| Effective Date: October 20, 2018 (Release 16.3) |
| Applicant S2S | Grants.gov will only accept new submission header V2.0 for Applicant S2S - After October 20, 2018, Applicant S2S systems need to utilize the new submission header V2.0. Submission header V1.0 is no longer supported.
- Applicant web services Get Opportunities and Get Opportunity Plus Comp Title are no longer supported. S2S applicants need to transition to use the Get Opportunity List web service
- Get Opportunities Expanded web service was updated to return the opportunities with header V2.0
- Notes: Release 16.2.1 introduced the new Applicant web services and new submission header V2.0. Please review the 16.2.1 Release Notes for more details.
|
| Effective Date: October 20, 2018 (Release 16.3) |
| Applicant | Applicant accounts with a duplicate email address are required to merge their accounts to login to Grants.gov -
To merge your accounts, you need access to the email address associated with the accounts. If you no longer have access to the email account or you do not want to merge these accounts, then you can change the email address to enter a unique email address. For instructions, refer to the Merge Accounts help article. |
| Effective Date: October 20, 2018 (Release 16.3) |
| Applicant, Grantor | Grants.gov password reset process improvements |
| Effective Date: June 16, 2018 (Release 16.2.1 in Grants.gov Production Environment) |
| Applicant S2S | Applicant S2S transition period from submission header V1.0 to new submission header V2.0 in the Grants.gov Production Environment - With header V2.0, uniquely identify a Package using Package ID instead of the combination of Funding Opportunity Number, CFDA, and Competition ID
- Submission Hash is no longer validated for either header version. (No changes to attachment hash processing.)
- Through October 19, 2018, Grants.gov is accepting both the old submission header V1.0 and new submission header V2.0 in the Grants.gov Production Environment and Grants.gov Training Environment to give our S2S users an opportunity to test and update their systems before
- Applicant S2S systems need to be updated to utilize the new submission header V2.0 by October 20, 2018.
- New web services include:
- Get Opportunity List which contains an updated Schema/Instructions URL with a link to submission header V2.0
- Get Submission List and Get Submission List As Third Party which returns Package ID
|
| Effective Date: May 31, 2018 |
| Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S, Grantor, Applicant | For Grants.gov Production Environment - Disable Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0 and 1.1 Support On May 31, 2018, Grants.gov disabled support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in the Grants.gov Production environment for our website users and S2S users (Note: TLS 1.0 was previously disabled for S2S) . Thus, Grants.gov only supports connections that have TLS 1.2 enabled in an effort to maintain a secure environment for the Grants.gov community. For our website users, if your browser does not have TLS 1.2, then you will NOT be able to access the Grants.gov website. Note: Grants.gov disabled TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in the Training environment (on March 31, 2018) to give our S2S users an opportunity to test and update their systems in preparation for the May 31, 2018 disablement of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in the Grants.gov Production environment. Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol that provides communications security over a computer network. It aims to minimize the risk of sensitive data being intercepted and used for malicious purposes during the transmission over insecure networks. TLS 1.0 and 1.1 have been found by Internet Engineering Task Force (ITEF) to contain vulnerabilities and therefore will no longer be supported by Grants.gov after May 31, 2018. - You may use a free tool like Qualys SSL Checker
 to see if your browser supports TLS 1.2. - If your browser does not support TLS 1.2, please replace or upgrade the browser with a more recent or supported version.
- To enable TLS 1.2 protocol on your preferred browser, please follow these instructions provided by GeoTrust.
