updated 3/18/2025

 

Q1:Who can I send additional questions to?

A: Submit additional questions to jared.house@state.mn.us

 

Q2: Who is eligible to apply?

A: Only Soil and Water Conservation Districts individually or in partnership.

Example A) TSA is a partnership of SWCDs only and thus the TSA could apply or an individual SWCD may apply on behalf of the partnership.

Example B) Watershed Planning Partnership wishes to apply. The partnership is more than just SWCDs and thus would NEED an SWCD to apply on their behalf and would not be able to  apply just as the Planning Partnership.

 

Q3: Can I shift existing workload without adding additional capacity with this grant?

A: No. Supplemental staffing grants are specifically for increasing local capacity to assist landowners in implementing soil health practices and systems. Shifting workload while not adding additional capacity would not qualify.

 

Q4: Can I fund practices with this grant?

A: No.

 

Q5: Can I fund field equipment with this grant?

A: No.

 

Q6: Can I pay for time to administer the grant and necessary eLINK related reporting?

A: Yes, administration of the grant and associated reporting is an eligible expense.  

 

Q7: Can I pay for the SWCD administrators time hiring and supervising the position or administering contracts for services?

A: No. Eligible costs are limited to the staffing/contracts and grants administration to add capacity. There is no match required in large part because of the recognition that other costs will be incurred to hire, supervise, or to administer contracts and agreements for services.

 

Q8: Can I pay for promotional materials, training supplies or other tangible goods?

A: No. Eligible costs are limited to the staffing/contracts and grants administration to add capacity. There is no match required in large part because of the recognition that other costs will be incurred to hire, supervise, or to administer contracts and agreements for services.

There will be a non-competitive Phase 2 Soil Health Delivery grants which come after this RFP. This grant will have a broad scope of eligible activities. These sorts of items will be fundable through that grant and the two Phases can work together in that respect.

 

Q9: Can I pay for staff training and office supplies and other overhead type materials with a Soil Health Supplemental Staffing grant?

A: Yes, you are eligible to include costs that would otherwise be allowable under the Billable Rates Section of the Grants Administration Manual.

There is an optional allowance for start-up costs up to $10,000 (pro-rated per full FTE). If such items are billed directly to the grant the SWCD will need to ensure that these are not included in the billable rate. 

 

eLINK
 

Q10: The character limit for answering each application question in eLINK is 2000 characters. Does that include spaces?

A: Yes. A space is considered a character in eLINK.

 

Q11: Can I make changes to a submitted application during the RFP open period?

A: Yes. You will need to click Withdraw Request, make your updates and then “Submit” the funding request. The status change triggers generating the report, which is added to the Attachments tab and seen by reviewers. Please note that failure to change the status back to “Submitted” will not capture any changes for review team, and applications not in “Submitted” status at the time the RFP closes will not be considered for funding.

 

Q12: Can I access earlier grant applications even if they were not funded?

A: Yes, you can access them by logging into eLINK and from the homepage under the “Grants” module, click on the “Include closed grants” box, enter the appropriate fiscal year’s allocation, and click “Go”.

 

Q13: Can consultants submit grant applications in eLINK on behalf of LGUs?

A: Yes, there are two ways to accomplish this. One way is for the LGU to start an application and add a consultant to the “team membership”. The consultant must have an active eLINK user account in order to be added to the team membership. The second way is for a consultant to request an eLINK user account from the eLINK homepage and indicate the LGU(s) for which they are applying. The LGUs should be aware of this request.

eLINK user accounts should not be shared by multiple individuals; a separate user account should be requested by each individual needing access. It is not necessary to create multiple eLINK user accounts for one individual if access is needed for multiple organizations. To request access to additional LGUs contact elinksupport@state.mn.us **Include in your email the contact name of the person from the organization(s). BWSR needs to document that the organization is giving permission to additional users outside their organization.

 

Q14: When attempting to submit my application, I get a message stating, “For each activity, you must either check the box verifying that there are no pollution reduction estimates associated with the Activity, or enter proposed indicators.” What do I need to do?


A: Within each Activity Application Budget tab, you will either need to ensure that the “Check here if this activity does not include proposed pollution reduction estimates” is checked within the "Add New Proposed Activity” screen, or enter proposed indicators within the “Proposed indicators” screen (white diamond icon). If your project will include on the ground practices resulting in pollution reductions, indicators must be entered.