1. (a) Unless granted a waiver or blanket exemption by the department based on the requirements in §210.5 of this chapter, each state agency, other than institutions of higher education and those state agencies defined in §531.001(4), Government Code, shall develop and electronically announce synopses of announcements of all funding opportunities under financial assistance programs that award discretionary grants, loans, and cooperative agreements using a standard format and a set of common data elements established statewide and posted by the department at www.dir.state.tx.us/approvals/index or such other URL as the department may indicate at www.dir.state.tx.us/approvals/index. The standard format and common data elements shall address the following:

   1. (1) The synopsis shall provide potential applicants with enough information about the funding opportunity to decide whether they are interested in viewing the full announcement;
   2. (2) The synopsis shall provide potential applicants with one or more ways to get the full announcement with the detailed information; and
   3. (3) The synopsis shall provide potential applicants with common data elements that allow the potential applicant the capability to search for state grant opportunities by using one or more of the following: key word(s), date, funding opportunity number, specific agency or name of agency.

2. (b) The state agency head or his or her designated representative(s) shall:

   1. (1) issue any needed direction to offices that award discretionary grants and cooperative agreements on the requirement to post a synopsis at the Web site/Internet address indicated by the department, including the standard data elements/format. Synopses must follow the format to ensure all required data elements are included;
   2. (2) ensure the synopsis posted at the Web site/Internet address indicated by the department will have full instructions regarding where to obtain the full announcement for the funding opportunity. To further satisfy statutory, regulatory, or the agency's policy requirements, some agencies also may need to announce the funding opportunity in the Texas Register; and
   3. (3) establish a funding opportunity number system for all programs that post a synopsis at www.dir.state.tx.us/approvals/index or such other URL as the department may indicate at www.dir.state.tx.us/approvals/index.

Source Note:The provisions of this §210.3 adopted to be effective March 28, 2007, 32 TexReg 1719.