CCR Registration

Are you having trouble getting to the CCR registration or update web pages? Do you need help registering?

Please refer to the CCR Handbook or Frequently Asked Questions.

If your questions/concerns are still unanswered, please contact:

CCR Assistance Center

888-227-2423

269-961-5757

ALERT: Grants.gov Testing Environment (AT07)

The Grants.gov Testing Environment (AT07) will be unavailable December 29 and 30. The Testing Environment will be unavailable in preparation for Build 2008 – 03 which is scheduled to occur January 10, 2009.

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO

E-mail Notification Reduction Strategy

=======================
January 8, 2009

UPDATE:

The Grants.gov PMO announced on September 4, 2008 its inclusion of an RSS feed on the Grants.gov website.

Its development and Inclusion of the RSS feed adds to the 255+ existing U.S. Government RSS feeds. The URL launch site for the U.S. Government feeds is: http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/RSS_Library.shtml

The present feed sorts grant opportunities by Agency and Category. In January 2009 the RSS will evolve by adding two additional feeds: new opportunities and existing opportunities that have been modified.

In the coming months the Grants.gov RSS will undergo further evolution and increased usability.

At the present time the RSS feed supplements, it cannot replace, the Grants.gov email notifications system.
=======================

On a nightly basis, Grants.gov transmits >650,000 emails updating potential applicants of grant opportunities and or modifications. The present burden consumes significant processing power on a system with finite capabilities. As a consequence, the applicant attempting to submit an application may find him/herself competing with the email burden for processing power.

Our strategy to alleviate the burden consists of 4 steps:
Implement and evolve a dynamic RSS feed that may, in some cases, obviate the need for email notification.
Because we know that many emails are sent to dead mailboxes, we will eventually require all present recipients to periodically re-enroll in the email notification system. This will clean up our present email listing inasmuch as non-existent email addresses will be culled from the list.
When re-enrolling, the term of the enrollment will be time limited (i.e., six months or annual). This will prevent the open-ended nature of the present system allowing for and institutionalizing a continuous self-scrubbing approach to business.
As the RSS feed matures, there will be a continuous campaign encouraging movement to RSS feeds vice emails.

The Grants.gov e-mail notification system may not entirely disappear to the degree the PMO desires, but any significant reduction will save monies during a time of limited funding. Moreover, as Grants.gov moves to a cloud computing environment, an arena based on transactional costs, the fewer e-mails sent the lower the costs for the grantor agencies.

Testing Environment (AT07)

The following testing environment (AT07) updates occurred December 12, 2008:

Upgraded to Weblogic 10.0
Upgraded to Adobe lifecycle 8.2 update 1
Upgraded to Java 1.5 Environment

Unfortunately, since these updates were installed we have been experiencing intermittent issues with AT07 being unavailable. We realize this is causing problems within the test environment. But at this time we do not know the root cause of the issue.

The above issue is, as of this date, priority 2 of 4 requiring resolution.

If you have any questions please contact the Grants.gov PMO staff.

ALERT: Applicant E-mail Notifications

Grants.gov has received notice that several applicants have received conflicting e-mail notifications after a submission. The following scenario has manifested itself more than once:

1. Applicant receives the Grants.gov Submission Receipt e-mail
2. The applicant then receives a Grants.gov Rejection Notice for Application with a list of errors
3. This is followed by a Grants.gov Submission Validation Receipt for Application e-mail

In all cases, applicants are receiving the third validation e-mail without correcting any errors listed in the second Rejection Notice e-mail. Because the Grants.gov system is automatically re-processing the applications, those without errors are being successfully validated, hence the applicant receiving the third Validation Receipt e-mail.

The applications that are re-processed and successfully received into the Grants.gov system are being forwarded to the agencies for retrieval. Nevertheless, if the above occurs with your application, we are asking that you engage the Contact Center, secure a case number, follow-up to ensure your application has been received. The Contact Center is aware of the above scenario and issue and will provide you with all the support possible.

As to what is the cause of this issue is undetermined as the moment. We are currently researching this issue. We will provide you with more information once we determine the root cause.

The above issue is, as of this date, priority 1 of 4 requiring resolution.

AT07 Testing Guidelines

The following are are established guidelines for testing on AT07:

Monday - Friday
-Agency only testing from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET
-Applicant only testing from 4:01 p.m. - 8:59 a.m. ET

All other hours are open to both communities. We would request that you adhere to these time lines for the foreseeable future. Once the load on the system subsides, we will notify you of a change to these guidelines. Please do not perform any "load testing" since this will take down the testing site since it cannot handle such testing. We appreciate your consideration to the above testing time lines since all parties should benefit from adherence to these times.

UPDATE: Grants.gov Testing Environment Available

The Grants.gov testing environment (AT07) is available.

ALERT: Grants.gov Testing Environment (AT07) Not Available

The Grants.gov testing environment (AT07) is currently not available. Once we bring it back online we will notify you.

UPDATE: Grants.gov Production Test

The preliminary results from the production “stress test” over the weekend are positive. The system processed 10,000 applications over a 24 hour period. Our team is compiling a report on the test.

Please keep in mind, the next step to enhance system capacity will occur as part of Build 2008 – 03 on January 10, 2009. This build reconfigures the LDAP, increasing the number of concurrent users up to 2,000.

Once the January 10, 2009 build is complete submission processing times should improve. Grants.gov is in the processing of quantifying existing processing speeds to identify the improvement once the build is complete.

