SCHEDULED SYSTEM MAINTENANCE

On January 3, 2011, Grants.gov will be undergoing system maintenance to address processing issues that have been affecting users for several weeks. The system will be available to all users during this maintenance period.

E-BIZ POC LOGIN AND PASSWORD RESET UPDATE

When an EXISTING E-Biz POC logs in for the first time after the October 11, 2010 Security Build, the E-Biz POC must enter the DUNS and for the Password field, enter the MPIN. Once verified, the system will immediately request the E-Biz POC to change the password.

When a NEW E-Biz POC account is established, a system-generated password will be sent in an email to be used to log in to the account. This new password will be sent to the CCR email address on file with Grants.gov. If your email is not the email on file with CCR, you may not be the E-Biz POC. Please check with CCR or your organization for the E-Biz POC contact.
The "I Forgot My Password/Unlock My Account" functionality for an E-Biz POC with an established password, is an new option that allows an E-Biz POC to request a system-generated password through an email message. The system will send the email to the address in the user's profile.

The Grants.gov system is currently designed to grant log in access to the E-Biz POC using the DUNS and new password. When the DUNS and MPIN are shared within an organization and the password has been changed, the system will deny access when different passwords are entered for the same DUNS.

"VIRUSDETECT" Errors

The problem causing some applicants to intermittently receive false “VIRUSDETECT” errors over the last few days was identified and fixed last evening. We have been monitoring the system today and it is operating normally. We will continue to monitor the system closely over the next several days to ensure that the issue is fully resolved. Applicants should submit applications to the system as usual. Should an applicant encounter VIRUSEDETECT errors, please contact the Grants.gov Contact Center at 1-800-518-4726. We have directed the Contact Center to escalate any VIRUSDETECT error issue received to our developer so they can be dealt with immediately and ensure that all applicants are able to successfully submit.

Regards,

Grants.gov Program Management Office

Grants.gov Contact Center Holiday Closings

The Grant.gov Contact Center will be closed on Saturday, December 25, 2010 and Saturday, January 1, 2011 in observance of Federal Holidays. While Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) will be unavailable to take your calls, we encourage you to use the iPortal’s Top 10 requested help topics (FAQs), Searchable Knowledge Base, and/or self service ticketing if your require customer support during both days.
We apologize for any inconvenience that may be associated with these holiday observances.

Regards,

Grants.gov Program Management Office

Grants.gov AT07 Training Environment Maintenance Completed

System maintenance has been completed for the Grants.gov AT07 Training environment.

We appreciate your patience during this period as we continue to improve Grants.gov.

Grants.gov Production Available

The Grants.gov Production system maintenance has been completed. The system is fully operational.

System maintenance continues on the AT07 Training Environment into Monday, December 13, 2010. A red alert warning will continue to remain on the AT07 Training home page until maintenance has been completed.

We appreciate your patience during this maintenance period.

Grants.gov System Maintenance Weekend

All:

The Grants.gov Production Environment will be unavailable starting Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 12:01 AM ET until Sunday, December 12, 2010 at 11:59 PM ET.

Additionally, the Grants.gov AT07 Training environment will be unavailable from Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 12:01 AM ET until Monday, December 13, 2010 at 11:59 PM ET.

Grants.gov suggests that no application submissions or activity take place during this period.

Please note for both environments that if the red alert text is still visible on the top left corner of the Grants.gov homepage, the system is still undergoing testing. When the red alert text is removed, the system is operational.

Email notifications will be sent out when Production and AT07 Training environments are operational.

We encourage you to monitor system updates posted to our blog: http://grants-gov.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your patience.

Grants.gov PMO

AT07 Training Environment Maintenance on Saturday, Dec 4, 2010

Grants.gov will conduct maintenance on the AT07/Training environment on Saturday, December 4, 2010 starting at 1:30 PM ET. The environment will be unavailable for approximately 2 hours. A maintenance page will be posted to the AT07/Training home page during this period. Removal of the maintenance page will indicate that the environment is available for use.

The Grants.gov Production environment will not be effected during this period.

Thank you for your patience.

AT07 Environment Restored

The AT07 training environment was down overnight, but is back up and operational. Impact was to user accounts and role-based assignment functions, but this has been resolved. The Production environment was not effected during this period.

AT07 Overnight Maintenance

AT07 maintenance will continue overnight. An update will be provided in the morning.

AT07 Down for Maintenance

All:

Due to continuing issues with the LDAP, AT07 needs to be temporarily brought down for further maintenance.

We will continue to provide updates as they come available and will also post status to the blog.

We apologize for the short notice and immensely appreciate your patience.

Ed

System Unavailable During Database Upgrade

The Grants.gov system will be unavailable starting Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 12:01 a.m. ET until Sunday, December 12, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The system may be visible during this upgrade due to testing efforts; however, removal of this notice will indicate availability of the system on December 13, 2010 at 12:01 a.m. ET.

