SF424 Version 8.3

August 26, 2017

Grants.gov (SF424) Application Enhancements

New Forms

Beginning with this release all new forms (newly supported and updates to existing forms) will have a new design. In addition to an updated appearance, the new design will allow for newer features to be utilized like “drag and drop” to upload attachments. Current forms will be converted over the course of multiple releases, so there will be a mix of the old and new format during this transition period.

The following forms will display in the new format:

  • USDA AD-1047
  • USDA AD-1048
  • USDA AD-1049
  • USDA AD-1050
  • USDA AD-1052
  • Financial Management and System of Internal Controls Questionnaire (Department of Justice form)
  • ED-900A Additional Assurances for Construction or Non-Construction (Department of Commerce form)

Special Characters in SF424 Applications

Submitting an application that contains a special character (e.g. umlauts, accent marks, or tildes used in names) is now supported in eRPM. We recommend that this new function be used judiciously, and have outlined some recommendations below.

Before using special characters - Important info
While Grants.gov accepts the special characters in the UTF-8 set not all agencies’ systems will support all types of characters. The result may be garbled or missing data in the application. As always, read the solicitation from the agency to which you are applying and follow their instructions.

When could I use special characters?

  • Proper names listed in the application that use umlauts, accent marks, tildes, etc.
  • Other text fields (e.g. application title) that require the use of a special character
  • We do not support the use of special characters in the file name of attachments

How does this work in the system?
To support the submission of special characters, first complete the Validate Submission activity without selecting the 'Allow Special Characters' checkbox. Special characters that are found will display and you will have the option of removing the special characters or checking the 'Allow special characters to be included in the XML’' checkbox to move forward with validating the submission.

For more detailed information on special characters and the impact on your application, please see the Grants.gov website.

Order Attachments on the Research and Related Other Project Information form

Some agencies require attachments in a specific order. The 'Other Attachments' section of the Research and Related Other Project Information has been modified so you can set the sort order of the attachments. The display order can be changed when uploading a document or once all of the documents are uploaded.