On July 28 and 29, staff from NTIA’s BroadbandUSA program provided further details regarding the Connecting Minority Communities (CMC) Pilot Program. The CMC Pilot Program will provide $268 million in grant awards to eligible Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), and consortia in anchor communities for broadband Internet access service, eligible equipment, or to hire and train information technology personnel.

The CMC Pilot Program was authorized by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Division N, Title IX, Section 902, Public Law 116-260, 134 Stat. 1182 (Dec. 27, 2020) (Act). As required by the Act, NTIA published a Final Rule for the CMC Pilot Program on June 15, 2021, and a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on August 3, 2021.

Moderated by Gilbert Resendez, Broadband Program Specialist with NTIA, panelists included:

• Kevin Hughes, Broadband Program Specialist with NTIA;
• Scott Woods, Senior Broadband Program Specialist with NTIA;
• Yongming Qiu, Grants Officer with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); and
• Tim Moyer, Director of Data & Mapping with NTIA

Hughes provided an overview of the program’s funding totals, eligibility requirements, and priorities. The larger NTIA CMC Pilot Program Team then shared their unique backgrounds and experiences, as well as their enthusiasm about working with the colleges and universities looking to get involved in the CMC Pilot Program.

Qiu covered NIST’s roles and responsibilities with respect to the grant program, including overseeing the business management and administrative aspects of awards. Qiu also detailed the systems, processes, administrative and financial management requirements, and cost principles relevant to prospective applicants, as well as resources they might find useful.

Woods and Moyer performed demonstrations NTIA’s newest data and mapping tools and the ways prospective applicants might utilize them. The CMC Anchor Community Eligibility Dashboard shared by Woods, was developed to help potential CMC applicants view NTIA’s initial eligibility determinations and anchor communities, which applicants can designate for program activities. The Dashboard lists eligible recipient institutions by type, shows qualifying census tracts within a 15-mile radius for each institution, and reflects NTIA’s application of the anchor community eligibility requirement based on median household income, average household size, and poverty threshold data. The Indicators of Broadband Need Interactive Map, shared by Moyer, was designed to bring multiple, third-party data sources together to help the public better understand the digital divide and the connection between poverty and lack of broadband access or use.

During a question and answer portion at the conclusion of the webinar, panelists answered audience questions regarding the program basics, the application process, and NTIA’s data and mapping tools. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) published on grants.gov provides more details about the program and outlines further requirements for grant applications. Completed applications must be received by grants.gov no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1, 2021.

NTIA requests the help of merit reviewers for review of grant applications. For more information, please visit our Merit Reviewer page. For more information about the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program, including links to previous CMC webinars, the Final Rule and NTIA press releases, please visit the CMC Pilot Program webpage on the BroadbandUSA website. Please register for our next CMC Pilot Program webinars on August 18 and August 19 for a deeper dive into the NOFO and a live question and answer portion with the NTIA CMC Pilot Program Team.