USDA agency to expand e-grants

The Agriculture Department’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) will soon offer electronic submission services to all grant applicants.

“CSREES has always been committed to reducing the burden to [the] grant applicant,” said public affairs specialist Jennifer Martin. “We expect to receive nearly 50 percent of all grants electronically for fiscal 2007.”

The agency receives about 6,000 applications a year, most of them on paper.

CSREES will announce new application procedures and provide new forms that are consistent with other government forms, Martin said. The changes will affect land-grant universities, nonprofit associations, small businesses and other federal agencies, she said.

CSREES began working with Grants.gov in 2002 and received its first electronic application in spring 2004, Martin said.