What is changing?

Twenty Six 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 September 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.

Please be advised that the recommendation from Grants.gov and that the OCRO has adopted is that the completed electronic and hardcopy proposal must be submitted to your RSC at least 5 business days before the due date. This is to ensure that all checks by OCRO staff and the system are completed and errors corrected by the PI when necessary before the proposal is uploaded to Grants.gov. Errors detected after submission have a very short timeframe for correction before the proposal is considered late and not accepted.

What is Grants.gov?

Do not confuse Grant.gov with NIH. NIH is but one of twenty-six agencies that are requiring applications to be processed using this electronic submission process. Grants.gov has been designated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as the single access point for all grant programs offered by 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.

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

The following forms commonly used for NIH grant applications at GW have been and will be
transferred to electronic submission:
• R03 (Small Grant Programs), R21/R33 (Exploratory/Development Research): June 1, 2006
• R18/U18 (Research Demonstration and Dissemination Projects), R25 (Education Projects):
October 1, 2006
• R01 (Research Project Grant Program): February 5, 2007

Who does what?

GW is currently already registered on Grants.gov. However, all participating PIs submitting to NIH must also be registered as a GW PI by the OCRO through
eRA Commons, prior to proposal submission.

• PIs must be affiliated with GW (If you were previously registered as a PI at eRA Commons at another institution, you must be re-registered as a GW PI.)
• PIs must work through GW 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.

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/DownloadViewer (Windows), a small, free program which will allow you to access, complete and submit applications electronically and securely on Grants.gov. Grants.gov and NIH is partnering to provide free access to Citrix servers for Non-Windows users (e.g. Macintosh users). Be sure to download the application instructions when you download your grant application as a PureEdge file. All electronic applications prepared in PureEdge must be submitted to your RSC within five (5) business days of the due date for on-line submission after you have completed all of the application forms in PureEdge as described in the instructions provided with your application file.

For additional information on grants.gov, click here for the steps necessary to apply for a FO http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/applying.htm. All agencies have variations in their implementation of participation in Grants.gov that depend on the funding mechanism that they use. For additional guidance, feel free to contact May Watling, Research Training & Compliance Administrator in the ORT&C at neg@gwu.edu or at x4-7990.