Department of Housing and Urban Development October 31, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The purpose of this notice is to provide instructions and advice to potential applicants applying for funding under HUD's competitive grant programs that are available through Grants.gov. This notice provides information to help applicants better understand the electronic submission process. To facilitate the Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 federal grant application process, prospective applicants for HUD funding should immediately begin the registration process or renew their registration from prior years. HUD believes that by facilitating a better understanding of the electronic submission process, applicants will be able to more easily make the transition to electronic application submission. Grants.gov is the Federal portal for applicants to electronically find and apply for over 1,000 funding opportunities made available by the twenty-six federal grant-making agencies. Grants.gov offers the applicant community a common Web site where applicants can use one password and ID to apply for a variety of federal assistance programs. To date, all 26 Federal grant-making agencies have posted their funding opportunities and electronic application packages to Grants.gov. To apply on-line electronically, Grants.gov requires an electronically authorized signature, known as eAuthentication. This requirement for an authenticated electronic signature serves to protect the applicant and the applicant's information, and to assure federal agencies that they are interacting with officials authorized to submit applications on behalf of applicant entities. Through this notice, HUD is encouraging applicants to complete or update their registration, in advance of HUD posting its FY2007 grant opportunities. HUD found that issuing an Early Registration Notice in FY2006 eliminated many of the registration issues that applicants faced in FY2005, the first year that HUD used Grants.gov for posting its annual SuperNOFA. HUD believes that by issuing this notice in advance of the FY2007 funding cycle, applicants will have sufficient time to carefully review registration and submission requirements and to have their questions addressed regarding the registration and submission processes. HUD anticipates that it will post its funding opportunities in late 2006 or early 2007. HUD strongly encourages prospective applicants for FY2007 HUD grants to register or renew their registration for application submission via Grants.gov as soon as possible by following the instructions in this notice.