Re: Grants.gov (more on 7/20 outtage) Tom Drinane 23 Jul 2007 09:22 EST

A couple of points about the 7/20 Grants.gov outage.

1.  Someone sent to the list a message saying, "We did, however, get an
e-mail from grants.gov that the July 20th deadline has now been moved to
July 24th because of the issue."

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the message some received came not
from Grants.gov, but from NIH.  NIH deserves many kudos for the
infrastructure they have built to keep users abreast of issues regarding
system status, and to being proactive in taking steps such as pushing back
due dates in the light of such problems.  I have heard a report (from a
reliable source) that at least one agency has refused to do so, stating that
they have told users to submit early in case of such system failures.

The point is that we all need to be keenly aware of the many varieties of
doing business via Grants.gov.  When there is a problem with a submission,
that problem can occur at Grants.gov (as happened Friday), or it can happen
at the funding agency.  The couple dozen plus agencies have nearly as many
ways that they interact with Grants.gov, from importing G.g records directly
into their systems to printing the 424 package on receipt & hand entering
into their systems.  It is up to the applicant to keep track of what
messages they can expect from funding agencies (from several to none), what
those messages say, and when the messages require a response from the
applicant.  FDP is taking up the challenge and will at least attempt to
catalogue the various policies funding agencies have put in place, as well
as advocating for greater uniformity and a level of reasonableness when
things go wrong.

2.  The second issue has to do with what we should do in the interim.  On
Friday I made reference to a G.g S2S (System to System) listserv that has
been used to communicate system status to S2S institutions (which presently
Dartmouth is not, although we hope to be).  I asked Vince Sprouls in a 1:1
message whether I was right in thinking that the S2S listserv is the only
such service G.g has established, or if there were other channels of
communication of which I was not aware.  His response follows:

"No there is not presently and we are looking at maybe starting a
listserv for the non-S2S applicants.  However, we are aware that a
sizable amount of the individuals on our listserv do not use S2S and we
do release some general info regarding the site through it.

"We did not envision that it would take as long as it did for the problem
on Friday to be fixed and looking back, we are looking at our procedures
to get information out quicker on the site than we did on Friday.  We
are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you."

In light of this message from Vince, I am sending again the instructions for
subscribing to the G.g S2S listserv.  I urge all those who could use
notification of G.g status to subscribe.  You will get some messages that do
not concern you (having strictly to do with S2S issues) but from time to
time you will receive fairly important updates on the overall status of G.g
systems.

"Anyone interested in joining, leaving or updating their subscription
information for the GrantsGovS2S-L listserv can do so at
https://list.nih.gov/archives/grantsgovs2s-l.html."

Tom Drinane
Dartmouth College
Office of Sponsored Projects
(W) 603-646-3008
(F) 603-646-9141
(M) 802-356-7843
-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf Of
Lauren Oshana
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 4:23 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Grants.gov

Here Here!  We are on hold with a DOE as well as NIH apps. Quite
frustrating!

Lauren G. Oshana
Associate Director
Research Services
University of Pennsylvania
P-221 Franklin Building
3451 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6205
xxxxxx@pobox.upenn.edu
(215) 573-6710 (ph)
(215) 898-9708 (fx)
URL: http://www.upenn.edu/researchservices

From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf Of
Frazier, Courtney D
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 3:58 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Grants.gov

Why is the outage not posted on the Grants.gov website?  I thought that they
were going to post things like this on their homepage in addition to sending
emails.

Courtney D. Frazier
Assistant Director
Office of Sponsored Projects
The University of Texas at Austin
Phone: 512-471-6424
Fax: 512-471-6564
xxxxxx@austin.utexas.edu
Please visit our website at www.utexas.edu/research/osp

From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf Of
Bonnie Kwit
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 2:46 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Grants.gov

Yes, I got that email.  I was just checking.  I keep trying to submit
because I want to have a clear mind when I go on vacation next week.  I'm
ready to convert this G.g file to Fastlane, since it is an NSF proposal.

Bonnie Kwit
Grants & Contracts Officer
Oakland University
544 O'Dowd Hall
(248) 370-4116

From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf Of
Hal Gollos
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 3:24 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Grants.gov

Bonnie,

We still can't submit from George Washington University.  We did, however,
get an e-mail from grants.gov that the July 20th deadline has now been moved
to July 24th because of the issue.  I can forward if you like.

Hal Gollos

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf Of
Bonnie Kwit
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 3:12 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: [RESADM-L] Grants.gov

Has anyone had any luck with a submission yet?  I'm still getting the same
message.

Bonnie Kwit
Grants & Contracts Officer
Oakland University
544 O'Dowd Hall
(248) 370-4116

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