Glossary

The following are definitions for technical terms and acronyms used in Centers for Disease Control (CDC) funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) and application instructions.

Additional Requirements (ARs): Also referred to as Administrative and National Policy Requirements, ARs outline the administrative requirements in 45 CFR Part 74 and Part 92. Applicants must comply with those ARs appropriate to each specific program, as listed in the FOA. Details regarding ARs may be found at: http://www.cdc.gov/od/pgo/funding/Addtl_Reqmnts.htm.
Amendment: Identifies any alterations made to a funding opportunity that affect a potential grantee's application or parameters of award.
Announcement Type: Announcements may either be designated as New, Competing Continuation, Competing Supplement, or Amendment. Modifications of previous announcements are traditionally treated as New.
Application Package: A group of specific forms and documents for a specific funding opportunity, which are used to apply for a grant.
Application Package Template: One or more forms and documents which can be reused for multiple opportunity-specific application packages.
Assistance Instrument: Each FOA must be designated either a grant or a cooperative agreement, indicating participant and funding organization levels of involvement.
Authority: Legal authorizations that outline the components of each individual FOA. An OGC representative may assist in choosing the authorities appropriate to any given program.
Authorized Organization Representative (AOR): A person with assigned privileges who is authorized to submit grant applications through www.grants.gov on behalf of an organization.
Award: Financial assistance that provides support or stimulation to accomplish a public purpose. Awards include grants and other agreements in the form of money, or property in lieu of money, by the Federal Government to an eligible recipient. The term does not include: technical assistance, which provides services instead of money; other assistance in the form of loans, loan guarantees, interest subsidies, or insurance; direct payments of any kind to individuals; and contracts, which are required to be entered into and administered under Federal procurement laws and regulations.

Billing Code: Identifies the funding center responsible for award.
Budget Period: The duration of each individual funding period within the project period. Traditionally, budget period length is 12 months or 1 year, in compliance with the Federal fiscal year (FY) funding cycle.

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA): An online database of all Federal programs available to state and local governments, federally-recognized Indian tribal governments, territories and possessions of the United States, domestic public, quasi-public, and private profit and non-profit organizations and institutions, specialized groups, and individuals.
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: The identifying number that a Federal program is assigned in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA).
Centers/Institutes/Offices (CIOs): CDC organization hosts 20 CIOs, under 5 coordinating centers. Each CIO develops FOAs based on a designated health specialty.
Central Contractor Registry (CCR): The Central Contractor Registry (CCR) is the primary vendor database for the U.S. Federal Government. CCR validates applicant information and electronically shares the secure and encrypted data with the Federal agencies' finance offices to facilitate paperless payments through Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). The CCR stores your organizational information, allowing Grants.gov to verify your identity and to pre-fill organizational information on your grant applications.
Closeout: Process by which the awarding agency determines that all applicable administrative actions and all required work of the award have been completed by the recipient and the awarding agency.
Competing Continuation: Identifies an opportunity for continued funding of an already existing award. Eligible participants are grantees funded under the specified award, competing against one another. Should the level of involvement of participants, parameters, or scope of the project change, all adjustments should be addressed in the funding opportunity announcement.
Competing Supplement: Identifies an opportunity for supplemental funding for grantees operating under an existing award. Eligible applicants for a competing supplement would be only those organizations funded under the project being supplemented, competing against one another for available funds.
Competition ID: A grantor selected ID that allows further distinction of the funding opportunity number which allows applications with the same funding opportunity number to be assigned unique identifiers.
Contract: An award instrument establishing a binding legal procurement relationship between CDC and a recipient obligating the latter to furnish a product.
Cooperative Agreement: An award of financial assistance that is used to enter into the same kind of relationship as a grant; and is distinguished from a grant in that it provides for substantial involvement between the Federal agency and the recipient in carrying out the activity contemplated by the award.
Cost Sharing or Matching: The portion of project or program costs not borne by the Federal Government.

Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS): A unique nine-character identification number provided by the commercial company Dun & Bradstreet (D&B).
Date of Completion: The date on which all work under an award is completed or the date on the award document, or any supplement or amendment thereto, on which awarding agency sponsorship ends.
Disallowed Costs: Charges to an award that the awarding agency determines to be unallowable, in accordance with applicable Federal cost principles or other terms and conditions contained in the award.
Discretionary Grant: A grant (or cooperative agreement) for which the Federal awarding agency generally may select the recipient from among all eligible recipients, may decide to make or not make an award based on the programmatic, technical, or scientific content of an application, and can decide the amount of funding to be awarded.
Download: Transferring data (usually a file) from another computer to the computer you are using.

