Grants.gov always looks for new ways to serve its users and improve their experience. In 2020, Grants.gov implemented a new self-service help tool – Grant, the Grants.gov chatbot. Recently, a new and improved version of the chatbot was implemented with revisions based on user feedback. You are invited to test it out and provide feedback we will use to develop the next version.
Continue reading Grant, the Grants.gov Chatbot, can help you find the answers you need.
Grants.gov is always looking for new ways to serve our users and improve their experience. In recent months, we have developed a new self-service help tool based on chatbot technology.
Today, we are inviting users to test drive the new tool to help determine its effectiveness.
The chatbot will be made available as a Beta feature on Grants.gov, after revisions based on user feedback.
Grants.gov will continue evaluation of the feature among the larger applicant community.
Click here to learn more and take the chatbot for a spin.
We greatly appreciate your participation and feedback. Please feel free to share this invitation with your colleagues.
Do you enjoy making time in your day for podcasts, whether during a commute, over lunch or after a long day at work? If you’re a grant pro – or if you’re on your way to becoming one – you might want to add the National Institutes of Health (NIH) All About Grants podcast to your listening queue.
While the podcast’s episodes are often geared towards NIH programs and policies, applicants to other federal agencies will still find a good amount of wisdom and insight.
Continue reading Applicant Resource: NIH’s ‘All About Grants’ Podcast
Every year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) releases an online resource called the NIH Data Book. Its current iteration is the most powerful the resource has ever been at communicating “funding trends on grants and contract awards, success rates, small business programs, peer review, as well as the scientific workforce.”
The Data Book’s new interactive visualizations, added in 2019, make it easy to explore the mountains of data available from NIH-funded projects and programs.
Continue reading Applicant Resource: Gleaning Insights into Funding Trends with the NIH Data Book
Continuing our blog series on applicant resources from federal government agencies and offices, today we highlight one of the more comprehensive sets of training modules on offer from the U.S. Department of Education. In fact, there are currently ten self-paced e-learning courses available on ED.gov’s Grants Training and Management Resources page.
“While the topics focus primarily on fiscal issues, there are important concepts included in the trainings that are applicable to anyone involved in grants activities, either programmatic or fiscal,” reads a description of the resource.
Continue reading Resource: Self-Paced Grants Management Courses from the Department of Education
“Can I get funding for my business?”
The short answer to this question is usually no, as we have explained in previous posts.
But there are cases where federal grants can be awarded to small businesses. One such case is with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
“These programs allow US-owned and operated small businesses to engage in federal research and development that has a strong potential for commercialization,” explains NIH on the programs’ website. “In Fiscal Year 2018, NIH’s SBIR and STTR programs will invest over 1 billion dollars into health and life science companies that are creating innovative technologies that align with NIH’s mission to improve health and save lives.”
Entrepreneurs and small business owners often ask us, “Can I get a government grant to support my enterprise?”
Perhaps they have an idea for a new business. Or maybe they are looking for funding to help grow their business.
Awhile back, we published a short video about this topic, but the Small Business Administration has a more in-depth online resource for folks looking to finance a small business.
The free, self-paced online course Financing Options for Small Businesses addresses many of the questions we hear from entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Continue reading Resource: SBA’s Online Training Course on Financing a Small Business
Community Insights is a new series that highlights advice and wisdom gleaned from the federal grant community. The posts excerpted in this series will have appeared already within Grants.gov’s Twitter and the Community Forum channels.
In this blog post, we’re featuring an exchange between applicants about creative ways to build partnerships when federal funding opportunities appear limited. A special thanks to Twila Nesky for taking the time to share her wisdom with the community.
Q: Hello everyone, I am interested to learn about how you all are being more creative in your approach to funding when the Federal funding is limited.
Continue reading Community Insights: Building Larger Partnerships in the Federal Grant Community
If you haven’t visited USAspending.gov lately, do yourself a favor and check it out (as soon as you’re done reading this post, of course). The website’s revamped design goes far deeper than just a new coat of paint.
For example, USAspending.gov’s new Data Lab beta site could prove to be a (heavenly) time-suck for data analysis nerds.
Its excellent visuals and interactive charts make diving into the world of government spending a little like exploring Hawaii’s coral reefs.
Photo Credit: National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration
Continue reading Take a Deeper Dive into Federal Government Spending with USAspending.gov’s Data Lab
Do you want the grants training for federal grant managers? The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) initially developed the Grants 101 Training for federal government employees, but now these eLearning modules are available as a resource for you.
Continue reading OMB Publishes Free Online Grants Management Training
Grants.gov Community Blog 