DOT makes $1.5B available for infrastructure grants

• Date: 20 July 2017
• Published date: 20 July 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/fgc.30136

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DOT makes $1.5B available

for infrastructure grants

Late last month, the U.S. Department

of Transportation (DOT) announced a new

discretionary grant program, Infrastructure

for Rebuilding America (INFRA), that makes

approximately $1.5 billion available for projects

that are in line with the administration’s principles

to help rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure.

“The President and the Department are

committed to revitalizing, repairing and rebuilding

America’s aging infrastructure,” said DOT

Secretary Elaine L. Chao in a statement. “By

ensuring the right incentives, projects selected

under this program will be better able to make

signicant, long-term improvements to America’s

transportation infrastructure.”

DOT said in a release that INFRA will advance a

pre-existing grant program established in the FAST

Act of 2015 and utilize updated criteria to evaluate

projects to align them with national and regional

economic vitality goals and to leverage additional

nonfederal funding.

The new program will increase the impact

of projects by leveraging capital and allowing

innovation in the project delivery and permitting

processes, including public-private partnerships,

the department said. Eligible INFRA project

costs may include: reconstruction, rehabilitation,

acquisition of property (including land related

to the project and improvements to the land),

environmental mitigation, construction

contingencies, equipment acquisition and

operational improvements directly related to

system performance.

For large projects, DOT said the INFRA grant

must be at least $25 million; for small projects, the

grant must be at least $5 million.

The department also said that in addition

to providing direct federal funding, the INFRA

program aims to increase the total investment by

state, local and private partners. DOT said this

funding opportunity will remain open for 120 days.

For more information, visit http://www.

transportation.gov/INFRA. ■

Grants alert

Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (DOS)

Scope: The State Department’s Bureau of Educational

and Cultural Affairs (ECA) seeks applications for the

FY2018 Global Undergraduate Exchange Program

(Global UGRAD Program) to promote mutual

understanding by awarding outstanding, underserved

undergraduate students from East Asia and the

Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, the Near East, South and

Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Western

Hemisphere full scholarships for one semester of

nondegree undergraduate study at accredited four-year

institutions of higher education in the United States.

Deadline: Sept. 5, 2017.

Funds: $5.6 million total for one award.

Eligibility: Colleges and universities and nonprofit

organizations.

Areas: ECA said activities include but are not limited

to: implementing all aspects of the Global UGRAD

Program, including administering scholarships for

one semester of nondegree undergraduate study for

visiting students at accredited four-year institutions

of higher education in the United States; developing

promotional and application materials, and providing

these materials to Public Affairs Sections of U.S.

embassies; recruiting and selecting appropriate host

institutions throughout the United States; placing

student nominees at host institutions; and developing

and overseeing in-person or virtual predeparture

orientation workshops, as well as virtual arrival

orientation workshops.

➜ www.grants.gov; FON# ECA-ECAAE-18-006

U.S. Ambassador’s PEPFAR Small Grants

Program (DOS)

Scope: The State Department’s U.S. Mission to

Malawi seeks applications for the U.S. Ambassador’s

PEPFAR Small Grants Program to support grassroots,

community-run projects specifically on innovative

solutions to ensure children in Malawi are born free of

HIV and stay free of HIV.

Vol. 41, No. 16 July 20, 2017

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