E-Authentication: A gateway which provides access to numerous Credential Providers.
E-Business Point of Contact: An individual who is designated as the Point of Contact in the CCR registration. This person is responsible for assigning the "Agency Applicant" role to all AORs.
Equipment: Tangible non-expendable personal property, including exempt property, charged directly to the award having a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more per unit. However, consistent with recipient policy, lower limits may be established.
eRA Commons: Electronic Research Administration (eRA) Commons is a virtual meeting place where NIH extramural grantee organizations, grantees, and the public can receive and transmit information about the administration of biomedical and behavioral research. The ERA Commons is divided into both unrestricted and restricted portions that provide for public and confidential information, respectively.
Excess Property: Property under the control of an awarding agency that, as determined by the head of the awarding agency or his/her delegate, is no longer required for the agency's needs or the discharge of its responsibilities.
Exempt Property: Tangible personal property acquired in whole or in part with Federal funds, where the awarding agency has statutory authority to vest title in the recipient without further obligation to the Federal Government. An example of exempt property authority is contained in the Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act, 31 U.S.C. 6306, for property acquired under an award to conduct basic or applied research by a nonprofit institution of higher education or nonprofit organization whose principal purpose is conducting scientific research.

Federal Share of Real Property, Equipment, or Supplies: The percentage of the property's or supplies' acquisition costs and any improvement expenditures paid with Federal funds. This will be the same percentage as the Federal share of the total costs under the award for the funding period in which the property was acquired (excluding the value of third party in-kind contributions).
Federally Recognized Indian Tribal Government: The governing body of any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community (including any Native village as defined in section 3 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act certified by the Secretary of the Interior as eligible for the special programs and services provided by him through the Bureau of Indian Affairs).
Fedgrants.gov: The current website at which you can search for grant opportunities.
Financial Assistance: The transfer of a thing of value from a Federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States (see 31 U.S.C. 6101(3)). An agency may provide financial assistance through various types of transactions, including grants, cooperative agreements, loans, loan guarantees, interest subsidies, insurance, food commodities, direct appropriations, and transfers of property in place of money.
Frequent Questions: A list of commonly asked questions and their answers.
Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA): A publicly available document by which a Federal agency makes known its intentions to award discretionary grants or cooperative agreements, usually as a result of competition for funds. Funding opportunity announcements may be known as requests for application (RFAs), program announcements (PAs), notices of funding availability, solicitations, or other names depending on the agency and type of program. Funding opportunity announcements can be found at www.grants.gov and on the Internet at the funding agency's or program's website.
Funding Opportunity Number: The number that a Federal agency assigns to its funding opportunity announcement.
Funding Period: The period of time when Federal funding is available for obligation by the recipient.

Government: A State or local government or a federally recognized Indian tribal government.
Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) Goals: GPRA was designed to improve the effectiveness and responsiveness of federal agencies by creating a more focused, results-oriented management system that is linked to the federal budget process. GPRA requires agencies to set multi-year goals and corresponding annual goals, measure performance toward achievement of those goals, and report on their progress.
Grace Period: This period reflects the number of days after the closing date that Grants.gov will continue to accept applications for a funding opportunity announcement. It also represents the day (Closing Date + Grace Period) that applicants will no longer be able to download the application package. This value is entered by an agency when creating a grant opportunity and is not visible to grant applicants.
Grant: An award of financial assistance the principal purpose of which is to transfer a thing of value from a Federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States (see 31 U.S.C. 6101(3)). A grant is distinguished from a contract, which is used to acquire property or services for the Federal government's direct benefit or use.
Grants Management Officer/Specialist: The financial, grants, business management professionals within CDC's Procurements and Grants Office (PGO) responsible for award and maintenance of all funding throughout the program project period.
Grants.gov: A "storefront" web portal for use in electronic collection of data (forms and reports) for Federal grant-making agencies through the Grants.gov site, www.grants.gov.
Grants.gov Tracking Number: A number set used by Grants.gov which is used to identify each application it receives.

Individual: A grant applicant who is submitting a grant on their behalf, and not on behalf of a company, state, local or tribal government, academia, or other type of organization.
Intangible Property and Debt Instruments: Includes trademarks, copyrights, patents and patent applications, and such property as loans, notes and other debt instruments, lease agreements, stock and other instruments of property ownership, whether considered tangible or intangible.
Inter-Agency Electronic Grants Committee (IAEGC): An organization which encourages and assists federal agencies in developing electronic grants systems and standardizing electronic commerce methodologies throughout the federal government. The IAEGC is chartered to the Grants.gov Program Management Office.

Letter of Intent (LOI): LOIs may be either required or requested. If required, the mandatory LOI will be objectively reviewed, scored and ranked, though not entered into review of the subsequent application. If a required LOI is not submitted on time, the applicant will be precluded from submitting a full application. If, however, a LOI is requested, it will not be binding. Requests for LOI are used to gauge the level of interest in a program and to allow CDC to plan the application review.
Local Government: A local unit of government, including specifically a county, municipality, city, town, township, local public authority, school district, special district, intra-state district, council of governments (whether or not incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under State law), any other regional or interstate entity, or any agency or instrumentality of local government.

