Government "abbreviation speak" is a form of slang or dialect. It's a dialect worth knowing. What I mean is that many acronyms are pronounced as a word, not spelled out when speaking.
"CLIN" is an example. It's pronounced like "clinic" without the last two letters, not "C-L-I-N". When discussing a CLIN only a newbie would say "Contract Line Item Number." Defense Department funding agencies use CLIN in their grant applications. Basically, they want your grant application to bolt onto the contract boilerplate to minimize the amount of work once they decide to give you money. It's hard to argue with the logic.
An exception is Cooperative Agreement vs. CA. The abbreviation CA is used in writing, but when you're in discussions it's always "cooperative agreement." What's different about a CA vs a grant is that with a grant, you get a bag of money and are told to get your work done. You sent in the proof you're accomplishing goals that were agreed upon in the contract. That's that.
When you sign a cooperative agreement, you sign onto long meetings with your funders. This is not a bad thing at all. If you have the right attitude, the alterations in your program can make you more and more fundable. Cooperative agreements may be put out to competitive bid every three years or so, but those who've done well in the past get extra points. Literally.
There is often a point system for cooperative agreements. Competitors who have not done business with the government can't win points like the ones below. (Real examples, out of a possible 100 points.)
- The extent to which the applicant has experience overseeing and monitoring the progress of Federally funded projects. (2 points)
- Applicants must submit, as part of their past performance, the total grant/cooperative agreement amount, and the percentage of funds spent during the period of performance for their most recently completed grant or cooperative agreement, where applicable. Applicants will receive points for their spending rate. (4 points)
- Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) - See Standard AOR and Expanded AOR.
- Cage Code - A five-character code that identifies companies doing, or planning to do business with the federal government and is assigned through SAM.
- Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number - The number assigned to a Federal program in the CFDA. CFDA program title - The title of the program under which the Federal award was funded in the CFDA.
- Federal Share - The portion of the total project costs that are paid by Federal funds.
- Pass-Through Entity - This means a non-Federal entity that provides a subaward to a subrecipient to carry out part of a Federal program.
- Pass-Through Funding - Funds issued by a federal agency to a state agency or institution that are then transferred to other state agencies, units of local government, or other eligible groups per the award eligibility terms. The state agency or institution is referred to as the "prime recipient" of the pass-through funds. The secondary recipients are referred to as "subrecipients." The prime recipient issues the subawards as competitive or noncompetitive as dictated by the prime award terms and authorizing legislation. Read the What Is a Government Grant and Pass-Through Funding? blog post for more information.
- Period of Performance (PoP) - The start of the grant contract through the duration, usually 24 months or 36 months.
- System for Award Management (SAM) - SAM validates applicant information and electronically shares the secure and encrypted data with the federal agencies' finance offices to facilitate paperless payments through Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). SAM stores your organizational information, allowing Grants.gov to verify your identity and to pre-fill organizational information on your grant applications. For more information, review the Register with SAM page.
- Third-Part In-Kind Contributions - These are the value of non-cash contributions (i.e., property or services) that- (a) Benefit a federally assisted project or program; and (b) Are contributed by non-Federal third parties, without charge, to a non-Federal entity under a Federal award.
- Unique Entity Identifier (in SAM) or UEI "You-ee" - A non-federal entity is required to have a UEI in order to apply for, receive, and report on a federal award. A UEI may be obtained from www.sam.gov.
- Workspace Manager role - An applicant user with the Workspace Manager role is authorized to create new?workspaces. Review the Workspace Roles page for more detailed information.
- Workspace Owner - Registered applicant user with the responsibility to manage user access to a workspace. There is only one Workspace Owner per workspace, which is initially granted to the user with the Workspace Manager role who created the workspace. After the initial creation of a workspace, the Workspace Owner access can be reassigned to any participant with the Workspace Manager role.
- Workspace Participant - A registered applicant user with access to at least one workspace, allowing the user the ability to perform an action on any form within the specific workspace(s) to which they are added. Participants may have any combination of roles.
Thanks for reading! #techstevedore