Regards,
The Grants.gov PMO Staff

ADVICE BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR PROJECT FOR FUNDING

Funding sources unfortunately reject way too many projects for funding because applicants are not prepared before they ask for funding. Please, let me help increase the odds that your project is approved for funding by offering advice. If you read this, it is essentially a step-by-step guide to help you receive funding. Read this often throughout the funding process as a reminder of what you should be doing to improve your chances of receiving funding.

1. Complete a BRIEF business plan, less than 20 pages, which includes executive bios and budgets (conservative & realistic) for at least the next three years before you ask for funding because investors will not take your company seriously and will not provide funding without this information. Your business plan is a marketing tool designed to entice potential investors to consider investing money into your company. Investors need to read enough about your company to become interested and want to invest in your company. Why less than 20 pages ? Investors want to read a marketing "tease" not a novel, if your business plan is too long, it will not be read, and you will not receive money.

Think like an investor. When you are writing your business plan, repeat to yourself, why should an investor give money to me, when the investor has hundreds of other opportunities on a daily basis, to provide funding to someone else. The executive bios should describe to an investor that your company has experienced, competent, intelligent executives who will know what to do with the investor’s money so that everyone will earn a profit if the investor chooses to provide funding to your company. Explain the experience your executives have in your current and prior companies raising cash, revenue, and creating profit in addition to managing a cash flow. Your budgets should be conservative and realistic. Your company looks better if actual revenue meets or exceeds budgeted projections. If you follow the stock market, look at what happens to a company’s stock price when actual revenues are less than budgeted projections; the stock price usually drops significantly. Now, look at what happens when actual revenue exceeds budgeted projections. The stock price usually increases. It is better to exceed expectations.

2. Have enough cash on hand (verifiable with a bank statement) to secure funding by providing cash as collateral before you ask for funding. It is very difficult to have accepted as collateral, assets other than cash. The more cash you have, the less risky your company is viewed as a potential investment. Investors will want to see that you know how to manage your own cash flow before they give their cash to you. If you spend your company's cash as quickly as you receive it, and your bank balance is zero or close to it, when you are applying for funding, you are sending a message to investors that you don't know how to manage your cash flow, which will quickly tell investors to invest their money elsewhere.

Again, the more cash you have, the less risky your company is viewed as a potential investment. Since investors' mind sets are all about perceived risk, and minimizing that risk before deciding to invest money into your company, your job as an applicant is to do whatever possible to reduce perceived risk into your company. Also, to reduce perceived risk, have confidence in your company, answer e-mails and phone calls quickly (in a timely manner), and understand your company, industry, and the risks an investor will have about your company & industry, and work with the investor to reduce perceived risk. When investors see a lack of knowledge, a lack of self-confidence, indecision, or an inability to work in a timely manner that raises red flags and tells investors that you are too risky of an investment.

In this global economy, the banks that are still in business are barely lending, and their criteria is so much stricter than private investors, therefore, private investors have become a much more popular source for potential funding, and they are overwhelmed with requests seeking funding. Your company is in competition to receive funding with many other companies worldwide. Treat the process like a competition by being prepared, and working with potential investors and brokers to do what is necessary to receive funding. Enter the funding process with a flexible mind set of what do I need to do to attract investors' interest in my project, and what do investors want from me to see my company as a worthwhile investment. Applicants who start the process with a list of demands before even applying for funding are very quickly denied for funding because again your company is in competition to receive funding with many other companies worldwide. Attitude is important, and if you show you are difficult to deal with initially, investors QUICKLY lose interest in you and your company, and will quickly decline your project and give their money to someone else.

3. You will also be asked, in addition to how much cash you have, what you are offering as collateral to reduce the risk an investor sees when evaluating your project. Collateral are tangible assets you can legally prove that you own. You cannot offer as collateral something you wish to purchase that someone else currently owns, because that is not your asset to offer as collateral. What I highly recommend is that before you apply for funding, hire an independent appraiser to evaluate and provide a fair market value appraisal for any assets (real estate, equipment, inventory, purchase orders, intellectual property, accounts receivable, etc.) you have that you are offering as collateral to help receive funding. Independent appraisals, within the last thirty days, are seen as far more trustworthy by potential investors than owners estimating the value of their own assets. The same concept applies with collateral, as cash. The more cash and collateral you have, the less risky your project is viewed by potential investors and the better the odds that you will receive funding.

4. You will be asked, “are you offering debt (loan), equity (ownership) or either in exchange for received funds ?” The best answer you can provide is either, because the flexibility is appreciated by potential investors, and will attract more interest in your project. If your company is a start up (pre revenue), and your answer is equity, you are virtually guaranteeing you will not receive funding. Start up (pre revenue) companies do not yet have financial statements showing cash, accounts receivable, inventory and other assets. You also do not yet have revenue, E.B.I.T.D.A. or net profit. Offering equity only in a company that has no cash, no collateral and no revenue is not worth anything close to the amount of money you are asking for, and your project will be declined for funding. Again, since investors' mind sets are all about perceived risk, and minimizing that risk before deciding to invest money into your company, your job as an applicant is to do whatever possible to reduce perceived risk into your company. Having "skin in the game" by being willing to incur some debt to receive funding, reduces perceived risk by investors. Telling investors you are offering equity only makes your project substantially more risky, and if you are offering equity only, your audited financial statements and an independent appraisal of the net worth of your business should justify the amount of money you are seeking in exchange for equity if you wish to receive funding.

