Northern Border Regional Commission

NBRC 2025 Catalyst Program
 
The Catalyst Program stimulates economic growth and inspires partnerships that improve rural economic vitality across the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) four-state region. The Catalyst Program supports a broad range of economic development initiatives that will modernize and expand the region’s basic infrastructure and revitalize communities to support and attract the region’s workforce. The NBRC invests in job-creating projects that reduce poverty, unemployment, and outmigration.
 
Successful projects support a broad range of economic development initiatives such as, but not limited to, projects that modernize and expand access to public water and wastewater services, revitalize transportation infrastructure, establish workforce development programs and facilities, grow the outdoor recreation economy, and provide access to new childcare and healthcare facilities.
 
Eligible Applicants
  • State government (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York only)
  • Local governments (village, town, city and county)
  • Secondary and career technical centers
  • Other political subdivisions of States (regional planning commissions, authorities of the state)
  • Non-profit entities (see Program Manual for additional details)
  • Indian Tribes (federally recognized Indian tribes, see Program Manual for additional details)

 

In addition to the above criteria, projects must be located in one of the NBRC service areas to qualify for program funds. In the SMPDC region, the following communities are located in the NBRC service areas: Porter, Hiram, Brownfield, Denmark, Fryeburg, Sweden, Lovell,  Stow and Stoneham

 
LDD Services
 
SMPDC is a Local Development District for the NBRC, a Federal-State partnership for economic and community development within the most distressed counties of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. For this program, we serve Maine's Oxford County towns in the SMPDC region: Porter, Hiram, Brownfield, Denmark, Fryeburg, Sweden, Lovell, Stow and Stoneham
 
What services do we offer?
As an LDD, we assist the NBRC in its outreach activities and administer NBRC investments for grantees. LDDs are knowledgeable about other Federal and State programs that help fund economic and community development projects. They are aware of local concerns as most engage in regional economic development planning of varying degrees. LDDs provide feedback to the Commission on its current programs as well as assist in identifying future areas of focus for the Commission. Each Catalyst Program (SEID & IIJA) award is required to utilize an LDD for grant administration assistance unless they are an agency of State government, are an LDD, or have requested and received LDD waiver approval from NBRC prior to the submission of the Catalyst Program application.  
 
LDDs offer the following services pertaining to NBRC Grant Administration:
    1. Reporting Guidance: Quarterly, annual and final project completion reports.
    2. Reimbursement Request Review: Provide guidance to grantees on filing reimbursements requests and ensure that reimbursement requests are accurate, within approved budget and contain all the necessary documentation to provide evidence of match and reimbursements that are expected to be paid by NBRC.
    3. General Assistance: Are available to provide guidance to the grantee with other issues such as what their responsibilities are regarding procurement of goods and services and contractors, and have a general knowledge base about federal grant programs, specifically NBRC. 

 

An LDD is not expected to:

    • Conduct bid processes and/or assess bid documents for completion,
    • interviewing potential consultants,
    • other procurement processes, or
    • NEPA assistance
If a grantee wishes to engage the LDD in any of the above processes, the grantee may enter a separate Grant Management contract with the LDD for those services and they must be reflected in the project budget.
 
 
Other NBRC 2025 Grant Opportunities
 
The purpose of this program is to support the forest-based economy, and to assist in the industry’s evolution to include new technologies and viable business models across the 4-state NBRC region.

Successful projects support a broad range of forest-based economy initiatives such as, but not limited to, public infrastructure projects that directly support the forest industry; community development projects that support the diversified use of forest for economic activity; workforce training and development projects for the purpose of building the skills and recruiting and retaining the workforce needed for forest businesses; and marketing, communication and education projects that are paired with a public infrastructure, community development or workforce training or development project.  Basic research projects will not be considered. Preference will be given to applied research and demonstration projects that demonstrate a strong connection to industry.

 
The purpose of this funding is to advance the use of wood-based materials and composites (advanced wood materials) through applied research and demonstration projects that showcase the suitability of such materials to transportation and transportation adjacent infrastructure.
This program will support a broad range of feasibility and implementation projects including, but not limited to, state or regional inventory assessments of the suitability of wood components to address needed transportation infrastructure improvements and/or new construction; architectural and engineering designs, cost analyses, and permitting necessary for implementation of transportation infrastructure projects; transportation infrastructure projects which utilize commercialized wood products and advanced wood materials to address climate adaptive transportation improvements; design and construction of pilot and demonstration projects that showcase the capabilities and benefits of utilizing advanced wood materials in transportation infrastructure; and transportation-adjacent structures that utilize advanced wood materials. Basic research projects will not be considered. Preference will be given to applied research and demonstration projects with a strong connection to industry.
 
 
The WORC initiative provides grant funds to support workforce development activities that prepare workers for good jobs in high-demand occupations in rural communities. NBRC partners with the Department of Labor to provide grantees with technical assistance to promote successful projects and strong outcomes for workers and businesses. This program enables rural communities to propose projects that demonstrate regionally driven, comprehensive approaches to addressing economic distress and necessary workforce development activities to ensure a workforce capable of succeeding in current and future job opportunities.