Forms Process Details

The process for updating and creating new grant application forms is a complex one involving a range of government entities, including the grant-making agency, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as well as the Federal Register and Grants.gov, among others. Federal grant forms development can be broken into two phases: content development (that's the actual curation of required data fields) and technical development (that's the coding of PDF and HTML forms). Refer to the numbered bullets below the graphic for details about each step in the cycles.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Forms Approval Process


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1. Publish Form to Federal Register

Federal agency requests for new, renewal, or changes to form published to Federal Register for 60-day comment period. Actors: Federal Agency; Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) Office; Government Printing Office (GPO)

2. Republish Form to Federal Register

Federal agency amends form to address comments within 1 month and republishes for 30-day comment period. Actors: Federal Agency; PRA Office; GPO

3. Submit Form to Regulatory Information Service Center and Consolidated Information System (ROCIS)

Federal agency submits all information, instructions, burden hours, supporting statements, and form to ROCIS. Actors: Federal Agency; PRA Office

4. Review Form

OMB/OIRA reviews form and ICR for approval or requests for more information. Actors: OMB/OIRA

5. Approve Form and Expiration Date

OMB/OIRA approves form and issues new expiration date. Actors: OMB/OIRA

 

Grants.gov Forms Development Process

The development time of each form can range from one month for a cosmetic change to up to six months for a new, multi-page form.

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1. Finalize Requirements

Agency works with Grants.gov to finalize form requirements, logic and business rules

2. Develop Form

Grants.gov creates draft form design for agency review. Iterative changes made until final sign-off. Grants.gov begins more detailed form development (system and application package integration) and internal testing process

3. Test Form

Agency and public users perform acceptance testing on form

4. Integrate Form

Agency/Applicant integrate approved form into their systems

5. Deploy to Production

Grants.gov posts form to production system for use with application packages and is available in the Forms Repository.