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These questions and answers pertain to Indian tribes who will be applying directly to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for grants under the National Scenic Byways Program (NSBP).

FHWA, in cooperation with the America’s Byways Resource Center, offered webcasts to provide new information regarding the FY 2011 grant process. The objectives of the webcasts were to support understaning of the online submittal requirements and to describe what’s new this year. They also answered questions posed by the byways community.

To streamline the process of reviewing applications and making grant announcements, the Federal Highway Administration utilizes electronic and automated systems that allow us to share grant information and release grant announcement information to members of Congress. As such, data from your grant application gets pulled into these systems, and your project title and abstract frequently serve as the initial impression of your project and can result in talking points and the basis of Congressional press releases. It is important that your project title and abstract succinctly describes how National Scenic Byways Program (NSBP) funds will be used to complete your project. The following are some tips and examples to follow.

Guidance on matching requirements for Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) funded grants and subgrants, including National Scenic Byways Program grants, has been issued by the FHWA. To provide more comprehensive and consolidated guidance that reflects current statutory and regulatory requirements, this guidance establishes uniform Federal-aid policy guidance for matching Federal-aid highway program projects.

As you begin to think about your grant submissions, we wanted to share with you some commonly made mistakes.

See our responses to questions posed by applicants, coordinators, and division contacts during the FY2008 and FY2009 Grant Outreach Calls, as well as other questions we have received.

The Grants.gov system rejects SF-424s if the applicant trying to submit them is not authorized as an AOR. This article provides information on how to become authorized so these SF-424s can be submitted successfully.

These webcasts are an opportunity to gain insight as you prepare 2010 National Scenic Byways Grant applications.

The National Scenic Byways Program 2009 grant application included a grants.gov portion. Here are some useful tips for accessing and using grants.gov.