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 ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ====================================================================== ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ====================================================================== ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ====================================================================== ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ====================================================================== ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ====================================================================== ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ======================================================================
