Federal Program Manager – The Beginning of Trish’s Grantor Story

Before anyone can apply for this HHS grant, Trish needs to coordinate the design and posting of the FOA. To allow prospective applicants more time to plan, Trish would also like to publish a grant forecast.

Grant Writing Basics: How to Start Working on Future Funding Opportunities

As with many projects in life, it is best to begin your planning and writing as early as you can. When applying for federal grants, the OMB Uniform Guidance sets forth a 30 to 60 day range for federal funding opportunities to be open:

“(b) The Federal awarding agency must generally make all funding opportunities available for application for at least 60 calendar days. The Federal awarding agency may make a determination to have a less than 60 calendar day availability period but no funding opportunity should be available for less than 30 calendar days unless exigent circumstances require as determined by the Federal awarding agency head or delegate.” §200.203(b)

A reasonable follow-up question to this is what to do if you would like to begin working on a grant application more than two months in advance.

#FundingFriday: 4 Grant Forecasts to Consider

Grant forecasts are early announcements for potential funding opportunities. Forecasted grants give you and your grant team a chance to get a head start on the grant application planning process. To learn more, read the What Is a Grant Forecast? blog post.

What Is a Grant Forecast?

Sunny with a slight chance of competition? Cold and gloomy thanks to freezing funds?

While federal grant applicants may at times face such varying climates, the grant forecasts we refer to here are previews of potential funding opportunities that a grant-making agency plans to announce in the future.

Applicants can search for grant forecasts just as they would for funding opportunities – by using Grants.gov Search.

By checking “Forecasted” under Opportunity Status, searches can be tailored to turn up forecasted opportunities.

#FundingFriday Forecast: 4 Future Grant Opportunities from Health and Human Services

A grant forecast is a planned or projected funding opportunity from a federal agency. The agency is giving you advance notice that an opportunity is on the way. While it is not a guarantee that a grant forecast becomes an official funding opportunity announcement (FOA), it is likely.

Get an early start on your application planning for these grant forecasts from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Video: How to Locate Federal Grant Forecasts on Grants.gov

The next time you search for federal grants on Grants.gov, check the Forecasted option under the Opportunity Status heading on the Search page. (See screenshot below.)

This will allow you to browse projected funding opportunities weeks or months before they are officially posted. The Forecast feature is a great way to get a head start on preparing your next application.

Inside Grants.gov: An Interview with Communications Lead Nicole Daniel

We at the Grants.gov Community Blog (GCB) recently spoke with Nicole Daniel (ND), Communications Lead for the Grants.gov Program Management Office, to discuss the reception of Workspace and what Grants.gov users can expect with future system enhancements.

Nicole Daniel, Communications Lead with the Grants.gov Program Management Office

GCB: Workspace launched in October of 2015. What kind of reception have you seen so far?

ND: We’ve been happy with the reception. A growing number of users are submitting their first applications using Workspace. Early feedback suggests that users appreciate how much easier Workspace makes it to collaborate with other colleagues on the grant application forms.

GCB: What need or issue was workspace designed to address?

ND: Well, for years applicants had to download a single PDF of forms that only one person could fill out at a time. There were also issues with data entry – for example, you often couldn’t just copy and paste in prewritten text. Then, when it was time to submit, you sort of had to cross your fingers and hope you hadn’t messed up anywhere on the form, or the submission would be rejected. Workspace addresses all of these complaints and more by breaking the package into individual forms that can be filled out by multiple users at once. Also, each form is validated when it is uploaded back into a workspace, saving a lot of heartache during the submission process.

System Update: Grants.gov Release 15.2 Highlights Include New Grant Forecasts

Updated June 19, 2016: Grants.gov launched Release 15.2. The biggest addition coming to the system with this release is the grant forecast. The grant forecast is a projection by the grant-making agency of a funding opportunity that is likely to come later in the year.

Grant forecasts benefit both grantors and applicants:

Video: Federal Grant Forecasts Coming Soon to Grants.gov

We like to know tomorrow’s weather in advance so that we can plan out our day.

Wouldn’t it also be nice to know what federal grants are coming before they are actually posted?

Grants.gov is introducing its new Forecast feature with Release 15.2, giving Grantors the option to publish planned grant funding opportunities so that Applicants can get a head-start on preparing their applications.