FY24 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Nevada (NV) Cultural and Paleontology Resource Management | L24AS00228

Opportunity Information: Apply for L24AS00228

The FY24 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Nevada (NV) Cultural and Paleontology Resource Management opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number L24AS00228) is a discretionary federal funding program administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM). It will be awarded as a cooperative agreement, which generally means BLM expects to have substantial involvement during the project period (for example, coordinating on work plans, methods, deliverables, access to sites, or compliance requirements). The program sits in the natural resources category (CFDA 15.224) and supports work tied to BLM Nevada's Cultural Heritage and Paleontology Programs, which typically includes activities that identify, protect, document, monitor, and manage cultural resources (such as archaeological sites, historic structures, and traditional cultural places) and paleontological resources (such as fossils and fossil-bearing deposits) on public lands.

A key eligibility point is that individuals and for-profit organizations are not allowed to apply under this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). Eligible applicants include a wide range of public and nonprofit entities: state, county, city/township, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Tribal governments; other Tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; and nonprofits both with and without 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education in the nonprofit category). In practice, this creates a lane for universities, museums, Tribal entities, local governments, and nonprofit partners that can carry out technical cultural/paleo resource work and coordinate with BLM field offices in Nevada.

The NOFO also draws a clear boundary around youth internship or crew hiring: it does not support entities proposing to hire interns or crews under the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993. The notice explains that the Public Lands Corps Act (16 USC, Chapter 37, Subchapter II) is the only authority that allows BLM to "hire" interns under that framework, and as a result, any eligible Youth Conservation Corps participation must be pursued through a different funding path: NOFO 15.243, titled BLM Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands. In other words, applicants should not build proposals around Public Lands Corps-style internship/crew components for this opportunity, and if youth corps or internship programming is central to the project concept, they are being directed to the separate youth-focused NOFO instead.

For organizations that are part of the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) network, the announcement highlights the CESU purpose and the indirect cost limitation that applies when awards are made under a formally negotiated Master CESU agreement. CESUs are intended to promote and provide research, studies, assessments, monitoring, technical assistance, and educational services, and proposals should state whether and how the project advances the CESU mission. If an award is made to a CESU partner under the Master CESU agreement and the work is consistent with CESU purposes, indirect costs are capped at no more than 17.5 percent of the indirect cost base recognized in the partner's federally approved Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA). Applicants are also expected to specify which CESU Network should be considered as the host if their project aligns with CESU goals. This matters for budgeting and for selecting the correct administrative pathway, since the CESU indirect cost cap can differ from what an organization might otherwise recover under a standard NICRA in other contexts.

From an applicant planning standpoint, the most important operational details are the submission deadline and the funding scale. The original closing date is March 19, 2024. The award ceiling is listed as $210,000, which sets expectations that projects are likely to be scoped as targeted studies, inventories, documentation efforts, monitoring plans, or other discrete cultural and paleontology management tasks appropriate for that funding level. The notice does not specify the exact number of expected awards in the excerpt provided, so applicants typically would need to review the full NOFO for anticipated award counts, performance periods, required deliverables, and any BLM Nevada priority geographies or project types.

Overall, this opportunity is best understood as a BLM Nevada partnership mechanism to fund practical, on-the-ground and technical work that supports compliance, stewardship, and long-term management of cultural heritage and paleontological resources on public lands, while steering youth-corp hiring to a separate authority and clarifying the special indirect cost rules that apply to CESU-based cooperative agreements.

• The Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY24 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Nevada (NV) Cultural and Paleontology Resource Management" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.224.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-01-18.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-03-19. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $210,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

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