Submission

Grant applications submission automation

An automated platform that allows grant applicants to apply easily online, while streamlining processes and paperwork for grants teams.

Lilian Cipciriuc, Spencer Nordwick

International Trade and Marketing Specialist, Organizational Development/Agricultural Innovation and Technology Transfer Fund Senior Manager

lcipciriuc@moldovaagro.com

Europe and Eurasia

High Value Agriculture Activity in Moldova

Agriculture and Food Security
Education and Youth
Economic Growth and Trade
Supply Chain Solutions

Grants are a powerful tool to achieve project results, but can often be cumbersome for potential applicants while applying, and subsequently require significant level of effort from project employees. Although Chemonics has established outstanding systems for grants management, nothing is automated or available online. Grants teams spend critical time filing paperwork or sending e-mails that could easily be managed by an online platform and allow grants and technical teams to dedicate their time to capacity building or providing technical assistance.

Implementing a grants management program through an online platform is nothing new. Universities, foundations, and government institutions all over the world have begun using online platforms to manage the entire grants lifecycle. However, establishing these platforms can be relatively costly and somewhat time consuming to ensure that the management tool fits the needs of the organization. An individual USAID project would not be likely to dedicate the appropriate resources and time to develop a useful platform in a timely manner. Therefore, implementing partners, including Chemonics, have not yet taken advantage of the technologies available. By investing the time and resources into a grants management tool that could be slightly customized to each project with grants under contract, Chemonics would have an even more streamlined and efficient project management tool that would set it aside from other implementing partners.

Grants management platforms are widely used around the world to manage all aspects of the grants lifecycle by organizations ranging from private foundations to government institutions. There are multiple software development companies that are able to develop custom platforms (wizehive.com; fluxx.io). We propose a platform that would do the following:

1. Solicitation- Allow grants teams to post requests for applications (RFAs) and Annual Program Statements (APS) for grantees to access, share, and download.
2. Application- Provide a platform for applicants to log in, register themselves, upload required documents, and respond to application questions. The application platform would indicate whether or not the application was complete, and subsequently create individual files for all applicants that could be downloaded or saved online for project auditing and management purposes. The system would also send notifications to all registered applicants in the event of any changes to the solicitation. Items such as required certifications could be signed electronically, and the platform would ideally be able to check SAM.gov automatically.
3. Evaluation- The platform would have an option for Selection Committees to screen/review applications and provide evaluation comments online, which could be saved to the grantee file. Although in-person selection committee meetings should take place, the platform would also provide a forum for selection committee members to communicate with each other during follow-up sessions.
4. Communications- The platform would have options for automated messages to be sent to select groups of registered applicants, or allow for individual communication. All communications could also be saved to file in the platform.
5. Document automation- While negotiation memos and grant agreement templates should always be completed and reviewed by a human, there are multiple data fields that can be entered into documents automatically. Simply downloading a template that already has the grantee name or address integrated into the template would save significant time.
6. Implementation management- The platform would provide an individual dashboard for each grantee, along with an implementation time, templates for reports, monitoring and evaluation, etc. The platform would also send automatic reminders of due dates for deliverables.

In order to make this platform effective, more ideas from other projects need to be integrated.

This technology could be implemented globally, but would only be successful in countries where grantees have access to the internet and are computer literate.

Automating the grants management process would ensure that documentation is always in place; enable grants teams to always have updated resources (without logging onto the QMS); ensure that grantees have complete applications; decrease the amount of time required for communications; and streamline processes throughout the grants lifecycle. By enabling grants teams to work more efficiently, grantees will have more human resources from projects for capacity building or technical assistance. In the medium-term, proposal teams could potentially reduce the number of administrative staff needed to implement GUC.

This technology should be replicated globally.