> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/funding-rounds/create-a-grant-round.md. Every page is listed at https://admin.backed.giving/help/llms.txt.

> This page uses Backed's default terms, such as Funding Round and Application Template. An organisation may rename them, so read each as your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

A grant round is what applicants apply to. Backed calls it a `Grant` by default: the sidebar item,
the list and the buttons use your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

## Before you start

- You need a registration template before you create your first grant round. If you have none, the
  `Grants` page says `Set up a registration template before creating your first funding round` and
  links to `Plan › Form templates`. See
  [Registration templates and types](../registrations/registration-templates.md).
- Have an application form ready under `Plan > Form templates > Applications`, or create one while
  you set up the round.

## Create the round

1. Select `Plan > Grants`, then `New Grant`.
2. `How do you want to start?` asks you to choose:
   - `Blank`: an empty grant you set up step by step.
   - A starter: `Council community grants`, `PAF partnership`, `Research fellowship` or
     `Member distribution`. Each card says what it is for and whether it has `1 stage` or
     `2 stages`. See [Start from a starter](#start-from-a-starter).
3. Work through the steps. The caption shows where you are, for example `Step 1 of 6 · Details`.
   Every change saves as you go and the page shows `All changes saved`. Use `Back` and `Next` to
   move between steps.

### Details

- `Title`, `Description` and `Funding Category` (or `Create a New Grant Category`).
- `Grant type`: `Public Grants`, which every applicant can see and apply for, `Private Grants`,
  which only the applicants you invite can see, or `Test round`, which only staff and the testers
  you list under `Testers` can see. For a private grant, add people under `Invited applicants` by
  searching registered applicants or inviting by email address. See
  [Test a round first](publish-and-unpublish.md#test-a-round-first).
- `Eligibility screener`: see [Eligibility screener](eligibility-screener.md).
- `Application title`: `From a form field` names each application from the Application Title
  field of its form; `Pre-formatted text` gives every application the text you enter.
- `Video Submission Field`: assessors see the file uploaded to this field as a video. Choose the
  application form first.
- `Classification`: choose which of your classification taxonomies the round uses, whether
  applicants code their own application, and whether staff coding is required. Under each chosen
  taxonomy, pick the round's codes in each dimension (for CLASSIE, `Subjects` and `Beneficiaries`)
  and select `Save codes`. Each new application in the round starts with these codes as a
  proposed staff coding. See [Classification](../classification/classification.md).
- `Advanced Settings` holds `Eligible Types of Applicants` (`Both`, `Companies` or `Individuals`)
  and `Allow applicants to add collaborators`. While `Allow a prefix per Grant` is on under
  `Settings > Profile and terms`, it also holds `Number prefix`: up to 10 letters, digits, `-` or `/`
  that replace your organisation's prefix for the round's new application numbers. Leave it empty
  to use the organisation's. If the next number is already in use, the field says
  `Application number … is already in use. Change the prefix or padding.` Numbers already issued
  never change. See [Organisation settings](../organisation/organisation-settings.md).
  `Advanced Settings` also holds `Offer letter` and `Decline letter`: `None`, or one of your
  decision letter templates. A funding decision on the round then starts its `Select a Letter
  Template` step with the letter for its outcome already selected, and you can still change it.
  See [Funding decisions](../decisions/funding-decisions.md).
  `Advanced Settings` also holds `Decisions`, with `Require rationale`: `None`, `Declines`,
  `Approvals` or `All`. It sets which applications in a funding decision on the round need a
  decision rationale before the decision can be sent. A declined application always needs a decline
  reason. You need permission to edit and publish the grant to change it.
  `Decisions` also holds `Hold declines for`: a whole number of days from 0 to 90 that a sent
  decline waits in the decline queue before the application is declined and its letter goes. 0
  sends declines at once. See [Decline queue](../decisions/decline-queue.md).
  `Advanced Settings` also holds `Applicant help`, off by default. Ticked, signed-in applicants
  can ask about the round from its published landing page and guideline files while it is open,
  and every answer cites the passage it comes from. A question the documents don't answer is
  pointed to your organisation's support email instead. It also needs the `Applicant help`
  capability switched on under [AI assistance](../../integrations/ai-assistance.md). You can
  switch it on or off after the round is published, from the grant's `Details` tab.
  `Advanced Settings` also holds `Stale drafts`, off by default: remind applicants about a draft
  nobody has edited, remind them again up to a maximum, and optionally withdraw it a further number
  of days after the first reminder, or when an Information Request goes unanswered. It saves on its
  own with `Save stale drafts`, so you can change it after the round is published. See
  [Remind and withdraw stale drafts](stale-applications.md).

### Application Form

Choose the application form from `Application templates`, or select `New Form`. Search all form
templates to find one. Select `Edit` to change the chosen form. The form must have an Application
Title field, unless you chose `Pre-formatted text` under `Application title` on the `Details`
step.

Tick `Allow copy from previous Applications` to let applicants start from one of their earlier
applications, keeping every matching answer. Tick `Copy file uploads too` to copy their uploaded
files as well; it is available only while copying is allowed. Fields marked `Do not copy` in the
form stay blank either way.

`Attach PDF to submission confirmation` (on by default) attaches a PDF of the submitted application
to the email the applicant receives when they submit.

If the form asks for referees, `Applicants can view references` lets applicants open each completed
reference, and `Show references to assessors` lets assessors read them. Both are off by default. See
[Referee requests and references](../applications/referee-requests.md).