Weekend Production "Stress" Test

We are conducting a stress test on the production environment December 13 beginning at 1:00 a.m. EST – concluding December 14 11:30 a.m. EST. There are no closings either day. We are conducting the test to baseline performance on four additional T-1000 servers we have placed into production.

This test will be “live” in the production environment but we do not anticipate any system slowness. Please keep in mind we need to complete Build 2008 – 03 on January 10 to increase the number of concurrent users up to 2,000 to fully increase system capacity.

AT07 is unavailable today.

The Grants.gov testing environment (AT07) will be unavailable all day December 12, 2008. We are executing the following to the testing environment:

Upgrading to Weblogic 10.0
Upgrading to Adobe lifecycle 8.2 update 1
Upgrading to Java 1.5 Environment

These upgrades are in essence to fine tune the testing environment to maximize performance. AT07 will be back online December 13, 2008.

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO

UPDATE: RSS Feed & Login

The RSS feed is now active. The issue was that one of the opportunities had a special character which was causing the parsing to fail. This has been corrected.

Grantor and applicant login is taking a substantial amount of time to access the system as a result of heavy load. There are currently 900 plus users logged into Grants.gov.

For applicants; if your closing is not today and you are trying to submit you may want to try and submit off hours or another day, dependent on your closing date.

If you are experiencing problems submitting and you miss a closing deadline today, December 11, 2008 you should contact the Grants.gov Contact Center to create a customer service ticket. You then need to contact the Agency PoC listed on the grant opportunity to let the Agency know why you missed the deadline.

Due to the system slowness the Contact Center is experiencing extended wait times for callers.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

ALERT: Applicant Login

We are experiencing intermittent issues with the applicant login but have not received any reports as of yet on applicants being unable to submit, more information to follow.

ALERT: Grants.gov Grantor Login Issue

Grants.gov is receiving reports of intermittent Grantor login issues. We are researching the reports and will provide you with more notice once determined.

We have received no reports of applicant login issues.

ALERT: RSS Feed via Grants.gov Site Not Available

The Grants.gov RSS Feed accessed via the Grants.gov site, New Modified/Opportunities for both Agencies and Category is not functioning. We will provide you with notice once they are back online.

Who “Uses” a Blog?

A (rhetorical?) question was posed regarding the blog…”who else uses a blog for communication purposes”…the following is provided FYI

Who “uses” a blog?
1. Health & Human Services Secretary + three other blogs*
2. U.S. Coast Guard – two blogs
3. Department of Defense*
4. National Endowment for the Arts*
5. Director of the CDC Injury Center + one other*
6. Congressional Budget Office Director
7. US Army Corps of Engineer’s Chief of Engineers and Commanding General
8. US State Department*
9. Department of Energy*
10. Department of Transportation + two blogs*
11. Smithsonian
12. US Government Printing Office
13. Environmental Protection Agency*
14. Homeland Security Secretary*
15. Department of Agriculture*
16. Library of Congress
17. U.S. Military Health System
18. Millennium Challenge Corporation
19. NASA Goddard CIO*
20. Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health Resource Center's HIV Capacity Building Team*
22. National Aeronautics & Space Administration*
21. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
22. National Museum of the Air Force
23. National Park Foundation
24. Navy Department Chief Information Officer
25. Peace Corps*
26. Office of National Drug Control Policy
27. Smithsonian Institution
28. The U.S. Fire Administration
29. Commander of the Walter Reed Health Care System

The agencies with an asterisk/bolded/red are members of the GEB.

The list is located here: http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/News/blog.shtml

Grants.Gov Testing Environment (AT07) Dec 12 Unavailable

The Grants.gov testing environment (AT07) will be unavailable all day December 12, 2008. We are executing the following to the testing environment:

Upgrading to Weblogic 10.0
Upgrading to Adobe lifecycle 8.2 update 1
Upgrading to Java 1.5 Environment

These upgrades are in essence to fine tune the testing environment to maximize performance. AT07 will be back online December 13, 2008.

UPDATE: Grants.gov E-mail Notifications

There is no issue with the Grants.gov e-mail notifications. To process applications that receive the “broken pipe” error message Grants.gov automatically re-processes the applications. When the applications are re-processed applicants receive the Grants.gov Rejection Notice for Application with a list of errors.

Upon successful re-processing of the application the applicant then receives the Grants.gov Submission Validation Receipt and their application is in the Grants.gov system for Agency retrieval.

ALERT: Grants.gov e-mail Notifications

Grants.gov is currently experiencing an intermittent issue with the e-mail notifications applicants receive after submission. We have received notice that a few applicants have gotten conflicting e-mail notifications.

1. Applicant receives the Grants.gov Submission Receipt e-mail
2. Next the applicant receives; Grants.gov Rejection Notice for Application with a list of errors
3. Next the applicant receives the Grants.gov Submission Validation Receipt for Application e-mail

The applicant has received the third validation e-mail without correcting any errors listed in the Rejection Notice e-mail. The Grants.gov system is re-processing the applications at which time they are being successfully validated, hence the applicant receiving the Validation Receipt e-mail.

The applications are processed and successfully received in the Grants.gov system.

We have only received a few of these instances and are currently researching the issue. The Contact Center is on alert for such contacts. We will provide you with more information once we determine the root cause.

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO

Rationale for Migrating Grants.gov to Cloud Computing Technology

Please note the PMO has posted its justification for migrating to a cloud computing environment. The document is filed in the reference library. For your convenience the justificaton document can be accessed here.

