OpportunityTitle: FY 2019 U.S. Subject Matter Experts
Description: A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The U.S. Embassy&#8217;s Public Affairs Section in Moscow (PAS Moscow), invites proposal submissions for a cooperative agreement to provide technical and logistical support for the U.S. Subject Matter Experts Program. The grant recipient will work closely with Public Affairs and Cultural Affairs at Mission Russia to identify and recruit American experts to travel to Russia to engage audiences through lectures, short or long-term workshops and seminars, appearances in foreign media, and in a consultant capacity. The Subject Matter Experts Program proactively promotes understanding of U.S. culture, society and U.S. foreign policies on topics identified by the Embassy and its partner organizations and provides space for dialogue between the peoples of the two countries. The program also fosters American engagement with a wide range of Russian audiences through a range of speaking events, including participation in conferences, festivals and professional meetings. The grantee will be responsible for providing logistical support to the Embassy in the form of visa assistance for American experts, fee negotiation, in-country and international transportation arrangements, event promotion, procurement of educational and printed materials, and other technical and logistical support, as directed by PAS Moscow. Additional examples of supporting activities include reimbursing experts for program-related expenditures and processing vendor payments for travel expenses, support, or other items. The grantee will be required to assess the impact of each speaker program through traditional hand-written surveys given to participants or through online surveys sent to attendees. The goals of this funding opportunity is to: 1. Strengthen people to people ties between the United States and Russia through activities, information sharing, and experiences between American experts and target audiences that increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and Russia. 2. Strengthen local partnerships and build long-term, self-sustaining relationships and institutional linkages between U.S. and Russian individuals and organizations, including capacity building for Russian cultural, educational and civil society institutions. 3. Showcase American values by presenting the full range of American professionalism, innovation and civic values through the sharing of expert knowledge representing the diversity of the United States. Proposals should include: 1. Details of the organization&#8217;s capacity for handling financial logistics for multi-faceted speaking programs in Russia. 2. Details of the organization&#8217;s familiarity with the Russian program environment, including the cultural, educational and civil society institutions in major urban areas and regions. 3. Details of the organization&#8217;s familiarity with American professional and business culture, academic and cultural organizations, and civil society and community initiatives. Examples of activities within the scope of work include: &#8226; Recruiting potential experts based on input from the U.S. Embassy. &#8226; Coordinating with the U.S. Embassy to finalize selection of experts. &#8226; Negotiation and transferring the honorarium and speaker fees. &#8226; Sending bios and other information about the participants to Embassy Moscow. &#8226; Making international and in-country flight arrangements and purchasing all tickets. &#8226; Advising the expert on Russian safety, weather, and other precautions, and facilitating the visa application process. &#8226; Arranging airport pickup and hotel reservations in Moscow and other cities and paying for hotels. &#8226; Purchasing (and shipping if necessary) educational items such as books, CDs, DVDs. &#8226; Printing handouts, bios, and programs. &#8226; The creation, distribution, and processing of surveys to be given to participants of lectures and workshops on the value of the program and attitudes towards the United States. &#8226; Coordinating and funding venues (such as hotels or conference spaces), sound, interpretation, and other logistics related to the program in Russia. The cost of each traveling subject matter expert program varies, depending on the price of airfare, the length of the program, in-country travel costs, interpretation, and other costs related to implementation. The funding in this grant aims to bring between two and ten experts per month. The length of speaker&apos;s program varies between two days and two weeks, with some experts traveling to 2-3 cities per trip while other experts may stay in one city for intensive workshops. Circumstances may require longer or shorter programs as determined by the U.S. Embassy. The U.S. Embassy Moscow and U.S. Consulates&#8217; roles and responsibilities will include identifying the experts and types of engagements activities to be carried out. The Embassy and Consulates are responsible for the final determination of which American experts will be invited to travel to Russia. The Embassy and Consulates will help to identify Russian partners, serving as the first conduit of information to the Russian organizations and partners. The grantee will be responsible for some logistical coordinate with Russian partner organizations and businesses to secure venues and make logistical arrangements. The Embassy and Consulates monitor the activity as it occurs in Russia and will represent the U.S. Government in the course of the programming. The grantee organization must have effective internal procedures in place to advance, reimburse and closely monitor individual speaker expenses. The grantee must receive approval for program expenditures before committing funds (i.e., the grantee should not promise funding to an expert group without Embassy approval of the individual, the theme of the talks, and the cost of the visit), and must report funds remaining to PAS Moscow after each program. The grantee will be required to provide the Embassy with their program account records at the Embassy&#8217;s request. Funding Authority Overall grant making authority for this program is contained in the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, Public Law 87-256, as amended, also known as the Fulbright-Hays Act. The purpose of the Act is &quot;to enable the Government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries...; to strengthen the ties which unite us with other nations by demonstrating the educational and cultural interests, developments, and achievements of the people of the United States and other nations...and thus to assist in the development of friendly, sympathetic and peaceful relations between the United States and the other countries of the world.&quot; The funding authority for the program above is provided through legislation. B. FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION: Type of Award: Cooperative Agreement Fiscal Year Funds: FY 2019 Approximate Total Funding: $400,000 Approximate Number of Awards: two Approximate Average Award: $400,000 Floor of Award Range: $200,000 Ceiling of Award Range: $400,000 Anticipated Award Date: September 1, 2019 Anticipated Project Completion Date: September 30, 2020 Additional Information: Pending successful implementation of this program and the availability of funds in subsequent fiscal years, it is Embassy Moscow&#8217;s intent to renew this cooperative agreement for up to two additional consecutive fiscal years before openly competing it again. The proposed budget should reflect a potential two-year cycle. As this will be a cooperative agreement the U.S. Embassy in Moscow will have substantial involvement in this effort. For more information on the USG&#8217;s role please see Section A. Program Description. Additional details and the full Notice of Funding can be found on the U.S. Embassy website.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: email
GrantorContactText: Damian Wampler &lt;br/&gt;Grants Officer &lt;br/&gt;Phone +7 495 728 5000