### Funding Type

`Currency` comes first: the currency the round's applications, decisions, contracts and payments
are in. Your organisation's currency is first in the list and chosen for you. Nothing is converted.
Once an application to the round has been submitted the currency is fixed, and the field says so.
See [Currencies](../payments/currencies.md).

- `Fixed Amount`: every applicant applies for the same `Amount per application`.
- `Application form field`: applicants enter amounts in Currency fields, and the fields you select
  under `Currency fields` are added together.

Enter the `Total funding amount` in the round's currency.

`Indexation` closes the step: the terms each contract made from the round starts with. Choose `None`,
`Fixed rate` with an `Annual rate (%)`, or `Index series` with one of your organisation's series. A
choice saves once it is complete. See [Index series](../payments/index-series.md).

### Time & Date

Under `When can applicants apply?`, choose `Always open` (applications are accepted until the grant
is closed) or `Closing date`. For a closing date, enter the `Closing date and time` and, optionally,
the `Opening date and time`; left empty, the round opens when it is published. Times are in your
organisation's time zone.

`Decisions expected by` is optional: applicants see the date beside their application's status
once they submit, and are told when it has passed. It can't be before the closing date: an earlier
date shows `The decision date cannot be before the closing date.`

### Landing Page

Create a landing page or skip it. Once it exists, `Show form preview on the Landing Page` (on by
default) lets people preview the application form and download it blank before they start. See
[Landing pages](landing-pages.md).

### Publish Grant

Check the round and publish it. See [Publish and unpublish](publish-and-unpublish.md). Below this
step, `Default split for new grants` sets how each application approved later is attributed to your
sources of funds, and `Co-funders` pledges co-funders to the round. See
[Sources of funds](../funds/sources-of-funds.md#a-rounds-default-split) and
[Co-funders on grants and rounds](../funds/co-funders-on-grants.md).

## Start from a starter

A starter sets up a working round in one step, so you begin from more than a blank page. Choosing
one creates:

- a `Draft` grant with the starter's grant type, eligible applicants and funding type, opened at
  the `Details` step;
- an application form, an assessment form with scored criteria and weights (a `Total Score` of
  100), and a draft assessment round for the grant with conflict of interest declarations on;
- an offer letter and a decline letter, already chosen as the grant's `Offer letter` and
  `Decline letter`.

`PAF partnership` and `Research fellowship` have `2 stages`: the grant is the expression of
interest, and the second stage's form is created too. When you later select `Add Stage` on the
grant, that form and the stage name are already chosen, and you can change both.
`Research fellowship` also turns on blind review for its assessment round.

Each new template is named after the starter and its part, for example
`Council community grants – application form`, with ` (2)` added when the name is taken.
Everything a starter creates is yours to change, and is not linked back to the starter.

A starter card is greyed out, with the reason beneath it, when:

- you don't have permission to edit templates and to create assessment rounds; or
- your organisation has assessment rounds turned off, because every starter creates one.

If your organisation has no registration template yet, choosing a starter creates nothing and
shows the same message as `Blank`, with its link to `Plan › Form templates`.

## Import from your Rounds profile

If your organisation's grants were listed on Rounds before you moved to Backed, you can start a
grant from each of them instead of retyping it. On the `Grants` page, select
`Import from your Rounds profile`, beside `New Grant`. You see it only if you can create grants.

The list shows each grant Rounds lists for your organisation: its funder, whether it is `Upcoming`,
`Open` or `Closed`, its dates and amounts, a summary and `Where Rounds found it`, a link to the page
Rounds read it from.

- `Create draft grant` creates a `Draft` grant and opens it at the `Details` step. It is filled in
  with the grant's title, description and eligibility, its opening and closing dates (or
  `Always open`), the amount per application, the total funding and, when it is in Australian or New
  Zealand dollars, its currency. Choose the application form, check every step and publish it as you
  would any grant.
- A grant you have already imported shows `Imported as a draft` with `Open draft`, or
  `Imported and published` with `View grant`. Importing it again opens the same grant; it never
  makes a second one.

Once you publish the imported grant, its `Apply` button on Rounds takes applicants to your grant
on Backed instead of the page Rounds found it on.

`No Rounds profile to import from` means Rounds has no profile it knows is your organisation's. If
your grants are listed under your organisation's name, ask Backed support to link that profile.
Like `Blank`, importing needs a registration template first.

## The grant's page

Select `View` on a grant in the list to open its page. The `Details` tab shows the
`Total round funding`, its `Program`, its opening and `Closing date`, the number of applications
and its landing page. Select `Change the closing date` to move the closing date of a published
round. The `Applications` tab lists the round's applications.

While `Applicant help` is on, the `Details` tab also shows `Unanswered questions`: what applicants
asked that the published landing page and guideline files did not answer, newest first, each with
the date it was asked. Who asked is never recorded, and each question is kept for 90 days. Use the
list to add what is missing to the landing page or the guidelines. `No unanswered questions` means
the documents answered everything so far. The card also warns you when:

- a guideline file contributed no text, naming it. A scanned image can't be searched, so upload a
  version with real text.
- nothing is indexed yet, so every question goes unanswered.

## Other actions

The actions menu on a grant offers `View`, `Edit & Publish` or `Unpublish & Edit`, `Duplicate`,
`Add Stage`, `Complete Application on Behalf`, `Delete Draft Grant` or `Delete Published Grant`,
`Archive` and `Unarchive`, depending on its status. `Generate Bulk Export` prepares one
download of the round's applications; Backed emails you when it is ready.

## See also

- [Duplicate a round](duplicate-a-round.md)
- [Multi-stage grant rounds](multi-stage-grant-rounds.md)
- [Form builder](../applications/form-builder.md)