Mandatory Grant: A grant (or cooperative agreement) awarded under a program where the authorizing statute requires the head of the agency or designee to make an award to each eligible entity under the conditions and in the amount (or based on the formula) specified in the statute.
Marketing Partner ID (MPIN): A personal code that allows you to access other government applications such as the Past Performance Automated System, DoDBusOpps and TeDS. The MPIN may act as your password in these other systems. You make up the code and register it in CCR. The MPIN must have 9 digits containing at least one alpha character (must be in capital letters) and one number (no spaces or special characters permitted).
Mechanism of Support: Also known as Award Mechanism or Activity Code, are IMPAC II codes that allow the application database to filter and define the general program purpose of funding available for each opportunity.
Modular Budget: Required when applicants request up to $250,000 per year in direct costs. The modular budget format simplifies the preparation of the budget in these applications by limiting the level of budgetary detail. Applicants request direct costs in $25,000 modules.

New: Identifies an original funding opportunity, including its principal purpose, intended beneficiary(ies), anticipated outcome, duration of the project period, and the expectations of all participants.
NIH Guide: Additional publishing option for research announcements.
Non-Modular Budget: Itemized budget.
Notice of Award (NoA): The only binding, authorizing document between the recipient and CDC confirming issue of award funding. The NoA will be signed by an authorized Grants Management Officer, and mailed to the recipient fiscal officer identified in the application.

Objective Review: A process that involves the thorough and consistent examination of applications based on an unbiased evaluation of scientific or technical merit or other relevant aspects of the proposal. The review is performed by persons expert in the field of endeavor for which support is requested, and is intended to provide advice to the individuals responsible for making award decisions.
Obligations: The amounts of orders placed, contracts and grants awarded, services received and similar transaction during a given period that require payment by the recipient during the same or a future period.
Office of General Council (OGC): Internal legal representation to ensure compliance with all required authorities and regulations.
Operational Research Consultants (ORC): The organization that Grants.gov has selected to validate the electronic identity of an individual through electronic credentials, PINS, passwords and PKI certificates.
Organization: A grant applicant who is submitting a grant on behalf of a company, state, local or tribal government, academia or research institution, not-for-profit, or any other type of eligible institution.
Outlays or Expenditures: Charges made to the project or program, which may be reported on a cash or accrual basis.

Password: A code used to gain access to Grants.gov along with a username. Good passwords contain letters and non-letters and are not merely simple combinations.
Peer Review: A form of objective review required by statute. It is an assessment of scientific or technical merit of applications by individuals with knowledge and expertise equivalent (peer) to that of the individuals whose applications of support they are reviewing, i.e., reviewers who are the professional equals of the principal investigator or project director for the proposed project and who often are engaged or were previously engaged in comparable activities. The statute may specify the types of reviewers or composition of review groups and include other requirements related to the approval of applications. For example, under some statutes, a National Advisory Council or equivalent body performs a second level of review for programmatic considerations that augments the results of the peer review. Other statutes, such as the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), also may apply to the conduct of peer review. When peer review is required, it must be used regardless of whether applications result from a funding opportunity announcement, an application for a single-source or urgent award, or an unsolicited request for funding.
Personal Property: Property of any kind except real property. It may be tangible, having physical existence, or intangible, having no physical existence, such as copyrights, patents, or securities.
PDF: A file format designed to enable printing and viewing of documents with all their formatting (typefaces, images, layout, etc.) appearing the same regardless of what operating system is used, so a PDF document should look the same on Windows, Macintosh, linux, OS/2, etc.
Point of Contact (POC): An individual who is designated as the person responsible for authorization and maintenance of information on behalf of a CCR registrant, coordinating communication among organizations.
Principal Investigator: The Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) is the applicant organization contact responsible for application and maintenance of a grant.
Prior Approval: Written approval by an authorized awarding agency official evidencing prior consent.
PGO: CDC's Procurements and Grants Office (PGO) is responsible for management and award of all financial acquisition and assistance transactions.
Program Announcement: Identifies areas of increased priority and/or emphasis on particular funding mechanisms for a specific area of science; usually, accepted on standard receipt dates on an on-going basis.
Program Income: Gross income earned by a grantee that is directly generated by the grant supported project or activity, or earned as a result of the award.
Project Costs: All allowable costs, as set forth in the applicable Federal cost principles (see Sec. 74.27), incurred by a recipient and the value of the contributions made by third parties in accomplishing the objectives of the award during the project period.
Project Officer: The Project Officer (PO) is the funding CIOs internal contact for development of FOAs and program technical assistance.
Project Period: The period established in the award document during which awarding agency sponsorship begins and ends.
Property: Real property, equipment, intangible property and debt instruments.
PureEdge Viewer: A small, free program will allow you to access, complete and submit all application packages electronically and securely through Grants.gov.

