Agency web site: www.grants.gov

Grants.gov is intended as a centralized web site for federal grant information and submission of grant proposals to federal agencies. Here are some guidelines and things to be aware of when submitting grant applications through Grants.gov. Also note that Grants.gov's Applicant Help page has lots of helpful resources, including a FAQs page and a user guide.

Principal investigators do not register with Grants.gov or with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR). ORDA has registered for the University. The Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) referred to on the Grants.gov site is not the P.I., but the institutional official who provides the final signoff on grants (i.e., ORDA's director). In some cases, however, principal investigators need to register with a specific funding agency to access its forms.

Not all federal agencies have converted yet to the Grants.gov system; some are still using their own electronic proposal submission system (e.g., FastLane for some National Science Foundation programs). Check the program guidelines to see which system the program requires you to use. Be aware, however, that the conversion to Grants.gov is in process at most federal funding agencies, including NSF, NIH, DOE, and USDA. Get as familiar as you can with the Grants.gov system now.

Also be aware that some agencies are having more difficulty integrating with Grants.gov than others are. Many agencies are still working out their Grants.gov procedures. There are glitches, and there is system down time. The situation has improved greatly, but you need to allow some extra lead time in case your proposal gets delayed by an agency snag.

1. Your first step is to check the agency web site to see if it has a portal to Grants.gov. If it does, proceed by clicking that link and following the directions. If it does not, access www.grants.gov to access the application package you need. Download the application and instructions to your computer desktop, not to a folder, or you won't be able to open the application.

2. Read the instructions in the application package carefully. There may be additional forms to download from the specific agency's web site that you will later have to attach to your Grants.gov application. Required institutional numbers are usually generated automatically from a centralized database; others are available from section 4 of ORDA's Sponsored Project Guide. We recommend that you print out the instructions and bring them to ORDA when you bring us your completed application.

3. Follow steps 1 and 2 on Grants.gov's Apply for Grants page. You will have to check this link to make sure that your version of Adobe Reader is compatible with Grants.gov.

4. Step 3 on the Apply for Grants page is ORDA's responsibility. Take your electronic file, a printout of the complete application, the agency instructions, and your completed, signed Proposal Checklist to your ORDA project specialist for review and processing. Because Grants.gov applications are large files, you will need to submit the file to ORDA on a CD or external memory device, or put it in a WinZip file and e-mail it to your research project specialist at ORDA.

5. Once the proposal and budget have been reviewed, the ORDA director will sign the application as the authorized institutional representative and ORDA will submit the proposal electronically.

6. Once your application has been submitted, you can check its progress through the system. See Step 4 of Grants.gov's Apply for Grants page.