State Competitiveness Fund: Matching Funds Program
Application Round 4
The Minnesota Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) is seeking applications for the Minnesota State Competitiveness Fund (SCF), Minn. Stat. § 216C.391, which provides matching funds for eligible entities applying for eligible federal funding opportunities requiring a match.
This legislatively created program is intended to increase the competitiveness of Minnesota in securing federal funding from the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (IIJA, aka the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, or BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Awards from these federal programs arecritically important to ensuring the state's economy is strong and growing. Increasing competitiveness can be accomplished by improving productivity, improving competition, and improving investments. The SCF Matching Funds Program will enhance the ability of eligible entities, defined in Minn. Stat. § 216C.391, and Tribal Governments sharing geography within the borders of Minnesota to successfully compete for federal funds by providing matching funds to those entities.
The Minnesota State Legislature allocated $100,000,000 for Commerce to award grant funding to eligible Minnesota entities and projects to enhance the likelihood of these entities receiving federal funding awards under the IIJA and IRA programs. Pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 216C.391 Commerce is soliciting proposals from eligible entities applying for federal funding opportunities requiring matching funds, or applying for federal funding opportunities not requiring a match but for which a match would enhance the likelihood of the federal grant being funded. Projects selected for the SCF Matching Funds Program must demonstrate that the project will help meet the state's clean energy and energy-related climate goals through renewable energy development, energy conservation, efficiency, or energy-related greenhouse gas reduction benefits.
The legislation stipulates the following:
- No single entity may receive grants totaling more than $15,000,000; and,
- At least $75,000,000 of the fund must be allocated for grant awards of less than $1,000,000.
All requests in Round 4 must be for less than $1,000,000 since the previous three rounds of SCF Match Program awards reserved all available funds for over $1,000,000. This is the fourth round of the SCF Match Program Request for Proposals.
Applications are due Friday, January 17, 2025, 5:00 pm CST. Late applications will not be considered. The full Request for Proposals (“RFP”) and required forms are available for download on Commerce’s RFP website at https://mn.gov/commerce/business/rfp.jsp. Applications must be submitted through Commerce’s grant submission portal. A link to the portal and instructions for submitting applications can be found in the RFP.