Award Negotiations

The award negotiations process begins once DOE notifies an applicant that their project was selected. Negotiations allow OCED and the selected applicant (selectee) to develop a shared understanding of the scope of the project, the budget for the project, and the requirements of the award agreement. Negotiations help OCED ensure that the selectee has the necessary levels of internal controls, financial management systems, and policies and procedures in place to receive and manage a federal assistance award.

During negotiations, OCED and the selectee review and finalize the scope of the proposed activities, the proposed budget, and supporting plans and documents. The complexity of the project, the selectee’s responses, and OCED’s reviews will all impact the negotiation timeline.

Award Negotiation Overview

What to expect during award negotiations?

Award negotiations begin with OCED sending a selection letter to the selected applicants and hosting a kick-off meeting. OCED works with the selectees throughout the award negotiations process to discuss and resolve key issues prior to issuing an award.

During award negotiations, the selectee will have to submit new documents as well as possibly update and make changes to their previously submitted application documents. The selection letter and post kickoff meeting letter will specify what materials and documents the selectee must submit, the required format for each document, and the submission deadline. For additional information on how to navigate OCED’s award process, see the Recipient Guide to Award Negotiations and Administration (coming soon).

What documents will I have to submit?

During award negotiations, the selectee must submit any requested information and updated documents by the stated due date. Late submissions can cause a delay in award negotiations, which can ultimately cause a delay in a starting the project.

What happens at the end of the award negotiations process?

Upon successful completion of the award negotiations process, the award package, including the award terms and conditions, the statement of project objectives, and other documents as applicable, will establish the selectee’s obligations under the award.

Pre-Award Organization Review

What is a Pre-Award Organization Review?

The Pre-Award Organization Review begins immediately after selection announcements are made. It is not an audit. The Review assess the selectee’s ability to adequately manage federal funds and ensures the selectee has appropriate internal controls, financial management systems, and policies and procedures.

What documents do I submit for the Pre-Award Organization Review?

Pre-Award Organizational and Financial Management Questionnaire: This template helps OCED gather information about a selectee’s internal policies and procedures.
Pre-Award Organization and Financial Management Review Required Documentation: This checklist helps selectee’s keep track of the documents they are required to submit for review.

What happens during a Pre-Award Organization Review?

An OCED Cost Analyst reviews the submitted documents and tracks submissions. The Cost Analyst follows up with the selectee organization if needed and answers any questions and provides support. The Cost Analyst informs the selectee when the Review is complete. The Cost Analyst provides the results of the Pre-Award Organization Review to the Grants and Agreements Officer who then provides feedback or recommendations to the selectee.

Document Submission Overview

OCED requires additional documents to support award negotiations. These templates are provided as a convenient method of collecting the information, but the selectee may use the format of their choice, provided all the required information is submitted.

What information am I required to submit during award negotiations?

OCED will request the following information over the course of award negotiations to support different topic reviews. The selectee will have to submit the following information either using the templates below or in a format of their choosing:

Pre-Award Support: Information: This template contains information that is necessary for OCED’s pre-award process, such as the organization contacts, potential conflicts of interest, and assurances and certifications.
Pre-Award Support: Intellectual Property: This template helps the selectee collect intellectual property information needed for award negotiations.
Environmental Considerations Summary: The information the selectee provides in this template helps OCED determine the appropriate level review required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

What other information may be requested?

OCED may request that the selectee submit additional information during the negotiations process. These guidance documents may assist with gathering needed information.

Current and Pending Support Disclosure Guidance: The selectee may have to submit updates to its previously submitted current and pending support disclosures; this document assists them in preparing the information.
Foreign Entity Participation Guidance: Applicants seeking to include Foreign Entity participation or foreign work in a U.S. DOE OCED funded project are required to submit a waiver request as part of their application and during the performance of the award. This guidance provides general information about the waiver request requirements.
Participants and Other Collaborating Organizations: The selectee may have to submit detailed information on the individuals who are proposed to work on the project, how they will contribute to the project, other organizations that may be involved with the project, and any significant collaborators or contacts.

