Grant.gov-info Archived Message

From: Bob Beattie
July 10, 2007

Long Grants.gov update

To All Faculty and Staff who will use Grants.gov

The following message is quite long but contains important information for those who need to use Grants.gov for Federal applications.

It has been about 18 months since we began our full use of Grants.gov. There have been some changes in that system during this time, and some changes at DRDA. I wanted to remind everyone of our policies for doing Grants.gov submissions and point out the changes.

First let me say that if anyone has a question or problem about any aspect of Grants.gov do not hesitate to contact me. beattie@umich.edu or 936-1283

The Vice President for Research home page has been revised. http://www.research.umich.edu/

The link to the DRDA Grants.gov page is now in small print on the right side of the page under Popular Links. You might want to bookmark the DRDA Grants.gov page, http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov/index.html

There have been some changes at DRDA and these are reflected in the section: Standard information for Application Forms
http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov/forms/index.html
Check the site in preference to any handouts you have have from past workshops.

One important change is that the person listed as Authorized Representative, in section 19 of the 424R&R is now: Elaine Brock
The title and address remains as before.
http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov/forms/standardinfo/14authorized.html

Now, however, we ask that you put in the phone, fax, and email of your Project Representative for this application. The same information that is in Section 5: Contact Person, http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov/forms/standardinfo/07contact.html

Our Service Policy timeline remains the same due to some slowdowns with Grants.gov. We have, however, changed the list of items we require. We need the Administrative Shell -- IN PAPER -- no fewer than SEVEN (7) business days before the Sponsor's Grants.gov deadline time. After 18 months of receiving a limited amount of information in the Shell, DRDA staff have decided that they need to have ALL of the Grants.gov Application Forms for sufficient review. They need no attachments EXCEPT the budget justification and abstract. The Admin. Shell now consists of a PAPER copy of

* a fully signed PAF * ALL Grants.gov Forms, including the budget. All the forms in the Mandatory Section and all the forms used from the Optional Section.

ONLY THE FOLLOWING ATTACHEMENTS * budget justification * abstract

Please do not fax the Admin Shell or up load it to our server. The DRDA staff needs to have all of this in paper for proper review, seven (7) days prior to the deadline time.

Our policy for the full electronic file, including all the science and attachments remains the same. We need the complete FINAL version of the electronic application file uploaded to our server no fewer than FOUR (4) business days before the Grants.gov deadline. To maintain security, you will need to log in to the UM system to use this. https://packrat.research.umich.edu/upload/

This must be the final version of the file, as the DRDA staff have found that much confusion results if versions need to be eliminated and others exchanged. The first one that is uploaded will be sent, or if necessarily rarely replaced, the second version will go to the end of the queue for submission. Please take care to upload the appropriate version.

When you upload a file to the DRDA server, please note that there is a pull-down list of sponsors. In order to keep the list manageable we have used only the top level names of government agencies. For example, if you are sending us an NIH file, use Department of Health and Human Services. If you do not know the name of the sponsor from reading the application form, do not guess, please call me -- 936-1283.

If you do not know the name of the DRDA staff person to review the application, the Project Representative, do not just guess, please use "other/not known." Then the system will default to the person associated with the sponsor you pick. The Project Rep information is in the application but we assume it might be the case that someone who did not enter this information is uploading the file.

DRDA staff have submitted around 1700 applications through Grants.gov. The vast majority have traversed the process with no problems. Most have come to DRDA within our time frame. There have been, however, some that barely made it into the systems by the deadline. Through much effort by DRDA staff, we have not missed a single deadline. Our revised policy on what we need, noted above, will make it even less likely that we will lose a submission as more applications need to use Grants.gov.

A couple of other items to consider:

*TRAINING

There was supposed to be a major change in the Grants.gov process in April so I held off training activities until this was implemented. It was delayed by the agency and continues to be delayed. Thus, to help those staff who have not learned about Grants.gov, I will offer a training session on the current version: July 31 from 2:30-4:30 in Suite 18 of Wolverine Tower (by Briarwood Mall)

Please go here to register http://cgi.research.umich.edu/training/research/research_training_dates.lasso?descr_id=105 If you will be using Grants.gov in the future, and cannot attend this session please send me a message and we might schedule another session if there is enough demand.

*Research & Related Project/Performance Site Locations in the 424 Form

This should be the physical locations of the PI's lab, department or other work site

*Auto-fill problems.

When you enter the DUNS number or the Project Start Date on the first page, these auto-fill into other parts of the application. If you change these items on the 424, the correction does NOT auto-fill to those other places. You will need to re-do a new application. NIH will allow the differences between the Face Page and the other pages, but will give a warning message. This problem will be fixed in the new edition.

*Please review the process for handling materials from organizations we will subcontract with. http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov/subawards.html

*If you are using a Mac, note that Grants.gov offers you a program to open PureEdge files. This has changed since April, so you may need to download it again if you did so before then. http://www.grants.gov/resources/download_software.jsp#pureedgeviewer

Remember:
Faculty and staff do not need to register in Grants.gov to use the system or apply for grants. DRDA staff are registered to submit applications.

I have presented much information here but it has been quite a long time since we have been in touch. This message is going to both the DRDAnet and the Grants.gov mailing lists. If you want to be added to the latter, go here http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grantsgov/gginfomail/index.html

Do not hesitate to contact me with questions or comments on any of information here, or any aspect of Grants.gov.

Bob

Robert Beattie
UMich Grants.gov Liaison
Managing Project Representative for Electronic Research Administration
Division of Research Development and Administration
University of Michigan
beattie@umich.edu (734) 936-1283
Learn more about Grants.gov @ UMICH
http://www.research.umich.edu/era/grants_gov/