- Disabling TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in your browser is recommended but not required.
|
| Effective Date: May 31, 2018 |
| Grantor, Grantor S2S | Opportunity Package Templates containing specific inactive R&R Forms will be deleted on May 31, 2018 Templates containing the following inactive R&R Forms will be deleted: - R & R Multi-Project Subaward Budget Attachment(s) Form 10YR 30ATT [V1.0]
- R & R Subaward Budget Attachment(s) Form [V1.2], [V1.3]
- R & R Subaward Budget Attachment(s) Form 10 YR 10 ATT [V1.3]
- R & R Subaward Budget Attachment(s) Form 10 YR 30 ATT [V1.3]
- R & R Subaward Budget Attachment(s) Form 5 YR 30 ATT [V1.3]
- RR FedNonFed Budget [V1.1]
- Research & Related Budget [V1.1], [V1.3]
- Research & Related Budget 10YR [V1.3]
- Research & Related Multi-Project 10 Year Budget [V1.0]
- Research & Related Personal Data [V1.1]
- Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) [V1.1]
- Research & Related Subaward Budget (Total Fed + Non-Fed) 5 YR 30 ATT [V1.2]
- Research & Related Subaward Budget (Total Fed + Non-Fed) Attachment(s) Form [V1.2]
- Research And Related Other Project Information [V1.1],[V1.2]
- SBIR/STTR Information [V1.1]
- SF424 (R & R) [V1.1], [V1.2]
Additionally, templates containing the following R&R Form will be deleted. Version 1.4 of this form accommodates updates noted on the Common Rule (Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects): - Research And Related Other Project Information [V1.3]
Since Grantors will no longer be able to create new packages with these templates, Grantors will need to support the latest versions of the R&R Forms. Please note that there is no impact to existing open packages containing these forms. |
| Effective Date: May 21, 2018 (Release 16.2.1 UAT in Grants.gov Training Environment) |
| Applicant S2S | Applicant S2S transition period from submission header V1.0 to new submission header V2.0 in the Grants.gov Training Environment - With header V2.0, uniquely identify a Package using Package ID instead of the combination of Funding Opportunity Number, CFDA, and Competition ID
- Submission Hash will no longer be validated for either header version. (No changes to attachment hash processing.)
- Between May 21, 2018 and October 19, 2018, Grants.gov will accept both the old submission header V1.0 and new submission header V2.0 in the Grants.gov Training Environment to give our S2S users an opportunity to test and update their systems in preparation for the June 16, 2018 change in the Grants.gov Production environment
- Applicant S2S systems will need to be updated to utilize the new submission header V2.0 by October 20, 2018.
- New web services include:
- Get Opportunity List which will contain an updated Schema/Instructions URL with a link to submission header V2.0
- Get Submission List and Get Submission List As Third Party which will return Package ID
|
| Effective Date: April 21, 2018 (Release 16.2) |
| Applicant | EBiz POC privileges changed to only manage Organization and manage Applicants/Certificates - Expanded AOR role can be assigned to any Applicant in your Organization
- Expanded AORs have access to manage all Workspaces, Submissions, Applicants, Certificates for the Organization
- Thus, EBiz POC privileges is limited to only manage the Organization, manage Applicants, and manage Certificates
|
| Effective Date: April 21, 2018 (Release 16.2) |
| Grantor, Grantor S2S | For new Opportunities, existing web services require Opportunity Number to be unique across all Agencies - Funding Opportunity Number is required to be unique across all agencies for new and modified Opportunities
- Existing duplicates are not impacted unless the Funding Opportunity Number is changed
- The affected web services include:
- Create Adobe Opportunity
- Create Opportunity Forecast
- Create Opportunity Package
- Update Opportunity Elements
|
| Effective Date: March 31, 2018 |
| Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S, Grantor, Applicant | For Grants.gov Training Environment - Disable Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0 and 1.1 Support On March 31, 2018, Grants.gov disabled support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in the Grants.gov Training environment for our website users and S2S users (Note: TLS 1.0 was previously disabled for S2S) . Thus, Grants.gov only supports connections that have TLS 1.2 enabled in an effort to maintain a secure environment for the Grants.gov community. Grants.gov disabled TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in the Training environment first to give our S2S users an opportunity to test and update their systems in preparation for the May 31, 2018 disablement of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in the Grants.gov Production environment. For users who use our Grants.gov Training website for your testing, if your browser does not have TLS 1.2, then you will NOT be able to access the Grants.gov Training website. Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol that provides communications security over a computer network. It aims to minimize the risk of sensitive data being intercepted and used for malicious purposes during the transmission over insecure networks. TLS 1.0 and 1.1 have been found by Internet Engineering Task Force (ITEF) to contain vulnerabilities and therefore will no longer be supported by Grants.gov after May 31, 2018 in Production. - You may use a free tool like Qualys SSL Checker to see if your browser supports TLS 1.2.
