(a) The Director selects one or more of the selection criteria to evaluate an application:

(1) The Director establishes selection criteria based on statutory provisions that apply to the Program which may include, but are not limited to:

(i) Specific statutory selection criteria;

(ii) Allowable activities;

(iii) Application content requirements; or

(iv) Other pre-award and post-award conditions; or

(2) The Director may use a combination of selection criteria established under paragraph (a)(1) of this section and selection criteria from § 1330.24 to evaluate a competition.

(3) For Field-Initiated Projects, the Director does not consider § 1330.24(b) (Responsiveness to the Absolute or Competitive Priority) in evaluating an application.

(b) In considering selection criteria in § 1330.24, the Director selects one or more of the factors listed in the criteria, but always considers the factors in § 1330.24(n) regarding people with disabilities, and members of groups that have traditionally been underrepresented based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), or age.

(c) The maximum possible score for an application is 100 points.

(d) In the application package or a notice published in the Federal Register, the Director informs applicants of:

(1) The selection criteria chosen and the maximum possible score for each of the selection criteria; and

(2) The factors selected for considering the selection criteria and if points are assigned to each factor, the maximum possible score for each factor under each criterion. If no points are assigned to each factor, the Director evaluates each factor equally.

(e) For all instances in which the Director chooses to allow field-initiated research and development, the selection criteria in § 1330.25 will apply, including the requirement that the applicant must achieve a score of 85 percent or more of maximum possible points.