Transition Reminder

Grants.gov, in agreement with agencies, originally set a target date of December 31, 2008 for agencies to no longer post PureEdge opportunities. This target date is still in place. The functionality for agencies to create PureEdge opportunities will be disabled in the system January 10, 2009 as part of Build 2008 – 03. After January 10, 2009 agencies will no longer have the functionality to create PureEdge opportunities.

Any PureEdge opportunities that may be created prior to January 10, 2009 must have a closing date no later than January 31, 2009. A PureEdge opportunity with a closing date of January 31, 2009 can have a 20 day grace period through February 20, 2009. Beginning February 21, 2009 Grants.gov will no longer accept PureEdge submissions.

Grants.gov Website versus Blog

For the foreseeable future, please stay attuned to the Grants.gov BLOG http://grants-gov.blogspot.com/ vice Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov/ for the latest up-to-date reference and system information.

The FIND http://www.grants.gov/applicants/find_grant_opportunities.jsp and APPLY http://www.grants.gov/applicants/apply_for_grants.jsp sections of the website are current and usable. However, reference and system information will be posted on the blog.

The website is presently undergoing a transition.

Multiple Versions of Adobe Reader Work With Grants.Gov – PART II

After careful reconsideration of the posting below, coupled with inputs from the public, the PMO would like to restate its standing on which Adobe version ought to be used.

While the PMO will continue to support each of the four versions below, the PMO is STRONGLY RECOMMENDING use of:

Adobe Reader 8.1.3 – this version fixes broken pipe thereby allowing for submission outside the browser.
Adobe Reader 9.0 – this version contains the broken pipe issue, which will not be fixed until 9.1 is released.

We have received sufficient user inputs to believe that use of 8.1.1 and 8.1.2 should be minimized.

Multiple Versions of Adobe Reader Work With Grants.Gov

There has been some question lately as to which Adobe Reader version is usable with Grants.gov. The response is straightforward, there 4 versions compatible with Grants.gov.

1. Adobe Reader 8.1.1 – while compatible, submission made outside the browser will result in a broken pipe issue; therefore it is incumbent on the applicant to comply with instructions on the Grants.gov website.

2. Adobe Reader 8.1.2 – this version includes a security fix, but the “fix” was not applicable to Grants.gov forms; the same broken pipe issue remains as was in 8.1.1

3. Adobe Reader 8.1.3 – this version fixes broken pipe thereby allowing for submission outside the browser.

4. Adobe Reader 9.0 – this version contains the broken pipe issue, which will not be fixed until 9.1 is released.

First, it merits saying that Grants.gov does not “control” Adobe’s versioning system and releases.

Second, Adobe is, as are most computer-based software systems, constantly upgrading their capability. As a consequence, it is incumbent on Grants.gov and the applicant to remain attuned to the latest requirements and capabilities.

As Adobe releases a new version, it must be “tested” and “challenged” by Grants.gov to ensure compatibility and usability. When this is attained, the Grants.gov Program Management Office (PMO) then posts the updates on the Grants.gov website, its blog, and the information is disseminated via multiple venues to the applicant community.

Additionally, because Adobe is attuned to the needs of Grants.gov, many of their recent releases (i.e., newest versions) have been in response to Grants.gov needs. An excellent example of this is version 8.1.3; it fixed the “broken pipe” concerns evident in prior versions.

Because Adobe is constantly pursuing a better product with increased functionalities – and because it is operating in a highly competitive commercial arena – Adobe cannot “sit still.” If it were to freeze its product, Adobe would surrender the initiative to its competitors. As a consequence, it is a product seeking continuous improvements.

What does this mean to Grants.gov? This means as the Adobe product moves forward, so too must Grants.gov, and so too much the applicant community. That we must all constantly upgrade our capabilities is the price of success.

We well understand concerns regarding the many version changes. We at Grants.gov have the additional burden of testing and challenging each new version, validating its usability, and upgrading our capabilities. Unlike the individual applicant community wherein the latest version might merit only downloading, the applicant system-to-system and Grants.gov systems cannot remain stagnant but require continuous fine tuning.

Finally, why two versions of Adobe and not a single version? This is a question we posed to Adobe. Before presenting you their reply (below), the bottom-line is that Adobe has long maintained multiple product lines for different commercial audiences, in other words – the market place drives their products and relevant capabilities. This, too, becomes something we must live with.

The following is Adobe’s response:

-----
In product release cycles, there are three dates defined in the support policies. These include “General availability”, “End of core support”, and “End of extended support”. The products and their associated dates can be found on the Adobe website here: http://www.adobe.com/support/products/enterprise/eol/eol_matrix.html.

During the period between “General availability” and “End of core support” additional versions of Adobe Reader may be provided to the public and may include enhancements or product fixes. These enhancements may be made to any Adobe Reader version that has not reached End of core support. Depending on the product release cycle this may result in the availability of a specific enhancement in an “earlier” version of Reader. For example, an enhancement may be made available in Reader 8.1.3 that is not available in Reader 9.0 and will not be included in the Reader 9 series until Reader 9.1. Despite the version numbers, Reader 8.1.3 was released prior to Reader 9.1 but after Reader 9.0.
-----

Adobe has been an excellent partner with Grants.gov. We have the attention of the corporate headquarters, their developers, and staff. When we have encountered problems, Adobe has deployed, at their own cost, teams of people to our system integrator site to assist in problem resolution. Grants.gov and the applicant community are not part of the “acceptable noise level” in Adobe’s commercial arena. On the contrary, if and when we have problems, need support, and or voice our opinion, Adobe has a history of being responsive. They are our – Grants.gov and the applicant community’s – partner. But it is important to note that the partnership runs two-ways – as they support us, we must maintain pace with them (and their latest versions). Only in doing so will we all attain greater functionality and capability.

