Tom Cooley, chair of the Grants Policy Committee, spoke at the NGP meeting on Tuesday (webcast available here) and mentioned that there is some discussion of the GPC and Grants Executive Board merging.

I think this would be an excellent development. To date, the grants universe has been split into two worlds: the policy world, and the technology world. The two haven’t really talked to each other very well over time, resulting in sub-optimal systems that sometimes create more work than they save. Having the two worlds convene on a third planet (okay, I admit this analogy is stretched thin now) and create some concurrence would be phenomenally helpful.

A good example is the kind of problem identified in GAO’s latest report: the funding model of Grants.gov. By merging the GPC and GEB — the bodies associated with the grants business and the government’s main grant application system — it may be possible to broker a funding mechanism that allows Grants.gov the flexibility it needs to meet agencies’ ever-changing requirements.