A Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) is the 12-character identifier the US federal government assigns to every organization that registers in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov). It is required to apply for federal grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts, and it replaced the Dun & Bradstreet DUNS number across all federal systems on April 4, 2022. Unlike the DUNS number, the UEI is generated and owned entirely by the government — there is no separate third-party registration step, and no fee.
What the UEI Is and Its Format
The UEI is a 12-character alphanumeric value with a fixed structure defined by the General Services Administration (GSA), which operates SAM.gov:
- 12 characters, always alphanumeric, no hyphens or spaces.
- Not case-sensitive.
- The letters I and O are never used, to avoid confusion with the digits 1 and 0.
- The first character is never 0.
- The final character is a checksum digit computed from the preceding 11 characters, which lets systems validate that a UEI was entered correctly.
- The format is deliberately structured so a UEI cannot collide with a CAGE (Commercial and Government Entity) code, since some legacy systems store the two side by side.
An example (illustrative, not a real assigned value): ABC123DEF456.
How to Get a UEI: Only Through SAM.gov
This is the single most common point of confusion left over from the DUNS era. Under the old system, an institution obtained a DUNS number directly from Dun & Bradstreet, a private commercial data broker, as a step separate from and prior to SAM.gov registration. Many older institutional guides, sponsored-programs office pages, and even some funder instructions still describe this two-step process — it is no longer accurate.
There is no standalone application for a UEI and no way to request one from GSA directly or from any commercial vendor. A UEI is issued automatically as part of completing (or already having completed) an entity registration in SAM.gov:
- New entities receive a UEI automatically the moment they begin a new SAM.gov entity registration — before the rest of the registration is even validated or activated.
- Entities that already had an active SAM.gov registration before April 4, 2022 had a UEI assigned to them automatically at the transition; no action was required to receive it.
- SAM.gov registration itself is free. Any site charging a fee to “obtain” a UEI or complete SAM.gov registration on an institution’s behalf is a third-party service, not GSA or SAM.gov itself.
In practice, a research administrator does not request a UEI in isolation — they complete or maintain their institution’s SAM.gov registration (which requires an EIN/TIN, banking information for electronic funds transfer, and organizational details), and the UEI is what SAM.gov assigns as that registration’s persistent identifier.
The DUNS-to-UEI Transition: What Happened to Legacy DUNS Numbers
Before April 2022, the DUNS number was the standard identifier used across SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and most federal financial-assistance systems. GSA’s transition to a non-proprietary, government-owned identifier eliminated that dependency on a single commercial vendor. Key points for anyone reconciling older records:
- The DUNS number itself still exists as a Dun & Bradstreet product used in the commercial credit and business-data world, but it is no longer used or recognized in any federal award system — SAM.gov, Grants.gov, eRA Commons, and Research.gov all identify entities by UEI only.
- An institution’s legacy DUNS number was not reused or converted algorithmically into its UEI; the UEI is a distinct, newly generated value with no mathematical relationship to the old DUNS number.
- Older award documents, subaward agreements, and even some archived federal system records from before April 2022 may still reference a DUNS number. When reconciling those records against current systems, look up the entity by name/EIN in SAM.gov to find its current UEI rather than trying to derive one from the other.
- Any internal institutional documentation, boilerplate proposal language, or subrecipient-commitment-form template still asking for a “DUNS number” is stale and should be updated to request the UEI instead.
Where the UEI Is Used
The UEI is the entity-level identifier threaded through every major federal research-funding system a US institution touches:
- SAM.gov — the UEI is the entity’s primary identifier for registration, and the government’s exclusions/debarment screening is tied to the same registered entity record.
- Grants.gov — an active SAM.gov registration and valid UEI are prerequisites for an organization to register on Grants.gov and for its Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) to submit applications; the UEI appears directly on the SF-424 application cover form.
- eRA Commons — NIH’s institutional profile links to the institution’s UEI, and NIH validates it against SAM.gov as part of application processing.
