Funding Opportunity Number: HRSA-24-045

Note to potential applicant: This list of Frequently Asked Questions responds to the New, Competing Continuation project HRSA-24-045 titled Poison Control Centers Program.

Letter of Intent

Is a Letter of Intent required? What is the Letter of Intent used for if it is not required?

The NOFO addresses the Letter of Intent on page 19: The Letter of Intent should identify your organization and its intent to apply for the funding opportunity and briefly describe the proposal. HRSA will not acknowledge receipt of Letters of Intent. Send the letter via email by March 15, 2024, to: HRSA Digital Services Operation (DSO). Use the HRSA opportunity number as email subject (HRSA-24-045) HRSADSO@hrsa.gov. Although HRSA encourages Letters of Intent to apply, they are not required. You are eligible to apply even if you do not submit a Letter of Intent.

Application in Grants.gov

How can I access the HRSA -24-045 Poison Control Centers Program application in Grants.gov? When starting the application on Grants.gov, the grant no longer seems to exist, but you can read the instructions. The following error message was noted: “Bad request- The page you requested was not found on this site. Return to the Grants.gov Homepage.”

Your institution may need to add a “role” for you in Grants.gov which will allow you to access Workspace Manager to create a workspace and work on the application. An individual with Administration level abilities would need to allow you access.

The Notice of Funding Opportunity addresses contacting Grants.gov for assistance on page 26 under Section VII. Agency Contacts: You may need help applying through Grants.gov. Always get a case number when you call.

Grants.gov Contact Center (24 hours a day. 7 days a week, excluding federal holidays) Call: 1-800-518-4726 (International callers: 606-545-5035) Email: support@grants.gov

Do we need a table of contents for the Project Narrative as indicated in the Application Guide?

No, you do not need a Table of Contents. The Notice of Funding Opportunity addresses the Project Narrative on pages 12-14: “Provide the following information in the following order. Please use the section headers. This ensures reviewers can understand the proposed project.”

When will applicants learn that the entity has received the grant award?

The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) addresses Award Notices on page 22 under VI. Award Administration Information: “The Notice of Award (NOA) is issued on or around the state date listed in the NOFO. The start date for HRSA-24-045 is September 1, 2024. See Section 5.4 of the Application Guide for more information.

Program information

What is the difference, in practical terms, between goals, objectives, expectations and requirements?

See pages 2 and 8-9 of the NOFO.

Applicant goals are a broad statement of what the applicant plans to accomplish. The objectives are a step towards accomplishing those goals. Expectations are strongly encouraged but not required. A requirement is non-negotiable and must be met.

On Page 8 and 9 of NOFO, under Requirements and Expectations, it lists "Ensure that human exposure poisoning cases receive a completed follow-up contact when indicated." By completed follow-up, do you mean attempted follow-up... (even if patient doesn't answer the phone)?

Yes, by completed follow-up, we are indicating that there was an attempt to contact the individual.

On page 10 of the NOFO, there is a list of data points that HRSA will gather the following performance metrics from the National Poison Database System (NPDS); included is one of the metrics to be tracked is “percentage of human exposure poisoning cases with a completed follow-up contact." This metric is presumably to measure one of the objectives on page 1 of “increasing the percentage of human exposure poisoning cases with a completed follow up contact." However, it is not possible to measure percentage of human exposure poisoning cases with a completed follow-up contact, at least in NPDS.

The Performance Measurement section of the NOFO (pages 9-10) delineates reporting requirements for PCCs to be submitted annually by each PCC, as well as data points that HRSA is responsible for collecting. Separate from and in addition to the measures reported by PCCs, the performance measures that HRSA will collect from NPDS will be obtained from the NPDS report published annually by America's Poison Centers, i.e., aggregated across all PCCs. This report describes the strengths and limitations of NPDS data measures. These HRSA-collected performance measures are not required to be reported in the annual performance reports from PCCs.

For the purposes of the application, the pertinent review criterion (page 20) focuses on the applicant’s plan and ability to collect and report data on the measures as described on pages 9-10; applications will not be reviewed for PCCs’ ability to collect the performance measures that are HRSA’s responsibility.

How is performance measurement different from monitoring?

The Notice of Funding Opportunity addresses performance measurement and monitoring on pages 13 and 14 under ii. Project Narrative, Evaluation and Technical Support Capacity – Corresponds to Section V’s Review Criteria 3 and 5:

• Monitoring: how you will track project-related processes, activities, and milestones, and use data to identify actual or potential challenges to implementation. Provide an initial list of measures (indicators, metrics) you will use to monitor progress.
• Performance Measurement: your plan for measuring and tracking program goals and objectives is outlined in the Purpose section. The plan should include required and/or proposed measures outlined in the Program Requirements and Expectations section and plans for the timely collection and reporting of all measures.

For programs at our poison center that are on pause, but will be restarted in the grant period, as long as we are clear on the intent and the plan to restart, can these be included? Specifically, I am referring to our Poison Information Provider Program.

Yes, these programs can be included in your application if they are part of your proposed activities that will meet the goal and objectives of the Poison Control Centers (PCC) Program indicated on page 1 of the Notice of Funding Opportunity.

Our poison center plans to create collaboration with local crisis centers during the five-year grant period even though we do not currently have collaborations. Is this acceptable?

