Today we’ll discuss what I call placeholder announcements. When a new announcement relevant to your area is posted on grants.gov, your first instinct is to assume it represents real opportunities.

So, when you feel one matches your research, why might you not want to pursue it right away?  

Because some of them are what I call placeholder announcements, meaning that, at the moment, there are no budgets to fund grants in these areas.

Placeholder announcements serve as a method for agencies to accept applications so they can allocate funds if and when funds become available. Federal procurement regulations require an opportunity announcement before an agency can obligate funds. Therefore, if there were no announcement and an agency finds itself with extra money that must be obligated quickly, they may not be able to move those funds.

Because of this, when the agency believes that sufficient funding could become available, they’ll publish an announcement in advance. This is why I call them placeholder announcements; if funding becomes available, they will have a mechanism to obligate those funds.

An informed PI should be aware that these types of announcements are out there so that they don’t spend too much time pursuing an opportunity that does not yet exist.

One of the warning signs of a placeholder announcement is that it is extremely comprehensive in terms of the topic areas of interest. When it seems like everything that the agency is involved with is listed and the announcement itself is very long you probably are looking at a placeholder announcement.

I've also seen placeholder announcements bundled with real opportunities that have budgets, all in the same document. Unfortunately, this can make things even more confusing.

See if the announcement states that funds have been allocated or if funding is contingent on future appropriations. Unfortunately, just because an announcement does not specify that funds are available, it is not guaranteed that it is a placeholder announcement. So, if you don't see any statement about the expected number of awards or total dollar amounts, don't conclude that it's a placeholder.

Instead, reach out to agency contacts for general information and to ask if there's an approved budget in place.

Even if they don’t represent concrete opportunities, placeholder announcements can still serve two useful purposes. First, they can inform you about what's going on within the organization as they are extensive and cover pretty much everything the agency is doing. After all, they may not know where they will get the money or what they might choose to invest in in the future.

Second, the announcement may contain a valuable list of contact information for people working in your area – potential government collaborators. Scroll through such announcements for a deeper look at the agency’s agenda, but don’t get into extensive white paper or proposal writing until you have sufficient confidence in the opportunity.

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