Before You Start

Before You Start Your Proposal

1. Please be aware of the Chancellor's Office Policy regarding submission of proposals and acceptance of awards.  Proposals for Sponsored Programs shall not be submitted to the Sponsor without prior written approval of the president of the University or the president's University designee and of the chief financial officer of the University or the chief financial officer's University designee.  Awards of Contracts or Grants shall not be accepted without prior written approval by appropriate officials of the University and Auxiliary responsible for the following areas, if applicable: academic/programmatic; (b) fiscal, (c) health and safety; (d) human and animal subject research; (e) space; (f) major technical resources and equipment; and (g) risk management.

2. Have discussion with your chair and dean to discuss your interest in submitting to a particular program.  They may have some insight to share.  If there will be time commitments (re-assigned time, additional effort, etc.), they will need to be aware and approve this.

3. Check on the grant program's eligibility.  If you or the institution is not eligible to receive the grant, you should know this before spending considerable time on an application.

4. Are you an eligible Principal Investigator?   Please refer to the Principal Investigator Policy, and submit a Request for Provisional PI Status, if needed.

5. Consider the timeline.   A proposal application involves more work than is anticipated.  Our strong recommendation is to begin at least 30 days prior, and in most cases much longer than this.  It is not unheard of to begin one year prior. Also, beginning early can offer you advantages, such as additional resources, grant writers, reviewers, etc. that ORSP can support.  There may also be multiple administrators who need to review and approve the submission.  The more complicated the proposal, the longer lead time you will need.