GrantsNow vs OmniStar Grants

GrantsNow is a cloud-based platform for managing pre-award and post-award grants, due diligence, ethics, and contracts. Its Opportunity Scanner searches funding opportunities from sources such as UKRI, Horizon, and Grants.gov; a separate funder scanner covers more than 200 global funders, with filters, alerts, and conversion of call data into funder templates. Proposal tools let institutions configure forms and approval workflows, add peer review, and flag outstanding actions. Costing supports multiple budget scenarios, full economic costing models including FEC and Horizon, and recalculation. After awards, teams can manage setup, budgets, milestones, changes, compliance, and reporting integrated with ERP systems. Ethics and due diligence workflows include custom forms, automated approvals, collaboration, and centralized risk, compliance, governance, and document management. Contracts tools cover creation through renewal, with tracking, reminders, and digital signatures through DocuSign or another third-party application. Integrations include Oracle systems, Unit4, TechnologyOne, and SAP. Pricing is on request; the maker offers a free demo and says its team can assist with implementation and system integration.

OmniStar Grants manages grant work from pre-award planning through administration and post-award reporting. It is built for government agencies, charities, universities, research institutions, and foundations, with funders, applicants, and recipients using the platform. Application workflows include SmartForms, eligibility checks, invitation and multi-stage rounds, collaboration, structured reviews, scoring, conflict checks, and digital approvals. Award administration covers contract generation, notifications, milestones, variations, payments, budgeting, and document versioning. Post-award tools handle progress and acquittal reports, outcomes, financial reconciliation, dashboards, reminders, and program closure. Administrators can configure forms, workflows, templates, dashboards, and reports, including drill-down reporting and data exports. Integrations include ABR/ABN, GrantConnect, FMIS, document and records management, ORCID, Microsoft Teams, Europe PMC, and DocuSign, plus REST APIs and webhooks. Listed security controls include role- and record-based access, single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, audit logs, and encryption at rest and in transit. OmniStar says it is IRAP and ISO 27001 certified. The cloud service is accessible through devices and browsers; pricing is tailored to internal users and available by quote.