Rollback of R&R SF424 Form in AT07

This notice only applies to the Grants.gov Testing Environment (AT07): http://at07web.grants.gov/ and not the Production Environment.

On November 25, 2008, the Grants.Gov Program Management Office (PMO) rolled back the prototype version of the R&R SF424 Form that was in the AT07 Testing Environment to the same version that is currently in use in our Production Environment. The result is the AT07 Testing Environment mirrors the Production Environment.

Agencies that were testing the prototype version of the R&R SF424 Form that was in the AT07 Testing Environment until yesterday can keep any templates they developed and continue development using these templates when the prototype R&R SF424 Form is returned to AT07.

The prototype R&R SF424 Form was rolled back to the current version in use in the Production Environment in order to support some of our client agencies and their transition from PureEdge forms to Adobe forms. The strategy for releasing new versions of the R&R family of forms into the AT07 Testing Environment is being developed and will be published in the near future.

Grants.gov Initiative Updates

Speed & Reliability Update
Four of the five T-1000 servers to enhance speed and are currently in production. The fifth server is being used as a contingency back-up as we continue to develop maturity with the new servers that are in production now. We are currently working with Adobe engineers to fully implement advanced clustering capabilities upon completion of this task this phase of the speed and reliability will be complete. The final phase will be implemented with the release of the Build 2008 – 03, when the LDAP configuration is completed.

Build 08-03 Update
The December 13, 2008 Build – 03 will now occur on January 10, 2009. This build will now include a revision to Step 3 of the registration process. The delay in release of this build is a result of two factors. Resources have been dedicated to concluding the transition to Adobe for those agencies making the final move from PureEdge to Adobe. Also, since Step 3 of the registration process will change in this build several Agencies have requested additional time to update their applicant material to communicate the new upcoming registration process to their audience.

System Status - November 21

Grants.gov experienced a tremendous load on the system Thursday, November 20, 2008. There were a large number of closings. Today, November 21, 2008 there are 18 closings. As of 10:15 a.m. this morning we have increased activity on the system. We are anticipating system slowness as the day progresses.

The Contact Center is on alert. If system slowness occurs today we will notify applicants appropriately.

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO

Adobe Reader 8.1.3 Resolves "Broken Pipe" Issue

Adobe Reader version 8.1.3 resolves the "broken pipe" error intermittently experienced with other versions of Adobe Reader. Adobe supports multiple major version releases of its products throughout the life cycle of the particular main version. Adobe Reader 8.1.3 has been released, tested, and is compatible for use with Grants.gov.

If while using versions of Adobe Reader other than 8.1.3 you experience the "broken pipe" error message, you can submit your application package from an internet browser. For more information on this please visit the FAQ section for Adobe Reader.

"Comment" section of the blog is not being used by the readership to its fullest capability

"After a meeting this morning, it has become evident that the "comment" section of the blog is not being used by the readership to its fullest capability.

To not provide feedback and comment is a dis-service to all users of the Grants.gov system and the PMO. Moreover, to later claim you were not included 'in the decision making process' is disingenuous.

New communication means and transparency benefit everyone - when used. All readers are encouraged to participate in the future of Grants.gov by providing feedback via the blog."
- Eben Trevino

Update on FY2010 Migration Planning

Subject: Update on FY2010 Migration Planning

Reference: July 16, 2008 Grants.gov FY2010 Budget Meeting

Objective: Transition the Grants.gov PMO systems capabilities to a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) (i.e., cloud computing) business model.

Rationale: Transition the PMO away from the task of hardware & software management and focus on core mission of developing, testing, and placing into production Grant applications for the purpose of transmitting data.

PaaS/Cloud rationale:
1. Increase processing power
2. Responsive scalability
3. Increase system availability
4. Significantly enhance system availability
5. Increase redundancy (addressing COOP)
6. Security issues mitigated
7. Better economics (overall and individual costing)

Upon migration completion, the objectives are:
1. Employ full forms functionality
2. Employ self-diagnostic forms
3. Make available a self-diagnostic computer tool for applicants
4. Operate in an environment responsive to in-depth metrics collection
5. Replicate the user experience vis-à-vis forms submission
6. Automate opportunity notice & availability via RSS, Twitter, etc.
7. Reduce reliance on contact center
8. Create a more realistic & responsive test environment

Regarding the website, by FY2010:
1. Effectiveness to significantly increase
2. Efficiency increase
3. More dynamic & responsive to changing needs
4. Information Architecture = encyclopedic
5. Data bases to remain intact & updated
6. Use website for work-flow management & increased transparency with Grantor community

Timeline - Migration will occur in FY2010

Additional Information: Large Submission Volume

For PureEdge applications, applicants only need to submit one time. Although it is taking longer to process, the PureEdge applications are in Queue to be processed.

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO

Large Submission Volume

This week Grants.gov has received a large amount of PureEdge applications, over 1,300 per day. On November 6 we received over 2,100 PureEdge applications. This has resulted in a large number of applications in the Grants.gov queue for processing. This may cause slow processing time for submissions on Friday, November 7, 2008.

Regards,
Grants.gov

Grants.gov: 48 Hour Validation (PureEdge only)

This week Grants.gov has received a large amount of PureEdge application, over 1,300 per day. On November 6 we received over 2,100 PureEdge applications. This volume is causing the 48 hour validation of applications to be surpassed.

