U.S. Department of Education details FY2025 Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions competition and application requirements

Margarita Helene Melendez, program lead and competition manager for the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) program at the U.S. Department of Education, provided a prerecorded webinar overview of the FY2025 DHSI individual development grant competition, including deadlines, eligibility, allowable and unallowable activities, selection criteria, evidence requirements and technical instructions for submitting applications on grants.gov.

The webinar matters to colleges and universities that serve significant Hispanic and low-income student populations because the Department estimates approximately $66,944,786 in new funds and said it plans to make about 116 awards; individual development grants may provide up to $600,000 per year and up to $3,000,000 across the five-year project period. Melendez emphasized the application deadline of 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, July 3, 2025, and urged applicants to apply early and to ensure that their Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) is current so grants.gov will accept their submission.

Melendez said the official application instructions are the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) published in the Federal Register and that the NIA, statutes and regulations supersede any webinar guidance. She reiterated that applicants must follow the NIA and the common instructions on grants.gov, submit only one application per institution for an individual development grant in this competition, and include the required DHSI Program Profile form in the "Other Attachments" section of the grants.gov package; omission of that profile may render an application ineligible.

She described who may apply: institutions that are eligible for Title V, Part A programs in the…