ALVSCE Research Administrators (RAs) provide grant submission support to all ALVSCE Investigators, including Faculty, Researchers, Specialists, Cooperative Extension Agents, Postdocs and Students, submitting an average of 654 proposals per year, or approximately 17% of all research proposals submitted annually by the University of Arizona.
As proposal requirements become more complex, RAs need sufficient time to work with Investigators and Sponsored Projects Services to ensure proposals comply with budgetary requirements and federal regulations and are submitted with enough time to complete all the steps necessary for a successful submission. At any given time, RAs are also managing multiple proposals, especially in the run up to major federal funding deadlines, so it is vital that Investigators adhere to the deadlines outlined in the ALVSCE Submission timeline
PLAN - Ongoing
- Explore research opportunities – send any opportunities that interest you to your Research Administrator (RA) to review for eligibility and limited submission requirements. You can find your RA here
- Identify your research team, subawards and other collaborators.
- Consider contacting Research Development Services (RDS) for project narrative support or identifying departmental colleagues who can act as internal reviewers.
NOTIFY - 20 business days prior to Sponsor Deadline
- Notify your RA of your intent to submit. You will need to provide your RA with a copy of the funding opportunity, a budget outline and the contact details for any subawards.
- Complete the Proposal Intake Form
- Your RA will help you prepare the full budget/budget justification and other non science related documents in the sponsor’s requested format.
SUBAWARDS DUE - 10 business days prior to Sponsor Deadline
- All subaward documents due.
- This should include budget, budget justification, scope of work and subrecipient commitment form.
- Subaward documents received after this date will be subject to the Late Proposal Policy.
FINALIZE ROUTING DOCS - 8 business days prior to Sponsor Deadline
- All documents for internal routing are due.
- Provide your RA with the following documents so they can initiate routing: Project Title, Project start & end dates, project abstract/summary, budget, budget justification, PI/Co-I distribution of credit & F&A.
- Proposal documents received after this date will be subject to the Late Proposal Policy
- Continue to work on science sections of the proposal and send final documents to RA as completed.
FINALIZE PROPOSAL - 3 business days prior to Sponsor Deadline
- Completed grant proposal package with all approvals due at Sponsored Projects Services by 8am.
- NO SUBSEQUENT CHANGES TO DOCUMENTS ARE ALLOWED
- Be on call and ready to make edits and troubleshoot any submission issues
The ALVSCE Submission timeline is constructed to provide enough time for proposals to be prepared and submitted in line with the Sponsored Projects Services Three-day Deadline.
When investigators stray from this timeline and provide key documentation late, this creates significant challenges for RAs in managing existing workloads. Whilst they make every effort to ensure proposals are still submitted on time, late proposals require RAs to stop working on other proposals to focus on the late proposal, which creates undue stress and an unsustainable workload for our RAs.
As such, all new, competing renewal, continuation and re-submission proposals where there is a sponsor deadline, will now be subject to the ALVSCE late proposal policy as follows.
- Any proposal where key documentation for internal routing is not provided by the 8 business day deadline identified in the ALVSCE timeline will be considered late and will require Unit Head approval for the proposal to proceed.
- For proposals where the RA is first notified of the proposal, or has not received any documentation from the Investigator by 5 business days prior to the sponsor deadline, this will require the approval of both the Investigator’s Unit Head and the Associate Dean of Research for the proposal to proceed
- Approvals will be obtained through the Late Proposal Request Process integrated into our ALVSCE Preaward Workflow. This process is also aligned with the Sponsored Projects late proposal processes.
- If the request is approved, the proposal will be processed by RAs using best efforts.
- For non-competing proposals, or proposals where the sponsor has requested a short turnaround, please contact your RA as soon as you are notified as these proposals may require additional steps to ensure timely submission by Sponsored Project Services.
We appreciate that there are many reasons why you may be experiencing delays in your proposal preparation. Please help your RAs by contacting them as soon as you become aware that there is a potential delay, they are a valuable resource and can offer you a variety of support to help you get your proposal submitted on time.
FAQs
A proposal will be considered late if:
- The Investigator has not provided the required documents and information for internal routing 8 business days prior to the Sponsor deadline.
- If you have not been in communication with the RA assigned to your proposal, the system will automatically generate a late proposal request.
- If you have been in active communication with the RA, and the workload for the RA allows, then the RA can review and amend the deadlines of the routing and override the late proposal form. Your Unit Head will be notified of this agreement.
- Regardless of communication if there are no documents by 5 business day then the full Late Proposal Policy will apply and ADR approval required.
Your Unit Head will need to approve all Late Proposal requests. Proposals where documentation will not be available by 5 business days until the sponsor deadline will require the approval of both your Unit Head and the Associate Dean for Research.
If the Unit Head is submitting a late proposal then the approval will automatically be transferred to the Associate Dean for Research.
- Once you complete a proposal intake form or email your RA about a proposal, it is entered into our Preaward Workflow system. This automatically calculates dates based on the submission deadline provided, and will identify those proposals that are subject to the late proposal policy.
- All submitted information is reviewed against the Funding opportunity to make sure the dates are correct, before a late proposal request is initiated.
- You will receive an email advising you that your request falls under the late proposal policy and it will ask you to complete a late proposal form.
- The form is prefilled with the information you have already provided, you will just be asked to fill in any blank fields, and provide an explanation and documentation for the late request.
- Once you submit the late proposal form, an email is sent to your Unit Head requesting approval. The Unit Head will be able to access all the original documentation you have provided and is asked to provide comments to support their decision
- For proposals received within 5 business days of the submission deadline, after Unit Head approval, an email is then sent to the ADR for approval
- After a late proposal request has completed its approval path and a decision has been made, you will receive an email advising them of the outcome and the next steps
This policy will help Investigators meet the required deadlines of SPS. The ALVSCE form has all the qualifications for the Sponsored Projects Late Proposal Request and will be used to process a request to Sponsored Projects as needed. The full Sponsored project policy can be found here
The most important thing you can do is to start working with your RA as early on in your proposal preparation as possible, ideally when you are first considering a funding opportunity. Your RA is a valuable resource that can help you identify and avoid potential pitfalls that can delay a proposal such as eligibility, limited submission issues, and specialist sponsor document requirement.
You can find the RA that supports your unit here.
There has been Division wide communication about this new policy however all RAs are available to answer any questions. Additionally, as requested, RAs are happy to attend any faculty meetings to present this policy.