Yes, creating collaborations with local crisis centers would be acceptable during the five-year grant period.

Personnel

If we plan to have a different project director for this 5-year grant cycle, do we just include the new project director or do we need to request a change prior to the new award?

When you submit your application, you will have one project director. If the project director is changing during the grant cycle, you will need to submit a prior approval through the Electronic Handbook (EHB) that you are changing the project director. Make sure that the cover letter indicates the effective date and who the new project director will be. Also submit the resume or CV with the prior approval request.

The Key Contacts section only allows for four key personnel to be listed, and we have more than four. Can we add an attachment for additional key contacts?

Yes, you can add your fifth key personnel as an additional attachment (e.g., Attachment 11). We do want to alert you that adding an additional key contact in the attachment will not result in that contact being listed in the Electronic Handbook (EHB). Watch a video that describes the steps to add additional users in EHB.

Should both the staffing plan and the biosketches be kept free of personally identifiable information (PII) for key personnel?

No. The staffing plan can contain PII for key personnel, including qualifications such as education, while PII should be kept out of the biosketches. (See p. 16 of the Notice of Funding Opportunity).

Attachments

The instructions state that we need to include our F&A agreement. Should this get uploaded as an additional attachment (e.g., Attachment 10)?

Yes, upload your Facilities and Administration rate agreement within Attachments 10-15 Other Relevant Documents.

Our poison center provided services to other states and territories. We have letters from them stating their willingness to continue this partnership. Should these letters go under Attachment 4: Letters of Agreement or Attachment 8: Designation and Commitments?

Upload the letters under Attachments 4 and 8.

If accreditation expires before or on the day the grant is due, should we upload once the grant is awarded?

The Notice of Funding Opportunity addresses accreditation on page 15 under Specific Instructions: “Accredited PCCs must provide a copy of their most recent accreditation letter from the Association or state government. Provide the date of re-accreditation if it is due in FY 2024.”

On page 27 of the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) – the 4th line of the table lists Attachment 1: Work Plan. Initially we thought- the Work Plan is a section of the Project Narrative (detailed on page 13) -- but on page 15 of the NOFO, in the last paragraph on that page….it says, “Make sure it includes everything that Section IV.2.ii Project Narrative details.” So, this seems to us that Attachment 1 is really the full Project Narrative, not just the Work Plan portion. Page 28 of the NOFO- the 2nd to last line of the table, lists Project Narrative as its own Attachment (and I can see that it is in the system we use for Grants.gov)

Please upload the Project Narrative (including the Work Plan) in the Project Narrative Section, then the Work Plan separately as Attachment 1.

Does the entire Attachment 6: For Multi-Year Budgets –5th Year Budget count toward the page count?

The SF-424A Section B is for a 5-year period. Applicants need to submit the budget for the 5th year as an attachment even though the SF-424A does not count toward the page limit; however, any related budget narrative does count. See Section 4.1.iv of the Application Guide.

Salary cap

Can you confirm that we should use the 2023 salary cap of $212,100? The Executive Order 14090 effective January 1, 2024, changed the salary cap to $221,900. The $221,900 salary cap is also in the HRSA Electronic Handbooks. Can we use $221,900 as the salary cap?

The salary limitation for Senior Level II effective January 2024 is $221,900.

The Further Additional Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024 (P.L. 118-35, January 19, 2024) continues the pay freeze on the payable pay rates for the Vice President and certain senior political appointees through March 8, 2024. Future Congressional action will determine whether the pay freeze continues beyond that date.

Indirect costs

Many of the Poison Control Centers have higher negotiated rates than the 10% limit (for example 53%). The Poison Control Centers NOFO states that indirect costs for this grant program are limited to 10% of allowable total indirect cost regardless of the applicant’s negotiated indirect cost rate. Institutions allow the 10% indirect cost rate because the NOFO states that is the limit. This guidance is also published in the Federal Register as an approved Exception to HRSA's Indirect policy. Requesting clarity on the indirect cost rate. Can I continue to use the 10% indirect as I have in all prior years?

Indirect costs for this grant program are limited to 10% of allowable total indirect cost, regardless of the applicant’s negotiated indirect cost rate. To claim indirect costs, an indirect cost rate agreement must be included in your application.

Are applicants required to submit the indirect rate agreement? If so, is this an attachment or where do we look for this document?

Indirect costs are limited to 10% of allowable total indirect costs for the Poison Control Centers Program, regardless of your negotiated indirect cost rate. To claim indirect costs, you must include an indirect cost rate agreement in your application. The agreement may be submitted within Attachments 10-15 Other Relevant Documents.

The Notice of Funding Opportunity (page 8) states the Indirect Cost Rate Agreement does not count towards the page limit. Since indirect costs are limited to 10% of allowable total indirect costs, applicants would not need to submit an agreement.

Budget

In the budget narratives for the Program Centers Control Program grant, should the budget narrative show the same award amount for all 5 years or should it show our actual projected costs for years 2-5? Should we use that same dollar amount in the budget narrative for all 5 years or just year 1 and then show increased costs for years 2-5?

Applicants should fill out the SF-424A for all 5 years with the same amount. Then, once the amount is known in Years 2-5, a revised budget can be submitted.