5. Check your ego at the door. I have seen many C.E.O.’s of companies destroy their chances to receive funding because they do not understand how the process works. You may not want to read this, but, the person with the cash calls the shots, dictates whether or not you receive funding, controls the time frame of when you will receive funding, and every potential investor is overwhelmed on a daily basis with many requests to provide funding. I frequently see applicants who think ME, ME, ME who enter the funding process with a list of demands, and tell the investor they're only interested in an investor who will give money to them, and leave them alone afterwards to do whatever they want with someone else's money. Start thinking WE instead of ME. I have had many applicants with the ME attitude and so far NONE OF THEM have received funding. You are asking an investor to become your business PARTNER, think PARTNER throughout the process, not ME, ME, ME if you wish to receive funding.

Potential investors have plenty of options of how to invest their money; they have all the leverage and C.E.O.’s of companies requesting funding unfortunately do not have leverage. Would you go to a bank, apply for a loan, have a list of demands, and harass the bank throughout the funding process, and realistically expect to receive funding ?

An error applicants make within introductory emails is accusing investors of being fraudulent when they know nothing about the investors, their companies, and their years in business, quantity of verifiable funded transactions, and the fact that the investment industry is heavily regulated, and that investment companies and banks have to renew their business licenses annually after meeting strict criteria. Then, ignorant applicants mysteriously wonder why they are on the internet for months and years without any investor wanting to do business with them or offering to give money to them, by this point you’re already blacklisted and your chances of receiving money are zero. Go to your local bank, ask to talk to the manager, mention you are seeking money for your business, and before the bank asks you many qualifying questions to establish your chances or receiving money, refuse to answer the bank’s questions, accuse everyone associated with the bank of being fraudulent, and demand to see a list of recipients of the bank’s loans, along with the recipients’ contact information, because you want to interview them and ask questions about the bank’s credibility, then count how many seconds you remain in the bank until you are forcibly removed by the bank’s security. Sadly, there are applicants that are so ignorant that they do this daily and are stunned when no one wants to do business with them. You do not “bite the hand that feeds you” by insulting investors and then expecting them to want to give money to you. Banks and investment companies, daily, are overwhelmed with a volume of applicants seeking funding, they do not have the time to talk to every applicant nor the money to fund every project, the immediate moment an applicant shows unprofessional behavior, you are declined and your money goes to a different applicant who is professional.

If you make unreasonable requests of an investor, your company will immediately be declined for funding, and the investor will provide money to someone else. Investors will not talk to a C.E.O. directly, initially, when you are requesting funding. They are constantly presented with investment ideas, and they typically hide behind people like me who screen applicants to help them decide who is eligible to receive funding based upon criteria provided by the investors.

You are asking a potential investor to become a business partner. Partnerships are about working together compatibly, treating each other with respect and trusting each other. If you are not prepared to work with a potential investor to receive funding, by checking your ego at the door, not making outrageous demands, and showing through your words and actions that you are legitimately interested in working with a potential investor who can help your business in many ways, besides offering funding, you will not receive funding. Investors have many worldwide business contacts in numerous industries. Besides the cash you are seeking, you want a business partnership in which the investor can recommend potential clients, vendors, advice, etc. to help you. Think of investors as a potential source of information to help you be profitable, because that is who they are. In many cases, they already have investments within your country and industry and their experience could be very helpful to you.

This advice is heartfelt in the hopes you read this and it increases your odds of receiving funding. My job is to try to help you receive funding. The more you understand about the process, the better prepared you are before and during the funding process and the more flexible and open-minded you are, the higher the probability investors will want to help you. Read this blog post numerous times during the funding process to remind yourself what you should be doing to increase your chances of receiving funding.

One of my funding sources provided a great quote, "investors frequently bet on the jockey and not the horse." Investors, who are human beings, by human nature, want to do business with people they like and feel comfortable with. If you display arrogance, or a combative attitude, investors will not want to help you.

Good luck to you, and when you are prepared submit your project for funding by sending an e-mail to me at ifindfunding@gmail.com

Feel free to also follow me on twitter at Ifindfunding. I will "tweet" all updates.

I am also on facebook at Ifindfunding.blogspot.com/

System Submission Issues Resolved

Applicants may have experienced system slowness this morning in the processing and validation of applications. Our team has resolved the issues attributing to the slowness. We will continue system monitoring throughout the day.

We greatly appreciate your patience.

Grants.gov Experiencing System Slowness

All:

Grants.gov is currently experiencing system difficulties in processing of application packages and S2S submissions. You will be able to submit and issued a tracking ID but may experience a delay in processing and validation.

Please check our website and blog for continuous updates: http://grants-gov.blogspot.com/.

