Definition
Grants are used across the Commonwealth to achieve government policy aims and outcomes for the public through payments to individuals and organisations. Grant Management is defined as the publishing, administering, and managing of these Government-funded services and opportunities.
Purpose
Grant Management systems enable the administration of grants through the full grant lifecycle. This includes, but is not limited to, processing grant applications, assessment of eligibility, management of grant funding, tracking of grants and grant programs, auditing, and reporting.
Effective grant management is realised through:
- adopting a capability-driven approach to grant management
- delivering simpler, more consistent and efficient grant
sadministration across government - reducing duplication of effort and costs across government by consolidating grant
sadministration services - improving user experience related to grant management.
Objectives
The objectives of this content are to:
- maximise the value delivered by the existing grants hubs
- reduce implementation risk through the reuse of proven designs within government
- ensure that new grant management solutions draw efficiency from preceding investments, implementations, and learnings
- foster technological, data, and workflow consistency across agencies, resulting in simpler and more accessible grant management.
Whole-of-government applicability
The Data and Digital Government Strategy (DDGS) sets a vision for 2030 to deliver simple, secure and connected public services for all people and business, through world class data and digital capabilities.
Suitable handing of grant management as a capability supports the DDGS missions of:
- Simple and seamless services: Be digital by design, engage people proactively, and guide them to the services they might need.
- Delivering for all people and business: Embed inclusion and accessibility, ensuring all services meet the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and that the Digital Service Standard is implemented to embed best-practice service design and accessibility across the APS.
Policy Elements
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Publish on GrantConnect
Grant opportunity guidelines and grant awards must be made publicly available on GrantConnect, except where there is a specific policy reason to not publicise the grant opportunity guidelines, or grants are provided on a one-off or ad hoc basis.
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Reuse existing designs, patterns, and investments
Consideration must be given to minimising risk, improving consistency, accelerating delivery, and lowering total cost of Grants Management. This includes leveraging existing standards and designs prior to considering alternative new developments.
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Build for reuse
Where reuse is not possible, provide evidence of which systems across government have been investigated (specifically the usage, users, scale, and security classification of the system), demonstrate how any new investment may be extensible and operationalised for reuse, and highlight potential benefits to agencies seeking similar capabilities.
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Engage the Department of Finance
When developing a Grant Management platform, Non-corporate Commonwealth Entities (NCEs) should contact the Department of Finance in the first instance.