Using electronic forms allows you to continue making improvements and corrections in your proposal as you modify each draft, and they can be a life-saver at the last moment if you discover the need to change a figure in the budget. Always check with the funding agency to be sure that the re-created forms are accurate reproductions and acceptable to use in your proposal submission.

Adobe Reader forms (files with "pdf" in the file name) are not usually interactive forms, that is, they can only be printed and filled in with a typewriter, unless you purchase the full version of Adobe Acrobat and learn to use its features. Accurate reproductions of many grant proposal forms can be recreated in other programs, such as this cover sheet and budget forms for two Illinois state funding agencies, created with MS Word and Excel.

Many federal agencies have transitioned to using a process for electronic submission of grant proposals. Applications and forms specific for each application are avaliable at Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov).

Other standard forms can be found on the website for the federal Office of Management and Budget (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants/grants_forms.html) or, for grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, go to http://www.psc.gov/forms/PHS/phs.html. You may find other websites where you can download application forms. If you do not retrieve the form from the website of the funding agency, be sure that you check to see that you are using an acceptable form by reading the agency's application instructions.