The 48 hour validation began to be exceeded at approximately 6:00 p.m. EST November 6. As of this message Grants.gov has approximately 1,000 PurEdge applications in que to be processed. Once the que clears we will notify you.

This is for PureEdge only. There is no impact on the Adobe system. If you have questions please contact the Grants.gov PMO staff.

Regards,
Grants.gov

How do forms on Grants.gov get approved?

Grants.gov utilizes two categories of forms in application packages: agency-specific and government-wide. All forms used in grant opportunities posted on Grants.gov must be Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved. OMB does not allow agencies to attach non-cleared forms to Grants.gov application packages or require non-cleared forms to be filled out later in the application process. Grants.gov is responsible for clearing new and renewed government-wide forms. All of the government-wide forms in Grants.gov are identified with an 8-digit OMB control number that begin with “4040.”

The process to clear a form is established by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). This clearance process is managed through OMB. The PRA requires that data collections (forms) go through a process to notify the public of the availability of a new or renewed form. Agencies that plan to use the form must estimate how long it will take an applicant to fill out the form (burden hours). The public and the agencies can provide comments on the form during two publication cycles of a 60-day and a 30-day Federal Register Notice (FRN).
Grants.gov receives questions regarding the use of forms that have an expired date on them. Forms appear to expire while they are under the PRA process. This is because the process overlaps the expiration date. As long as the 60-day FRN publishes within 60 days of the expiration date, then the form is still covered and remains “approved.” Once the 60-day FRN is published, Grants.gov and the working groups still must go through the comment review process, publish a 30-day FRN, review any additional comments and have OMB review and approve the final package. This process can take several months after the original expiration date occurs. Additional time is required to build the form in Grants.gov. We cannot begin this process until OMB has approved the form, since OMB can request additional changes to the form. Below is a basic schedule of time required by the PRA process for forms clearance.

Grant Policy Committee working group proposes form changes: 1 month
Collect burden hour estimates from the agencies: 1 month
Supporting statement, form and instructions mock-up prepared,
60-day FRN published: 2 months
Working group reviews comments received via FRN from
public and agencies, revise form as necessary: 1-2 months
Revised form and instructions submitted via 30-day FRN to OMB: 1 month
OMB reviews comments, may revise, approves form with new
expiration date: 2-3 months

Total Estimated Time to Clear the Form: 8-10 months

Key Areas the PMO are Addressing

1. Dates of the release of all R&R forms to testing (AT)
2. Dates to production of all R&R forms
3. Process for new forms development
4. Process for maintenance of forms development
5. Updated documentation for grantor web services and documentation for single
certificate to pull for sub-agencies
6. Update S2S documentation for both the grantor and applicant

RSS Tutorial

What is an RSS feed? A "really simple syndication" or "rich site summary" is used to deliver frequently updated web content to its audience. News media outlets, blogs, and other sources of readily updated information use RSS feeds to get the most up-to-date information to their audiences. In a similar manner, Grants.gov has began using an RSS feed to notify grant seekers of new opportunities posted to the site.

In the coming months, Grants.gov will no longer send out daily email notifications of new grant opportunities. Information regarding new opportunities posted to the web site will be made available in REAL TIME via the RSS feeds. The RSS feed will allow users to retrieve the latest grant opportunity posting information and sort the data it in a manner most relevant to the user. Since many of Grants.gov users may not be familiar with RSS feeds or RSS readers, it is suggested you view this tutorial (Google Reader: Getting Started) or any other and install an RSS feed reader of your choice. Feed readers are available from many sources, including your web browsers, and can be used on your computer or a wireless communication device.


For more information and to set up your Grants.gov RSS feed, click here.

Applicant User Guide

Applicant User Guide – A detailed guide to registration, finding and applying for grant opportunities.

Grants.gov - R&R Forms

The following are the initial FFATA changes to the Research and Related forms family placed in the testing environment (AT07) in Adobe:

• SF 424 cover sheet released into the testing environment (AT07): http://at07apply.grants.gov/apply/FormLinks?family=14

• A, B, C, D released into testing environment: http://at07apply.grants.gov/apply/FormLinks?family=15
• Release notes for all five are attached

We are working on additional R&R forms to execute the transition to Adobe and will provide them shortly.

Grants.gov Customer Service Process

Grants.gov Customer Service Process - A diagram depicting the procedures the Grants.gov Contact Center follows when a customer calls for assistance.

Testing Environment (AT07) Guidelines

As a result of Agencies transitioning to Adobe our testing environment (AT07) is being stressed. For those of you testing actively you have noticed slow processing times. This weekend we are taking AT07 offline to create a larger database file size and to move the database from its current location on the server to the Storage Area Network. This will make AT07 more robust so it can handle the load, but we do not anticipate increased processing times.

As the Research and Related (R&R) forms are released into AT07 next week for testing we would like to request the following parameters for testing to reduce the load on the testing environment:

Monday – Friday
· Agency only testing from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. EDT
· Applicant only testing from 4:01 p.m. – 8:59 a.m. EDT

We would request that you adhere to these timelines for the foreseeable future. Once the load on the system subsides we will notify you of a change to these guidelines. We have identified future plans for the testing environment to enhance performance. Part of this plan is to take portions of the existing PureEdge system and place them into AT07. We cannot execute these plans until all agencies are in Adobe.

