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Using Grants.gov at UM

Last reviewed: 02/05/2008

by Bob Beattie, DRDA, University of Michigan Grants.gov Liaison, beattie@umich.edu

Table of Contents

Grants.gov has two functions:

  1. Present all federal grant opportunities and

  2. Provide a mechanism to apply for these grants.

Grants.gov provides a way for grant seekers to find the grant application packages and fill out the forms needed for a specific opportunity. It is also the way DRDA to transmits that application package, as the authorized official for all University of Michigan submissions, to a sponsoring agency.

The Steps

  1. PI & team: Download the application package and,
  2. with a software provided by Grants.gov, fill out the application and attach necessary pdf documents to create a single application file.
  3. Send paper "administrative shell" (see below) to DRDA after getting the standard Department and College approvals
  4. Upload electronic file to DRDA.
  5. After checking for completeness, DRDA will submit it to Grants.gov
  6. Grants.gov will send it to the appropriate agency.
  7. In some cases the Agency will send error messages to DRDA and to the PI.
    • Corrections must be made by PI & team.
    • File must be resubmitted through Grants.gov. by DRDA

Administrative Shell

Standard reviews at the UM with a paper Proposal Approval Form, and paper items required by units and DRDA, still must be completed. No fewer than seven business days before the Grants.gov deadline, DRDA will require:

Faculty and staff do not register to use the system or apply for grants. DRDA staff are registered and must do the submission.

Note: Application materials are used only on one's own computer until the application is sent to DRDA for submission. If more than one person is to work on an application, the file must be moved to the other's computer or shared on a server.

To begin the process of using Grants.gov, start at the main page of the site: http://www.grants.gov/

grant.gov website homepage

In the red navigation menu on the left of that page, your choices include: "Find Grant Opportunities" and "Apply for Grants." Note: these are only grants, not contracts.

Grants.gov menu choices

Another link says "Get Registered." You do NOT register with the Grants.gov. No one needs to be an AOR, nor get an MPIN.

You will need to use the University of Michigan DUNS number. Any University of Michigan submission must have the UM DUNS number, 073133571 , or the application will be rejected by the system.

FIND GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

You can use this section of Grants.gov for two purposes:

All grants available from the federal government are supposed to be listed here. There are good searching tools. Click on "Find Grant Opportunities." This will show you the various searching options.

Also, you can subscribe to receive notification of new opportunities as they arise. This is only to receive grant notices, not to apply for grants.

APPLYING FOR GRANTS

Prepare

Before you can work with the applications packages from Grants.gov, you must have access to the appropriate software for completing the application packet forms. Note that the software needed will depend on the type of application packet -- for the time being, forms may require PureEdge Viewer or Adobe or IBM Forms Viewer -- and the type of computer that you use.

Adobe Reader 8.1.1 -- both Windows and non-Windows users
PureEdge Viewer software -- for Windows
IBM Forms Viewer -- for non-Windows users
****Check with your Department IT staff for any special instructions or permissions for installing software on your machine.***

Prior to opening a grant application, you need to install the necessary software on your computer. (You may need your IT administrator to assist with the download if you computer requires permission to install software. )

Go to the Grants.gov Download Software page to select the version you need to complete applications.

Locate the right application package.

Locate the specific program or grant opportunity you wish to apply for. If it has an electronic application, (not all do yet) find the link on that page that will take you to the appropriate site to download the application

Download the application packet.

The file will be brought to your computer. Using the appropriate software, you can begin to fill it out. Or just save it to your computer for later use. You do not need administrator authority to download the application package and instructions. See this Step-by-step guide to locating & downloading packages if you need help.

Complete the application.

Using the appropriate software, open and fill in applications forms. Attach other documents as necessary. [There is a training aid on the Grants.gov website to help with this. See the link under Help] Click on "Check for Errors." If no errors are found, upload the file to DRDA.

See the DRDA Dropbox Instructions for uploading.

Contact DRDA

Talk to your DRDA Project rep. [See Sponsor Assignments if you are uncertain who covers your sponsor.]

Be sure to discuss your application and timing with your Project Rep. There may be problems with file transfers or with other issues, so connect with your PR as early in the process as possible.

More help

The Grants.gov pages offer help. A training demo on completing an application is available on the Apply for Grants page. [Look at the middle of the page, under Step 2.]

If you have any questions about this system, please do not hesitate to call Bob Beattie at 936-1283 or send email to beattie@umich.edu.

Training sessions for using Grants.gov are also offered through DRDA. See the DRDA training site for schedule: View Schedule

Other useful information is available on the UM Research Grants.gov Information page. http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov

Copyright © 2007-2008 The Regents of the University of Michigan