Next update at 12:00 PM ET.

Grants.gov AT07 Down for Maintenance - October 29, 2010

Grants.gov will be performing maintenance on AT07 (test system) tomorrow, Friday, October 29, 2010 from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM ET.

The AT07 user interface and the AT07 S2S services will be unavailable during this period.

Production services will run normally during this period.

We apologize for the short notice and inconvenience and greatly appreciate your patience.

Grants.gov Quarterly Stakeholder Webcast

The Grants.gov Quarterly Stakeholder Webcast, scheduled for Wednesday, October 20, has been canceled. The next Webcast will take place on November 17.

Regards,

Grants.gov PMO

Grants.gov is Live and Operational

Grants.gov was restored and operational at approximately 2:45 AM ET. All functionality (application submission, find opportunities, registration, and grantor administration) has been tested and is working.

For applicants with submissions due October 15 and October 16, we recommend the following:

1. On your application package and instructions, is an agency point of contact or a program contact. You may contact this individual for guidance on deadlines.

2. Call our Grants.gov Contact Center (1-800-518-4726) in order to find out if any guidance has been provided for your funding opportunity. Deadlines and extensions are decisions that are made by the individual federal agency and not by Grants.gov. Grants.gov has taken extra measures to reach out to those agencies with closings that occurred on 10/15 and 10/16. Many of those agencies have provided us with guidance to provide to our Contact Center.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience during this time.

System Status Update

Grants.gov is operational at this time.

Additional information will be forthcoming...

System Status Update

Grants.gov is in process of conducting rigorous system testing this evening. We anticipate the system to be fully operational at approximately midnight ET tonight. We will post a formal communication once the system is completely up and running.

Thanks again for your patience.

System Status Update

Our technical team continues to make progress in restoring the system. Our next update will be at approximately 7:00 PM ET. At that time we will be able to provide you with a concrete time for when the still up and operational.

For guidance on submissions that are due today: you can contact the Agency Contact in your application package/instructions or the Grants.gov Contact Center at 1-800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov.

System Status Update

The Grants.gov system issues have been identified and repaired. Our technical team is in process of restoring the system which may take several hours. There is no indication of data loss at this time.

For guidance on submissions that are due today: you can contact the Agency Contact in your application package/instructions or the Grants.gov Contact Center at 1-800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov.

Our next update will be at approximately 5:00 PM ET.

System Status Update

We have isolated the issue and have made progress with repairing and restoring Grants.gov.

Please continue to monitor the blog for updates. The next update is planned for 2:00 PM ET.

We thank you for your patience.

The Grants.gov PMO

Grants.gov System Down Friday October 15, 2010

Grants.gov experienced a hardware failure during the night that has resulted in the entire system being down. Vendor technicians have been on site since before 6 am to diagnose and repair the failure. Additional time will be required to restore the database and restart the system. We expect that Grants.gov will be down for most of today, October 15. We plan to provide a further update no later than 11 am ET this morning. We will work with the agencies throughout the day to minimize the impact of this outage and to identify further guidance that application submitters may require. For now, please do not attempt to submit applications or otherwise access the Grants.gov web site until further notice. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

Grants.gov PMO

New Security Features Implemented

Grants.gov has successfully implemented the Security Build. Our system is back online and available. We appreciate your patience during this important system upgrade.

For more details and to view the WebEx session that explain the changes to the system please visit http://www.grants.gov/securitybuild/.

If you are an E-Business Point of Contact please visit http://www.grants.gov/securitycommebiz/ for more details.

Regards,

Grants.gov PMO

System Outage: October 9 - 10, 2010

In order to implement the Security Build to the Grants.gov system into production, it is necessary to bring Grants.gov off-line from 12:01 A.M. ET on October 9, 2010 until 11:59 P.M. ET on October 10, 2010. The entire Grants.gov system will be unavailable during that time.

We apologize for any inconvenience this outage period may cause.

For more details and to view the WebEx session that explain the changes to the system and what to expect once the security build is in place, please visit http://www.grants.gov/securitybuild/.

If you are an E-Business Point of Contact please visit http://www.grants.gov/securitycommebiz/ for more details.

Regards,

Grants.gov PMO

Upcoming System Performance Evaluation

All:

Grants.gov will be undergoing performance evaluation on the weekend of September 18th at 2:01 A.M. through September 19th at 11:59 P.M. The system will remain available; however, users may experience slow responses for general functions such as opportunity search, applicant registration, application submission and application tracking.

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO Staff

Grants.gov Program Management Office Staff Update

We are pleased to announce the addition of three senior staff members to the PMO during the month of August in the positions of Deputy Program Manager (replacing Chris Zeleznik), Communications Lead (replacing Michael Pellegrino) and IT Lead (a new position providing the PMO with a full-time dedicated Federal technology lead for the first time). A forms manager has been selected and we hope to have that individual aboard in early September as well.

