National Exercise Program Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of support is available through the National Exercise Program (NEP)?

Through the NEP, the National Exercise Division’s team of practitioners offers direct exercise support – such as staff time and materials production – for the design, development, conduct, and evaluation of accepted exercises. Support requests can be as simple as requesting a facilitator for a tabletop exercise or complex as delivering a full-scale exercise.

Do exercise sponsors have to pay for NEP support?

Exercise support is available at no cost to sponsors. The National Exercise Division works with sponsors to determine how our staff’s technical assistance can best supplement a sponsor’s existing resources and capabilities.

The NEP reviews requests exercise support twice a year, Spring and Fall. Submissions received after the submission deadline (please see the Submission Deadline table) will not be reviewed. Sponsors will be notified of their submissions’ acceptance into the NEP around 30 days after the deadline.

How far in advance of my exercise should I submit a request for support?

In general, to allow for a sufficient planning timeline, we recommend at least 4 months between NEP acceptance and conduct for discussion-based exercises or 9-12 months for operations-based exercises. Any exceptions would be made on a case-by-case basis.

It is possible to receive support for a series. You can choose to either submit multiple exercises from a series to the same round, or split submissions over multiple rounds depending on what works best for your planning timeline. You are required to submit an individual Exercise Support Request Form for each exercise within the series, so that the review panel can estimate the appropriate level of effort and time needed. Please note it is not guaranteed that every exercise submitted as part of a series will be accepted for support.

Real-world After-Action Report development is not eligible for support through the NEP, and submitted support requests will not be considered.

Exercise Support Request Tips

All eligible exercise requests will be considered. However, support is dependent upon resource availability. The NEP Review Panel uses the following guidance when reviewing exercise support request packages:

• Align the exercise to an existing or draft plan.
• Build upon corrective actions previously identified in exercise or real-world events.
• Attach copies of plans and/or corrective actions that will be examined during the exercise.
• Engage a broad spectrum of participants (e.g., whole community).
• Address high-priority capabilities from the Stakeholder Preparedness Review (SPR), if applicable.
• Avoid examining too many (e.g., 10+) core capabilities, since it is difficult to successfully examine a high number of capabilities in a single exercise. Many small exercises only examine 2-4 capabilities.
• Provide a clear picture of the support needed from the National Exercise Division to conduct your exercise and why it is necessary for your exercise’s success.

The Review Panel will also consider the following factors:

• Type of jurisdiction and amount of support requested (e.g., local, territorial, and tribal jurisdictions often have fewer resources already available than state jurisdictions).
• Social Vulnerability Index data for exercise locations.
• Whether the sponsor previously received support from the National Exercise Division.
• Whether the exercise aligns to mitigation core capabilities.
• Whether the exercise is part of a sponsor’s Integrated Preparedness Plan.