hello and welcome to the reviewer training and information guide for the energizing rural communities prize this training covers phase two of the finance track my name is Lance Holly and I am the prize administrator from the American ma program here at the national renewable energy laboratory we also have Michael from the office of clean energy demonstrations and Rory our finance lead from INR as well before we jump into our agenda here are a few items to note first this training is being recorded and will be sent to All reviewers the prize email address is listed on the left side of this slide this is where you will receive Communications from and where you can send any questions or concerns next is the herox website this is where you will see your submissions and record scores you will receive an email email inviting you to be a reviewer from a no reply hero x.com email address so please be on the lookout for that we will use the email address you signed up with to send the invite so let us know if there's a different address we should be using and lastly on the right side is a direct link to the prize uh rules for phase two we highly encourage you to download a copy of the rules so you can have it alongside you as you complete your reviews information specific to the finance track begins at section 5.2 on page 19 here's our agenda for today's session first we'll take a look at the prize overall including background and goals then we'll dive into the specifics of phase two of the finance track and then look at the specific submission requirements and Associated scoring next we'll take a look at the herox platform to show you how you'll navigate your submissions and the scoring process we'll discuss the reviewer expectations and then have time for questions at the end feel free to put any questions in the chat as they come up and our team can address them there or visit at the end let's begin with an overview of the prize in case you aren't familiar this prize is part of the americanmade program which is a doe funded prize program operated by enal energizing rural communities is one of more than 80 prizes administered by American maid I will now turn it over to Michael from osed to talk about the background of this prize thank you Lance and uh thank you all for joining us um this uh prize came C prize competition came together from a few different angles um as many of you are aware doe is pursuing e efforts to enable an inclusive and just entrepreneurial Innovation ecosystem and climate and Energy Technologies within doe the office of clean energy demonstration or osed is operating to deliver clean energy demonstration projects at scale in partnership with the private sector to accelerate deployment market adoption and the Equitable transition to a decarbonized Energy System at osed the energy improvements in rural remote areas program or erra is designed to provide financial assistance and to improve in Rural and remote areas of the United States the resilience safety reliability and availability of energy and Environmental Protection from adverse impacts of energy generation through workshops and Community input erra has found that two of the biggest barriers to improving energy systems in Rural remote areas are developing the necessary Partnerships and securing financing this prize competition addresses both of these areas next slide please another key aspect of the prize is is its justice 40 initiative this is an executive order justice 40 that directs 40% of all all the overall benefits of certain federal invest Ms to flow to disadvantaged communities many Rural and remote communities in this prize fall into this category and this prize directly supports the goals of justice 40 this slide provides some examples of both types of federal Investments and types of priority benefits that are benefiting disadvantaged communities through prizes like ERC next slide please uh that's a general background of doe and osed in the office I work with um in the ER energy improvements in rural remote areas and now let's specifically talk about the prize this is a $15 million competition challenging individuals and organizations to develop partnership plans or Innovative financing strategies to help rural or remote communities improve their energy systems and Advanced Clean Energy demonstration projects in rural remote areas the term rural or remote is defined as a city Town municipality or unincorporated area that has a population of not more than 10,000 inhabitants this prize contains two submission tracks the partner track and the finance track as well this prize has two phases and we are currently at the end of phase two in Phase One 55 partner teams were selected as winners and 12 Finance team were selected as winners we are now looking at awarding up to 30 total teams in phase two and each team will receive $200,000 so let's go ahead and take a closer look at phase two specifically focusing on the finance track and for that I will hand it over to our finance lead Rory thank you Michael here is a timeline showing the entire prize as mentioned we are in phase two and we'll be awarding $200,000 up to each 30 teams across the two tracks you can see that in Phase One winning teams received a $100,000 cash prize and that phase two has been open only to those Phase One winners and here's a simplified timeline so you can see the entire prize timeline it's been one year since our Phase One winners received their prizes and now their Phase 2 deadline is on July 12th at that time the review will begin with an anticipated winner announce announ m in late August or perhaps in September depending on how this process goes we will share a more in-depth review timeline at the end of this presentation focusing on the phase two outcomes for the finance track competitors will be evaluated on their progress toward reducing one or more