Sadly, I must also announce the departure of Mary Tutman at the end of August. Mary has been a Program Advisor and has been the main PMO contact for many of you for a long time. Mary has an extensive knowledge of Grants.gov and the grants management process along with a dedication to understand the agencies’ needs and helping them meet them. Mary has also been managing our forms for several months in addition to her many other duties, and helped launch our Next Generation planning. Mary will be sorely missed.

I would like to take the opportunity to recognize the PMO staff for taking on the work of two and three positions over the last several months as our vacancy rates approached 50 percent. Their dedication to Grants.gov and its users, and their often heroic efforts, enabled us to maintain essential services during this time. Thanks to all of you as well for your patience and forbearance with the unavoidably slow responses in some instances. We are excited to be able to return to and exceed past performance levels. Now that the system is more stable and capable than ever, we will be able to devote more resources to improving service and functionality to all stakeholders. We will be sharing our plans and seeking your input in the coming months.

To summarize current assignments and reassignments, below is the new PMO staff roster:

Program Manager Phil Clark
Deputy Program Manager Boris De Souza
Communication Lead Loretta Smith-Hawkins
IT Lead John Enggren
Technical Operations Kevin Harp
Technical Support (PT) Ralph VanWey
Program Advisor/Actg Forms Mgr Ed Calimag
Program Advisor Judy Ceresa
Business Manager David Tillette
Forms Manager Vacant

Regards,

Phil Clark

Philip W. Clark
Program Manager, Grants.gov
HHS Division of Grants
Voice: 202-205-5890
Fax: 202-260-4823

SPAM Emails

There was a problem late yesterday afternoon (8/4) in which Grants.gov received an unusual amount of spam email. A temporary solution was implemented which resulted in emails from Grants.gov being generated from “support@mailman.grants.gov.” We implemented some changes to our firewall policy to block the spam email and everything is back to normal.

On Behalf of the National Science Foundation (NSF): Outline of Changes to NSF Grant Application Submission Process

For information regarding this post on behalf of the National Science Foundation (NSF), please contact the following individual:

Kim Deutsch
NSF
Email: KDeutsch@nsf.gov
Phone: 703-292-4497

Dear Colleagues,
Effective August 23, 2010, NSF will implement several important changes to the application submission process through Grants.gov.
These changes include:
• Implementation of the latest versions of the Project/Performance Site Location(s) (v1.4) and Research & Related Other Project Information (1.3) forms; and
• Automation of compliance checking for the Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan in the Research & Related Other Project Information form

Please see below for detailed descriptions of these changes to assist you in meeting these requirements.

Regards,
Jean Feldman

Overview of Changes
R&R Forms
Overview of Change: Effective August 23, 2010, NSF application packages will include the latest versions of the R&R Project/Performance Site Location (v1.4) and Research & Related Other Project Information (1.3) forms for funding submissions through Grants.gov.

Please note: opportunities posted prior to August 23 will continue to use the older versions of these forms since applicants may be in the process of preparing their application.

Customer Impact: Applicants submitting proposals to NSF through may notice the following changes:

1. Project/Performance Site Location(s) (v1.4): This version of the form allows up to 30 project/performance sites. However, NSF only accepts the first one listed. Any additional sites will not be included with the submission. DUNS ID is no longer a required field, but is encouraged, if applicable
2. Research & Related Other Project Information (1.3): The Human Assurance Number is always optional. In the older version of the form, applicants were not able to enter the Human Assurance Number unless the project was NOT exempt and the IRB review was NOT pending.

Grantee System Impact: Effective August 23, Grantee Systems must use the latest versions of the schemas referenced above for NSF funding opportunities for application submission.
Mentoring Plans
Overview of Change: On April 24, 2010, NSF initiated automated compliance checking of applications which request funding to support postdoctoral researchers. Such applications must include a one-page postdoctoral mentoring plan as a supplementary document.

Customer Impact: Applications that do not comply with this requirement will not be inserted into NSF’s FastLane system and therefore cannot be reviewed. The plan must be included as an attachment in Field 12 of the R&R Other Project Information form if the Postdoc line in the budget (Section B of the R&R Budget and each R&R Subaward Budget attachment) is greater than zero.

As a reminder, the instructions in Chapter II.C.2.j of the Grant Proposal Guide stipulate that each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include, as a supplementary document, a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals.

Grantee System Impact: Applicants may want to consider implementing a system edit that would prevent submission of an application to NSF if the Postdoc line in the budget (Section B of the R&R Budget and each R&R Subaward Budget attachment) is greater than zero and no mentoring plan is included.

Applications that do not comply with this requirement will not be inserted into NSF’s FastLane system and therefore cannot be reviewed.

The attachment file name must be “Mentoring Plan.pdf”.

