All Agencies Must Move Back to Grants.gov

In a new memo, OMB has directed all federal agencies to once again begin using Grants.gov now that the portal has been upgraded and is capable of handling a large influx of proposals. The system was overwhelmed last year after enactment of the Recovery Act, and OMB had allowed agencies to move away from Grants.gov and to use alternative methods for receiving applications.

But according to the memo, recent upgrades and planned improvements have alleviated any risk that Grants.gov might fail and all agencies must move back to Grants.gov for receipt of applications by the end of April.

OMB also notes in the memo that the departments of Energy and Interior are conducting a “proof of concept” that would use the FedBizOpps.gov contracting platform for grants. However, OMB gave no details about the effort and said it expects to have results of the test sometime this summer.