U.S. Department of Education details 2026 Comprehensive Centers grant process, deadlines and award estimates

Dr. Michelle Daley, group leader for the Comprehensive Centers Program in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, led a pre-application webinar outlining the application steps, eligibility rules and review timeline for the 2026 Comprehensive Centers Program competition.

The webinar was framed as an overview and repeatedly emphasized that the official Application Notice and Instructions (ANI) on grants.gov is the controlling document; the webinar is a resource to be used alongside the ANI. Daley said applications are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on 06/30/2026 and that the Department intends to announce awards in September 2026 if it makes new awards this fiscal year.

Why this matters: Congress appropriated $50,000,000 for the Comprehensive Centers program for fiscal year 2026, about $47,500,000 of which the Department said may be available for new awards. The Department estimated first-year awards would range from $750,000 to $6,500,000, with project periods of up to 60 months. Those estimates appear in the ANI but the Department said it is not bound by them.

Daley walked applicants through eligibility and the review process. She cited section 203B of the Education Technical Assistance Act (ETAA) of 2002 as the statutory eligibility basis and said eligible applicants include research organizations, agencies, institutions of higher education, partnerships and consortia in accordance with requirements in 34 CFR part 75 subpart C. The Department will conduct an initial eligibility review—verifying required forms, attachments and whether absolute priorities have been addressed—before forwarding eligible applications to nonfederal peer reviewers for scoring.

On scoring and reviewer instructions, Daley said peer reviewers will read and individually score assigned applications against the selection criteria in the ANI, then discuss those applications as a panel; individual scores will be averaged to create an overall application score. She cautioned that failing to respond to specific selection criteria will negatively affect an application's score.

She reviewed required forms and submission mechanics: applicants must submit standard documents such as the SF-424 (Application for Federal Assistance) and ED supplemental information, and should not attach narrative materials to the SF-424. The ED-524B budget form (Non-Construction Program Budget Information) must show federal funding requested for each project year. Daley also described the ED abstract (limited to two pages and public if awarded) and stressed the project narrative is the primary component; reviewers will only score what is written and supported in the narrative, the budget narrative and attachments.

On page limits and attachments, Daley recommended applicants limit the narrative to the equivalent of no more than 75 pages and said reviewers will be instructed to read and score only the first 75 pages. Other required elements include assurances and certifications and the SF-LLL (Disclosure of Lobbying Activities) and the grants.gov lobbying form.

Budget details: applicants must provide a budget narrative explaining how requested funds will be used and the basis for cost estimates for personnel, benefits, travel, consultants/subcontracts, indirect costs and other expenses. For indirect costs, Daley said applicants should indicate an approved indirect cost rate on line 10 of ED-524B; applicants without such an agreement may use a de minimis rate of up to 15 percent. She also said that where applications tie in score, the Secretary may select among tied applications and will consider the applicant with the lower effective indirect cost rate as appropriate.

Submission mechanics and technical requirements: all applications must be submitted electronically through grants.gov Workspace; applicants must be registered in SAM.gov and grants.gov and include a matching Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) on the application or grants.gov will reject the submission. All application documents must be PDFs, with recommended file names under 50 characters and no special characters; the Department advised submitting flattened/read-only PDFs rather than interactive fillable files. Daley warned that non-PDF or password-protected files could render material unreadable and result in the Department not considering those materials.

Post-submission and notifications: applicants are advised to verify submission status using grants.gov Track My Application rather than relying solely on email. If successful, applicants will receive a Grant Award Notification (GAN); the Department said it may notify the applicant's U.S. Representative and U.S. senator and provide electronic GAN access.

Resources and help: Daley directed applicants to the ANI on grants.gov and the Comprehensive Centers program website for detailed instructions and resources, including a checklist and workspace help videos. The Department said it will publish frequently asked questions on the program website and that questions about the competition should be emailed to oese.comprehensivecenters@ed.gov. She also noted the Department will provide the ANI in accessible formats upon request.

The Department reiterated that the ANI is the official notice and that the webinar is a supplemental resource. If the Department makes awards this fiscal year, it anticipates notifying funded and unfunded applicants in September 2026.