Workspace Introduction
Workspace is the standard way for organizations or individuals to apply for federal grants in Grants.gov. Workspace is a shared online environment where members of a grant team may simultaneously access and edit different forms within an application. For each funding opportunity announcement (FOA), you can create individual instances of a workspace.
See the Grants.gov User Guide: "What Is Workspace?" [webpage]
Workspace Checklist for DLC Administrators [PDF]
Please note that Workspace is a means of submitting proposals through Grants.gov and does not waive the necessity of a Kuali Coeus proposal. KC is still the system of record for proposals, so a KC proposal will need to be created and routed for approval to coincide with your Workspace application.
Obtaining a Grants.gov Workspace ID
For Administrators with KC Proposal Create authorizations, obtain a Grants.gov Workspace ID [PDF]
Grants.gov User Guide “Register” [webpage with video] video tutorial (follow instructions for “Applicants: Add Profile to a Grants.gov Account”):
Create a Workspace Proposal
MIT Information for Workspace
- MIT Facts for Workspace Applications [PDF] - December 2021
Workspace RAP Sessions
Best Practices
In Workspace:
- Application Name – Enter {KC Proposal #}, {PI Name}, additional information, such as Proposal Title may be entered after
- Add Participants (via Participants tab) of all who will be involved in the proposal (fellow Aggregators, RAS CA, RAS liaison). The proposals Principal Investigator does not need to be added.
In KC:
- Like Fastlane, upload the entire application PDF as a single attachment in KC with file name beginning with the Workspace ID number (WS########)
- The only forms that will need to be uploaded into KC separately are the user-attached, optional Assignment Request, Cover Letter, and Appendices
Benefits/Challenges of Workspace
Benefits
- Workspace Validation and Error messages are clear and explain what information is missing or may need correction. NIH applications can actually be validated by eRA Commons itself before the proposal is even submitted.
- Multiple Team Members within an organization may access and edit forms at the same time, similar to Aggregators in Kuali Coeus (KC) proposals.
- Applicants can choose to complete forms directly in Workspace itself (in a web browser) rather than downloading, completing, and uploading individual forms, and selecting the correct narrative attachment type, as with KC System-to-System (S2S).
- Applicants may reuse Workspace forms for new proposals with the same forms, saving time
- Full Proposal Print View in Workspace is appreciated by PIs, rather than KC S2S Print View (which may have documents ‘out of order’).
- Sponsor instructions sometimes re-purpose field(s) in Grants.gov forms. Workspace allows for manual entry as Sponsor instructs, which cannot be done in KC S2S.
- Changed/Corrected Applications are easier and may be done more quickly in Workspace than in KC S2S. This also means creation of a New/Changed Corrected proposal in KC is no longer needed.
- Subawardee(s) with Grants.gov Workspace ID may be added to Workspace to complete their own Subaward Budget, which reduces issues with KC S2S Subaward budget uploads.
- The Workspace application is linear and intuitive for end users compared to KC S2S.
- Choice for budget creation is up to the DLC – one may use the KC Detailed Budget Tool or their own DLC budget template.
- The correct form versions will always be used.
Challenges
- Acclimating to Workspace after using KC S2S, though the learning curve is small.
- Auto-population: Workspace currently requires some manual entry of information. However, select information populates to other forms once the first form (SF424) is completed. For KC Detailed Budget users, 2 new KC Print Reports are now available for users to enter fields on Workspace budget pages
- RR Budget Report (mimics Grants.gov RR Budget form)
- RR Fed Non-Fed Budget Report (mimics Grants.gov RR Fed Non-Fed Budget form)
More information on KC Budget Print Reports [PDF]