Advice for Applicants to Upcoming
NEH Grant Competitions

Some applicants for NEH grants report that they have recently had difficulty submitting their applications through Grants.gov; they found that the system has periodically been slow and unresponsive. This problem exists because Grants.gov—the system used by applicants to the grant programs of most federal government agencies—has recently had to deal with an unusually high volume of applications. The system has therefore been overloaded. Unfortunately, the problem is expected to continue at least through mid-summer, when system upgrades are scheduled to be installed.

In response to this problem, NEH offers the following advice to prospective applicants. We strongly urge you not to submit your application on the day of the deadline, but instead to submit your application early. If applications are submitted over a period of time, the load of applications should be more manageable for Grants.gov. Applying early will also give you a margin for error, should you need help from Grants.gov to resolve a technical problem when you attempt to submit your application. If possible, you should also plan to submit your application outside of normal business hours on the East Coast. Grants.gov tends to work more smoothly in the early morning, in the evening, and especially on weekends.

Successfully receiving your application is very important to us, so we hope that this advice will be helpful to you. And if you continue to have problems with Grants.gov, please contact NEH division or office staff, using the contact information provided in the program guidelines. We apologize for any inconvenience that you may encounter in submitting your application.

To check on the current status of Grants.gov, please consult the Grants.gov blog.