- If your browser does not support TLS 1.2, please replace or upgrade the browser with a more recent or supported version.
- To enable TLS 1.2 protocol on your preferred browser, please follow these instructions provided by GeoTrust.
- Disabling TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in your browser is recommended but not required.
|
| Effective Date: March 31, 2018 |
| Grantor, Applicant | Last day to submit Legacy PDF Package applications through Grants.gov - For any funding opportunities where applicants have downloaded the legacy PDF application package, they are no longer able to submit the older, single PDF application package of forms after March 31, 2017 at 11:59 PM ET
- Applicants can apply for grants using Grants.gov Workspace, which separates the application package into individual forms. Applicants can create a workspace, complete the individual PDF forms, and submit their application workspace package.
- S2S Submissions will continue to be supported.
|
| Effective Date: December 31, 2017 |
| Grantor, Applicant | Legacy PDF Application Package will be phased out in December 31, 2017 - Applicants can no longer download the older, single PDF application package of forms.
- Applicants can apply for grants using Grants.gov Workspace, which separates the application package into individual forms. Applicants can create a workspace, complete the individual PDF forms, and submit their application workspace package.
- The new online forms interface is available in Grants.gov and is only accessible through Workspace.
- For any funding opportunities where applicants have downloaded the legacy PDF application package, they are able to continue to submit that package until March 31, 2018 at 11:59 PM ET.
- S2S Submissions continue to be supported.
|
| Effective Date: November 20, 2017 |
| Grantor, Applicant | Opportunity Subscription Enhancements Grants.gov enhanced the Opportunity Subscription Management capability to allow users to better manage their subscriptions. For more information about the new and exciting improvements to our Opportunity Subscription Management capability. - If you had an existing Grants.gov account before November 18, 2017, you are able to view and manage your current subscriptions after Release 16.1 is deployed on November 20, 2017. Please note: the email address on your Grants.gov account must have matched the email address used to subscribe. Also, if you had multiple Grants.gov accounts using the same email address, you needed to merge the accounts prior to November 18, 2017.
- If you had subscriptions and did not have a Grants.gov account by November 18, 2017, you need to use our new streamlined registration process to create an account and add your subscriptions now that Release 16.1 was deployed on November 20, 2017.
|
| Effective Date: October 21, 2017 |
| Grantor | Grantor accounts with duplicate usernames were renamed Grantors were requested to login to Grants.gov prior to October 21, 2017. If their account had the same username as an Applicant, they were prompted to change their username. Any remaining accounts with duplicate username were renamed on October 21, 2017. After this date, Grantors can retrieve their updated username by using the Forgot My Username feature. |
| Effective Date: June 30, 2017 |
| Grantor, Applicant, Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S | Previous/Legacy XML extract format will be retired - Users of XML Extract should transition to using the new format
|
| Effective Date: April 15, 2017 |
| Grantor, Applicant, Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S | Grants.gov PRODUCTION Environment Disabled HTTP Connections Training Environment - Supports HTTPS only
Production Environment - Supports HTTPS only Grants.gov strengthened the security of its website and web services to provide service only through HTTPS connections. - Grants.gov disabled the port for HTTP connections to the PRODUCTION environment and only HTTPS connection are available.
Here's how you could have prepared for the changes: - For public (non-S2S) users:
- Accessed the PRODUCTION website via https://www.grants.gov.
- Updated browser bookmarks for Grants.gov PRODUCTION.
- For S2S users:
- Verified your systems continue to work after HTTP connections are disabled.
|
| Effective Date: Release 15.4 - February 18, 2017 |
| Applicants | AORs with Multiple DUNS need to Re-Download Packages - With Release 15.4, applicants with multiple Grants.gov accounts are able to combine them into one merged account with multiple profiles.
