Grants.gov System Downtime

Grants.gov is making hardware and software changes over the next several months to "boost" system performance. There will be brief periods during that time when Grants.gov will be unavailable or may experience temporary increases in processing times. The Grants.gov PMO will keep those periods to a minimum and will make every effort to announce them well in advance to allow users to plan accordingly. Within the next two weeks, the PMO plans to announce a schedule of those periods that are planned over the next two to three months.

The first such period will take place this coming Saturday morning. The Grants.gov system will be unavailable Saturday, October 3, 2009 from 12:01 a.m. EDT through 6:00 a.m. EDT.

We appreciate your patience. If you have any questions or issues regarding system availability, please contact support@grants.gov at the Contact Center and they will address your inquiry during business hours (Monday-Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., ET).

Error 500 Received for "send me change notification emails" Link

Currently applicants attempting to sign up for automatic notification emails for changes to funding opportunities may be experiencing issues. Applicants are receiving an Error 500 message when using the "send me change notification emails" link on the synopsis page. Grants.gov is aware of this issue and is working towards a solution, there is no fix at this time; we apologize for any inconvenience.

Example Error 500 Message:
Error 500--Internal Server Error
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1: 10.5.1 500 Internal Server Error
The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.

August 8 – 9, 2009: Grants.gov will be unavailable due to System Build – August 2009

Grants.gov will be unavailable Saturday and Sunday, August 8 and 9 due to System Build – August 2009. The system will be unavailable to find and apply for opportunities during this time. The scheduled maintenance will add new and enhanced functionality to improve the overall Grants.gov experience. Detailed information will be available about new system features and enhancements on the Site Features and Enhancements page.

June 27 – 28, 2009: Grants.gov will be unavailable due to System Build – June 2009

Grants.gov will be unavailable Saturday and Sunday, June 27 and 28 due to System Build – June 2009. The system will be unavailable to find and apply for opportunities during this time. The scheduled maintenance will further increase system capacity and speed by updating to the latest available software. Other user friendly updates will also be made, to improve the overall Grants.gov experience. Detailed information will be available about these system enhancements on the Site Features and Enhancements page.

May 30 – 31, 2009: Grants.gov will be unavailable due to System Build – May 2009

Grants.gov will be unavailable Saturday and Sunday, May 30 and 31 due to System Build – May 2009. The system will be unavailable to find and apply for opportunities during this time. The maintenance taking place is to update the system architecture and further increase system capacity and processing speed for the submission of applications by upgrading software and reconfiguring the existing architecture. More information will be available on these system enhancements to be implemented during the System Build – May 2009 on the Site Features and Enhancements page.

April 27, 2009: High Submission Volume

There are 29 Grant Opportunities closing on Monday, April 27, 2009. The submissions for these opportunities have already begun and will continue to grow as we move towards April 27. The following Agencies have closings on April 27:

• ACF
• AMS
• CDC
• CSREE
• DOE
• EPA
• HRSA
• NIH
• USAID

Submission Errors Due To "Filename Format" Reported – Special Characters Not Supported

File attachment names longer than approximately 50 characters can cause submission errors. Do not use any special characters (example: &,–,*,%,/,#’, - ) or spacing followed by a dash in the file name for word separation, use underscore (example: my _Attached_File.pdf) in naming the attachments. There also have been issues reported when periods were used in the file name that prevented a successful submission. Please note that if these guidelines are not followed, your application may be rejected.

S2S NOTICE: Special Characters Not Supported

Grants.gov will only accept ASCII characters in XML, while other characters may be supported by the schema, they may cause differences in the resulting hash value generated when the application is processed by Grants.gov resulting in a FATAL error in the submission.

