A publicly available document by which a Federal agency makes known its intentions to award discretionary grants or cooperative agreements, usually as a result of competition for funds. Funding opportunity announcements may be known as program announcements, requests for applications, notices of funding availability, solicitations, or other names depending on the agency and type of program. Funding opportunity announcements can be found at Grants.gov/FIND and in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. In addition, NIH and other HHS Agencies have developed omnibus Parent Announcements for common grant mechanisms that have transitioned to electronic submission, for use by applicants who wish to submit what were formerly termed “unsolicited” or "investigator-initiated" applications.

Program Announcement (PA)

• Identifies areas of increased priority and/or emphasis on particular funding mechanisms for a specific area of science
• Usually accepted on standard receipt (postmarked) dates on an on-going basis
• Remains active for three years from date of release unless the announcement indicates a specific expiration date or the NIH Institute/Center (I/C) inactivates sooner (see January 13, 2005 NIH Guide Notice for more information on Expiration Dates)
• Special Types
• PAR: A PA with special receipt, referral and/or review considerations, as described in the PAR announcement
• PAS: A PA that includes specific set-aside funds as described in the PAS announcement

Request for Application (RFA)

• Identifies a more narrowly defined area for which one or more NIH institutes have set aside funds for awarding grants
• Usually has a single receipt (received on or before) date specified in the RFA announcement
• Usually reviewed by a Scientific Review Group convened by the issuing awarding component

• Solicits contract proposals. An RFP usually has one receipt date, as specified in RFP solicitation

• Announces policy and procedures, changes to RFA or PA announcements, RFPs and other general information items