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["INSTRUCTIONS"]
[1,"All questions pertaining to this funding opportunity announcement should be emailed to solardata@ee.doe.gov. "]
[2,"All questions pertaining to EERE Exchange should be emailed to EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov. Include FOA name and number in subject line."]
[3,"All questions and answers pertaining to this FOA will be posted on EERE Exchange within this spreadsheet."]
[4,"DOE will attempt to respond to a question within 3 business days, unless a similar question and answer has already been posted in this spreadsheet. "]
[5,"All questions should be submitted not later than 3 business days prior to the application due date. Questions submitted after this date will not be answered."]
[6,"Questions are assigned a number in accordance with when they are reviewed by DOE.  "]
[7,"Questions are assigned a topic area by DOE when reviewed."]
[]
["TIPS"]
[1,"Applicants may sort questions and answers in the question tabs of this spreadhseet by selecting the drop-down box arrow on the column headers and selecting any of the listed attributes."]
[2,"Applicants may search for questions and/or keywords by holding CTRL+F on the keyboard and typing in a phrase or keyword."]

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["ADMINISTRATIVE QUESTION AND ANSWER LOG DE-FOA0001319 SOLAR BANKABILITY DATA TO ADVANCE TRANSACTIONS AND ACCESS (SB-DATA) Last Updated 6/17/2015"]
[]
["Question #","Date Submitted","Topic","Question","Answer"]
[1,"2015-05-24","Eligibility","The following is stated under Section F: “Applicants may not submit more than one Full Application to this FOA, provided that each application describes a unique distinct project.” This is unclear as to whether each applicant is limited to one application – could you clarify?","This is a typo.  Applicants may submit more than one Full Application to this FOA, provided that each application describes a unique distinct project, as indicated on page 5 in the Executive Summary."]
[2,"2015-05-31","Eligibility","Can the term “bankability” include other industries and services providers outside of banking?","Per the FOA, bankability data Refers to data ”across the value chain from project origination to grid integration, operations, and decommissioning – [that can] protect  consumers,  increase efficient pricing, and support new and existing businesses entering the solar marketplace (e.g. new financial, underwriting products, operations and maintenance services). “"]
[3,"2015-05-31","Technical Topics","Can DOE issue a formal statement that participation in the FOA does not constitute an endorsement or advocacy for any product or service, so long as the participation is limited to establishing interoperability based on non-commercial open standards?","Participation in any working groups that are a result of this funding opportunity Announcement will be voluntary and will not constitute an endorsement of resulting products. "]
[4,"2015-05-31","Eligibility","Can the DOE modify its consideration for award from “Competitively Priced” to “Best Collaborative Value” to promote mutual collaboration over price competition?","DOE will evaluate all proposals based on criteria in section IV in this solicitation..  Eligibility for this FOA is described in section III.  Applicants who wish to collaborate may apply with one organization as the prime awardee and others as sub-awardees.  Organizations may be listed as a subrecipient on more than one application."]
[5,"2015-05-31","Eligibility","Does the DOE have a platform for respondents to find out about other respondents so that they can evaluate potential working groups and partnerships?","DOE will not release information about perspective applicants, or facilitate or endorse partnerships among perspective applicants.  "]
[6,"2015-05-31","Registration Requirements","Can the DOE notify other respondents to go to our website, as well as provide a place to identify other respondent’s websites, as part of the outreach effort? Can the DOE notify respondents of events that may be of interest?","No, DOE is barred from endorsing any events or organizations supporting this proposal. "]
[7,"2015-05-31","Eligibility","Can IEP XML be incorporated without violating any rules? Can BEDES scope be expanded as part of this FOA so that its efforts to “knit together” data standards, and its knowledgebase, can include data standards identified and accepted as part of the FOA? Can the Green Button model for developing consensus and data sets be replicated using the same resources?","Applicants are not barred from proposing building off of existing standards providing that that decision is reflective of the industry lead working group.  Advocating for a specific standard without active participation in an open stakeholder process listed as an applications specifically not of interest (Section 1.C). "]
[8,"2015-05-31","Eligibility","Can the DOE expand the beneficiaries of this to include small business, service disabled veteran owned enterprises, women owned business enterprises, and similar groups regardless of their involvement in solar energy?","Please see Section I.C. Applications Specifically Not of Interest., \"Applications should be solar-focused, with goals related to lowering the cost of solar energy in the U.S. \""]
[9,"2015-05-31","Eligibility","Can the DOE exempt any activity that is related to promoting open standards and interoperability from this FOA? Can registered lobbyists participate in the FOA? Can state agencies involved in legislative activity participate in the FOA?","See Section III, Eligibility Information. Additionally, please review Section IV.D.10 and IV.I.6 regarding lobbying."]
