eRA Information: Grants.gov Downtime September 23-29 — Information and Advice for Applicants/Recipients

eRA Information: Grants.gov Downtime September 23-29 — Information and Advice for Applicants/Recipients

As communicated on August 3, 2022, through the NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-22-190, Grants.gov is migrating its systems and data to the cloud and therefore will be unavailable from Friday, September 23, at 12:01 a.m. ET to Thursday, September 29, at 11:59 p.m. ET (see Grants.gov blog for more details on the migration).

To mitigate the impact of this downtime, NIH and AHRQ due dates that fall on or between September 22, 2022 and September 30, 2022 will move to Monday, October 3, 2022.  Note that funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) will not reflect this change in dates; the guide notice serves as official notification and will be added as a related notice in active FOAs.

Impact on and advice for applicants/recipients

• Applicants will be unable to track application status or access opportunities in Grants.gov.
  • Applicants should use the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts to search for opportunities.
• The two-week window of consideration associated with the NIH Late Application Policy (when applicable) will be calculated from the original due dates.
• The two-day application viewing window in eRA Commons will continue to function as normal for applications successfully submitted through Grants.gov.
  • Applicants are reminded to reject their application in eRA Commons, if a corrective submission is planned prior to the October 3 due date.
  • Otherwise, it may be necessary to officially withdraw their application to submit a changed/corrected application prior to the due date. Applicants are encouraged to use the Prior Approval module if they need to officially withdraw.
• Applicants planning to submit to NIH under the Continuous Submission policy should take this downtime into account. The Continuous Submission application receipt period end date for the September 7, 2022 AIDS application due date (January Advisory Council) remains Saturday, October 1, 2022 and therefore automatically moves forward to October 3, 2022.
• ASSIST users can initiate and prepare applications, but will not be able to complete the submission. Users will receive an error message if they attempt to submit the application.
• Grants.gov Workspace users will be unable to access Workspace to initiate/prepare/submit applications.
  • Applicants are reminded that they can work on application attachments and pull together all needed materials, so they are ready to enter their information as soon as Grants.gov returns to service.
    • The Application Form Instructions on the How To Apply – Application Guide page and the Annotated Form Sets include images of each form that can be used for reference.
• Applicants using System-to-System (S2S) providers will not be able to submit but may be able to initiate and prepare applications. These users must consult their S2S provider with any technical questions during the downtime.
• If applicants encounter any issues with submission following Grants.gov’s return to service (e.g., Grants.gov message indicating the opportunity is closed), they should contact the eRA Service Desk for assistance.

Resources

• NIH Guide Notice: NOT-OD-22-190: Adjustments to NIH and AHRQ Grant Application Due Dates Between September 22 and September 30, 2022

• Nexus article: Extended Grants.gov Downtime Impacts September 22-30 Due Dates