Mac workaround for federal grant applications on grants.gov

   From our Apple Systems Engineer, Wyn Davies:

> For folks submitting grant proposals to www.grants.gov, there is now
>a Mac workaround to the Windows-only grant submission system. Check
>out:
>
> http://www.grants.gov/MacSupport

   Please share this information with Macintosh-using researchers and
units within your department.

Background
----------
This is important, because many federal agencies now require that
grant applications be submitted via the Grants.gov website. From a
description on that website:

> Grants.gov [provides] a simple, unified electronic storefront for
>interactions between grant applicants and the Federal agencies that
>manage grant funds. There are 26 Federal grant-making agencies and
>over 900 individual grant programs that award over $400 billion in
>grants each year.

   A description of the status of the Macintosh workaround and the
ultimate development of a cross-platform solution, from the
Grants.gov website:

> Grants.gov currently uses a Windows-only solution for electronic
>grant submission. The PureEdge viewer is required to complete grant
>application packages and, at this time, there is no native Macintosh
>PureEdge client.
>
> IBM has acquired PureEdge, and now calls the product IBM Workplace
>Forms; IBM plans to add Mac support in the future and Grants.gov has
>committed to providing a cross-platform solution by November 2006.
>In the interim, Grants.gov, in conjunction with NIH, has created a
>Citrix server solution that allows Mac OS X users to complete their
>application packages using Mac OS X.
>
> The University of Wisconsin has created a single preconfigured
>package for Mac OS X users to access this solution. ...

   And finally, an overview of this situation in a recent Washington
Post article, which mentions that at least a few users are
experiencing problems using either the Citrix workaround or the new
system itself:

Rick Weiss
"New Grant System Excludes Mac Users:
Electronic Forms Compatible Only With Microsoft
Washington Post
Monday, February 13, 2006, p. A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021200942.htm

>What if the federal government were about to give away more than
>$400 billion in grants, but only people whose computers ran on
>Microsoft software could apply?
>
>That is the predicament that many scientists, scholars and others
>say they are in as the government enters the final phase of its
>five-year effort to streamline its grant-application process. ...

Aron Roberts
Workstation Software Support Group

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Received on Fri Feb 17 08:52:13 2006