barriers they identified in their phase one submission that rural or remote communities face in financing clean energy projects financing activities pursued under this track should result in targeted outc comes that help overcome these barriers on the right side you can see some example outcomes that could be considered successful this is not an exhaustive list but it gives you a sense of what types of projects you may see in your review of the submissions this prize seeks to first of all demonstrate Innovative and replicable partnership and financial mechanisms that act as initial steps toward clean energy projects better prepare rural or remote communities to secure funding for clean energy projects either through future erra funding opportunities or other public or private funding sources third identify understand and further develop activities that prepare communities to complete clean energy projects and finally build trust and strengthen the networks between and within Rural and remote communities in support of energy improvements aligned with Doe's Justice for priorities now that we've covered some background about the prize and the phase two out comes let's dive into the submission requirements and scoring here is a list of what competitors are asked to submit for the finance track you will see the primary beneficiary which is a community location a cover page and a summary slide note that none of these three items are scored but are available for you to see the two items you will score are the recorded presentation in the project packet we anticipate that watching the presentation and reading the packet to making your scores and comments comments will take about an hour per submission let's look at how the submission is scored this information is found in section 5.2.2 on page 20 of the rules document starting on page 20 of the rules document at the top you see a grading scale from 0 to Five Points along a spectrum from strongly disagree to strongly agree each of the scoring criteria will have statements that you will evaluate according to that 0 to5 scale strongly disagree to strongly agree the arrow shows the arrows show your main categories to score the pre-recorded presentation has five scored statements for a total of 25 points possible the project packet has three different Criterion adding up to 11 scored statements for a total possible 55 points and lastly you'll provide a reviewer recommendation which is a single statement worth either zero or 15 points this adds up to a total of 16 statements you'll score on a 0 to five scale and One reviewer recommendation for 0 or 15 points for 95 total possible points next we'll look at each of the scoring sections individually again this is section 5.2.2 for those of you following along in the rules document here's the scoring criteria for the pre-recorded presentation this table is from the prize rules on the left you'll you can see the suggested content for competitors to include these are examples of information we want to see and provides the teams with guidance on what to include in their submission on the right are the scoring statements and these are what you will be evaluating as mentioned previously each statement is scored on a 0er to five scale we don't need to read through each statement here but know that each statement is not only in the rules but will also be displayed on your scoring platform for easy reference after the video we have the project packet this is the first of three Criterion that you will score activities pursued during phase two of the prize again you see the suggested content for competitors on the left and the scoring statements you'll use on the right and remind you again these scoring statements will be right in front of you on the scoring platform here is the second Criterion for the partnership packet this Criterion is called outcomes impacts and success metrics we're not reading through each point but showing you the different categories that will be in front of you for the evaluation and the third and last Criterion for the partnership packet strategy for future funding after completion of the prize suggested content on the left and scoring statements on the right once you've completed the video and packet you'll see one final question on the scoring platform which is your reviewer recommendation this is your overall assessment of all submitted materials and unlike the other categories this is not scored on a scale but is only either zero or 15 you're saying whether the competitor's activities demonstrate a strong likelihood that a clean energy project will be developed and that you recommend the submission for an award if so that's 15 points and if not that's zero points it's important to note that there will be dozens of competitors buying for the final Awards please use this scoring category not to say which submissions are necessarily good or bad but which ones you truly think will be successful those projects deserve a 15 other projects may be good or appealing but if you don't think they will be successful that would result in a zero for your recommendation score now with that I'll turn it back over to Lance thanks Rory we have now covered the submission requirements and scoring criteria if any questions have come up please feel free to put them in the chat so that we can address them at the end and as a reminder all of the scoring specifics you just saw are both in the rules document and will be right in front of you during the scoring process speaking of which let's take a look at that now through the herox platform in order to access herox first you must accept your invitation via email that email will look like this you'll select accept invite which will take you directly to the NDA the non-disclosure agreement accept that and you're ready to see your submissions once you're into the system you'll be taken to this