Approved By: Dr. Baldauf, Vice President for Research
Approved By: Kristi M. Billinger, Executive Director, Sponsored Research Services
Approved: 05/15/2017
Effective: Immediately
Review Cycle: Annual
Purpose: To describe relevant procedures for investigators who are submitting proposals for external funding
Sponsored Research Services (SRS) strives to provide TAMU and the agency research community with excellent sponsored project administration services. Pre-award administration is a complex process that requires sufficient preparation time prior to submission to the sponsor. Adequate preparation time will ensure that sponsor requirements, System Member rules, SAPs or guidelines are followed and proposals are submitted by the sponsor’s deadline. SRS is able to add the most value to the proposal submission process when sufficient time is available to prepare SRS generated portions of the proposal, and to conduct a thorough quality review. To ensure that SRS provides investigators with the highest level of support we issue the following guidelines for proposal services:
1. Initial contact with SRS
- Researchers are asked to contact SRS pre-award staff with their intent to submit a proposal a minimum of 3 weeks prior to the sponsor deadline date.
- Complex proposals (e.g. the proposal contains subcontracts or cost share/match, etc..) or solicitations containing terms and conditions may need additional preparation time (longer than 3 weeks). Therefore, researchers are encouraged to contact SRS as soon as possible to facilitate the proposal submission.
- The initial communication should include the sponsor proposal announcement. In the event that an announcement is not available, the communication should include sponsor name, program, deadline and other critical elements of the proposal so that SRS may assign a proposal administrator to facilitate the submission.
2. Preparation of Administrative portions of the proposal – SRS requests the following documents (when applicable) 5 business days in advance of the sponsor deadline:
- Budget
- Budget Justification
- Draft abstract or statement of work (to use in routing to obtain system member approval)
- Relevant approved waivers
- Subcontract documents
- Biosketch
- Current & pending
- Data Management Plan
- Facilities & Equipment
3. Technical Portions of the proposal – All technical portions of the proposal should be submitted to SRS, in final format, no later than 1 business day prior to the sponsor deadline.
4. SRS pledge to the research community
- Proposals in final format received at SRS by the timeline outlined above will receive a complete and thorough quality review.
- For proposals completed and submitted to SRS within this timeframe, SRS will work with the PI to make necessary changes to ensure that the proposal is administratively compliant.
- SRS pledges to submit on-time proposals, with limited exceptions, prior to the sponsor’s deadline. Proposals with the required materials submitted to SRS within the timeframe outlined above will receive priority over proposals received with shorter lead time.
- SRS staff will make every effort to submit all proposals. In the event that a proposal is received outside of the requested timeframe, the investigator will assume the risk for proposals found to be non-compliant or does not meet the sponsor’s deadline.
5. Agency Deadline – Unless the deadline is specifically defined as earlier than 5 p.m. by the sponsor, the submission deadline for SRS is 5 p.m. local time on the sponsor’s specified deadline date (even if the sponsor allows submissions beyond 5 p.m.).
6. Approvals – If a proposal is submitted to the sponsor without SRS or System Member review, the proposal may be withdrawn if it is determined to be non-compliant with the System Member rules, SAPs or guidelines.