Brownfields Buzz

Special Edition:

Brownfields Grant Competition

September 6, 2024

FY25 Brownfields Grant Competition Has Begun

FY25 Brownfields Grant Competition

It’s that time of year again! The FY25 Brownfield Assessment, Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup grant guidance documents have been released by the EPA. The grant guidelines for the Community-wide Assessment, Assessment Coalition, Community-wide Assessments for States and Tribes, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup Grants, along with other important EPA resources can be found here. The application deadline is November 14, 2024.

Preparing Your Proposal

Need help writing your proposal? Check out our TAB EZ Grant Writing etool. TAB EZ provides a template for each of the EPA Brownfields grants being offered during the grant cycle and walks you through the proposal section by section, offering helpful hints and other tips for writing a successful application. TAB EZ will be updated and ready to go with the FY25 Grant Guidelines by September 20. Visit the TAB EZ webpage to get started and reach out to Beth Grigsby (beth27@ksu.edu) if you would like additional assistance. If you would like to take a look at proposals from previous years that have been funded by the EPA, check out our collection of successful Brownfields grant applications.

Proposal Reviews by Experts

KSU TAB staff and Partners are pleased to provide a deep and thorough review of your proposal, offering suggestions to increase the competitiveness. Would you like to have your proposal reviewed by one of our grant writing experts? Contact Scott Nightingale (scottnight@ksu.edu) when you’re ready for a review. Our team allows about 3 business days to complete the review and we will be accepting proposals until 12:00pm (noon) Central Time on Friday, November 8.

Please note that if you are located outside of KSU TAB’s service area in EPA Regions 5-8, other Regional TAB providers are available to review your proposals too! You can search this map by state to connect with your local TAB provider.

Toolbox

EJScreen: Environmental Justice Screening & Mapping Tool



EJScreen is EPA's environmental justice mapping and screening tool that provides a nationally consistent dataset and approach for combining environmental and demographic socioeconomic indicators. To get started, EJScreen users choose a geographic area, like a brownfields site, a neighborhood, community corridor, or larger area. The tool then provides demographic, socioeconomic, and environmental information for that area, which can provide valuable insights into your community and be easily incorporated into Brownfields grant proposals. Learn more by visiting the EJScreen website. Curious about how to best use EJScreen to help you prepare for your competitive EPA Grant proposals? Check out this previously recorded webinar, EJScreen 101: Mapping Tools and EPA Competitive Grants Webinar, to learn how to harness this powerful tool for your proposals!

The Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), developed by the Council on Environmental Quality, is an interactive mapping tool that shows information about the burdens that communities experience. CEJST examines datasets from eight categories of community burdens - climate change, energy, health, housing, legacy pollution, transportation, water and wastewater, and workforce development - and may be useful in understanding which communities are disadvantaged due to being overburdened and underserved. This tool can be very helpful in preparing competitive brownfield grant proposals or other community-based grants by providing data to support the community story and demonstrate environmental, climate, and economic justice disparities. Want to learn more? Visit the CEST webpage or watch this brief video overview.

The City Health Dashboard is an online dashboard that offers data on health and general health indicators for approximately 950 cities across the United States. By collecting data related to Health Outcomes, Social and Economic Factors, Health Behavior, Physical Environment, and Clinical Care, the Dashboard can provide comparative data on dozens of metrics to help tell the story of your community’s health, which may be useful in preparing grant applications or identifying areas of community need. Click here to check out the Dashboard!

KSU TAB has offered a variety of virtual grant writing events recently. Click the images below to watch the recordings and access other resources.

In addition, KSU TAB has regional and national events that will be scheduled throughout the year. Please visit our Events webpage to find an event near you!

Brownfields Grant Competition Resources from the EPA

Pre-Recorded Videos on Minimum Grant Requirements 

EPA has pre-recorded videos to provide an overview of the FY 2025 grants submission process and Narrative Information Sheet and threshold requirements for each grant type. Please visit the MARC Grant Application Resources page for the recordings and a copy of the presentations.  

Live Outreach Webinars 

EPA will provide two guideline outreach webinars to assist applicants with understanding the Narrative ranking criteria for the FY 2025 Assessment, RLF, and Cleanup Grant Guidelines. There is no need to pre-register for either webinar. 

Note, EPA will not provide an overview of the grant submission process and Narrative Information Sheet and threshold requirements during the live webinars. 

Thursday, September 19, 2024, at 12 PM ET - This webinar will focus on the FY 2025 Narrative ranking criteria for entities applying for:  

• Community-wide Assessment Grant funding  
• Assessment Coalition Grant funding  
• Community-wide Assessment Grants for States and Tribes funding  

Please click the link to join the webinar at https://usepa.zoomgov.com/j/1610639674

Or join by telephone: 1-646-828-7666; Webinar ID: 161 063 9674 

Tuesday, September 24, 2024, at 12 PM ET - This webinar will focus on the FY 2025 Narrative ranking criteria for entities applying for:  

• RLF Grant funding  
• Cleanup Grant funding  

Please click the link to join the webinar at https://usepa.zoomgov.com/j/1614022736 

Or join by telephone: 1-646-828-7666; Webinar ID: 161 402 2736 

A recording of the webinars and the presentations will be made available on the MARC Grant Application Resources at a later date. 

If you have questions, please contact the Brownfields Team at brownfields@epa.gov. 

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Visit our website at www.ksutab.org.