page if you need to navigate back at any time click on entries from the main herox page for this prize as you can see at the bottom it will say judge and there will be a button for you to view submissions assigned to you for phase two once you click that button you will see your list of submissions here note that each submission will have a title a team and a location the team name and location may not be the true name and because these submissions are made by herox users who may have different locations or roles within their greater energizing rural communities Team all submissions will be reviewed for Rural and remote eligibility before being assigned to you so if you see a location that doesn't seem very remote don't worry when you click on a submission you'll see the different components we listed earlier the cover page the video the packet Etc once you read through and watch the materials that same page will have this scoring section you'll see each Criterion as shown earlier with the associated grading scales you simply use the slider to set your score for each item a note on comments you will have a single comment box like you see here at the very end of the scoring that's where you will put all of your submission feedback your you're free to organize that feedback however You Wish by submission components by Criterion Etc and lastly you'll hit the submit button even if you've hit this button you are free to go back in and change or update any scores or comments at any time until the review deadline is reached this is valuable because you may have different Reflections after seeing a few submissions or you may remember something you wanted to add at a later time that was an overview of the hero X platform we are happy to help if anyone has technical difficulty accessing the platform or inputting your scores let's move to our final section of this training which is a reviewer expectations overview after this last section we'll have time for any questions first let's make sure you're clear about your role your primary role is to provide a score and comments to assist with the submission selection process your comments also provide feedback for competitors and they are very eager to receive valuable feedback as a reviewer there are a few things we need to remind you of you'll need to act in the government's best interest to protect the information received during this review process you'll need to maintain confidentiality to ensure the Integrity of the program and you'll need to sign the NDA provided for you on the herox platform as is the case with all americanmade prizes doe makes the final decision on winning selections doe considers your review scores and comments as part of this process so your involvement is very important we'd like to address the concepts of bias and assumptions please be conscious of any preconceived notions you may have these could be based on the industry the geographic area the organization the demographics Etc of the teams that you're reviewing please only consider the information in front of you when reviewing your submissions do not make assumptions about the team's abilities or qualifications based on any prior knowledge and do not conduct external research on the organizations or individuals and and do not click on any external hyperlinks in any part of the submission materials also please do not discuss the submissions with others in or out of the prize competition including other reviewers and lastly please notify us immediately if you see a conflict of interest in reviewing any team which could include knowing members of the team having a financial stake in an organization or a project or or being connected to a team via employment education family Etc as mentioned previously please be generous in your comments for these teams here are a few do's and don'ts please do provide specific concise strengths and weaknesses do provide well-written comments with supportive discussion and do write comments that support the scores for example if you're giving a low score your comments should reflect why it's a low score and do be professional in tone please do not include personal opinions or inflammatory language and please do not penalize for grammar unless you really can't understand the submission we will be providing the teams with your comments but we make all comments Anonymous and teams will not know who the reviewers are they will also not know their scores they will only see if they have been selected as a winner or not and their respective feedback all right we've reached the end here is a summary of the review timeline the reviewer training concludes today and the submission deadline is July 12th on the 15th and 16th the prize team will assess eligibility ability and make all of the reviewer assignments once assignments are made you will receive an email from herox alerting you that there are submissions available for your review the review period is from July 17th to the 29th please take a look at your submissions early to assess for any conflicts of interests but you can do your reviews at any time during that period and then lastly we anticipate we anticipate announcing winners at the end of August thank you so much for your time today and attention during today's training uh we are happy to answer any reviewer questions via email please send any questions to rural energy prize in.gov as you see on the screen here and uh we are happy to help you navigate the review process including the platform and the scoring criteria we will be sending out today's training and slides uh as well as important reminders to all reviewers and again if you have questions please feel free to email us here thank you again for being a reviewer we really appreciate your time and energy and um your assistance in supporting these Rural and remote communities and their energy projects thank you