[10,"2015-05-31","Intellectual Property","Can the DOE clarify that the FOA is limited to the establishment of data interoperability as a public resource, which is open standards based and non-commercial.  The technology, intellectual property and inventions provisions are limited to just the non-commercial interoperability structure and taxonomy, and does not extend to the various commercial innovations that utilize interoperability, the taxonomy or the structures established in whole or in part by the FOA?","Per the solicitation, all resulting data standards, taxonomies, and schemas will be open.  "]
[11,"2015-05-31","Application Content/Format","Can the DOE allow respondents to be vague about subsequent steps, and keep the response to overall objectives and future phase’s implementation subject to future findings?","Applicants should structure their applications based on the descriptions in Section IV.  Applications will be reviewed based on criteria described in Section V.  "]
[12,"2015-05-31","Application Reviews","Can subsequent funding be for contests, where the topics and recipients are not identified in advance but subject to what is learned in the initial phases?","Any subsequent contests would be subject to appropriations and funded outside of this particular FOA. "]
[13,"2015-06-04","Eligibility","What do you mean by \"industry-led\"?","An “Industry-led” process means that non-Federal entities including private sector organizations (e.g. commercial, non-commercial entities, non-profits), state and local governments are setting and enforcing standards rather than the Federal government dictating or regulating standards. "]
[14,"2015-06-04","Application Content/Format"," Can discouraged applicants revise proposal idea and resubmit for consideration before full application is due?","Yes"]
[15,"2015-06-04","Eligibility","Nonprofit organizations are not eligible to apply?","Non-profit organization are eligible to apply only non-profit organizations described in Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995, are not eligible to apply for funding."]
[16,"2015-06-04","Eligibility","How will the specific working groups be formed?","EERE does not control the process of organizing the working groups. The FOA describes the objectives, expected roles, and outcomes. The applicants should propose how they plan to form, manage and coordinate among working groups and members.  "]
[17,"2015-06-04","Application Content/Format","When is the deadline to submit questions before the first due date for the concept paper?","You may submit questions anytime prior the due date of the full application. Only unanswered questions that are related to participation in the FOA will be answered. EERE will not answer questions regarding the merits of the proposed Concept Papers outside the specified procedures in the FOA. "]
[18,"2015-06-04","Eligibility","Are you helping facilitate the creation of consortia?","EERE intends to make awards using Cooperative Agreements. As described in the FOA Cooperative Agreements require DOE's “Substantial Involvement”. Please review the FOA regarding the defining of “Substantial Involvement”  "]
[19,"2015-06-04","Technical Topics","Do you foresee the result of this foa being a taxonomy of xml terms?","EERE does not dictate in this FOA the format or the technical requirements of the proposed standards. The open stakeholder process and working group structure formulated in the FOA should determine the exact specifications. "]
[20,"2015-06-04","Cost Sharing","For the in-kind donation of time, do we use the price (bill rate of the person) or their fully burdened cost? ","All Awards made under the SB-DATA FOA will be subject to 2 CFR 200. Under 2 CFR 200, only third-party entities may utilize volunteer labor hours as in-kind cost share.   Applicants should refer to 2 CFR 200.306 for additional information on in-kind labor.  Any labor that a primary recipient will pay for themselves is considered cash cost share.  For cash cost share you may use the bill rate of the person under personnel and their associated fringe and indirect costs on the appropriate tabs of the budget form or the fully burdened rate.  If it is your organization's policy to charge fully burdened rates and not separate out fringe and indirect costs, please indicate as such on your budget tab."]
[21,"2015-06-04","Webinar","Is there a list of attendees for this webinar that is available?","EERE will not share the list of webinar attendees. "]
[22,"2015-06-04","Eligibility","Can a nonprofit work with a subregion?","DOE will evaluate all proposals based on criteria in Section IV in this solicitation.  Eligibility for this FOA is described in Section III.  Applicants who wish to collaborate may apply with one organization as the prime awardee and others as sub-awardees.  Organizations may be listed as a subrecipient on more than one application."]
[23,"2015-06-04","Technical Topics","Can a nonprofit offer innovative measurement strategies that may exceed current industry data collection approaches to advance adoption of solar technology? Can the end product be a research approach for an innovative data collection strategy?","DOE will evaluate all proposals based on criteria in Section IV in this solicitation.  Eligibility for this FOA is described in section III.  Applicants who wish to collaborate may apply with one organization as the prime awardee and others as sub-awardees.  Organizations may be listed as a subrecipient on more than one application."]
