The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is under contract to NASA to operate the CXC, and therefore CXC grants will be issued and administered by the SAO Grant Awards Section. EPO grants will be placed under the same grant award number as the Cycle 8 parent science proposal.

Those EPO proposers selected for award by the CXC will be notified of the recommended funding level for their proposal. New budgets will not be required to be submitted when the amount approved for funding is within twenty percent (20%) of the proposed amount. Awards to winning proposers will be implemented through the issuance of grants. No awards will be funded by the contract mechanism. Awards to NASA Centers (including JPL) and other U.S. Government institutions will be made directly by NASA via an interagency transfer of funds.

Following selection and notification, the CXC will communicate formally only with the PI, or, in the event that the PI is unavailable, the CXC will communicate with the person identified in the proposal as the EPO Co-I. It will be the PI's responsibility to respond to any questions concerning the content or implementation of the proposed education program.

Chandra EPO grants will be issued at the beginning of Cycle 8, and spending against the grant may commence as soon as both SAO and the Recipient Institution have signed the grant. For awards where there is a successful Stage 2 Cost Proposal, EPO funds are added to and issued under the same Grant Award that resulted from the Stage 2 cost proposal review. The science portion of the Grant Award will be added via an amendment to the Grant Award after the data from the initial observation has been distributed to the PI.

A copy of the Award will go to the PI cited in the approved proposal, with the original Award documents sent via overnight courier to the Recipient Institution. All grants will be administered in accordance with the Terms and Conditions for CXC Observing Program Awards (see http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/sp/grants.htm for the Terms and Conditions currently being used for Cycle 7; the Terms and Conditions for Cycle 8 will be posted at a later date).

The period of performance for EPO awards is restricted to not exceed that of its parent research award. A one-year, no-cost extension of the parent grant is generally available upon request to the SAO Grants Awards Section.