EXAMPLE 1 - Note 'D' causes an error

[2009-02-11 11:17:46,610][FATAL][GrantS2SFacade.submitApplication()1377]-Couldn't completely receive Submission due to unknown Exception. Throwing Exception to WS Implementation org.dom4j.InvalidXPathException: Invalid XPath expression: //att:FileLocation[@att:href='D'ASSORO+BCRT+2002_FTLUII5NT77KT4IQDKQGDQBAD6.pdf'] Expected: ]

java.lang.Exception: 16

EXAMPLE 2 - Note 's causes an error
//att:FileLocation[@att:href='cid:GP_Candidate's_Background.pdf]

April 18 – 19, 2009: Grants.gov will be unavailable due to
System Build – April 2009

Grants.gov will be unavailable Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and 19 due to System Build – April 2009. The system will be unavailable to find and apply for opportunities during this time. The maintenance taking place is to update the system configuration and provide a new feature, "Track My Application," which will allow you to check the status of an application submission by simply entering its corresponding Grants.gov tracking number. With this new “Track My Application” feature, you will not need to login to see the status of a submitted package. More information will be available on these system enhancements to be implemented during the System Build – April 2009 on the Site Features and Enhancements page.

The new system configuration and "Track My Application" feature will reduce the strain put on the system by the unprecedented number of applicants logging into the system. For every System Build we distribute a detailed communication on what occurred in the Build via our Grants.gov update listserv: http://www.grants.gov/applicants/email_subscription_signup.jsp.

March 28 – 29, 2009: Grants.gov will be unavailable due to System Build 2009-01

Grants.gov will be unavailable Saturday and Sunday, March 28 and 29 due to System Build 2009-01. The system will be unavailable to find and apply for opportunities during this time. The maintenance taking place is to update the Grantor registration credentialing process. Detailed information will be available about these system enhancements on the Site Features and Enhancements page.

Grants.gov Applicant Login Issue - Resolved

The CCR Extract issue has been resolved. Applicant usernames and passwords are being successfully activated due to the CCR extract that Grants.gov is now able to run each night.

ALERT - Grants.gov Applicant Login Issue

January 14, 2009

If you are an applicant who has renewed, modified or registered with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) after December 31, 2008 and cannot login to Grants.gov please contact the Grants.gov Contact Center (1-800-518-4726/support@grants.gov).

Grants.gov is currently experiencing an issue pulling the nightly data extract from CCR. If you have verified your CCR registration is active and you call the Grants.gov Contact Center please have the following information available so that Grants.gov can manually enter your information into the Grants.gov system to activate your Grants.gov username and password.

• DUNS, DUNS plus 4, legal business name, government business primary POC email address, M-PIN, registration date with CCR, applicant name, phone number and email address.

Grants.gov will create a customer service ticket for your call and notify you once your Grants.gov username and password are active.

February 7 – 8, 2009: Grants.gov will be unavailable due to System Build 2008-03

Grants.gov will be unavailable Saturday and Sunday, February 7 and 8 due to System Build 2008-03. The system will be unavailable to find and apply for opportunities during this time. The maintenance taking place is to enhance the system by reconfiguring the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server and update the registration credentialing process; more information will be available on system enhancements to be implemented during Build 2008-03 on the Site Features and Enhancements page.

February 5, 2009: NIH Large Closing Day Expect Delays

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has a large grant opportunity closing on February 5, 2009. NIH expects upwards of 10,000 applications; therefore Grants.gov recommends you submit early and off hours to avoid anticipated system delays.

For more information on NIH closings, visit: 

ALERT - Grants.gov Applicant Login Issue

If you are an applicant who has renewed, modified or registered with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) after December 31, 2008 and cannot login to Grants.gov please contact the Grants.gov Contact Center (1-800-518-4726/support@grants.gov).

Grants.gov is currently experiencing an issue pulling the nightly data extract from CCR. If you have verified your CCR registration is active and you call the Grants.gov Contact Center please have the following information available so that Grants.gov can manually enter your information into the Grants.gov system to activate your Grants.gov username and password.

• DUNS, DUNS plus 4, legal business name, government business primary POC email address, M-PIN, registration date with CCR, applicant name, phone number and email address.

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