When You Apply for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Funds

Using FEMA GO

Technical Criteria

Qualitative Criteria

Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation

Milestones and Cost Effectiveness

Management Costs

A important note for subapplicants: Many states and territories have subapplication deadlines that precede FEMA's application deadline. Contact your State Hazard Mitigation Officer (SHMO) or applicant's office to learn about your applicant's deadlines.

Apply Using FEMA GO

Eligible applicants and subapplicants must apply for funding using FEMA GO, the grants management system. BRIC will not accept paper applications.

Learn more about the FEMA GO system by reading user guides and videos, or access the FEMA GO portal directly.

Submitting as an Applicant or Subapplicant

Applicants may work with their FEMA regional office. Subapplicants may work with their applicant (a state, tribe, or territory) to submit subapplications by the applicant’s own submission deadline.

Applicants must prioritize, rank, and attach the subapplications, and submit them to FEMA as a final, single BRIC application by April 18, 2025, at 3 p.m. ET.

New system-related issues will be addressed until April 16, 2025, at 3 p.m. ET. Applicants facing technical problems outside of their control must notify FEMA by this deadline.

Technical and Qualitative Criteria for Projects Evaluated under the National Competition

A project’s cumulative score from both the qualitative and technical evaluations will determine its priority order among projects considered in the national competition.

Technical Evaluation Criteria

FEMA staff will review the technical evaluation criteria. To keep the project selection competition transparent and efficient, the technical evaluation criteria awards a binary score (either all points or no points) for each criterion, or tiered points (points allotted for each element of the criterion that is met).   

The National Technical Review determines if a project is cost-effective and technically feasible. The technical evaluation criteria offer incentives for the elements valued by FEMA. This applies to projects that mitigate the risk to infrastructure or use nature-based solutions.

All mitigation project subapplications receive a technical evaluation criteria score. If needed, based on the number of BRIC subapplications submitted, FEMA will use the technical evaluation criteria scoring as a program priority screening tool. That will determine which subapplications continue to the qualitative evaluation review.

Qualitative Evaluation Criteria

The qualitative evaluation criteria review allows subapplicants the flexibility to fully explain the strengths of the proposed project. It also allows FEMA stakeholders to take part in the review process. The qualitative evaluation criteria have graded scales for scoring points.

FEMA will convene a National Review Panel to score the subapplications submitted for the National Competition. The scores are based on qualitative evaluation criteria. The National Review Panel includes staff from FEMA regional and headquarters offices, and others who represent state, local, tribal, and territorial governments and other federal agencies. The use of this type of panel increases the transparency in decision-making and helps build capability and partnerships.

Panelists in the National Review Panel will use their mitigation experience and expertise during the review. They will assess the degree to which subapplications meet the six BRIC qualitative evaluation criteria. To do so, they use the following scale: not at all, minimally, partially, mostly, entirely, or exceeds. (For more information on these scoring options, see Table 1 in the BRIC Qualitative Evaluation Criteria Program Support Material, on the PSM Resources webpage.)

The National Review Panel will apply the scoring options to all six criteria. However, the point values associated with each scoring option vary among the criteria. This is based on the total possible points for each criterion. The final qualitative score for the subapplication is the average of the qualitative scores from each panelist.

Requirements for Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation (EHP)

Projects that receive BRIC funding must comply with all applicable EHP laws, Executive Orders (EOs), and regulations. Regional EHP teams will assess the potential impacts of a proposed project (action) on the affected physical, cultural (archaeological and historic), biological, and social resources. The EHP laws include, but are not limited to, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA); the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and their implementing regulations; EO 11988 (Floodplain Management), EO 11990 (Protection of Wetlands), EOs 13690 and 14030 (Federal Flood Risk Management Standard) and EO 12898 (Environmental Justice). For more information on the federal environmental laws and EOs that apply to FEMA actions, please visit this web page.

Prior to award, all BRIC subapplications must have an EHP review as part of FEMA’s eligibility review process. Applicants should consider EHP impacts early in the project scoping and development stages. This will help minimize the impacts and avoid delays and added costs at later stages. Early environmental planning may also expedite the EHP review process. This can include considering possible conservation and mitigation measures the project could use to avoid or minimize adverse impacts. 

Applicants and subapplicants should complete the EHP Checklist when scoping a project. This will help them consider EHP requirements and understand where impacts could be avoided or minimized—as they develop the project application. (FEMA refers to consideration of EHP impacts at the earliest point possible in the decision-making process as “EHP frontloading.”) Find guidance on EHP frontloading during application development.

Nature-Based Solutions

To score subapplications submitted for the National Competition, FEMA evaluates nature-based solutions with a technical criterion. To receive the point allotment for this criterion, the subapplication must indicate and describe how the project uses one or more nature-based solutions. These are sustainable environmental management practices that restore, mimic, and/or enhance nature and natural systems or processes. They support natural hazard risk mitigation, as well as economic, environmental, and social resilience.

Nature-based solutions use approaches that include, but are not limited to, restoring grasslands, rivers, floodplains, wetlands, dunes, and reefs; living shorelines; soil stabilization; aquifer storage and recovery; and bioretention systems.

Learn more about how FEMA empowers communities to build resilience through forward-thinking climate resilient strategies, such as nature-based solutions. Visit FEMA’s Building Climate Resilience web page.

Documenting Milestones and Cost Effectiveness

Go/No-Go Milestones

FEMA reviews and approves mitigation projects submitted to the National Competition. The subapplicant, working with the applicant, must identify at least one Go/No-Go milestone in the work schedule for each project. Mitigation projects submitted under the State or Territory Allocation or Tribal Set-Aside do not have to have a Go/No-Go milestone.

A Go/No-Go milestone identifies any critical stage in the project where, if that task is not completed on time, the subaward may have to be cancelled. Progress toward meeting the Go/No-Go milestones must be reported in the quarterly progress reports submitted to the recipient and FEMA. At these Go/No-Go milestones, FEMA will evaluate the project’s performance, its adherence to the schedule, and its contribution to FEMA’s program goals and objectives.

Showing Cost-Effectiveness

A benefit-cost analysis (BCA) is a way to determine the future risk reduction benefits of a hazard mitigation project and compare those benefits to its costs. The result is a benefit-cost ratio (BCR). Applicants and subapplicants must use FEMA-approved methodologies and tools—such as the BCA Toolkit—to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of their projects.

FEMA recognizes that our stakeholders experience significant challenges in demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of a hazard mitigation project. To help address this, FEMA may help communities develop a BCA. At least one of the following criteria must be met:

• The community is a federally recognized tribal government.
• The community is an Economically Disadvantaged Rural Community.
• The hazard mitigation project is within or primarily benefits a Community Disaster Resilience Zone.  

Projects with a total cost of less than $1,000,000 that qualify for BCA assistance under this provision do not need to submit a cost-effectiveness narrative.

In addition to proposed project costs, applicants and subapplicants can request funds for management costs in their application and subapplication. These may total up to 15% of the total award. However, an applicant may include no more than 10% of its budget for management costs to administer and manage award and subaward activities; a subapplicant may include subapplicant management costs of up to 5% of the total cost of its capability- and capacity-building (C&CB) activity or mitigation project subapplication to manage the proposed subaward activities.

Applicant requests for management costs must be submitted in a separate management costs subapplication in FEMA GO. The subapplicant management costs (up to 5%) must be added to the subapplication’s total budget before the applicant management costs (up to 10%) are calculated. Subapplicant management cost activities must be added to the Scope of Work section. Identify them as a line item in the Cost Estimate section of subapplications in FEMA GO. FEMA will provide 100% federal funding for management costs.