Positive News for Grants.gov

Some encouraging news today on Grants.gov. The House Labor Health & Human Services subcommittee tasked the GAO to continue with its studies and recommendation on Grants.gov. As reported today on the RESADM-L listserv:

The Committee directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the Grants. gov system and report to the Office of Management and Budget, HHS, and the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate its recommendations for improved system management. Specifically, GAO should recommend a business model that provides an adequate, reliable funding stream and the appointment of a unified administrative body that is delegated both control and resources.

(Thanks to Randy Legeai at Tulane for posting.) The fact that the legislative branch is getting more actively involved bodes well. This reinforces what we've heard from sources at the OMB and Grants.gov, as well as the university community: there is strong support for a single grants portal.

With proper funding and a management structure that is more responsive to the applicant community, perhaps we can look forward to continuing improvements in service and reliability. While Grants.gov is unfortunately stuck with the Adobe forms infrastructure for the foreseeable future, at least the technology landscape has stabilized.

I know the S2S community is looking for ways to continue to improve on the success we've had in web-based access to Grants.gov.  I'm sure we'll see more on this topic soon.