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UM grants-gov-info e-mail alert group Sign up: Send e-mail to DRDA-NET-REQUESTS@umich.edu. Please put "grants-gov-info" in the subject line. -OR- Go to the UM online directory Grants-gov-info. "Bind" to the directory (use your kerberos password), and click the "Join" button.

Archived Message April 26, 2006 This is message #3 in our series of communications to the campus research community as we transition to electronic preparation and submission of Federal grant applications via the Grants.gov system. Once again, I apologize for the length of this message -- there simply is much information to relay. I am attaching the latest version of our one-page summary of entire process -- I encourage you to print a copy and perhaps use it as your placemat for lunch. If you have trouble downloading, try our G.g web site: http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov/index.html This message contains information on: Finding your application packet on Grants.gov Subscribe to the Grants.gov alert service Update on Citrix Access Using Citrix Packrat file slow-upload issue with Windows IE 5.01-6.0 ** Finding your application packet on Grants.gov When you are ready to prepare your grant application, you need the grant application packet downloaded to your computer. You can find the grant application on the Grants.gov website at http://www.grants.gov. Open your browser to http://www.grants.gov (Note to Mac users: Newer versions of Safari don't seem to work currently for finding opportunities; try FireFox or another browser.) Click "search grant opportunities". Use any one of the search methods available on the site. (Note that NIH applications cannot be located by CFDA.) From the search results, select the desired opportunity. On the opportunity page, click "how to apply." From the application description page, click the download button. Download the "application instructions." Download the "application package." Other helpful hints: Subscribe to the Grants.gov opportunity announcement service to be sent notices of opportunities of interest to you (see next note). The Grants.gov site also includes tips on searching for opportunities. To work on the downloaded opportunity package, you need the PureEdge Viewer. You may need your system administrator to install the PureEdge viewer if you don't have permission to install software on your computer. In addition to opportunity packages themselves, there are program announcements and descriptions on Grants.gov that can be read in your browser or in a word processor or pdf reader such as Adobe Acrobat. The steps for finding grant application packages with screen shots are also explained on the UM Research Grants.gov information website. The complete URL to "How to Find your Application Package" is http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov/dx_howto.html ** Subscribe to the Grants.gov alert service Grants.gov provides e-mail alerts about funding opportunities. Any time you download an application package, you should sign up to receive email notices of updates related to that particular opportunity. (You will be given an option to sign up when you download the package.) In addition, you can subscribe to alerts of any grant opportunities from agencies you are interested in on the Grants.gov "Find Grant Opportunities" page. You can subscribe to receive all the notices. However, Grants.gov also posts contracts, cooperative agreements, and other items aimed at state, county, and local governments in addition to the grant opportunities of interest to University researchers. A more useful e-mail alert would be to subscribe to notices based on criteria you select, including category of funding activity, funding instrument type, eligible applicants and agency. The URL for that page is: http://www.grants.gov/search/subscribeAdvanced.do Note that subscribing to e-mail alerts, which Grants.gov calls "registering," is different from "registering" as a submitter of electronic proposals. ** Update on Citrix Access As we have discussed earlier, PureEdge Viewer will not work directly on a Macintosh (or other non-Windows computer). Mac users can add a CITRIX client to their machines that will connect to the MAIS CITRIX server where you can use PureEdge Viewer to fill in the grant application packet. Individuals must install the Citrix client software on their own computers (or have your IT person do so) and must request access to use the Citrix server. Here are the steps to get access: Obtain the UM Research Grants.gov form from the MAIS website. (a pdf that will download from to your computer). It is located at: http://www.mais.umich.edu/access/accessrequestforms.html . Fill it out and Fax to MAIS Access Services. Within 48 hours, you will receive an email with your access password. ** Using Citrix Once you have the Citrix client installed and access, there are some instructions on using it to use PureEdge Viewer: How to Use Citrix through MPathways to use PureEdge Viewer to fill out your Grants.gov application packet. That information is located at: http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov/citrix/citrix_howto.html This information and links to the forms and instructions are available in the article for Mac users on the UM Research Grants.gov information website. The complete URL is http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov/mac.html The first step in applying for a grant through Grants.gov is locating the grant application packet on the Grants.gov website. You will need to find the packet and download it to your computer where you will work on it. ** Packrat file slow-upload issue with Windows IE 5.01-6.0 Some of you may have experienced a very slow upload of your final Grants.gov PureEdge file using our DRDA Drop Box. With the Packrat file upload server (https://packrat.research.umich.edu) we've encountered a bug in versions of Internet Explorer for Windows. The bug is that web file uploads take an extraordinary long time to complete: approximately 2 MBytes in a min. In contrast, Firefox (1.5.0.2) uploads at approximately 40 MBytes in a minute. Microsoft has posted information regarding this problem in their knowledgebase: MS KB329781: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329781 To work around this bug, either: Wait out the upload in IE (2 MBytes/min). Use a different web browser to upload files. Have your computer administrator apply the fix detailed in the Microsoft knowledge base article. In our testing the value 32768 worked well. If you are interested in scheduling training for your unit, please contact Bob Beattie at beattie@umich.edu or 936-1283. Jim Jim Randolph nihjim@umich.edu

UM Grants.gov Information page