| Publication Date: February 2005 FRPart: |
Page Numbers: 7088-7089
Electronic Submission of Grant Applications Through Grants.Gov and e-Application
Posted on 02-14-2005
[Federal Register:
February 10, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 27)]
[Notices]
[Page 7088-7089]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr10fe05-45]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of the Chief Financial Officer
Electronic Submission of Grant Applications Through Grants.Gov
and e-Application
AGENCY: Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of new policies and procedural requirements for the
electronic submission of grant applications.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Education
(Department) announces new policies and procedural requirements for the
electronic submission of grant applications through the governmentwide
grants application site, Grants.gov, and the Department's grants
application site, e-Application.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on Grants.gov, call
the Grants.gov Help Desk at 1-800-518-Grants. For information regarding
the Department's e-Application System, call the GAPS Help Desk at 1-
888-336-8936. For general questions about the new policies and
requirements announced in this notice, contact Blanca Rodriguez or
Charlesetta Griffin, U.S. Department of Education, 550 12th Street,
SW., room 7107, Potomac Center Plaza, Washington, DC 20202-4250.
Telephone: Blanca Rodriguez at 202-245-6121 or Charlesetta Griffin at
202-245-6157 or by e-mail:
blanca.rodriguez@ed.gov or charlesetta.griffin@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD),
you may
call the Federal Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) on request to the contact persons listed in this section.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice informs potential applicants for
U.S. Department of Education grants of certain new policies and
procedural requirements for the electronic submission of grant
applications.
Transition to Grants.gov. For certain fiscal year (FY) 2005 grant
competitions, the Department will require applicants to submit their
applications electronically through Grants.gov instead of through the
Department's e-Application system. Grants.gov is a unified Federal Web
site that allows organizations (e.g., local educational agencies, state
educational agencies, institutions of higher education, non-profit
entities) and individuals to electronically find grant opportunities
and apply for grants from all Federal grant-making agencies.
As a partner agency working on the development of Grants.gov, the
Department is committed to using Grants.gov in helping potential
grantees find grant opportunities (http://www.grants.gov)
and apply for grants (http://www.grants.gov/Apply).
Currently, the
Department posts synopses of all its discretionary grant funding
opportunity announcements in the FIND section of Grants.gov. This year,
the Department will also provide for applicants to submit electronic
applications through the APPLY section of Grants.gov for selected grant
programs.
You can immediately start searching the FIND section of Grants.gov,
at the above Web address, for Federal grant opportunities. You can also
register at the Web site to receive automatic e-mail notifications of
new grant opportunities as they are posted.
To prepare to use the APPLY function of Grants.gov, we strongly
recommend that you immediately initiate and complete the ``Get
Started'' steps to register with Grants.gov at http://www.grants.gov/GetStarted.
Although the steps can be completed within a few days in
many cases, we strongly advise against waiting until a specific grant
opportunity is announced before initiating the Grants.gov registration
process to avoid facing unexpected delays that could result in the
rejection of your application.
The Department does not intend to use the Grants.gov system for all
of the Department's grant competitions. You must consult the
Department's official grant application notice to determine the
application procedures for each program. For those competitions
accepting electronic applications, the official grant application
notice will specify whether electronic applications are to be
submitted
through Grants.gov or the Department's e-Application system. The grant
application notice is the final authority for this determination.
However, the Department's Forecast of Funding Opportunities includes
information on grant competitions that may use the APPLY function of
Grants.gov this year. The Forecast may be accessed at http://www.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html.
It is important to
note that if a competition is using the APPLY function of Grants.gov,
it will not be using e-Application, and vice versa. Over the next
several years, the Department plans to use the APPLY function of
Grants.gov as the primary
[[Page 7089]]
means for accepting electronic grant applications.
Exceptions to Mandatory Electronic Filing Requirement. We also
announce a change in our policy and procedures for permitting
applicants to submit paper applications in those competitions where the
Department requires the electronic submission of applications through
Grants.gov or e-Application. Under this new policy, when we require
that applicants submit an application electronically through Grants.gov
or e-Application, we will permit an exception to this requirement and
will allow the submission of an application in paper format by mail or
hand delivery only in two sets of circumstances. Specifically, an
applicant will be permitted to submit an application in paper format by
mail or hand delivery if the applicant--
(a) does not have access to the Internet; or
(b) does not have the capacity to upload large documents to the
Department's e-Application system or the Grants.gov application system;
and
(c) submits a written statement to the Department that the
applicant qualifies for an exception under one of these grounds.
The written statement must be mailed or faxed to the program office
(include the program name and CFDA number) no later than two weeks
before the application deadline date (14 calendar days, or if
the
fourteenth calendar day falls on a Federal holiday, the next business
day following the Federal holiday). A fax must be received by the
Department on or before this date and an applicant should ensure that
it retains a receipt of the faxed transmission. A mailed statement must
be postmarked on or before this date and applicants should refer to the
grant application notice for acceptable forms of proof of mailing.
Unlike our prior policy, we will not accept requests for waiver of the
electronic submission requirement up until the application deadline
date.
If an applicant provides its statement on or before the two-week
deadline, the Department will accept the statement and paper
application and will not provide any response to the statement. If an
applicant submits a paper application but fails to submit a statement
or does not submit a statement in a timely manner, the Department will
not accept the applicant's paper application. The Department will
notify an applicant if it is not accepting the applicant's paper
application.
Electronic Access to This Document: You may view this document, as
well as all other Department of Education documents published in the
Federal Register, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on
the Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister.
To use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in
the Washington, DC area at (202) 512-1530.
Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html
Dated: February 4, 2005.
Jack Martin,
Chief Financial Officer.
[FR Doc. 05-2600 Filed 2-9-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P