Budget and Financial Management Related Guidance

Indirect Cost Rate Agreement and Rate Proposal Guidance: This guidance document provides the selectee with a general overview of indirect costs and indirect cost rates, including the different types of indirect cost rates, who needs a negotiated rate agreement, and sample indirect cost rate proposals.
Final Indirect Cost Rate and Incurred Cost Audit Guidance: This guidance provides an overview of final indirect cost rates and the process for submission, final indirect cost rate establishment, incurred cost proposals and the process for submission, and incurred cost audits.
The De Minimis Indirect Cost Rate Guidance: An overview of what the de minimis indirect cost rate is and how OCED award recipients can use it.
Cost Sharing Guidance: This guidance document provides the selectee with a general overview of cost sharing, the types of cost share, how cost share is calculated, and general rules of allowability and cost share verification.
Accounting System Review or Audit Guidance: This guidance document provides the selectee with a general overview of an accounting system review or audit, when such an audit is necessary and the federal requirements to follow.
Recipient Initiated Audit Guidance: A general overview of recipient-initiated audits: what they are, the different types, and when they are required.
Understanding Federal Cost Principles for Financial Assistance Awards: A crosswalk between the uniform guidance and the federal acquisition regulation to assist selectees and recipients with understanding federal cost principles for financial assistance awards to for-profit companies.
Federal Award Readiness Self-Assessment: The Federal Award Readiness Self-Assessment assists selectees and recipients ensure they have adequate policies and procedures in place to successfully manage a Federal award, in a self-guided assessment format. It outlines the requirements stated in 2 CFR 200 Subpart D – Post Federal Award Requirements and in 2 CFR 910 Subpart D—Post Award Federal Requirements for For-Profit Entities and provides guiding questions to help an organization determine if their policy or procedure addresses the Federal requirements.
Conflict of Interest Requirements: An overview of DOE’s Interim Conflict of Interest policy and requirements, applicable to each entity that applies for or receives a DOE financial assistance award.

General Negotiation Guidance

Certifications and Representations Guidance: This guidance document provides information about government-wide and Department of Energy-specific certifications and representations that generally apply to OCED applications.
Cybersecurity Plan Guidance: OCED requires all selectees submit an acceptable Cybersecurity Plan prior to receiving funding; this guidance contains an overview of what information to include in the Plan.
Intellectual Property Management Plan Guidance: This document helps selectees prepare and execute an Intellectual Property Management Plan by offering options for acceptable IP management approaches.
Environmental Information Guidance: An overview of the information requested in the environmental documents, so OCED ensures compliance with NEPA and related regulatory requirements.
Guidance on Preparation of the Environmental Information Volume: A detailed guidance on the expected content of an environmental information volume (EIV), submitted to DOE to provide comprehensive environmental information on a project. An overview of the key points that should be considered to facilitate the deployment of clean energy technologies.
OCED Procurement Guidance: An overview of federal procurement standards that OCED award recipients must follow for the acquisition of property or services using federal funds. For a quick visual aid, check out the Procurement Standards Diagram.
Subaward and Contract Review Guidance: An overview of the differences between subawards and contracts, along with their roles and responsibilities.

How do I submit documents to OCED?

The selectee will submit required information and documents to OCED using Box for Federal Government. The selection letter specifies where to upload each document in the Box workspace.

Box for Federal Government provides a secure and efficient way to transfer, share and/or collaborate on documents in a centralized location. This version of the web-based commercial file sharing platform is hosted on a U.S. government cloud server that meets all requirements for securely sharing and storing “controlled unclassified information,” which includes confidential business information.

OCED developed the following guidance document to assist selectee personnel in creating free, individual Box accounts.

Box Introduction for OCED Selectees/Recipients

Award Terms and Conditions

The OCED award terms and conditions are determined by statutory, regulatory, and policy requirements, as well as the circumstances of each individual award. The selectee will have to apply the terms and conditions of the award to all subrecipients (and contractors, as appropriate). The award terms will consist of the three distinct documents, the Cooperative Agreement Standard Terms and Conditions, Cooperative Agreement Program and Award-Specific Terms and Conditions, and Cooperative Agreement Intellectual Property Terms and Conditions.

