Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program Frequently Asked Questions

SAFER Program applicants are not required to comply with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) to apply for federal assistance under the SAFER Program. However, any applicant who receives a FY 2021 SAFER Program award must achieve the level of NIMS compliance required by the Authority Having Jurisdiction over the applicant’s emergency service operations (e.g., a local government), prior to the end of the grant’s period of performance. Information about NIMS.

The Narrative Statements of the application must provide unique and specific details about the activity for which applicants seek funding, including budget details. Peer Review Panelists will evaluate and score each activity based

on the narrative elements within each activity. The weighted evaluation criteria used by the peer reviewers in determining the grant award, as described in the NOFO, make up the elements of the Narrative Statements’ score.

Under the Hiring Activity, the peer review panel score is 50% of the total application score. Under the R&R Activity applications, the peer review panel score is 70% of the total application score.

Note: FEMA conducts reviews of a random sampling of applications to compare them for duplication including the narrative statements and statistical data. Therefore, all elements of the narrative statements must be specific and unique to the applying entity, and all statistical data must be accurate.

Applications with narrative statements that have substantial duplication of statements, sentences, or paragraphs to other submitted applications, and/or inaccurate data that may mislead reviewers may be disqualified. Discovery of falsification, fabrication, or plagiarism of other grant proposals will disqualify the application(s).

Operating budget information should be based on your current budget year, fiscal or calendar. At the time of application, if the entity is in its 2022 budget year, then the operating budgets for 2022, 2021, and 2020 should be listed. If the entity is in its 2023 budget year at the time of the application, then the operating budgets for 2023, 2022, and 2021 should be listed.