Quick Reference: A job aid that will provide the information you likely will use most often.

Real Property: Land, including land improvements, structures and appurtenances thereto, but excludes movable machinery and equipment.
Recipient: An organization receiving financial assistance directly from an awarding agency to carry out a project or program.
Request for Application (RFA): Identifies a more narrowly defined area for which funds are set aside for awarding grants; usually, accepted on a single receipt date specified in the announcement.
Research and Development: All research activities, both basic and applied, and all development activities that are supported at universities, colleges, hospitals, other nonprofit institutions, and commercial organizations. "Research" is defined as a systematic study directed toward fuller scientific knowledge or understanding of the subject studied. "Development" is the systematic use of knowledge and understanding gained from research directed toward the production of useful materials, devices, systems, or methods, including design and development of prototypes and processes. The term research also includes activities involving training of individuals in research techniques where such activities utilize the same facilities as other research and development activities and where such activities are not included in the instruction function.
Role Manager: The person listed as the Point of Contact for a specific grantor agency or sub-agency. This person will receive any email notifications about application submissions, depending on the option selected in the agency's profile.

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)

An award designed to support projects from small businesses that may ultimately have commercial viability.

Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)

A 3-year pilot program begun in fiscal year (FY) 1994 under the SBIR program that is designated to foster technological innovations through cooperative efforts between small businesses and research institutions. The STTR grants are awarded for projects that have potential for commercialization.

Standard Form 424 (SF-424) series forms

Standard government-wide grant application forms including:

SF-424	(Application for Federal Assistance cover page).
SF-424A	(Budget Information - Non-construction programs).
SF-424B	(Assurances - Non-construction programs).
SF-424C	(Budget Information - Construction programs).
SF-424D	(Assurances - Construction programs).
Plus named attachments including Project Narrative and Budget Narrative.

State

Any of several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, any territory or possession of the United States, or any agency or instrumentality of a State exclusive of local governments.

Sub-award

An award of financial assistance in the form of money, or property in lieu of money, made under an award by a recipient to an eligible sub-recipient or by a sub-recipient to a lower tier sub-recipient. The term includes financial assistance when provided by any legal agreement, even if the agreement is called a contract, but does not include procurement of goods and services nor does it include any form of assistance which is excluded from the definition of "award."

Sub-recipient

The legal entity to which a sub-award is made and which is accountable to the recipient for the use of funds provided.

Supplies

All personal property excluding equipment, intangible property, and debt instruments as defined in this section, and inventions of a contractor conceived or first actually reduced to practice in the performance of work under a funding agreement.

Suspension

Post-award action by the awarding agency that temporarily withdraws the agency's financial assistance sponsorship under an award, pending corrective action by the recipient or pending a decision to terminate the award.

Synopsis of Funding Opportunity

Summary information extracted from or based on the funding opportunity announcement that is electronically posted at the government-wide website known as Grants.gov/Find. The posting at Grants.gov/Find includes a direct link to the funding opportunity announcement and/or includes an uploaded copy of the funding opportunity announcement.

System Requirements

Computer functionality and programming which is required in order for a specific program to operate.

Termination: The cancellation of awarding agency sponsorship, in whole or in part, under an agreement at any time prior to the date of completion.
Third Party in-kind Contributions: The value of non-cash contributions provided by non-Federal third parties. Third party in-kind contributions may be in the form of real property, equipment, supplies and other expendable property, and the value of goods and services directly benefiting and specifically identifiable to the project or program.
TIMS: The Technical Information Management Section (TIMS) of PGO is responsible for publication of final FOAs and receipt of applications. This office is organized to track pre-award progress of funding opportunities and answer inquiries pertaining to such.
Trading Partner Identification Number (TPIN): A restricted access identification number assigned by CCR to the main CCR Point of Contact who manages information for the CCR registrant.
Tutorial: A computer-based training lesson, designed to teach you everything you need to know about using Grants.gov.

Unobligated Balance: The portion of the funds authorized by an awarding agency that has not been obligated by the recipient and is determined by deducting the cumulative obligations from the cumulative funds authorized.
Upload: Transferring data (usually a file) from the computer you are using to another computer.
User Guide: A well indexed, comprehensive guide to reference information about Grants.gov.
User Name: The ID which allows access into specific sections of Grants.gov.

XML: A widely used system for defining data formats. XML provides a very rich system to define complex documents and data structures such as invoices, molecular data, news feeds, glossaries, inventory descriptions, real estate properties, etc.

document.write(document.getElementsByTagName("title")[0].text);