- If an applicant has merged their accounts and now has multiple profiles with the AOR role and they downloaded their application package before Release 15.4, they need to re-download the application package to receive the latest updates to the cover pages in order to correctly display the DUNS information after submission.
|
| Effective Date: Release 15.4 - February 18, 2017 |
| Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S | Impacts of Merged Accounts to Grantor S2S Web Services - With merged accounts, User ID and Agency Code/DUNS are needed to uniquely identify a Profile. Agencies may need to make the following changes to their S2S interface.
- For the Create Adobe Opportunity, Update Adobe Opportunity, Delete Adobe Opportunity, Delete Adobe Synopsis, and Manage Package web services:
- Added a new optional element: Agency Code
- Agency Code must be specified to determine unique Agency/Opportunity for multi-profile accounts (if the specified User ID has only one profile, no changes are required)
- If Agency Code is specified, the certificate must have the Manage Agency role to Manage Opportunities for a sub-agency
- For the Authenticate AOR web service:
- Added a new optional element: DUNS
- DUNS must be specified to uniquely identify Profile and return the correct AOR Status for multi-profile accounts
Please review and update your Grants.gov web services to ensure continued operation of your services. |
| Effective Date: Release 15.4 - February 18, 2017 |
| Grantor, Applicant, Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S | Grants.gov PRODUCTION Environment Conversion from HTTP to HTTPS Training Environment - Supports HTTPS only
Production Environment - Supports HTTP and HTTPS Grants.gov strengthened the security of its website and web services to provide service only through secure connections. - With Release 15.4, Grants.gov updated the Grants.gov PRODUCTION environment from HTTP to HTTPS.
- Grants.gov performed the following:
- Opened a secure port for https://www.grants.gov and redirect HTTP to HTTPS.
- Deployed the S2S web service updates for the Schemas, Reference Implementation (RI), and WSDL files to use the HTTPS connection while keeping the HTTP connection open until April 15, 2017.
- Disabled the port for HTTP connections to the TRAINING environment.
Here's how you could have prepared for the changes from 02/18/2017 - 04/14/2017: - For public (non-S2S) users:
- Accessed the PRODUCTION website via https://www.grants.gov.
- Updated your links to the Grants.gov PRODUCTION environment to use HTTPS including RSS feeds and XML Extracts.
- Updated browser bookmarks for Grants.gov PRODUCTION.
- For S2S users:
- Even though S2S connections are already HTTPS, updated your systems in the PRODUCTION environment as needed to reference the Schemas, RI, and WSDL files using HTTPS.
- Tested your system to prepare for the disabling of HTTP connections in the PRODUCTION environment on April 15, 2017.
|
| Effective Date: December 19, 2016 |
| Grantor, Applicant, Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S | Grants.gov TRAINING Environment Conversion from HTTP to HTTPS Training Environment - Supports HTTP and HTTPS
Production Environment - No changes Grants.gov strengthened the security of its website and web services to provide service only through secure connections. - Grants.gov updated the Grants.gov TRAINING environment from HTTP to HTTPS during its scheduled maintenance window to allow users to make updates and test their systems before these changes are made to the Grants.gov PRODUCTION environment.
- Grants.gov performed the following:
- Opened a secure port for https://training.grants.gov and redirect HTTP to HTTPS.
- Deployed the System-to-System (S2S) web service updates for the Schemas, Reference Implementation (RI), and WSDL files to use the HTTPS connection while keeping the HTTP connection open until February 18, 2017.
Here's how you could have prepared for the changes from 12/19/2016 - 02/17/2017: - For public (non-S2S) users:
- Accessed the TRAINING website via https://training.grants.gov.
- Updated your links to the Grants.gov TRAINING environment to use HTTPS including RSS feeds and XML Extracts.
- Update browser bookmarks for Grants.gov TRAINING.
- For S2S users:
- Even though S2S connections are already HTTPS, updated your systems in the TRAINING environment as needed to reference the Schemas, RI, and WSDL files using HTTPS.
