Grants.gov is the home of federal government grant information and applications. Grants.gov provides a centralized, online process to find and apply for more than 900 grant programs from the 26 federal grant-making agencies. Grants.gov streamlines the process of awarding more than $350 billion annually to state and local governments, academia, not-for-profits, and other organizations.

Learn more about www.grants.gov :

• Finding grant opportunities
• Applying for a grant
• Getting Started with www.grants.gov–complete these steps now!
• The Noncompetitive Grant Process—also at www.grants.gov
• Let me know about new grants announcements

Finding Grant Opportunities

The Find Grant Opportunities feature lets you search for information on available grant opportunities using a number of criteria, including keywords or specific agency. It also includes a registration function so you can receive email updates as new grant opportunities are added. Federal agencies are required to post all competitive grant opportunities to the Grants.gov site—so you will find all federal grants here.

To search for only funding programs that are related to the Chesapeake Bay, click on “Advanced Search” and 11.457 in the “Enter CFDA Number” box. This is the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number for Chesapeake Bay Studies.

Applying for a Grant

The Apply for Grants feature lets you apply for competitive federal grant opportunities through a single, unified process. Several of the 26 federal grant-making agencies have posted application packages for current opportunities and received applications submitted via Grants.gov.

Getting Started with www.grants.gov

While you can begin searching for grant opportunities for which you would like to apply at any time, we recommend that you complete the following steps sooner rather than later, so that when you find an opportunity for which you would like to apply, you are ready to go. At Grants.gov, click on “Get Started” to walk through a checklist and fill out information.

• Register with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR): If you will be applying for a grant on behalf of an organization, your organization must register with Central Contractor Registry. (If applying as an individual, you may skip this step.) You can register with them online at www.ccr.gov . This will take about 30 minutes. You should receive your CCR registration in about 7 to 10 business days. Note that you must have a DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet before you register with CCR. Many organizations already have a DUNS number (individuals do not need a DUNS number; the system will provide a default value in that field). To find out if your organization already has a DUNS number or to obtain a DUNS number, contact Dun & Bradstreet at 866-705-5711. This will take about 10 minutes and is free of charge. Also, be sure to complete the Marketing Partner ID (MPIN) and Electronic Business Primary Point of Contact fields during the CCR registration process. These are mandatory fields that are required when submitting grant applications through Grants.gov.
• Register with the Credential Provider: Organizations and individuals must register with the Credential Provider during the registration process to receive a username and password. This will be required to securely submit your grant application.
• Register with Grants.gov: The final step in the “Get Started” process for organizations and individuals is to register with Grants.gov. After you have completed the registration process, you will receive email notification confirming that you are able to submit applications through Grants.gov.

After you have completed this process with Grants.gov, you will be ready to submit applications to NOAA and to all of the other 26 government grantmaking agencies. You can log on to Grants.gov to confirm whether you have registered successfully, to check your application status, and to update information in your applicant profile, such as your name, telephone number, email address, and title.

All of these steps and links are also located on the Grants.gov web site under the “Get Started” tab.

The Noncompetitive Grant Process

Even if your organization only applies for and receives noncompetitive grants, you still should use the Grants.gov system. NOAA’s noncompetitive programs also post their application packages on Grants.gov. Your organization will then receive a unique identifier from your NOAA program office.  This identifier will allow you to go directly to your specific noncompetitive program's application package so you don't have search through all the grant opportunities in the federal government to find your program. 

Let Me Know about New Grant Announcements

We can let you know when new grants administered by NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office have been posted. Start your search for federal grant opportunities and register to receive automatic email notifications of new grant opportunities or any modifications to grant opportunities as they are posted to the site by clicking the “Find Grant Opportunities” tab at the top of the Grants.gov web page.