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. These federal agencies have developed a common form, the SF424 (R&R) application form, in order to provide a consistent look and feel to grant applications across federal agencies. The goal of Grants.gov is to give applicants one convenient place to find and apply for grant opportunities.



Plans for Selected Federal Agencies
With the December 1, 2005 submission deadline, NIH began transitioning to the SF424 (R&R) forms and electronic submission through Grants.gov by research program and funding mechanism. A timetable of the proposed transition dates is available on the NIH website.
http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/strategy_timeline.htm

AHRQ joined NIH in the transition from the PHS 398 application form to the SF 424 (R&R) application form, and to electronic submission of grant applications. With the December 20, 2005 submission deadline, AHRQ began its transition to the SF 424 (R&R) form and electronic submission through Grants.gov by individual research funding mechanism.

HRSA no longer accept applications for grant opportunities in paper form. Applicants submitting new, renewal, and a selected number of continuation applications are required to submit electronically through Grants.gov for all opportunities posted after January 1, 2006. All applicants must submit in this manner unless the applicant is granted a written exemption from this requirement in advance by HRSA.


What Does This Mean for WCMC?
The RASP office continues to guide the Weill Cornell Medical College research community in the transition from a paper-based grant application process to an electronic one by helping them acquaint themselves with the new forms, technology, and procedural changes involved in the quickly evolving electronic submission program of Grants.gov. RASP will continue to provide information to WCMC through broadcast email messages and will post these messages on our website. We will also provide training sessions and materials throughout the transition process.


RASP Procedure and Deadline Summary
The investigator prepares the application electronically and sends it to RASP via an email attachment. The RASP office submits the application to the Grants.gov site on the investigator's behalf. Applications requiring electronic submission must be submitted to RASP at least seven (7) business days prior to the sponsor's submission deadline. The application must be complete and final, with the exception of the science which may be a draft, and must be accompanied by all relevant internal paperwork. The final application, which includes the final scientific proposal or research plan, must be submitted to RASP two (2) business days prior to the sponsor's submission deadline. For more information, see the Grant Processing Requirements.
http://www.med.cornell.edu/research/gra_con/grant_processing.html


Registration
Grants.gov requires a one-time registration by the applicant organization, which has been completed by Weill Cornell Medical College. Principal Investigators (PIs), referred to as Grant Researchers in Grants.gov, do not register in Grants.gov. Barbara Pifel, Senior Director of Grants and Contracts, is the WCMC Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) in Grants.gov.

Both institutions and PIs must complete a one-time registration in the eRA Commons. eRA Commons registration allows NIH and AHRQ to receive applications submitted through Grants.gov. It also provides a way for AHRQ and NIH to communicate electronically with registered users after submission. If you plan to submit a NIH application through Grants.gov and are not yet registered in the eRA Commons, please contact RASP by e-mail at wmc_comm_acc_request@med.cornell.edu.


Using PureEdge to Submit to Grants.gov
If you are submitting a new, resubmission, renewal, or revision application through Grants.gov, you must use PureEdge, the software provided by the federal government, to create your application and have it submitted by RASP. If you are a Windows user, you must download PureEdge in order to use this electronic application process. A link and instructions to download this program are found on the "Apply for Grants" page of the Grants.gov website.

To locate the guidelines and PureEdge application package, log onto www.grants.gov and click on "Apply for Grants." Search by the Funding Opportunity Number or CFDA number (note: do not search by CFDA number for NIH applications). If you are applying for NIH funding, also download the specific instructions for the opportunity from the NIH website: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/index.html and then the corresponding version of the general guidelines.


Submitting to RASP for Review and Approval
Once you have completed your application in PureEdge, look to the top of your electronic grant application in order to finalize the application. Click the "Check Package for Errors" button, correct any errors identified through this check, and then click the "Save" button. Your grant application package is now ready for you to send to RASP for review and submission. Send it to RASP as an email attachment by addressing the email to Grants-gov@med.cornell.edu. If the attachment is too large to send through Eudora, please send it using the WCMC File Transfer Service:
https://transfer.med.cornell.edu/courier/mail_user_login.html

RASP also requires submission of relevant internal paperwork in order to review and submit your application. Once you have completed the internal paperwork, please scan it and send it to RASP as an email attachment by addressing the email to Grants-gov@med.cornell.edu. You can also bring your routing form and any other relevant internal documents to Grants & Contracts (2nd floor, 425 East 61st Street) or the Institute for Clinical Research (1300 York Avenue, room A-223). Applications will not be submitted to the sponsor without completed routing forms.