[24,"2015-06-04","Cost Sharing","We are a non-profit.  Can we consider a portion of our current staff salaries as our match contribution for the matching funds.  Our organization is member funding by a large stakeholder community? ","All Awards made under the SB-DATA FOA will be subject to 2 CFR 200. Under 2 CFR 200, only third-party entities may volunteer labor hours. Applicants should refer to 2 CFR 200.306 for additional information on in-kind labor. A portion of staff salaries may be considered as cash cost share as long as the employees are compensated at their normal rates and are not made to volunteer their time to the project."]
[25,"2015-06-12","Eligibility"," Is it possible to use an existing data standard as a reference model in the work described by the technical working group for part B of the FOA without violating the conditions described in “Application Specifically not of Interest” given that such model was funded by prior DOE or SunShot awards?   ","Applicants may use existing models. However, DOE will not support redundant efforts or activities currently or were previously funded by DOE or SunShot awards. In addition, applications that propose the use of existing data models without actively engaging in an open process to establish industry consensus for standards, as described in this FOA, will not be funded.  "]
[26,"2015-06-12","Eligibility","’“Principal Investigator” refers to the technical point of contact/Project Manager for a specific project award.’\nThe use of the “/” creates some uncertainty in the definition. \nDoes the definition mean that the Project Manager must also be the technical point of contact?","Please inclue as the Principal Investigator the person with the technical expertise to do the work described as his or her qualifications will be considered during the selection process.  If you are selected for an award you will be able to add additional points of contact as necessary."]
[27,"2015-06-12","Cost Sharing","Some of our team collaborators are trade associations that are supported by membership dues to cover the cost of the services they provide to constituents.   \nUnder consideration is waiving the membership dues if the non-member will commit to being an active and fully engaged collaborator for the DOE FOA.\nDoes trade association membership fees that are waived for the DOE FOA period (or shorter) qualify as in-kind donation if the waiver is directly tied to the DOE FOA?","No, these costs may not be considered cost share.  Please refer to 2CFR §200.306   Cost sharing or matching. Contributions must be actually expended costs and must be verifiable from the entity's records."]
[28,"2015-06-16","Eligibility","We work on quantifying the risk of solar securitizations in the developing world. Will you consider developing world submission for this award?","Applications should be solar-focused, with goals related to lowering the cost of solar energy in the United States.  This FOA specifically targets soft cost reduction by increasing data accessibility, quality and interoperability in the United States.  "]
[29,"2015-06-12","Application Content/Format","Is a proposed budget and timeline with milestones required in the concept paper?","Concept papers will be assessed according to the evaluation criteria provided in the FOA for concept papers. The 5-page limit is sufficient for applicants to provide a concise but comprehensive narrative that addresses all the points described in the evaluation criteria including an overview of the project tasks, timeline,  key goals and interim milestones.  Please refer to Section IV.C. \"Content and Form fo the Concept Paper\" in the FOA document."]
[30,"2015-07-17","Cost Sharing","Activity A of the FOA has a large Stakeholder Engagement piece as the work activity.  Can a non-profit organization count for its cost-share contribution the in-kind time and labor hours of  volunteers from industry who attend the stakeholder meetings for this project run by the Non-Profit organization?    A record of who attended the meetings would be recorded so time would be verifiable.    In summary, is  the in-kind contribution acceptable for cost share if it is made up of volunteers who participate in the workshops?   ","As per 2CFR§200.306(e) , “Volunteer services furnished by third-party professional and technical personnel, consultants, and other skilled and unskilled labor may be counted as cost sharing or matching if the service is an integral and necessary part of an approved project or program.”  In addition, per 2 CFR 200.456, Participant support costs as defined in §200.75 Participant support costs are allowable with the prior approval of the Federal awarding agency. Per 2 CFR 200.75, Participant support costs means direct costs for items such as stipends or subsistence allowances, travel allowances, and registration fees paid to or on behalf of participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with conferences, or training projects.\n\nTherefore, based on the above, volunteer labor hours from people in industry to attend stakeholder meetings is not allowable, as certain individuals are not required to attend, and the stakeholder meeting is not considered a conference or training. \n"]

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["Pick List"]
[]
["Registration Requirements"]
["Webinar"]
["Eligibility"]
["Labs/FFRDCs"]
["Foreign Entities/Work"]
["Cost Sharing"]
["Due Dates"]
["Application Content/Format"]
["Intellectual Property"]
["Data Management"]
["U.S. Manufacturing Plan"]
["Application Reviews"]
["Technical Topics"]