Grant cycle
One complete run of a programme: it opens, it closes, it reviews, it awards. A programme that runs annually has one cycle a year, and knowing where you are in it is what decides whether to prepare now or wait.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Funding cycle · Grant round
In detail
Cycles repeat with enough regularity to plan against and not enough to rely on. A programme that opened in March for four years can open in June in the fifth because appropriations moved, and nothing published in advance warned anyone.
For a foundation, the cycle is usually set by board meeting dates, which is why a foundation deadline three months before a decision is normal rather than slow.
Against a forecasted opportunity
A forecast is a specific announcement that a programme intends to open, with a date the source published. A cycle is a pattern across years. `status` distinguishes forecasted from active records, and we publish no pattern of our own — an inferred "usually opens in March" would be our claim rather than the agency’s.
How GrantTrove stores it
- `status` carries forecasted, active, closed and archived, and `open_at` and `deadline_at` carry the dates the source published.
- We do not predict when a programme will next open. Where a source publishes a forecast, the record carries it as a forecast; where it does not, nothing is inferred.
Common questions
Will this programme run again next year?
Unless the source says so, we do not know, and we do not guess on a record.
Why do foundation cycles take so long?
Board meeting dates usually set them, and boards meet quarterly at best.
Can I see last year’s cycle?
Closed records stay visible with their dates rather than disappearing, so the previous round is readable.