Administrative action— A post-award administrative request to modify the conditions of the original grant. An administrative action may be monetary or non-monetary and may require prior approval from the Department.

Administrative regulations— Regulations that implement 1) guidance from OMB contained in circulars that apply to the administration of all federal grants and cooperative agreements, 2) Presidential executive orders (where regulation is necessary), and 3) legislation that affects all applicants for or recipients of federal grants and cooperative agreements; see also EDGAR (defined below).

Allowable costs— Expenditures under a grant project that are specifically permitted (or not specifically prohibited), by law, regulation, or guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, federal accounting standards, or other authoritative sources.

Application Control Center (ACC)— The administrative unit of the Department that is officially authorized to receive paper applications for discretionary grants and cooperative agreements.

Application for Federal Education Assistance or ED 424— The grant application form, sometimes referred to as the application "cover page," used by the Department.

Application Notice— A notice published in the Federal Register and posted on the Department's Web site that invites applications for one or more discretionary grant or cooperative agreement competitions, gives basic program and fiscal information on each competition, informs potential applicants when and where they can obtain application packages, and cites the deadline date for a particular competition.

Application package— A package that contains the application notice for one or more programs, and all the information and forms needed to apply for a discretionary grant or cooperative agreement.

Application reviewer (reviewer)— An individual who serves the Department by reviewing new discretionary grant and cooperative agreement applications; also referred to as 'field reader' or 'peer reviewer.'

Appropriations legislation— A law passed by Congress to provide a certain level of funding for a grant program in a given year.

Assurances— A listing of a variety of requirements, found in different federal laws, regulations, and executive orders, that applicants agree in writing to observe as a condition of receiving federal assistance.

Audit finding— A conclusion about a monetary or non-monetary matter related to an auditor's examination of a grantee organization, program, activity, or function, which frequently identifies problems and provides recommendations for corrective action in order to prevent their future recurrence.

Audit resolution process— The process by which the Department determines whether costs in an audit report are actually allowable or unallowable. If costs are identified as being unallowable, the Department initiates action to have grantees return unallowable expenditures.

Audit resolution specialist— The Department staff member who reviews audit reports of grantees and develops the proposed recommendations for settling cases of expenditures not allowed under discretionary grants or cooperative agreements. The recommendations become the basis for decisions issued in the Program Determination Letter.

Authorizing legislation— A law passed by the Congress that establishes or continues a grant program.

Budget period— An interval of time into which a project period is divided for budgetary purposes, usually 12 months.

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA)— Publication and database produced by the General Services Administration that lists the domestic assistance programs of all federal agencies and gives information about a program's authorization, fiscal details, accomplishments, regulations, guidelines, eligibility requirements, information contacts, and application and award process; also called the "CFDA."

Certification— A statement, signed by an applicant or grantee as a prerequisite for receiving federal funds, that it 1) meets or will adhere to certain conditions and 2) will undertake or not undertake certain actions.

CFDA number — Identifying number for a federal assistance program, composed of a unique two-digit prefix to identify the federal agency ("84" for the Department of Education), followed by a period and a unique three-digit code for each authorized program. Alfa-designations may be added to some programs to distinguish among competitions when multiple competitions are based on the same program authority.

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)— Compilation of all final regulations issued by federal agencies and published annually by the National Archives and Records Administration. The CFR is divided into numbered titles. Title 34 contains the regulations of the Department of Education.

Combined Application Notice (CAN)— A notice published by the Department in the Federal Register and posted on the Department's Web site that identifies programs and competitions under which the secretary has invited, or plans to invite, applications for new awards for a particular fiscal year. The notice provides the actual or estimated information on the following: 1) the date the competition will be announced in the Federal Register; 2) the date application packages will be available; 3) the application deadline date; 4) the deadline for intergovernmental review; 5) the range of awards; 6) the average size of awards; and 7) the number of awards. The CAN also provides a contact name and phone number for further information.

Competitive review process— The process used by the Department to select discretionary grant and cooperative agreement applications for funding. Subject-area experts score applications and the most highly scored applications are considered for funding.

Continuation award— Additional funding awarded to the same grant for a budget period following the initial budget period of a multi-year discretionary grant or cooperative agreement.

Cooperative agreement— A type of federal assistance; essentially, a variation of a discretionary grant, which is awarded by the Department when it anticipates having substantial involvement with the grantee during the performance of a funded project.

Deadline date— The date by which an applicant must submit a discretionary grant or cooperative agreement application for it to be considered for funding by the Department. Under many competitions, applicants must mail their paper applications by midnight on the deadline date. Under other competitions, the Department must receive the application by the deadline date. Application packages and notices published in the Federal Register for a particular competition indicate the deadline date and time for the submission of paper and electronic applications.

Direct costs— Direct costs are those items in a grant project that can be identified specifically with a particular final cost objective. Examples of direct costs are compensation of employees for the time devoted and identified specifically to the performance of grant activities, cost of materials acquired, consumed, or expended specifically for the purpose of the grant, equipment and other approved capital expenditures, and travel expenses incurred specifically to carry out the activities of a grant project.

