Grants.gov – A Brief Overview
Grants.gov is the federal government’s web-based portal for both finding and applying for grants.
Grants.gov was established as a governmental resource named the E-Grants Initiative, part of the President’s 2002 Fiscal Year Management Agenda to improve government services to the public.
Today, Grants.gov is a central storehouse for information on over 1,000 grant programs from 26 different federal grant-making agencies and provides access to approximately $500 billion in annual awards.
Registration: DO NOT TRY TO REGISTER IN GRANTS.GOV!
Only individuals who are applying for an award that is granted directly to you must register in order to apply for a grant. All other grant opportunities such as an NIH R01-Individual Investigator Award, are awarded to organizations and do not require the Principal Investigator or Project Director to register. Queens College is the official applicant for these grants and is already registered.
You can however, sign up to receive notices about upcoming grant opportunities in your area of research or expertise. Click here to Sign Up!
The Grants.gov system is transitioning from Adobe-based forms to an online WORKSPACE. The downloaded legacy forms package and submission process will be valid only until December 31, 2017. In addition, because of the new software system, all packages downloaded prior to February 18, 2017, will have to be downloaded again. Regardless, you will need the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader, available for free at adobe.com.
Grants.gov is an electronic system, not a grant-making organization. Through Grants.gov, each grant-making agency issues announcements and provides a window where applications can be submitted. The agency then retrieves the applications, reviews them, and processes the awards separately.
Lastly, grants.gov does not provide financial assistance such as student loans, or financial aid; and it does not process applications for other federal financial assistance programs such as Social Security.