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

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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.
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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.