Grant Proposal

1.  What is a grant proposal?

The grant proposal contains the administrative information for your grant. This information can be found on the Application for Federal Assistance (SF-424). You may copy and paste from the SF-424 into TRACS or vice versa (some crosswalk information is included in training materials).

2.  Is a grant proposal required in TRACS and when does it need to be entered?

TRACS is the official performance reporting tool utilized by the Office of Conservation Investment. The Grant Proposal and Project Statement(s) must be entered into TRACS to complete the performance reporting. All information should be entered into TRACS no later than 60-days post-award approval; however, we highly recommend not delaying that long and instead using TRACS upfront as part of the pre-award phase. Best Practice Tip: It is more time and cost effective to enter and submit the Grant Proposal and Project Statement(s) in TRACS as part of the grant approval process. The TRACS-generated Grant Proposal and Project Statement are well organized and complete, increasing both efficiency and quality.

3.  Can I copy a grant entered previously?

Yes! The “Copy Forward” functionality gives users the option to copy an existing grant and corresponding project statements to a new grant in TRACS. Copying a grant will be a time saver for users who enter grants that share most of the same information. Some information will need to be re-entered and all information should be reviewed. Note: Project Statement Approvals, FBMS link and Performance Reports will not copy forward. Note: Due to the structural differences between a CMS and project-based grant, it is not possible to switch between them in the copy forward functionality. A CMS grant cannot be copied as a project-based grant or vice versa.

Grants that have been entered into the new TRACS system (launched June 2020) are available to be copied forward. For more information, view Lesson 2e Copy Forward.

4. Can a grant proposal and project statement share the same name?

Yes. By selecting the "Copy Grant Title" option, the user can copy the grant proposal title to the project statement.

5.  As a  State, who uses the Comprehensive Management System (CMS), do I need to enter a grant proposal in TRACS?

Yes, CMS States (Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Wyoming), are required to enter limit grant proposal information for performance reporting.  Refer to Course 10: CMS for more information.

6.  Can we download the Grant Proposal from TRACS?

Yes the Grant Proposal (with all project statements) is available to download as a PDF from TRACS.

7. We have an abstract/introduction paragraph summarizing the need for the grant.  Is there a place to put this in TRACS?

Yes, the abstract/introduction paragraph would be a great fit for the ‘Public Description’ narrative field in the Grant Proposal and/or the ‘Need Statement’ in the Project Statement.

8. If it takes multiple days to create the grant proposal and/or statement(s), do you have the option to save what you have entered before you submit it?

Yes, you have the option to work on your grant proposal and project statement(s) in TRACS over multiple days and save as you go before you submit it for approval.

9. How can you see who edited a grant/project statement? 

After logging into TRACS, select the “Performance” module. From the Dashboard, select the “Grants” icon. Search for the grants by keywords in the title. Once you find the grant, click “Work on Grant” to open the Grant Workflow page. Click “View Statement Approvals”. Select the “View History” link in the column on the right next to the project statement. “View History” will display the full history of edits and workflow transitions for the Project Statement, including the event type, date, user information, and comments.