000.  

EPA only accepts project proposals for EN grants submitted electronically through Grants.gov, unless applicants have a waiver. Please allow for enough time to successfully submit your application and allow for unexpected errors requiring you to resubmit. EPA anticipates that it will announce selection decisions around August 2023, and tentatively plans to issue awards by October 2023. 

For more information, please contact:
Erin McGown
EN Grants Program Manager
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Email: [email protected]