KU develops tool to ease application for federal research grants

System addresses shortcomings of grants.gov

The Office of Research and Graduate Studies is responding proactively to address the shortcomings of grants.gov, the federal program that provides access to all major grant programs. While the limitations of grants.gov have been apparent for some time, the recent flood of proposals caused by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made finding a solution a high priority.

For KU, the solution is Cayuse, www.cayuse.com, a System-2-System, or S2S Web-based platform that will speed up the submission process and reduce the risk of a missed deadline. The cost of implementing Cayuse is being borne by the KU Center for Research.

Submitting proposals directly to grants.gov is a “person-to-system” approach with multiple bottlenecks. There are a limited number of log-ons possible nationwide, for example. Inadvertent errors can result in rejection, and printing a paper copy of the proposal is tedious.

By contrast, Cayuse automatically in fills certain information and flags errors prior to submission. Printing a copy of the proposal and attachments is a simple, one-step process. Because it employs an S2S approach, Cayuse avoids the problem of limited log-ons.

“Cayuse is an awesome tool,” said Kristi Billinger, assistant manager of proposal services. “It’s very user-friendly. After our initial trial runs, we submitted two proposals. Both went in immediately. We didn’t have to 'take a number’ and wait, as often happens with grants.gov.”

The first two proposals submitted via Cayuse were from Renee Patrick, Life Span Institute at Parsons, and Sheryl Williams, Spencer Research Library; one to the Department of Health and Human Services and the other to the National Archives and Records Administration.

“The submitters are happy with how it went,” said Billinger, “but most people probably won’t notice the change. However, it’s a very big deal for those of us in Proposal Services, since Cayuse is a time-saver that increases everyone’s confidence that the submission is as clean as possible.”

Suzanne Henderson, electronic research administrator and grant specialist, has spearheaded the implementation of Cayuse. All new submissions from KU researchers to grants.gov which are supported in Cayuse will go via S2S. Cayuse supports about 90 percent of federal agencies applications.

“The vendor provided two half-day training sessions,” Henderson said, “and their ongoing support is excellent. Other universities are going to an S2S approach with grants.gov and we’re glad we did too.”