Discretionary Grant Awards by Grant Type

FY 2003 Discretionary Dollars: $37,001,091,757
FY 2003 Discretionary Awards: 68,934
FY 2003 Discretionary Recipients: 10,719

Discretionary grant awards comprise only 16% of the total FY 2003 grant funds, but they account for 93% of the total number of grant awards made in FY 2003. Discretionary grants are those that permit the Federal government, according to specific authorizing legislation, to exercise judgment, or “discretion,” in selecting the applicant/recipient organization, through a competitive grant process. The types of activities commonly supported by discretionary grants include demonstration, research, training, service, and construction projects or programs. Discretionary grants are sometimes referred to as “project grants.”

In this report, grants awarded as a cooperative agreements are included in the charts summarizing discretionary grant awards. A cooperative agreement is an award instrument of financial assistance where “substantial involvement” is anticipated between the HHS awarding agency and the recipient during performance of the project or activity. This means that the recipient can expect Federal programmatic collaboration or participation in managing the award.

• Discretionary Grants – account for 12% of the total FY 2003 grant funds, and 84% of the total number of FY 2003 grants.
• Cooperative Agreements – account for only 3% of the total FY 2003 grant funds, and 9% of the total number of FY 2003 grants.