We appreciate your consideration to the above testing timelines, all parties should benefit from adherence to these times. If you have any questions please contact the Grants.gov PMO staff.

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO

The Contact Center

An 'issue' arose at yesterday's User Group Meeting regarding the future of the Contact Center.

First, there is no 'issue' today.

Second, Contact Center costs must be contained by FY2010. Herein lies our challenge, a challenge briefed to the GEB in July when presenting the FY2010 budget for approval.

The following statistics are representive of a week's effort at the Contact Center:

• Filing for Financial Assistance - 781 calls or 12.02%
• Questions on how to engage the Offering Agency - 459 calls or 7.06%
• Individual looking for Assistance or looking for a Grant - 290 calls or 4.46%
• Questions regarding Government Grants for Small Business - 213 calls or 3.28%
• Finding Grants - Searching for Grant Opportunities - Advanced - 200 calls or 3.08%
• Password, Username and Log In - Forgot Password - Grant Community(!) - 145 calls or 2.23%
• Questions regarding Student Aid - 116 calls or 1.78%
• Questions on Possible Fraud - 67 calls or 1.03%
• Finding Grants - Searching for Grant Opportunities - Basic - 36 calls or 0.55%

Summing up the above, >35% (specifically, 35.49%) of the phone calls have little to do with "applicant submission." By this I mean the following, if you have to submit an application today by a specific time, you - the applicant - are competing with the above inquiries.

If 35+% of the Contact Center's effort is engaging miscellaneous phone calls, and I am by no means denegrating the merit of these phone calls, then the Contact Center's efforts are being taken away from the applicants who have toiled against a deadline to make a submission. Thus I hope you can understand why I included the entry below.

Now, of the remaining 64+%, just less than 50% deal with CCR registration, obtaining a DUNS number, determining the points of contact at a given agency, and other similar topics.

Therefore, of the phone calls received at the Contact Center, only ~15% dealt with the actual submission of an application on a given date due. This means that for every 20 phone calls at the Contact Center, 17 are (generally) non-critical while 3 are of a time-critical nature.

As a consequence the 5.66/1 ratio against the submitting applicant needs to be addressed if we are going to meet our Grants.gov PMO Strategic Plan vision, mission, goals, and values.

How are we going to take care of and place a priority on the "applicant" on the day s/he needs support? We believe we need to empower the applicant as much as possible. As we move to FY2010, we are developing a strategy that at present consists of the following.

Goal: Reduce Call Center Dependency by Empowering the Applicant

1. Employ full Adobe functionality in all future forms, i.e., employing Adobe’s ‘self-diagnostic’ capability.*
2. Employ a ‘self-diagnostic computer tool’ to assess the applicant’s computer to ensure s/he has the proper software &/or viewer as well as RAM, etc., to transmit the application.*
3. Include latest Adobe viewers, which display upload progress and speeds, i.e., telling the applicant the progress being made in submitting their application.*
4. Speed & Reliability Upgrade –will enable greater processing power than Grants.gov has ever had.*
5. Our 'new' systems Dashboards will allow us to replicate and/or view the applicant experience and proactively address problems.*
6. Transition to cloud computing will allow for greater scalability in supporting our applicant/customer base in terms of bandwidth and processing power.*
7. The transition to RSS from 700k daily emails will free up processing power for the applicant community and reduce stress on the system.*
8. Redesign our website, which has admittedly grown cumbersome over the years with 18+k pages, to make it more functional, interactive, and user friendly.*
9. Employ two Contact Center phone numbers: one for non-critical issues; one for day-of-submission applicant support. The latter would receive increased emphasis and take priority over the former.

All items marked with an "*" above, if properly addressed, will significantly reduce the phone call volume - but none so more as, perhaps, #8 above.

We believe that the more we empower the applicant with his/her own tools to simplify & verify the application completion and submission process, then the present ~15% of Contact Center day-of-submission calls will be significantly reduced.

Similarly, the better we structure our information architecture on the website, then the remaining 85% of calls will also be significantly reduced.

Yes, our objective is to eliminate the need for the Contact Center. It should be the objective of every effective and efficient organization. Will we attain that objective? Only time will tell the tale. But until we implement all of the above actions, and more, will we begin to make such an assessment.

ORC E-auth service restored

ALERT ORC E-auth service restored

Date/Time October 8, 2008 7:05 a.m.

What: The ORC service outage reported yesterday morning has been resolved. Service has been restored.

Impact: Grantors may access the Grants.gov system using their ORC credentials.

Information on forms in development now available on the Grants.Gov Blog

A link to the Forms Factory Control Log is now available in the Reference Library of the Grants.Gov Blog (grants-gov.blogspot.com).

ORC E-auth login outage

ALERT - ORC E-auth outage

Time/Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - 8:30 a.m.

What: The Grants.gov PMO was notified this morning of an ongoing outage for the ORC E-authentication portal.

Impact: Grantor users trying to login to Grants.gov via ORC E-auth portal will receive a 404 page error. Users with Employee Express or USDA E-auth credentials can successfully access Grants.gov. Applicants are not affected by this outage.

Action: Notification being provided. Notification will be provided when outage is complete.

FY2008 S2S Submissions

ParentAgency Total
DOD 680
DOE 199
ED 11
HHS 12793
NEH 3
NSF 72
USDA 93
USDOJ 6
DOT 4
DOC 1
VA 1
USAID 1
Grand Total 13864

This cannot be overstressed...!!

