The Department of Contracts and Grants (DCG) has been notified that Grants.gov is intermittently failing to validate SAM.gov registrations, triggering a false “inactive/deactivated” error that blocks proposal submission. USC’s SAM.gov registration is active and in good standing — this is a federal system issue, not a USC problem.
Impact: Proposal submissions may be delayed minutes to several days with no predictable resolution window. Once the systems resync, submission proceeds normally. To date there have been no downstream issues for the impacted proposals.
What DCG will do if your proposal is affected:
Notify the PI and department administrator.
Open a Grants.gov support ticket to document the attempt and secure a case number.
Reattempt submission until confirmed successful.
Maintain documentation showing any delay was caused by the federal system failure.
What you should do: Submit early. Proposals hitting this error within 24 hours of a deadline face the highest risk of impact. Early submission allows time to reattempt, contact Grants.gov support, and gather sponsor documentation if needed.
DCG believes this is a temporary issue and is hopeful for a quick resolution. If your proposal is affected, we are here to support you every step of the way.