Cooperative Agreement Standard Terms and Conditions

The Cooperative Agreement Standard Award Terms and Conditions apply to all OCED cooperative agreements.

The Program and Award-Specific and the Intellectual Property Terms and Conditions will be unique to each award.

Cooperative Agreement Program and Award-Specific Terms and Conditions

The Program and Award-Specific Terms and Conditions will be developed during negotiations.

Cooperative Agreement Intellectual Property Terms and Conditions

The Intellectual Property Terms and Conditions will be developed during negotiations.

Selectees complete and submit the Pre-Award Support: Intellectual Property (IP) document (see Document Submission Overview tab above) where they provide information to help DOE IP attorneys determine the appropriate IP clause set for their award. The IP clause set provisions will be tailored to each specific award and will include:

The data rights clause (note: these are exemplary data terms that will differ from awardee to awardee) will set forth the rights, treatment and protection of data used or generated as part of the award. There are two categories of data: limited rights data and data first produced under the award. Confidential or privileged financial or commercial data, or trade secret-type technical data developed solely at private expense outside of any government agreement is referred to as limited rights data. To the extent limited rights data is used to perform work under the award, OCED must have access to it and may ask for limited rights data to be part of a deliverable. Any limited rights data delivered to OCED will be protected from public disclosure and will only be used for project management purposes. OCED also has the right to access and ask for the delivery of any data generated under the award. Data first produced under the award that is confidential or privileged commercial or financial data, or trade secret-type technical data and delivered to OCED may be marked as “protected data.” Protected data will not be publicly disclosed for ten years for most programs. In certain cases, the protection period for limited number of data categories may be extended beyond ten years if is determined the extended period is necessary to reach the commercialization of the technology. Such a justification may be difficult for demonstration projects at high TRL levels. Note that in furtherance of OCED’s mission, and to support the further private investment in and deployment of clean energy technologies, as well as to support clean energy markets, OCED expects to utilize specific data provisions that will enable OCED to publish aggregated and anonymized data derived from recipient, subrecipient and contractor Protected data sets provided to the Department. The goal is to appropriately share aggregated and anonymized data for the benefit the nation’s broader clean energy ecosystem while ensuring robust protection of any underlying protected/proprietary information or data.
The patent rights clause will provide the rights to subject inventions. A subject invention is an invention that was first conceived or first actually reduced to practice in performance of an OCED award. Domestic large businesses, small business and non-profits have the right to retain title to subject inventions conditioned on disclosing the invention to OCED, complying with a U.S. manufacturing commitment, and the U.S. government retaining a license and march-in rights in the inventions. The OCED award does not grant OCED any rights in any inventions that does not qualify as subject invention. The exact patent rights clause that applies varies depending on the type of recipient, subrecipient or contract:
For cooperative agreements, the IP clause set will include an authorization and consent clause and a notice and an assistance clause. The authorization and consent clause allows the recipient to use any invention covered by a U.S. patent in the performance of the award. The notice and assistance clause requires the recipient to report any notice or claim of patent infringement or copyright infringement to OCED and to provide assistance to the Government pertaining to any patent or copyright infringement claim or suit.

National Policy Requirements Matrix

National policy requirements are requirements a recipient of a grant or cooperative agreement must comply with during the period of performance of their award. These requirements are prescribed by a statute, executive order, policy guidance issued by the Executive Office of the President, or regulation that specifically refers to grants, cooperative agreements, or financial assistance in general; and that are outside subject matter areas covered by administrative requirements in 2 CFR 200 subchapters D or E.

October 2024, National Policy Requirements Matrix
July 2024, National Policy Requirements Matrix

Policies and Regulations

Grants Policy Resources

The Chief Financial Officer Council (CFO) provides a high-level overview of the topics the CFO Council and community are currently focused on. This CFO page is a living catalog that is consistently updated as policies and priorities evolve. Specific information on the Uniform Guidance, including the October 2024 OMB revisions to Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations 2 CFR revisions and associated crosswalk is available under the COFFA tab.