However, Grants.gov and even some Grantee Systems modify the name after submission by adding information before or after the name. Even the spaces might be replaced. All of these changes to the file name are not an issue. NSF will accept an attachment ending with “.pdf” with any characters at the beginning or end of the file name and the following variations:
• MentoringPlan – run together with no spaces or special characters
• Mentoring&Plan – where any one character in that spot is acceptable

System Notice

Notice: A system problem occurred between 7/25/2010 thru 7/29/2010 that may have affected some nightly subscription email notification requests from being processed. The problem has since been resolved. To ensure that all subscribers affected by this temporary system issue receive system notifications requested during this time period we will be re-processing these subscription requests this evening (7/30/2010) to include all new and modified opportunities posted during this time. For those that did receive email notifications during this time period you may receive duplicate email notifications.

Additionally you can perform an “advanced” query on the site in order to view any new opportunity postings using filters to narrow your search. The following link can be used to access the Advanced Search page: http://www07.grants.gov/search/advanced.do

Grants.gov Quarterly Stakeholder Webcast, Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 1:00 to 2:00 PM ET

Please join us tomorrow for our Grants.gov Quarterly Stakeholder Webcast, Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 1:00 to 2:00 PM ET.

You can view the webcast by accessing the following link:

http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=9446

Grants.gov System Maintenance for 7/17/2010 0001 ET

Grants.gov “Static Content” will be unavailable for approximately one hour beginning 07/17/2010 0001 (ET) due to system maintenance. After which the system will return to normal operation. A maintenance page with the information below will also be posted for your convenience. If you don't see the maintenance page, after entering http://www.grants.gov/, the system is ready for normal operations.

The following functionality IS NOT affected:

Applicants

GUI Login and S2S functions, including submissions
The following link is provided for your convenience:

https://apply07.grants.gov/apply/logincontrol.jsp?goto=./secured/ApplicantLogin.jsp&loginpage=/jsp/ApplicantLoginGetID.jsp

Grantors

GUI Login and S2S operations including retrieval
The following link is provided for your convenience:

https://apply07.grants.gov/apply/logincontrol.jsp?goto=./secured/AgencyLogin.jsp&loginpage=/jsp/GrantorGetID.jsp

Sorry for the short notice but this will allow us to update the static site with notices and other content much easier than we can now.

AT07 System Maintenance - Updated 7/16/2010 0730 ET

7/16/2010 0730 ET - The maintenance referenced below occurred as planned and was successful, the "Static Content" portion of the site was only down for 15 minutes. AT07 is back on-line and operational as of this post.

AT07 “Static Content” will be unavailable for approximately one hour tonight, 07/15/2010, beginning at 11pm (ET) due to system maintenance. After which the system will return to normal operation. A maintenance page with the information below will also be posted for your convenience. If you don't see the maintenance page, after entering http://www.grants.gov/, the system is ready for normal operations.

The following functionality IS NOT affected:

Applicants

GUI Login and S2S functions, including submissions

The following link is provided for your convenience:

https://at07apply.grants.gov/apply/logincontrol.jsp?goto=./secured/ApplicantLogin.jsp&loginpage=/jsp/ApplicantLoginGetID.jsp

Grantors

GUI Login and S2S operations including retrieval

The following link is provided for your convenience:

https://at07apply.grants.gov/apply/logincontrol.jsp?goto=./secured/AgencyLogin.jsp&loginpage=/jsp/GrantorGetID.jsp

Sorry for the short notice but this will allow us to update the static site with notices and other content much easier than we can now.

The Production Grants.gov site will be updated at 0001 on Saturday 7/17/2010, a separate post will follow.

Dun and Bradstreet Is Operational

Dun and Bradstreet services have been restored.

Dun and Bradstreet is down

Grants.gov was informed today that Dun and Bradstreet has been down since yesterday, at June 28, 2010 as of 10:00 AM ET.

Notice from their website: http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform

"Alert: D&B is experiencing widespread technical issues. US DUNS fulfillment may be delayed and US and International registration in CCR may be impacted."

Registration and issuance of DUNS numbers to organizations is effected.

Grants.gov Down-time Due to System Build

July 24 – 25, 2010: Grants.gov will be unavailable due to System Build – 2010-02.
Grants.gov will be unavailable Saturday and Sunday, July 24 and 25, 2010 from 12:01 a.m. EDT through Sunday, July 25, 2010 23:59 p.m. EDT due to System Build – 2010-02. Although the site may be visible at times, the system will be unavailable to Find and Apply for opportunities during this time. The maintenance taking place is to enhance system functionality and add new features. More information will be available on these system enhancements on the Site Features and Enhancements page.

The Grants.gov training environment, AT07, will be unavailable all day Monday, July 26, 2010 from 12:01 a.m. EDT through 23:59 a.m. EDT due to System Build – 2010-02. Although the site will be visible, the system will not be at full functionality until the notice is removed. Usage of the site during the system build is not recommended.

Taking AT07 offline at 12:00-12:30 AM ET, May 4, 2010.

All:

We will be taking AT07 offline for 30 minutes at midnight (12:00 AM ET) May 4, 2010 in order to resolve an issue experienced in accessing login pages using the latest versions of Firefox and IE8. Please note that this issue has only been experienced in the AT07 environment.

AT07 will be back up at 12:30 AM ET, May 4, 2010.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Ed

Grants.gov Quarterly Stakeholder Webcast is now available online.

