Online Course for Watchdogs | PAS PAN FY20 05

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAS PAN FY20 05

The Online Course for Watchdogs grant opportunity is a U.S. Department of State (U.S. Mission to Panama, Public Affairs Section) funding competition to support the creation of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) aimed at strengthening public oversight of infrastructure projects in Panama. The central idea is to equip civil society leaders, investigative journalists, and educators with practical skills to monitor, analyze, and report on how major public works are planned, financed, built, and evaluated. By improving the public's ability to scrutinize these projects, the program is designed to reinforce transparency, democratic governance, and institutional resilience in Panama, while also encouraging better stewardship of financial and natural resources that affects economic development, environmental sustainability, and regional stability.

The funded project is expected to design, develop, and distribute an online course that focuses on concrete methods, tools, and resources for watchdog work related to public infrastructure. The course content should help participants understand and assess a project's structure, financing, scope, and real-world impacts, with particular attention to links between infrastructure decisions and environmental sustainability, labor market effects, and the health of democratic institutions. Applicants are encouraged to draw on existing U.S.-based materials where useful, but the expectation is that the content will be adapted so it is relevant and understandable in the Panamanian context. The MOOC must be freely accessible online, either through a public platform or a portal managed by the implementing organization in coordination with the U.S. Embassy. The design can emphasize flexible, self-paced learning; it does not have to include live instruction, scheduled sessions, or graded interactive elements. While the course may assume learners have basic familiarity with the topic, it should still be approachable for non-specialists and simultaneously provide resources valuable to more experienced participants.

Funding can be used broadly to cover the costs needed to produce and deliver the course. Allowable expenses explicitly include course materials, instructional and technical design, web hosting, content licensing, translation, and consultant fees, among other direct program costs tied to creating and distributing the MOOC. The opportunity anticipates a single award, with an award ceiling of $60,000, and the funding instrument may be a grant or a cooperative agreement. The activity areas connected to the opportunity span education and training, consumer protection and accountability-related themes, information and statistics, and relevant science and technology or research and development elements where applicable to infrastructure monitoring.

The ideal applicant is an organization (or an individual applicant) that can demonstrate strong capability in curriculum design and online course development, along with subject-matter expertise in infrastructure oversight, investigative methods, public finance, governance, environmental impacts, or related fields. If the applicant does not have all the needed expertise in-house, the notice makes clear that partnering, collaborating, or contracting with qualified third parties is acceptable to fill gaps. Familiarity with Panama's institutions, people, and current issues is described as an advantage, since the course is intended to be directly useful in the Panamanian environment.

Eligibility is limited to non-commercial applicants. Eligible applicants include registered not-for-profit organizations (including think tanks and NGOs), universities and educational institutions, governmental institutions, and individuals. For-profit or commercial entities are not eligible. Organizational applicants must have a DUNS number, an NCAGE/CAGE code, and an active registration in SAM.gov to apply; individuals are exempt from those registration requirements. Application materials must be submitted by email to PanCultural@state.gov, and the required package includes a proposal with a budget narrative, a budget worksheet, and federal forms SF-424 and SF-424A. Applications were accepted up to the closing date of January 31, 2020, and applicants were advised not to schedule project activities before April 1, 2020 to allow time for grant processing. Additional forms, templates, and instructions were provided through the U.S. Embassy Panama grants webpages, and the opportunity is identified as NOFO PAS-PAN-FY20-05, CFDA 19.040.

• The Department of State, U.S. Mission to Panama in the consumer protection, education, information and statistics, other (see text field entitled explanation of other category of funding activity for clarification), science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Online Course for Watchdogs" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.040.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 10, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 31, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $60,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Individuals, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for PAS PAN FY20 05

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