Discretionary grant— An award of financial assistance in the form of money, or property in lieu of money, by the federal government to an eligible grantee, usually made on the basis of a competitive review process.

e-Administration— The Department's electronic system that allows grantee project directors to request administrative changes to their grant awards over the Internet. For example, grantees can submit a change of address related to a grant award.

e-Application— The Department's electronic application system that provides the capability for applicants to apply to selected discretionary and formula grant programs over the Internet.

ED— The acronym for the U.S. Department of Education (i.e., Education Department).

Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR)— Administrative regulations governing the Department's grant and cooperative agreement programs found in Parts 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99 of Title 34 of the CFR; a document issued by the Department that contains a reprint of these regulations.

ED Pubs— The Department's main distributor of grant applications and other ED literature.

e-Grants— A term for the Department's electronic grants initiative and Web site that permits applicants and grantees to do business with the Department over the Internet. It includes the Web-based modules: e-Application, e-Reader, e-Reports, e-Administration, and e-Payments.

e-Payments— A module of the Department's e-Grants system that allows grantees to carryout financial transactions over the Internet such as requesting grant funds, returning funds, adjusting expenditures among awards, and monitoring the financial history of a grant.

e-Reader— The Department's electronic peer review system that manages the program office's peer review process when conducted over the Internet.

e-Reports— The Department's electronic reporting system which makes it possible for grantees to submit their annual grant performance reports (ED Form 524B) to ED via the Internet.

Federal Register— A daily compilation of federal proposed and final regulations, legal notices, presidential proclamations and executive orders, federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other federal agency documents of public interest; prepared by the National Archives and Records Administration for public distribution by the Government Printing Office; publication of record for the Department's regulations.

Financial Payments Group— The administrative unit of the Department that makes payments of federal funds to grantees of discretionary grants and cooperative agreements.

Formula Grant— A grant that the Department is directed by Congress to make to grantees, for which the amount is established by a formula based on certain criteria that are written into the legislation and program regulations; directly awarded and administered in the Department's program offices.

Funding priorities— A way of focusing a competition on the areas in which the secretary is particularly interested in receiving applications. Priorities take the form of specific kinds of activities that applicants are asked to include in an application or certain conditions that must exist for applicants to be eligible. There are Absolute Priorities, which the applicant must address in order to be considered for funding; Competitive Priorities, which the applicant has the option of choosing whether or not to address and for which they may receive additional points; and Invitational Priorities, which the applicant is encouraged but not required to address. Applications addressing Invitational Priorities receive no competitive or absolute preference over applications that do not meet the priority.

Grant Administration and Payment System (GAPS)— A financial subsystem that is part of the Department's larger Education Central Automated Processing System (EDCAPS). GAPS works in tandem with e-Grants to allow applicants to apply electronically and allow grantees to submit reports and administrative changes, and to request payments and access grant accounts to obtain current payment information.

Grant Award Notification (GAN)— Official document signed by a program official who is authorized to obligate the Department in financial matters. The GAN states the amount and the terms and conditions of an award for a discretionary grant or cooperative agreement.

Grant closeout— The final stage in the lifecycle of a discretionary grant or cooperative agreement. During this phase, the Department ensures that all applicable administrative actions and required work of a discretionary grant or cooperative agreement have been completed by the grantee. The Department also reconciles and makes any final fiscal adjustments to a grantee's account in GAPS.

Grantee— An individual or organization that has been awarded financial assistance under one of the Department's discretionary grant programs.

Grant programs— For the purposes of this publication, the Department's programs that award discretionary grants and cooperative agreements.

Grants Policy and Oversight Staff (GPOS)— A component within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer that is responsible for policy development and oversight of the grants process at the Department. GPOS provides technical assistance to the program offices regarding discretionary grant planning, awarding, administration, and closeout. GPOS is also responsible for maintaining EDGAR.

Indirect costs— Costs of an organization incurred for common or joint objectives, which cannot be readily and specifically identified with a particular grant project or other institutional activity (i.e., electricity, janitorial services).

Indirect cost rate agreement— A formalized, written, and signed agreement between a recipient and the cognizant federal agency that specifies the treatment of indirect costs. The agreement includes, at a minimum, the approved rate(s); base(s) to which the rate(s) apply; applicable fiscal year; specific treatment of certain items of cost; general terms and conditions; and any special remarks. The rates and cost treatment laid out in the agreement are accepted and used by all federal agencies unless prohibited or limited by statute.

Indirect cost rate proposal— The documentation prepared by an organization to substantiate its claim for the reimbursement of indirect costs. This proposal provides the basis for the review and negotiation leading to the establishment of an organization's indirect cost rate.

Indirect cost rate— A percentage established by a federal department or agency for a grantee organization, which the grantee uses in computing the dollar amount it charges to the grant to reimburse itself for indirect costs of a grant project.