This type of individual assistance is NOT available on Grants.gov: Personal Financial Assistance, Student Loans and Small Business Start-up Loans. To find out if you are eligible for grant opportunities offered on this site, click here.

Stakeholder Webcast

Please join us for the next Grants.gov Stakeholder Webcast on Wednesday, October 15, 2008, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT. This meeting will be a webcast only and registration is NOT required. * Please read below as Adobe Flash Player is required to view this webcast. Real Player and Windows Media Player will no longer be used.

Agenda:
- Introduction
- Quarterly Update
- RSS Feed
- Applicant Troubleshooting Page
- Update on the Transition to Adobe
- Speed and Reliability Upgrade
- System Build 2008 – 03
- Central Contractor Registration – Process

Instructions:

Registration is not required. Click here: http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=10043712&msgid=143299&act=CXB4&c=171570&admin=0&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hhs.gov%2Fgrants%2Fwebcast%2Findex.html at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 15.

*Please note you will need the Adobe Flash Player (http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=10043712&msgid=143299&act=CXB4&c=171570&admin=0&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adobe.com%2F) installed on your computer in order to view the live video stream. You can test your ability to view the flash video stream starting at 10:00 a.m. EDT on the day of the webcast at the address listed above. If you are unable to view this live stream in the flash format, it will be available in flash video-on-demand shortly after the broadcast. Email your questions for the webcast panelists before and/or during the program to Grants.gov-webcast@hhs.gov.

Life of a Grant Application

Life of A Grants.gov Application Package - A Diagram depicting the role of the Grantor, Grants.gov, and the applicant in regards to the life cycle of a grant application package.

Grants.gov Reaches 200,000 Application Submissions!

On Monday September 22, 2008 Grants.gov received the 200,000th electronic grant application submission for fiscal year 2008, far exceeding a core program milestone in the fourth quarter and reflecting a significant increase from last year. During the same period of fiscal year 2007, Grants.gov received 172,058 submissions; which reflects a 16 percent increase. This landmark achievement illustrates the institutionalizing of Grants.gov for finding and applying for federal grants, and exhibits that the program eliminates the need for grant seekers to learn and comply with multiple agency systems and requirements. The result is a simplified and effective environment for the grant community to find and apply for grants.

Successful ORC metadata update

The ORC metadata update was successfully implemented and all Grants.gov services were back online before 7PM yesterday.

Statistics..."In the last 30 days..."

In the last 30 days, Grants.gov has experienced...

1. 832,505 visits...
2. The 832,505 visits came from 196 countries/territories...
3. 639,432 or 71.64% were absolute new visitors...and
4. There were 2,384,907 page views with 1,731,119 being unique page views
5. Now contrary to the misinformed article below, note the following operating systems that accessed Grants.gov...
   1. Windows 791,350 95.06%
   2. Macintosh 36,480 4.38%
   3. Linux 2,008 0.24%
   4. iPhone 950 0.11%
   5. Danger Hiptop 830 0.10%
   6. (not set) 297 0.04%
   7. PalmOS 198 0.02%
   8. Playstation 3 136 0.02%
   9. iPod 114 0.01% and #10. Nintendo Wii 51 0.01%

The facts speak for themselves as to the site's versatility...

New! Troubleshooting Tips Page: Find Help with Technical Issues

We have established the following resource to help applicants who may be experiencing problems when submitting. You can call our Contact Center as well Monday - Friday 7:00 A.M. - 9:00 P.M. ET at 1-800-518-4726.

http://www.grants.gov/help/trouble_tips.jsp

Central Contractor Registration

The Central Contractor Registration (CCR) will be unavailable on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. EDT for installation of their next release. CCR’s release notes can be found at: https://www.bpn.gov/ReleaseNotes/

Registering with CCR is the second step of the overall process to register as an Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) with Grants.gov. An applicant must register or obtain their information from CCR in order to continue through the overall registration process. For more information on the registration process with Grants.gov and CCR, please visit the “Register with CCR” page: http://www.grants.gov/applicants/org_step2.jsp.

Anticipating the "Adobe Future"...

At this morning's staff meeting, I asked that we move 100% to an "Adobe mindset."

What does this mean to you, the reader, today? Nothing, today.

What does it mean to you, the reader, tomorrow? If tomorrow is defined as the coming weeks & months, then you can expect: the requirements for the Adobe Reader to be upgraded from a minimal version of 7.0.9 to something much more current and a more dynamic form with a built-in capability to use the built-in Adobe Reader features listed in http://www.acrobat.com/.

Stay tuned!

Putting things in perspective...

There is so much misinformation published, it is a constant echo that serves little good. The referenced article, although recently republished, merits updating.

We seven in the PMO are responsible for ensuring that nearly twenty percent of the Federal budget, >$526 billion, expended annually via grants in >900 programs in 26 grant-making agencies get out to the public.

All things considered, we do a fairly admirable job. For the record, the Grants community has and or is moving away from PureEdge. IBM did an admirable job at adapting PureEdge to Mac - and they ought to be commended for their efforts. Their efforts occurred a long, long time ago. The transition will to Adobe, nearly 80% complete, be be finalized by December 31st, 2008. We have no records, from applicants or agencies, documenting recent problems expressed in the article. But if problems have recently been experienced, we would like to hear of them and address & fix them.

As for the cost, well - suffice it to say the taxpayer's monies are very well spent; Grants.gov costs less than 0.000026% of the total Grants monies it services. What a metric to define success.

On a typical day >350 transactions are conducted at the Grants.gov website.

On a particularly active day >2800 transactions are conducted at the Grants.gov website.