On-Time Submission
For an application to be on-time it must be submitted to Grants.gov prior to the application deadline and then pass Grants.gov validation. Grants.gov marks the application with the official submission time within seconds of RASP submitting the application. However, the application must still be accepted (validated). Although some validation is performed by Grants.gov prior to submission, there are infrequent cases where a submitted application may fail the validation checks. The most common reasons for this include a virus detected in a file attachment, an inaccurate DUNS number, an organization name on the Senior/Key Person Profile form with more than 60 characters, or an application submitted after the deadline.

If the application fails Grants.gov validation checks and the application is not resubmitted prior to the deadline then it will be considered late and will be subject to the late submission policy of the grantor agency (i.e. NIH).

Once RASP submits an application on behalf of an investigator, Grants.gov will send email messages to advise the investigator and RASP of the progress of the application through the system. These messages are typically sent within two hours, but can take up to two days. The first will confirm receipt of the application by the Grants.gov system and the second will indicate that the application has either been successfully validated by the system or has been rejected due to failing the Grants.gov validation checks.

Because it can take up to two days to be notified that an application has failed the Grants.gov validation checks, RASP strongly recommends that investigators finalize applications in time to submit through RASP, correct any Grants.gov validation errors, and resubmit through RASP prior to the deadline. Due to the complexity of submitting an application that is accepted as "on time" by the sponsor, the final application, which includes the scientific proposal or research plan, must be submitted to RASP two (2) business days prior to the sponsor's deadline. Please be aware that applications received by RASP after the two day deadline may not be accepted as "on time" by the sponsor.


On-Time Submission for NIH
Once an electronic application has been validated by Grants.gov and forwarded to NIH, NIH will perform more detailed validation checks. NIH will then send an email to the investigator and RASP explaining how and why the application must be corrected and resubmitted or that it has passed the NIH validation checks and is ready to be reviewed by the investigator in the NIH eRA Commons. If it passed validation and the investigator is satisfied with the final image of the application then no further action is necessary. The application will automatically move forward for processing by the Division of Receipt and Referral after two business days. If it passed validation and the investigator is not satisfied with the final image of the application or if it did not pass validation, please see #13 in the document entitled "Applying for NIH funding through Grants.gov (using PureEdge)" ( http://www.med.cornell.edu/research/gra_con/pure_edge.html) for details on NIH's policies on changed/corrected applications.


Grants.gov Applications Transitioning from PureEdge to Adobe
Over the past 2 1/2 years increasing numbers of federal grant applications have been submitted electronically through Grants.gov. Most Grants.gov applications are currently prepared using PureEdge. Soon Adobe Reader or Adobe Professional (as of 7/10/08 the compatible versions of Adobe Reader and Professional are 8.1.1, 8.1.2, or 9.0) must be used to prepare all Grants.gov applications. To prepare for this change, please install a compatible version of Adobe Reader from the ITS downloads website. (www.med.cornell.edu/its/downloads)

In January some federal agencies began releasing the new Adobe application packages. NIH is preparing for the transition to Adobe and plans to begin posting Adobe application packages this spring. As long as the forms and systems perform correctly, a full transition to the new forms will follow. RASP will broadcast the transition plan once it is announced.

During this transition, it is important that applicants keep track of what version of an application package is current. Do not download applications far in advance of deadlines or reuse applications downloaded for past deadlines. Once the Adobe version is available, the PureEdge version cannot be submitted.

Currently, only Adobe Reader and Adobe Professional 8.1.1, 8.1.2, and 9.0 work correctly with the Adobe application packages. Other versions of Adobe will corrupt the Adobe application packages. However, programs other than Adobe Reader and Adobe Professional 8.1.1, 8.1.2, and 9.0 can be used to prepare attachments for the Adobe application packages.

To help the WCMC grants community with the transition, Bess Jensen will continue to hold classes in the library computer room. If you must complete an Adobe application package before the next class, please contact Bess and she will work with you individually.

If you have any questions about installing or using a compatible version of Adobe Reader, please contact ITS Support at support@med.cornell.edu. Please note that Adobe Reader is free and available at www.med.cornell.edu/its/downloads. Adobe Professional is not necessary for completing a Grants.gov application, but if you use Professional for other purposes you may find it convenient to purchase a Grants.gov-compatible version of it for your computer.

If you have any questions about the Grants.gov transition from PureEdge to Adobe, please contact Bess Jensen at eaj2002@med.cornell.edu or 212-821-0693.