The Grants.gov Support Center helps a lot of you resolve problems and complete your federal grant applications before the deadline. One of the most common questions the Support Center gets is how to use Workspace forms.
Below are general steps to answer that question. “General” because the steps below depend on whether you are filling out a webform or a PDF version of the form—you get to choose. Since this is the most common Workspace-related question to the Support Center, we know many of you have no problem creating a workspace since the forms are only accessible through that.
The “Congressional District of Applicant” field is just one tiny rectangle on the SF-424 form, but if you get it wrong, it can create complications for your application downstream.
In this field, the grant-making agency expects a code that begins with your state’s two-letter abbreviation and ends with a three-digit district number. A hyphen separates the two parts, like this, “VA-001” [State of Virginia – 1st Congressional District].
In Parts 1 and Part 2 of this series, we discussed the two phases of developing grant application forms: content approvals by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and technical development by Grants.gov.
The time required to deploy new or updated forms largely depends on the amount of technical development that is needed.
The graphic below estimates the different deployment timelines for cosmetic, minor, moderate, and major form changes. Click on the graphic to view its full-size version.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained the content development process for new and updated Grants.gov forms. In Part 2, we focus on Grants.gov’s role in the technical development of forms.
The development time of each form can range from one month for a cosmetic change to up to six months for a new, multi-page form. The following provides a high-level overview of the forms development cycle:
In the context of applying for federal grants, “forms” are those seemingly endless documents you must fill out to complete the application process. An “online” form or webform, then, is a digital version of these documents that is accessible and editable in a web browser.
There is nothing revolutionary about this concept, but we at Grants.gov have now made online forms available in Grants.gov Workspace to make the application process a bit easier for you and your team. Continue reading What Is an Online Form?
In recent years, a lot has changed about the Grants.gov federal grant application process. The arrival of Workspace in 2015 gave applicants the ability to reuse forms and collaborate more easily. Grants.gov’s latest release, meanwhile, gave applicants the ability to forego the PDF and complete forms within a web browser.
The data requested on the forms also continues to evolve. The process for updating and creating new grant application forms is a complex one involving a range of government entities, including the grant-making agency, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as well as the Federal Register and Grants.gov, among others.
The Reply All blog series addresses individual user questions that may be relevant to a wider audience.
Q: How smart is Workspace? Can it catch my mistakes?
A: Workspace is built to alert users to potential problems with their grant applications. If you miss a required field, for example, a message will list the overlooked field in a pop-up window when you click the application form’s Check for Errors button.
If you fill out the SF-424 form before working on other forms in the application package, Workspace will populate certain other fields on other forms within the package. This will both save you time and help you avoid making a typo when re-typing data on multiple forms.
However, there are certain mistakes that Workspace will not be able to catch or remedy.
Thousands of federal grant applicants have submitted their application packages using Grants.gov Workspace. In this blog post, we share tips for streamlining organizational workflow in order to take advantage of Workspace’s full range of benefits.
A form reuse feature that imports data from past application forms
Improved form validations that help to cut down on last-minute submission errors
A preview feature that gives applicants the ability to view the complete application in a single window
Below are some tips to help make the transition as smooth as possible for you and your organization:
1. Form reuse is the single most beneficial feature in Workspace.
Whether you’re a one-person show or you have a large team working on each application, the reuse feature within Workspace has the potential to save you tons of time.
Scenario Let’s say you apply for a grant later this month using Workspace. In the end, you aren’t awarded the funds. The next time you apply for the same grant – perhaps a year from now – you will be able to reuse all of your old forms and focus your time and effort on improving the weakest parts of the application.
2. Familiarize your team with the general Workspace workflow.
Workspace separates the application package into individual forms. This allows a team of applicants to work on each form separately – at the same time, if they wish. This changes the traditional workflow, which permitted only one applicant to work on the application at a time.
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