IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Utah Cultural and Paleontology Resource Management | L24AS00270

Opportunity Information: Apply for L24AS00270

The IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Utah Cultural and Paleontology Resource Management opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number L24AS00270) is a discretionary funding program from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), focused on supporting Utah-based work under BLM Cultural Heritage and Paleontology Programs. Awards are issued as cooperative agreements, which typically means BLM expects to have substantial involvement in the project during planning and execution rather than operating purely as a pass-through funder. The overall activity category is Natural Resources, and it is associated with CFDA 15.224. The program was created on February 20, 2024, with an original closing date of April 19, 2024, and an award ceiling of up to $200,000 per award.

The purpose of the funding is to advance management, protection, and responsible stewardship of cultural resources and paleontological resources on BLM-managed lands in Utah. While the notice text provided is administrative in nature and does not list specific project types in detail, the framing around Cultural Heritage and Paleontology Programs generally points to work such as documentation, research, inventories and assessments, monitoring, condition evaluation, planning support, technical assistance, and related educational services that help BLM meet its resource management responsibilities.

Eligibility is broad across public and nonprofit sectors, but it is clearly restricted in two key ways. Individuals and for-profit organizations are explicitly ineligible to apply under this notice of funding opportunity. Eligible applicants include state, county, and city/township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized tribal governments; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; and nonprofits both with and without 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education in those nonprofit categories). In practical terms, this structure supports partnerships with governments, tribes, universities, and nonprofits that have the organizational capacity to carry out field-based and programmatic heritage or paleontology work in coordination with BLM.

A major restriction in the notice is that this program NOFO does not support entities hiring interns or crews under the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993. The notice emphasizes that the Public Lands Corps Act is the only legislative authority that allows BLM to "hire" interns under that specific authority, and as a result, projects that are fundamentally designed around youth intern or crew hiring under Public Lands Corps should not be proposed under this opportunity. Instead, the notice directs eligible Youth Conservation Corps applicants to pursue those types of youth conservation/internship projects under a different funding opportunity: NOFO 15.243, BLM Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands. This is an important compliance point because proposals centered on staffing models that rely on that authority are not aligned with what this NOFO is designed to fund.

The notice also highlights the role of Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs). CESUs are described as partnerships intended to promote and deliver research, studies, assessments, monitoring, technical assistance, and educational services, which aligns closely with typical cultural and paleontological resource management needs. If a cooperative agreement is awarded to a CESU partner under a formally negotiated Master CESU agreement and the project is consistent with CESU purposes, then 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 asked to state whether their proposal furthers the purpose of the CESU program and, if it does, to specify which CESU Network should be considered as the host. For universities and other organizations that participate in CESUs, this affects budgeting and should be addressed directly in the proposal narrative and cost documents.

In short, this opportunity is a BLM Utah cooperative agreement funding source (up to $200,000) intended to support cultural heritage and paleontology program goals through eligible public, tribal, academic, and nonprofit partners, while excluding individuals and for-profits, avoiding Public Lands Corps intern/crew hiring models, and applying specific indirect cost limitations when the award is made through the CESU framework.

• The Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Utah 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 2024-02-20.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-04-19. (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 $200,000.00 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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