On a typical day Grants.gov disseminates 615,881 emails to its customers. To date, >30,000,000 emails have been sent in FY2008.

As of April 30, 2008 Grants.gov is supporting 11,957 open opportunities with 66,147 forms supporting the opportunities.

And there is more...

The Grants.gov Advantages.
- Principal beneficiary: Public

• Permits one-stop-shopping for public (vice the former method wherein public had to access >100 sites) to review of federal grant opportunities
• Inasmuch as the presentation of grant opportunities can be standardized, they now are (prior to Grants.gov, this was not the case)
• Federal grant-related forms are now standardized & maintained by Grants.gov

- Beneficiary: Grantor departments and agencies

• Grant-making redundancy significantly reduced
• Dollar savings to federal government estimated in hundreds of millions of dollars; more than enough to pay for Grants.gov

- Beneficiary: federal government

• Grants.gov brought a change in culture of government grant-making operations
• Grants.gov assisted in bringing grant-making departments and agencies to come together and cooperate for the first time & the cooperation between and amongst the departments via the GMLOB and GPC has never been richer and more productive

To say I am proud of Grants.gov is an understatement. We're doing well and know it. We can do better and we know this also.

NSF, NIH Award Ecology of Infectious Disease Grants

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have announced $16 million in funding for eight projects under the Ecology of Infectious Diseases (EID) program, a multi-year, joint-agency effort now in its ninth year of funding. More...

Just a passing comment...

Dealing with Grants on a daily basis, we get to see a bit of everything and everyone...from today's grant opportunity dealing with the burning of the winter roosting site for monarch butterflies (funding opportunity - N62473-08-R-MONARCH) to an understanding of the trials & tribulations folks might be encountering as a result of Hurricane Ike (funding opportunity - AHPG-FY09). For what it is worth, this could only happen in America.

Grants.gov Maintenance September 20 - System Impact

Grants.gov will be unavailable Saturday, September 20, 2008 from 6:00 – 8:00 PM ET in production due to system maintenance. The system will be unavailable to find and apply for opportunities during this time.

The maintenance taking place is to install the SunOS 5.10: kernel patch on the database servers. We apologize for any inconvenience.

September 30/October 1 Submissions - Two Busy Days

There will be a record number of closings on September 30th and October 1st, 2008. This means the Grants.gov system will likely be working at maximum capacity.

While we attempt to encourage the agencies to spread-out their closings, we were unsuccessful this year. (Next year, we hope, will be a different story.)

• HHS-ACF has 63 closings on September 30.
• EPA has 101 closings scheduled for October 1.

We, however, must deal with the present situation before us. I am, therefore, encouraging everyone who will be making a submission to do so at the earliest opportunity. Please do not wait until the last minute lest you get caught in the proverbial log-jam.

If you encounter difficulties, please contact the Call Center, 1-800-518-4726. Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. The advantages to engaging the Call Center are: 1) all calls are documented and if your submission should be late or unsuccessful, you will have a record for documenting an appeal - if your Grantor agency has an appeals process (some do not allow appeals); 2) the Center's principal objective is to assist you in making a successful submission.

There is, however, no better way to avoid the log-jam than to submit early. Thank you.

E-mail Opportunity Notices To Terminate

It is vital that everyone transition to the RSS Feed because the nightly emails will soon be terminated and or significantly reduced.

Grants.gov will soon be implementing a strategy to terminate the email effort, which presently transmits >650,000 emails/day. The processing load on Grants.gov is tremendous and this energy could better be used to process applications.

Please assist us in this effort. Thank you.

Update to GEB

Yesterday, the PMO made its end-of-fiscal-year presentation to the Grants Executive Board. The following information was provided.

1. Grants.gov is undergoing a "speed & reliability upgrade" which will result in 3 new T-1000 servers being added to the system. The upgrade will be completed by October 2008.
2. The Grants.gov LDAP will be totally rebuilt and reconfigured to support the demands of the community. This work will be completed within 30 days of the completion of the speed & reliability upgrade.
3. Grants.gov completed 20 new forms this FY & 144 forms were converted from PureEdge to Adobe.
4. In August the first "S2S User Group Meeting" for the Grantor Community was held.
5. The website has been updated with additional information regarding "Eligibility for Grants."
6. The "Broken Pipe" remedy has been posted on the website. If the remedy is adhered to the problem is non-existent.
7. A "trouble-shooting page" has been added to the website addressing the top 10 issues/questions faced by the Contact Center.
8. A systems monitoring tool has been recommended to the PMO allowing it to review and monitor the: a) user experience and b) engage in system diagnositics.
9. The Adobe transition continues on schedule.
10. An RSS Feed has been added to the Grants.gov website.
11. The RFI to transition Grants.gov to a cloud computing model has been published.

One comment for all readers: It is vital that everyone transition to the RSS Feed because the nightly emails will soon be terminated and or significantly reduced. Grants.gov presently transmits >650,000 emails/day and the processing load on Grants.gov is tremendous. This energy could better be used to process applications.

Grants.gov RFI

The Grants.gov PMO has released a public request for information (RFI). Click on the link below to review the document.

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=cbddfe939b4432b28450d6870944412b&tab=core&_cview=0

Grantor System to System: Sharing Solutions

The August 14th, 2008, System to System Users Group meeting marked the beginning of improved group problem solving. Through this blog, email, and on-site meetings users of the Grants.Gov System to System functionality will be able to work with each other to find solutions to some of the operational hurdles they may have been facing.