Getting Started Preparing Your ARC Proposal Early: Step 5: READ/Understand the RANKING Criteria (Part 2)

Every year, the Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization (OBLR) receives numerous inquiries regarding preparation of proposals for the Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (ARC) grant competitions. Many potential applicants find that it is difficult to prepare their proposals in only 60 days, the typical amount of time the Request for Proposals (RFP) allows from publication until the proposals are due. While the RFP is on schedule to be available in early fall, there are still many activities that applicants can perform in advance of the RFP (commonly referred to as the ARC Guidelines) being made publicly available. We have listed many of these activities below. We hope that using this list to get started preparing your ARC proposal early will facilitate your efforts in the preparation of a thorough, thoughtful, timely, and most importantly, successful proposal.

RANKING CRITERIA

Review the Ranking Criteria. Applicants are encouraged to use the FY13 Guidelines found at
http://epa.gov/brownfields/applicat.htm as a guide to begin gathering information and drafting
their proposal. When the FY14 Guidelines are posted, the applicant can then use the time prior to
the submission deadline to organize the information into the required format, fill in any missing
details, and further strengthen their proposal.

• Grant Proposal Framework/Outline. SEE YESTERDAY'S BLOG ENTRY.
• Community Need. SEE YESTERDAY'S BLOG ENTRY.
• Project Description. SEE YESTERDAY'S BLOG ENTRY.
• Community Engagement and Partnerships. Each applicant is required to incorporate community involvement into their grant, and to notify the community that they are planning to apply for a brownfield grant. The applicant should start working with their community early to establish a process and procedures for engaging their community. These efforts can begin well in advance of the grant application. The same goes for establishing partnerships that are critical to the success of your program. Begin identifying and forming these partnerships early in the process.
• Project Benefits. Applicants should begin identifying the health, environmental, infrastructure reuse, economic, and other long term benefits of addressing brownfield sites in their community, or if applying for cleanup grants, benefits of cleaning up the site. Thinking about the benefits in advance will facilitate your ability to identify and articulate these benefits in your proposal.
• Programmatic Capability/Past Performance. Begin gathering information on any past grants you have received and your accomplishments and performance under these grants. If you had performance problems on past grants, identify the issues and put in place corrective actions, so that any performance issues are resolved by the time you apply for the brownfield grant.