New Security Features Implemented

Grants.gov has successfully implemented the Security Build. Our system is back online and available. We appreciate your patience during this important system upgrade.

For more details and to view the WebEx session that explain the changes to the system please visit http://www.grants.gov/securitybuild/.

If you are an E-Business Point of Contact please visit http://www.grants.gov/securitycommebiz/ for more details.

Regards,

Grants.gov PMO

System Outage: October 9 - 10, 2010

In order to implement the Security Build to the Grants.gov system into production, it is necessary to bring Grants.gov off-line from 12:01 A.M. ET on October 9, 2010 until 11:59 P.M. ET on October 10, 2010. The entire Grants.gov system will be unavailable during that time.

We apologize for any inconvenience this outage period may cause.

For more details and to view the WebEx session that explain the changes to the system and what to expect once the security build is in place, please visit http://www.grants.gov/securitybuild/.

If you are an E-Business Point of Contact please visit http://www.grants.gov/securitycommebiz/ for more details.

Regards,

Grants.gov PMO

Upcoming System Performance Evaluation

All:

Grants.gov will be undergoing performance evaluation on the weekend of September 18th at 2:01 A.M. through September 19th at 11:59 P.M. The system will remain available; however, users may experience slow responses for general functions such as opportunity search, applicant registration, application submission and application tracking.

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO Staff

Grants.gov Program Management Office Staff Update

We are pleased to announce the addition of three senior staff members to the PMO during the month of August in the positions of Deputy Program Manager (replacing Chris Zeleznik), Communications Lead (replacing Michael Pellegrino) and IT Lead (a new position providing the PMO with a full-time dedicated Federal technology lead for the first time). A forms manager has been selected and we hope to have that individual aboard in early September as well.

Sadly, I must also announce the departure of Mary Tutman at the end of August. Mary has been a Program Advisor and has been the main PMO contact for many of you for a long time. Mary has an extensive knowledge of Grants.gov and the grants management process along with a dedication to understand the agencies’ needs and helping them meet them. Mary has also been managing our forms for several months in addition to her many other duties, and helped launch our Next Generation planning. Mary will be sorely missed.

I would like to take the opportunity to recognize the PMO staff for taking on the work of two and three positions over the last several months as our vacancy rates approached 50 percent. Their dedication to Grants.gov and its users, and their often heroic efforts, enabled us to maintain essential services during this time. Thanks to all of you as well for your patience and forbearance with the unavoidably slow responses in some instances. We are excited to be able to return to and exceed past performance levels. Now that the system is more stable and capable than ever, we will be able to devote more resources to improving service and functionality to all stakeholders. We will be sharing our plans and seeking your input in the coming months.

To summarize current assignments and reassignments, below is the new PMO staff roster:

Program Manager Phil Clark
Deputy Program Manager Boris De Souza
Communication Lead Loretta Smith-Hawkins
IT Lead John Enggren
Technical Operations Kevin Harp
Technical Support (PT) Ralph VanWey
Program Advisor/Actg Forms Mgr Ed Calimag
Program Advisor Judy Ceresa
Business Manager David Tillette
Forms Manager Vacant

Regards,

Phil Clark

Philip W. Clark
Program Manager, Grants.gov
HHS Division of Grants
Voice: 202-205-5890
Fax: 202-260-4823

SPAM Emails

There was a problem late yesterday afternoon (8/4) in which Grants.gov received an unusual amount of spam email. A temporary solution was implemented which resulted in emails from Grants.gov being generated from “support@mailman.grants.gov.” We implemented some changes to our firewall policy to block the spam email and everything is back to normal.

On Behalf of the National Science Foundation (NSF): Outline of Changes to NSF Grant Application Submission Process

For information regarding this post on behalf of the National Science Foundation (NSF), please contact the following individual:

Kim Deutsch
NSF
Email: KDeutsch@nsf.gov
Phone: 703-292-4497

Dear Colleagues,
Effective August 23, 2010, NSF will implement several important changes to the application submission process through Grants.gov.
These changes include:
• Implementation of the latest versions of the Project/Performance Site Location(s) (v1.4) and Research & Related Other Project Information (1.3) forms; and
• Automation of compliance checking for the Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan in the Research & Related Other Project Information form

Please see below for detailed descriptions of these changes to assist you in meeting these requirements.

Regards,
Jean Feldman

Overview of Changes
R&R Forms
Overview of Change: Effective August 23, 2010, NSF application packages will include the latest versions of the R&R Project/Performance Site Location (v1.4) and Research & Related Other Project Information (1.3) forms for funding submissions through Grants.gov.

Please note: opportunities posted prior to August 23 will continue to use the older versions of these forms since applicants may be in the process of preparing their application.

Customer Impact: Applicants submitting proposals to NSF through may notice the following changes:

1. Project/Performance Site Location(s) (v1.4): This version of the form allows up to 30 project/performance sites. However, NSF only accepts the first one listed. Any additional sites will not be included with the submission. DUNS ID is no longer a required field, but is encouraged, if applicable
2. Research & Related Other Project Information (1.3): The Human Assurance Number is always optional. In the older version of the form, applicants were not able to enter the Human Assurance Number unless the project was NOT exempt and the IRB review was NOT pending.

Grantee System Impact: Effective August 23, Grantee Systems must use the latest versions of the schemas referenced above for NSF funding opportunities for application submission.
Mentoring Plans
Overview of Change: On April 24, 2010, NSF initiated automated compliance checking of applications which request funding to support postdoctoral researchers. Such applications must include a one-page postdoctoral mentoring plan as a supplementary document.

Customer Impact: Applications that do not comply with this requirement will not be inserted into NSF’s FastLane system and therefore cannot be reviewed. The plan must be included as an attachment in Field 12 of the R&R Other Project Information form if the Postdoc line in the budget (Section B of the R&R Budget and each R&R Subaward Budget attachment) is greater than zero.

As a reminder, the instructions in Chapter II.C.2.j of the Grant Proposal Guide stipulate that each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include, as a supplementary document, a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals.

Grantee System Impact: Applicants may want to consider implementing a system edit that would prevent submission of an application to NSF if the Postdoc line in the budget (Section B of the R&R Budget and each R&R Subaward Budget attachment) is greater than zero and no mentoring plan is included.

Applications that do not comply with this requirement will not be inserted into NSF’s FastLane system and therefore cannot be reviewed.

The attachment file name must be “Mentoring Plan.pdf”.

However, Grants.gov and even some Grantee Systems modify the name after submission by adding information before or after the name. Even the spaces might be replaced. All of these changes to the file name are not an issue. NSF will accept an attachment ending with “.pdf” with any characters at the beginning or end of the file name and the following variations:
• MentoringPlan – run together with no spaces or special characters
• Mentoring&Plan – where any one character in that spot is acceptable

System Notice

Notice: A system problem occurred between 7/25/2010 thru 7/29/2010 that may have affected some nightly subscription email notification requests from being processed. The problem has since been resolved. To ensure that all subscribers affected by this temporary system issue receive system notifications requested during this time period we will be re-processing these subscription requests this evening (7/30/2010) to include all new and modified opportunities posted during this time. For those that did receive email notifications during this time period you may receive duplicate email notifications.

Additionally you can perform an “advanced” query on the site in order to view any new opportunity postings using filters to narrow your search. The following link can be used to access the Advanced Search page: http://www07.grants.gov/search/advanced.do