- Tested your system to prepare for the disabling of HTTP connections in the TRAINING environment on February 18, 2017.
|
| Effective Date: June 18, 2016 |
| Grantor, Grantor S2S | CFDA Number required when creating/modifying Opportunities (CFDA continues to be optional for Packages) |
| Effective Date: April 4, 2016 |
| Grantor, Applicant, Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S | Grants.gov URL Redirect Support - Grants.gov no longer provides URL redirects for outdated Grants.gov pages
- The old Training (AT07) URLs are no longer rerouted to the new URLs.
|
| Effective Date: January 11, 2016 |
| Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S | Port 446 Disablement - Port 446 are no longer be available in any environment
- Port 443 continues to only support:
- SHA-2 Certificates
- TLS v1.1 and TLS v1.2
- For more information about obtaining S2S Certificates, please review the corresponding information:
|
| Grantor S2S | Existing Self-Signed Certificates - Existing self-signed certificates are disabled.
- All self-signed certificates must be converted to CA issued client certificates for Training and Production.
- For more information about Grantor S2S Certificates, please click here.
|
| Effective Date: January 4, 2016 |
| Grantors | Email Synopsis - Synopsis are no longer created using Email Synopsis.
|
| Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S | S2S Versions - S2S V0 and V1 end points are discontinued.
- S2S V2 is the only end point supported.
|
| Effective Date: January 1, 2016 |
| Grantor S2S | Self-Signed Certificate Requests - No longer accepting self-signed certificate installation requests for Training or Production.
|
| Effective Date: Release 14.0 - February 17, 2015 |
| Applicants | Adobe Reader 8 Support |
Grantors, Applicants, Grantor S2S,
Applicant S2S | Special Characters (UTF-8) - Grants.gov receives, displays, and sends special characters for free-form text fields in the User Interface, S2S web services and submissions, and PDF submissions.
- Attachment file name validation is unchanged - Grantors continue to be able to specify use of allowed special characters in attachment file names using opportunity instructions.
|
| Grantors, Applicants | Browser Support for SSL and TLS - Browsers used to access Grants.gov must support TLS v1.0, TLS v1.1, or TLS v1.2. Please check browser options to verify settings.
- Browsers only using SSL v2 and/or SSL v3 enabled are no longer supported.
|
| Grantor S2S, Applicant S2S | Security Enhancements - SHA Certificates, SSL, and TLS - Port 443 will only support:
- SHA-2 Certificates
- TLS v1.1 and TLS v1.2
- Port 446 will only support:
- SHA-1 Certificates
- SSL v2, SSL v3, and TLS v1.0
- Users should obtain a new SHA-2 based digital signature certificate from a recognized Certificate Authority (CA), such as Comodo, DigiCert, Entrust, GoDaddy, Incommon, Symantec (formerly Verisign) or Thawte; and move to port 443 by 12/31/2015.
- Please note that all intermediate certificates in the certificate chain must also be SHA-2 in order to work with port 443.
- The same CA certificate may be used for both Training and Production.
|
Grantors, Applicants, Grantor S2S,
Applicant S2S | New Training Environment URLs - The new URL for the Training User Interface is https://training.grants.gov.
- The new URLs for S2S replace "https://at07ws.grants.gov" with "https://trainingws.grants.gov".
- Initially, the current Training (AT07) URLs are rerouted to the new URLs.
|
Grantor S2S,
Applicant S2S | New IP Addresses for Training and Production Environments - There are new IP addresses for the Training and Production environments with the new Grants.gov infrastructure.
- The new Training environment IP addresses are as follows:
| Hostname | IPv4 | IPv6 | | training.grants.gov | 104.37.105.90 | 2605:9500:4:95::30 | | trainingapply.grants.gov | 104.37.105.91 | 2605:9500:4:95::31 | | trainingws.grants.gov | 104.37.105.92 | 2605:9500:4:95::32 | - The new Production environment IP addresses are as follows:
| Hostname | IPv4 | IPv6 | | www.grants.gov | 104.37.105.80 | 2605:9500:4:95::40 | | apply.grants.gov | 104.37.105.81 | 2605:9500:4:95::41 | | ws07.grants.gov | 104.37.105.82 | 2605:9500:4:95::42 | |
