Things have changed. Not only have major improvements been made to the whole grants.gov system, but I have adjusted to change...and now I embrace it. It helps that I have no choice.
What is grants.gov? It is the online source for finding and applying for federal grants. Most, although not quite all, federal grants must now be submitted through the grants.gov website.
Here are some important things for you to know about grants.gov:
- Your organization must be registered on grants.gov prior to submitting a federal grant through the system. Registration is not too difficult, but it is a multi-step process that can take up to a week to complete. If you think you might want to consider submitting a federal grant this year, I highly recommend that you register now. Waiting until the wee before your grant is due is a bad idea.
- If you were registered in the past, you may need to update your registration. Log on to the system and make sure that your registration is still valid. Update any authorized users and email addresses that need to be updated.
- Grants.gov has a new blog now with some nifty information. It is definitely worth checking out. For example, today I learned that there are 165 different grants closing on September 30/October 1 (63 for HHS and 101 for EPA). The system is going to be really busy (translation = expect long upload times and glitches), so we should all plan on submitting our applications early.
- You can sign up on the website to have notifications of all new grant announcements sent to you via email. You have to wade through announcements for pesticide grants and loads of medical research grants, but it also gives you access to the announcements you want as soon as they come out.
- The website now has an RSS feed so you can subscribe to find out about any updates to the website as they happen.
If you are even remotely thinking about applying for federal grants, you should check out grants.gov. Accept it. You'll be happier.
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