What is changing?
Federal agencies are gradually transitioning to electronic proposal submissions. For example, NIH is transitioning from the PHS 398 form to the Standard Form 424 Research and Related (R&R) and agency specific forms. All applications to NIH via Grants.gov will be required to be submitted on a SF424 (R&R) form by October 2007, thereby providing a consistent electronic submission process through Grants.gov to NIH. Phase-in for certain programs have begun now and will be indicated on the Funding Opportunity (FO) downloaded from the Grants.gov site.

What is grants.gov?
Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov/) has been designated by the Office of Management and Budget as the single access point for all grant programs offered by 26 Federal grant-making agencies.

Once a grant mechanism “goes electronic” on the transition submission date, all applications (new, revised, competing) must use the SF424(R&R) form and be submitted electronically through Grants.gov. Paper applications will not be accepted after the transition date for a grant mechanism.  Please note however, that a hard copy of proposal with the OVPR proposal routing form is still required.  OVPR requires that all proposals using Grants.gov be submitted at least 7 days in advance of the FO deadline.

What is the timeline of changes to the family of SF-424 forms?

R03 (Small Grant Programs), R21/R33 (Exploratory/Development Research), and R34 (Clinical Trial Grant Planning Program): June 1, 2006
R18/U18 (Research Demonstration and Dissemination Projects), R25 (Education Projects): October 1, 2006
R01 (Research Project Grant Program): February 1, 2007

Who does what?
GW is currently registered on Grants.gov. However, all participating PI’s submitting to NIH must also be registered by the OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH (OVPR) through eRA Commons, https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/ prior to proposal submission.  eRA Commons allows Principal Investigators to review the current status of all their grant applications and detailed information associated with their grants.

PIs must be affiliated with GW
PIs must work through GW’s OVPR for full register at eRA Commons; Internet Assisted Review (IAR) registration is not enough!

Please contact Hal Gollos at hgollos@gwu.edu or at x4-0896 to request registration.

For a quick reference to Grants.gov, please see this 5 Step Guide.

How do I access Grants.gov to find new opportunities, download application packages, develop and submit proposals?
Once you are registered as a PI at GW, you will currently need to download PureEdge Viewer http://www.grants.gov/resources/download_software.jsp#pureedge (Windows), a small, free program which will allow you to access, complete and submit applications electronically and securely on Grants.gov.  A tutorial on how to do this can be found on our website at www.gwu.edu/~research/files/PureEdgeDwnld.EXE
Grants.gov and NIH are partnering to provide free access to Citrix servers for Non-Windows users (e.g. Macintosh users).

For additional information on grants.gov, click here for the steps necessary to apply for a FO http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/applying.htm or visit the tutorial at the ORT&C training site in Blackboard by logging in http://blackboard.gwu.edu/ , with your NetGW user name (@gwu.edu) and password. Click “Fiscal Responsibility in Sponsored Research,” click “Modules”; click “Module II, Pre-Award Research Administration”; click “Module II, Session B:  NIH Electronic Proposal Submission”.

For additional guidance, feel free to contact May Watling in the ORT&C at neg@gwu.edu or at x4-7990.