The Grants.gov Quarterly Stakeholder Webcast has been posted.

You can access the video at this link: http://videocast.nih.gov/launch.asp?15835

We understand that a number of users were unable to access the webcast and we apologize for the technical difficulties.

AT07 restart is completed.

AT07 is back up. Again, apologies for the inconvenience. As discussed in yesterday's webcast, the system inconsistencies will be remedied with completion of our Boost to the AT07 environment.

(Note: the AT07 outages do not effect our production system.)

Regards,
Ed

AT07 is being restarted

AT07 is being restarted. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Ed

Grants.gov Quarterly Stakeholder Webcast - Wed 4/21, 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET

The Grants.gov Quarterly Stakeholder Webcast will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, April 21, 2010 from 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET.

The Grant.gov Quarterly Stakeholder Webcast provides updates on current operational status and upcoming changes to Grants.gov, as well as an opportunity for Grants.gov users to ask questions of the Grants.gov Program Management Office staff. Highlights of this quarter’s webcast will be information regarding the last phase of the “boost” enhancements to Grants.gov and evolving plans for the Next Generation of Grants.gov.

The webcast can be accessed at the following URL:

http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=8705

Questions during the webcast can be submitted via email to grants.gov-webcast@hhs.gov. Your questions can be answered at that time and all responses will be posted to the Grants.gov website following the webcast.

Grants.gov AT07 Planned Maintenance Period

All:

In our continuing effort to enhance Grants.gov, we will be upgrading to a more robust testing and training environment at the beginning of May. By augmenting our hardware, we will be able to provide users with a dedicated and stable environment that mirrors our current production system and is accessible to all for testing and training.

The existing AT07 environment will be down from Saturday, May 1, 2010, 12:00 AM ET to Sunday, May 2, 2010, 11:59 PM ET. The new environment will be live beginning 12:01 AM ET, May 3, 2010.

As a precaution, the Grants.gov Production system will be down for a brief period - on Saturday, May 1, 2010 from 12:00 AM ET to 8:00 AM ET.

Efforts to access or connect to AT07 or Production during the specified maintenance periods will be unsuccessful. Applicants will be unable to submit applications during the Production maintenance period. The Grants.gov Call Center has been advised of the outage periods.

All existing user certificates and data in AT07 will be migrated to the new environment. Users will be able resume normal testing and interaction with AT07. No changes to URL or IP address will be necessary on the user end as we will maintain the same URL and IP address.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Thank you,
Ed

AT07 is Back Up

AT07 is back up and operational. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

AT07 is Down

Currently AT07 is down. I will keep you posted when its back up.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

(We are in process of replacing AT07 with more robust hardware which will mitigate future outages such as this one and enhance performance. These outages are not related to our upgrade project.)

Ed

AT07 is Back Up

AT07 is back up and operational.



We apologize for this inconvenience.

AT07 is down

All:

Currently AT07 is down. I will keep you posted when its back up.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Ed

New Entrust Root Certificates at Grants.gov

All:

New Entrust Root Certificates were installed to Grants.gov production over this past weekend.

Any S2S user without the latest Entrust root certificates and Entrust intermediate certificate in your system will experience connectivity issues.

(If you have not experienced connectivity issues or errors thus far, such as retrieving application packages to your system, then you are not effected and your certificates are up-to-date.)

The root certificates are available on the Entrust website (http://www.entrust.net/developer/index.cfm):

1. Click on the Download Root Certificate button
2. Select Personal Use
3. Select the Non-EV Chain Certificate tab

We apologize for any inconvenience. Please contact me if you have any issues.

Thank you,

Ed

AT07 Back Up

All:

AT07 is currently up and operational (as of last night). Thank you for your patience during this time.

AT07

In order to install special patches required by Adobe, AT07 has been taken off-line. We will return it for use as soon as possible, but do not expect this to occur until sometime during the weekend. We apologize for the lack of notice and any inconvenience.

Announcement of PMO Contact Points

Due to temporary vacancies in the Grants.gov Program Management Office, please direct your questions regarding the following specific topics to the designated PMO staff member.

Phil Clark (philip.clark@hhs.gov)
Grants.gov Next Generation

Mary Tutman (mary.tutman@hhs.gov)
Agency (Grantor) Issues
Agency User Group
Forms Management
Web Page Changes

Ed Calimag (ed.calimag@hhs.gov)
IT Operations/TAD
System to System/Certifications

Janelle Kelley (janelle.kelley@hhs.gov)
Financial Issues
Requests for Training/Webex sessions

The Grants.gov Program Management Office is currently developing a draft business case for the “next generation” of Grants.gov. It will address improvements in current functionality and performance as well as enhanced capabilities. The PMO is reaching out to all Grants.gov stakeholders (e.g., the grantor agencies, grantee organizations, OMB and others), in addition to sources such as user comments on this blog, to gather recommendations on requirements and priorities for the “next generation." The draft is expected to be ready for Grants Policy Board/Grants Executive Board review by early April and we hope to have a strategic-level Board decision on a future course of action by the end of May. Additionally, more detailed planning will be needed in the following months to flesh out the course directed by the Board. It is our intent to widely share, and seek comments on, next generation planning documents as they evolve, consistent with any limitations imposed by the acquisition process or other relevant policies.

