Application Kit File Populates Many Form Fields But May Need to be Customized
All the forms necessary to submit a complete MDCP application are available in our application kit. In fact, using the Excel spreadsheet in the application kit will allow you to automatically populate many of the fields required on the SF-424, SF-424A, and the Budget for Project Award Period. However, you will probably need to customize some of the other spreadsheets so that they accurately represent your planned activity and not that of the "American Widget Association" example on which the Excel file in the application kit is based.

Cost Categories on Forms 424A and Budget for Project Award Period
Forms 424A and the Budget for Project Award Period provide eight (8) cost categories: personnel, fringe benefits, travel, equipment, supplies, contractual, other, and indirect charges. You must assign each cost in your budget to one of these categories. Do not attempt to modify these two forms to include different categories. Also, do not report any "construction" costs. Although a category for these costs is provided on form 424A, MDCP is not a program that allows for construction costs.

Grants.gov
You may choose to go to Grants.gov and enter the information for the SF-424 and SF-424A online. You may choose to populate these forms by using linked spreadsheets as set forth in the example in the application kit, or you may choose to enter and submit these forms online at grants.gov.

Sequential Numbering
Each page of the application, from the executive summary to the last page of the appendices, should be numbered sequentially. This makes electronic searching of scanned documents match the hard copy reviewed by the Selection Panel.

Email Attachments: Segmenting Large Applications
Electronic submissions may be either delivered on CD Rom or diskette, or transmitted as an attachment to one or more emails. If you are submitting via email, the quickest way is to scan or save your application in pdf. There's a good chance you'll need to break it up into segments small enough to submit via email. Depending on the resolution of your scan and whether or not it is color or black-and-white, you might divide your application in segments as small as 10 pages or as large as 70. Number each segment (e.g. 1/3, 2/3, 3/3) so that we will know when your completed application has been submitted. You need to be able to document that you transmitted your entire application to us by 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, July 31, 2008.

Email Attachments: Transmission
Convert or scan your application to pdf file format with sequentially numbered pages. Send your application as an e-mail attachment to Alexx.Bant@mail.doc.gov.

Email Attachments: Confirmation (July 30)
Check to ensure that your attached application was transmitted successfully. We send confirmations via e-mail within one business day. Therefore, we recommend that you transmit your application by Wednesday, July 30. This way, if there are any transmission problems, you will be aware of them prior to the Thursday, July 31 submission deadline.

CD Rom or Diskette Submissions
Instead of email attachment, you may submit your application electronically by sending it to us recorded on a CD Rom or 3 ½ " diskette by the July 31 deadline.

CD Rom or Diskette: Security Delays Some Deliveries
If you choose to submit an electronic version on CD Rom or diskette, ensure that the service you use can deliver it to us by the deadline. Due to additional security processing, packages and envelopes sent to us via U.S. mail have been delayed several days. The delays have affected all forms of the U.S. mail, including first-class, priority, and express.

Five (5) Hard Copies by August 7
You may submit electronically without providing paper copies. However, in order to expedite access to applications by reviewers who prefer hard copy, we suggest that you send five (5) hard copies to us by August 7. If you choose to send five copies, please email or call us to let us know that they are on the way.