(a) General. Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) include any issuance used to announce funding opportunities that would result in the award of a discretionary grant, cooperative agreement, or technology investment agreement, whether it is called a program announcement, program notice, solicitation, broad agency announcement, research announcement, notice of program interest, or something else.

(1) A Program Assistant Secretary (or official of equivalent authority) may annually issue a program notice describing research areas in which financial assistance is being made available. Such notice shall also state whether the research areas covered by the notice are to be added to those listed in a previously issued program rule. If they are to be included, then applications received as a result of the notice may be treated as having been in response to that previously published program rule. If they are not to be included, then applications received in response to the notice are to be treated as unsolicited applications. FOAs may be issued by a DOE Contracting Officer or program office with prior concurrence of the contracting office.

(2) DOE must post synopses of its FOAs and modifications to the announcements at the Grants.gov Internet site, using the standard data elements/format, except for:

(i) Announcements of funding opportunities for awards less than $25,000 for which 100 percent of eligible applicants live outside of the United States.

(ii) Single source announcements of funding opportunities which are specifically directed to a known recipient.

(b) Subawards. In accordance with the provisions of the applicable statute and program rules, if a DOE financial assistance program involves the award of financial assistance by a recipient to a subrecipient, the recipient shall provide sufficient advance notice so that potential subrecipients may prepare timely applications and secure prerequisite reviews and approvals.

(c) Announcement format. DOE must use the government-wide standard format to publish program announcements of funding opportunities.