Problems Posting to Grants.gov Blog

It has come to the attention of the Grants.gov PMO that people were having problems posting comments to the Grants.gov Blog. In response to this report the administrator reviewed all settings and believes the blog is working properly. Please note that moderation of comments has been activated so it may take up to 1 business day for comments to be available.

The PMO is sorry for any inconvenience and encourages the use of the blog.

Program Manager message

To: Grants.gov Users

From: Philip W. Clark, Grants.gov Program Manager

Subject: Grants.gov Update on the "Boost"

This is the first in an irregular series of updates that I plan to provide to the Grants.gov community on topics of general interest. I encourage your replies regarding specific topics addressed, suggestions for future topics, and whether you find this mode of communication useful to you.

While Grants.gov has been operating very quickly and smoothly over the last several months as a result of improvements made in the April/May 2009 time period, we still needed to do a "boost", consisting of additional server capacity, improved networks, etc. to increase the reliability and sustainability of the system during peak workloads. The boost is being implemented in two phases. The first phase, which went into production on schedule Feb 10 (despite the snowstorm), was focused on the production environment. The second phase, which is expected to go live in late April, will improve our test and training environments.

Since the 10th, the system has run smoothly and we have seen significant increases in speed for a number of processes . Behind the scenes, the system integrator has been working diligently to monitor internal system operations and to make “fine-tuning” adjustments as needed to either achieve optimal performance, or to reset warning thresholds, file sizes and other aspects of the system in response to the higher speed and greater volume experienced in our new environment. Literally hundreds of those adjustments have been made, and they can only be made as we monitor production processing.

Unfortunately, one such adjustment was overlooked. As a result, on Tuesday, February 23, 2010, the Find functions and agency functions such as posting opportunities and downloading applications were affected. We were able to receive applications throughout the outage period, but were unable to process them. All applications submitted to us were received and placed in queues that were cleared by 5 pm the same day.

We are on the equivalent of a system “shakedown” cruise and are continuing the fine-tuning activity to prevent outages like the one we experienced yesterday. While this major system upgrade has gone remarkably smoothly as such upgrades go, there is still some chance, despite our best efforts to avoid it, for another minor glitch to cause an interruption over the next week or two as the system settles in.

Should another outage occur, we will make every effort to communicate with you quickly after confirming the outage and will share what we know with you as soon as possible as we work to resolution, focusing on providing you with the information you need to take appropriate action on your end, whether it is to hold tight, retry, reopen browsers, etc. We are making additional efforts to keep the Contact Center updated as well so they can provide more helpful information to callers.

Work is proceeding on the next and final phase of the boost and will be the subject of a future message.

Sincerely,
Philip W. ClarkProgram Manager,
Grants.govHHS Division of Grants

System status

The Grants.gov website went offline at approximately 10:00AM and came back online at approximately 10:30am.

There was a connectivity problem into the system; however the servers were not down. Applications continued to process.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Grants.gov Offline.

The Grants.gov website went offline at approximately 10:00AM and can not be accessed; the PMO is looking into the cause and will send an update as soon as more information is available.

Grants.gov Experienced System Difficulties on 2/23/2010

Grants.gov experienced system difficulties on Tuesday, 2/23/10 from 12:00 AM - 12:00 PM which affected the following:

- Searching and downloading grant opportunities
- Accessing the system as a grantor and associated grantor functions
- Accessing the system as an applicant and associated applicant functions
- Accessing applications for download by agencies

Applications submitted during this period by applicants are being reprocessed. All system issues have been resolved. Should you continue to experience any problems with the above, please try the following:

1. Clear the Cookies from your browser,
2. Clear the Cache from your browser,
3. Exit and restart your browser, or
4. Reboot your computer and try again.

Instructions for #1 & 2 can be found here: http://www07.grants.gov/help/trouble_tips.jsp
We apologize for any inconvenience.

Alert-Grant.Gov-Back on Line February 10, 2010

The major upgrade to the Grants.gov system (referred to as the “boost”) was completed and the system put back into production on 12:01 AM ET on February 10, 2010. The Grants.gov system is available for all users.

The upgrade increased the capacity of Grants.gov, along with the system’s reliability and its ability to sustain continuous high volume activity.

The PMO worked closely with agencies that previously posted closing deadlines during the outage period to minimize any impact on the agencies or their applicants. Agencies with previously posted closing deadlines on February 6 – 9, 2010 took appropriate steps to ensure applicants are able to apply for these posted opportunities. Please note the outage period, and any agency instructions for particular grant opportunities, and plan accordingly when applying for grants in the early February time period.

We apologize for any inconvenience this outage period may cause.

Regards,
Grants.gov PMO