- Research.gov — NSF similarly ties an institution’s Research.gov organizational profile to its SAM.gov registration and UEI.
Because all of these systems check the same underlying SAM.gov record, a single lapse or data error in SAM.gov (see below) can simultaneously affect submission ability across every one of them, not just the one system where it was noticed.
SAM.gov Registration Renewal and What a Lapse Blocks
A UEI itself does not expire, but the SAM.gov registration it is attached to does, and this is where most operational problems actually occur:
- SAM.gov registration must be renewed at least once every 12 months. Under 2 CFR Part 25, a federal awarding agency may not make a new award to an entity unless it has a valid UEI and an active SAM.gov registration with current information — and that registration must be active at the time of award, not merely at the time of application.
- SAM.gov sends renewal reminder emails, but responsibility for tracking the expiration date sits with the institution’s registered SAM.gov point of contact (typically within the sponsored-programs or grants office) — it is not automatic.
- A lapsed registration is a real, common operational failure mode: if it expires between application submission and award, or at the point a new proposal would be submitted, most federal systems will block submission or hold the award outright until the registration is renewed and revalidated. Renewal is not instantaneous — SAM.gov validation (particularly the IRS TIN/EIN match) can take several business days to a few weeks, so institutions typically build in a buffer well before the 12-month deadline rather than waiting for it to lapse.
- A lapse affects every downstream system simultaneously: a Grants.gov submission can be rejected, an eRA Commons or Research.gov proposal can be held, and a scheduled payment can be delayed, all from the same underlying cause.
UEI and Subaward Reporting Under FFATA
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) requires prime recipients of federal awards to publicly report subaward and executive-compensation data for subaward actions of $30,000 or more, through a system now consolidated into SAM.gov (migrated from the standalone FSRS.gov reporting portal). See CASRAI’s FFATA reporting and subaward entries for the reporting mechanics in full.
Because FFATA subaward reporting identifies entities by their federal entity identifier, a subrecipient generally needs its own UEI (obtained the same way as a prime recipient, via its own SAM.gov registration) before a prime recipient can complete FFATA reporting for that subaward — many pass-through entities now require proof of an active UEI/SAM.gov registration from a subrecipient as a condition of issuing a subaward agreement, for exactly this reason.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the UEI the same thing as a DUNS number?
No. They serve the same basic purpose — a unique identifier for an organization doing business with the federal government — but the DUNS number was a 9-digit, numeric-only identifier issued by the private company Dun & Bradstreet, while the UEI is a 12-character alphanumeric identifier generated entirely within SAM.gov by GSA. As of April 4, 2022, DUNS numbers are no longer used or accepted in any federal award system.
How much does it cost to get a UEI?
Nothing. Obtaining a UEI through SAM.gov registration is free. Third-party consultants and websites that charge a fee to “process” a SAM.gov registration or UEI are charging for a service, not for the identifier itself, which GSA issues at no cost.
How long does it take to get a UEI?
A UEI is assigned automatically and near-instantly once an entity begins a new SAM.gov registration. The identifier itself is not the bottleneck — completing and validating the full SAM.gov registration (particularly IRS TIN/EIN verification) is what typically takes time, commonly one to several weeks for a first-time registration.
Do individual researchers need their own UEI?
No. The UEI identifies the awardee organization (a university, hospital, company, or other legal entity), not an individual investigator. Individual researchers are identified in federal systems by other means, such as an eRA Commons ID or an ORCID iD, not a UEI.
Where do I find my institution’s UEI?
Search for the organization by name or EIN in SAM.gov’s public entity search. Anyone with an active SAM.gov user account tied to the institution’s registration can also see it directly in the registration record. Sponsored-programs or research administration offices typically maintain the institution’s UEI centrally, since departments and individual investigators should reference the institution’s single registered UEI rather than requesting a new one.
For related registration and submission mechanics, see CASRAI’s guides comparing eRA Commons vs. Grants.gov and eRA Commons vs. Research.gov, and the Grants Management hub for the full pre-award and post-award lifecycle.