Monitoring— Activities undertaken by Department staff members to review aspects of a grantee's activities under a discretionary grant or cooperative agreement. They include: 1) administrative and fiscal management, 2) determining a grantee's adherence to applicable laws, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the award, 3) providing technical assistance to grantees, and 4) determining whether a grantee has made substantial progress by accomplishing the goals and objectives of the project, using the grantee's evaluation plan to measure progress against predefined benchmarks and timelines.

Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM)— An announcement published in the Federal Register of proposed new regulations or modifications to existing regulations; the first stage in the process of creating or modifying regulations.

Obligation— There are two kinds of obligations. At the federal level, an authorized program staff member obligates funds in the Department's automated accounting system that dedicates funds to a particular grantee. Once funds are obligated, the Financial Payments Group can make payments of federal grant funds to a grantee. At the grantee level, an obligation is the commitment of federal funds to pay for the costs of a grant. In some cases, an obligation is made by signing a check for services of an employee, in other cases, an obligation can be made by entering into a contract with a vendor for goods or services.

Office of the Chief Financial Officer— An organizational unit in the Department whose primary responsibility is serving as the principal adviser to the secretary of education on all matters related to financial management, financial control, and accounting including matters relating to discretionary grants, cooperative agreements, and procurement.

Office of Inspector General— The Office of Inspector General conducts audits and investigations of Department programs and operations in order to promote their efficiency and effectiveness and to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse. Through courts and administrative procedures, this office seeks to recover misused federal funds. In cooperation with the Department of Justice, it seeks prosecution of wrongdoers.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)— A branch of the Executive Office of the President. OMB helps the president formulate spending plans; evaluates the effectiveness of agency programs, policies, and procedures; assesses competing funding demands among agencies; and sets funding priorities. OMB ensures that agency reports, rules, testimony, and proposed legislation are consistent with the president's budget and with administration policies.

In addition, OMB oversees and coordinates the administration's procurement, financial management, information management, and regulatory policies. In each of these areas, OMB's role is to help improve administrative management, to develop better performance measures and coordinating mechanisms, and to reduce any unnecessary burdens on the public.

OMB Circulars— Administrative policy documents issued by OMB that give instruction to federal agencies on a variety of topics, including the administration of federal grants and cooperative agreements.

Performance measure— A characteristic or metric that can be used to assess the performance aspects of a program or project (i.e., dollars expended, students enrolled, grade- point average, number of job offers received).

Performance report— A report of the specific activities the recipient of a discretionary grant or cooperative agreement has performed during the budget or project period.

Post-award performance conference— The first major discussion between the Department and some grantees after a new award has been made. The conference generally focuses on the proposed project outcomes as stated in the grantee's approved application, and on the ways in which project progress will be assessed.

Principal office— For the purposes of this publication, one of eight organizational units of the Department responsible for administering programs that award discretionary grants and cooperative agreements: The Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students (OELA); Institute of Education Sciences (IES); Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE); Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE); Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS); Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE); Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS); and the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII).

Principal Officer— The Department official who is head of one of the nine principal offices and holds the rank of assistant secretary or its equivalent.

Program Determination Letter (PDL)— An official written notice from an authorized Department management official to a grantee that sets forth the Department's decision on findings against a grantee, including all necessary actions and repayment of funds for which the grantee is responsible. A PDL is generally issued after an audit, but sometimes a PDL can be issued based on other information made available to the Department.

Program Office— A sub-unit of a principal office that conducts the daily work of administering discretionary grant and cooperative agreement programs, including the review and ranking of applications.

Program staff— A group of Department staff members in a program office responsible for all phases of the grants process including the review, award, administration, and closeout of discretionary grants.

Program regulations— Regulations that implement legislation passed by Congress to authorize a specific grant program; they generally include applicant and participant eligibility criteria, nature of activities funded, allowability of certain costs, selection criteria under which applications will be selected for funding, and other relevant information.

Project period (Also referred to as the performance period)— The total amount of time for which the Department promises to fund a grant and authorizes a grantee to conduct the approved work of the project described in the application. Project periods of more than 18 months are divided into 12-month budget periods. When the Department awards a multi-year award, it obligates funds for the first 12 months and promises to fund subsequent budget periods if certain conditions are met.

PR/Award number— The identifying number for a discretionary grant or cooperative agreement award.

Regulations— For purposes of this publication, federal rules of general applicability that are authorized by federal laws or other federal authority and contained in the CFR.

Student financial assistance— The Department's funding of undergraduate or graduate students attending colleges, universities, and other postsecondary institutions that meet the Department's eligibility requirements; provided by student financial assistance programs in the Department's Office of Federal Student Aid and administered separately from the Department's discretionary grant and cooperative agreement programs; sometimes referred to as "student aid."

Substantial progress— A level of accomplishment that a grantee must make in its project during a budget period, which produces measurable and verifiable evidence that the activities undertaken complied with those objectives submitted and agreed on between the grantee and the Department during the grant awarding process.

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