Grants.gov Information for UI Faculty and Staff

Introduction
DSP Electronic Grant Transmission Policy
Grants.gov Procedure
Caution
Related Websites
Agency-Specific Websites
Contact for Questions
Cayuse


Introduction

The federal government has established a Grants.gov website as a central electronic system for inviting and receiving grant applications. Grants.gov will eventually serve as an application portal for all 26 federal grant-making agencies, which are expected to transition to the electronic system no later than fiscal year 2007. Most agencies have begun this transition.

The University of Iowa community should note that individual investigators do not register with, and may not apply directly to, the Grants.gov system. Rather, the UI is registered as an institution and required to submit applications through its Division of Sponsored Programs. The UI DSP has already submitted a number of applications via the Grants.gov system, and is using this experience to develop policies and procedures that will be critical to the success of Grants.gov submissions. The DSP expects these policies and procedures to evolve over time, with additional use of the Grants.gov system and development of a compatible interface, and will inform the UI community as changes occur.

At this time the UI DSP offers the following policy, procedure, and informational resources to support a successful transition to electronic submission.

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DSP Electronic Grant Transmission Policy

To date, the Grants.gov e-system has proved much more complex and time-consuming than the traditional paper application procedure, requiring the cooperation of UI investigators, departments, and colleges to finalize the application well in advance of the submission deadline. In the interest of successful e-submission, the UI has instituted the following policy:

Effective May 1, 2006, applications requiring electronic submission must be completed, routed, and submitted to the UI Division of Sponsored Programs at least five business days prior to the Grants.gov submission deadline. Individual departments and colleges will need to establish their own internal deadlines to ensure review and approval of the application in advance of the DSP deadline. As a general guideline, investigators should plan to finish their applications 7-14 business days prior to the Grants.gov submission deadline.

The Grants.gov system requires the UI to establish a buffer of time to protect the application against the agency deadline, as the system may experience technical difficulties or detect application errors at any point in the submission process. It may, for instance, take up to 48 hours following e-submission to learn whether an application has been accepted by the sponsoring agency or rejected for corrections. If errors have been detected, the applicant must make all corrections and repeat the e-submission process, resubmitting the entire application package to Grants.gov in accordance with the original agency deadline. Applicants cannot assume the first submission will be successful and must allow time for resubmission(s).

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 Grants.gov Procedure

(1) Obtain the application guidelines and complete the Grants.gov application package for the speific agency and solicitation in question:

             Find Grant Opportunities at Grants.Gov

(2) Save the completed Grants.gov application package as a file to your local network or hard drive.

(3) Upload a copy of the completed Grants.gov application file to the UI DSP, using the new Grants.gov Uploads system available through our UIRIS site. To access the upload system log into UIRIS and, on the UIRIS Main Menu, look under Forms for the link to Grants.gov Uploads -- where you may choose to start a new upload page or to access an application in process.

(4) Print your Grants.gov application package and route it, as you would any other proposal, using the standard UI Proposal Routing Form, and see that the paper application and signed routing forms reach the DSP at least five business days in advance of the Grants.gov submission deadline. The PI’s signature on the routing form will indicate that the application is ready for e-submission to Grants.gov.

(5) When the DSP receives the completed paper application and signed routing form, it will review the electronic Grants.gov application file, noting any revisions that you will need to complete. If any changes are made, you must again use the UIRIS upload system to send the revised application file to the DSP. Note that you should not start a new upload record in UIRIS for each revision of the Grants.gov application file; instead, simply open and update the original UIRIS record to include the latest version of the application. Once finalized, the DSP will submit the application to Grants.gov, where the sponsoring agency will retrieve it. Some agencies may require the PI and/or the DSP official to complete an additional verification step through the agency’s particular system.

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Caution

As noted above, UI policy/procedure pertaining to electronic submission is evolving, and is expected to develop and shift over time. Please contact the DSP prior to beginning any Grants.gov application, to obtain information on current policy and procedure.

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Related Websites  

Grants.gov
For solicitation information and application packages, try this site first:

           Find Grant Opportunities at Grants.Gov

PureEdge Viewer
Software download, required in order to access, complete, and submit applications via Grants.gov.

Note: Currently the PureEdge software runs only on the Windows operating system. Grants.gov is working with PureEdge to develop a system of software and support for non-Windows users. A Citrix service has recently been made available to enable Macintosh users to run the PureEdge software remotely, but Citrix users have so far experienced limited success. Information about PureEdge and Citrix software is being communicated to the campus IT leadership. If you need assistance, please contact your local IT desktop support staff.

 UI Proposal Routing Form
To be completed, routed, and signed prior to e-submission.

Note: The routing form website is within our UIRIS system; first-time users will need to request access to the UIRIS website.

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Agency-Specific Websites

Health Resources and Services Administration

National Institutes of Health

National Science Foundation

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Contact for Questions

Questions pertaining Grants.gov specifically or to electronic application in general may be directed to the DSP main office, by e-mailing dsp@uiowa.edu or phoning 335-2123. We appreciate your cooperation as we transition to electronic application, and will be happy to assist you in any way possible.

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