If you haven’t had to submit a proposal to one of the 26 federal grant making agencies via grants.gov yet, it won’t be too long until you will be required to do so. Are you ready to use Grants.Gov when the time comes? Here is some basic information that you can use to help you prepare.

1. You do not need to get an ID in order to use Grants.Gov .

2. If you will be submitting to NIH you must have an eRA Commons ID prior to submitting. So if you are the PI of proposal and do not have an ID yet, contact the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) at 313-577-5600

3. Is the computer technology you have sufficient? You must have the following on your computer to successfully submit through grants.gov.

a. Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP; 500 Mhz processor
b. At least 128 MB of RAM and 40 MB disk space
c. Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher, Netscape Communicator 4.5 - 4.8, Netscape 6.1, 6.2, or 7
d. PDF Conversion – Options are listed at: http://www.grants.gov/assets/PDFConversion.pdf
e. Pure Edge Viewer – This must be downloaded from http://www.grants.gov/DownloadViewer
f. Mac User s– At this time Wayne State University will not be participating in the proposed work around for mac users.

4.Familiarize yourself with the Grants.Gov website. It provides you the opportunity to FIND funding opportunities and APPLY for them. You must always identify a Fund Opportunity Announcement (FOA) in order to download the application package and corresponding instructions

If you are not sure if you must use Grants.Gov to submit your proposal, check the FOA or PA or RFA as to the method of submission. Most agencies do not have a planned timeline for using Grants.Gov so we must rely on what is in the announcements. Based on information available, Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Justice (DOJ), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and Center for Disease Control (CDC) are currently requiring the use of grants.gov on nearly 100% of submissions. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) have implementation information on the following web sites:

NIH: http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/files/Electronic_receipt_timeline_Ext.pdf
NSF: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/docs/grantsgovadvisory06.pdf

Sponsored Program and OVPR are currently working on new website to be your source for all information and links related to electronic grants administration. We also will be providing training sessions on submitting a proposal through grants.gov starting this spring. Stay tuned for details on both

–Carole Bach, SPA