Policy Approval Authority | President |
Responsible Division | Division of Research and Innovation Partnerships |
Responsible University Office | Sponsored Programs Administration |
Responsible Officer(s) | Assistant VP for Research and Sponsored Programs |
Contact Person | Dara Little |
Primary Audience |
Faculty
Staff |
Date Submitted to Policy Library | 03-04-2022 |
Status | Active |
Last Review Date | 03-04-2022 |
Policy Category/Categories |
Sponsored Funding/Grants and Contracts
|
To help Principal Investigators plan for accurate and on-time proposal submission.
NIU is committed to the pursuit of increasing the research, scholarship, and artistry enterprise. To maximize the chances that sponsored proposals are successfully selected for award, it is vital that the university continue to submit the highest quality proposals to our sponsors. Last-minute proposal submissions can lead to insufficient time to conduct a proper review before submission to the sponsor. Proposals that do not receive a thorough review can include costly errors, be rejected without review, and jeopardize NIU’s reputation with our sponsors.
Additionally, the electronic submission processes sponsors use for proposals require that Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) register for, access, and learn myriad sponsor web systems and portals. This requires ample time to prepare and upload documents, respond to system errors and validation checks, and potentially resubmit a corrected proposal before the published deadline. Sponsors are not sympathetic to circumstances that lead to late submissions.
The goal of SPA Pre-Award is to ensure that all proposals are submitted accurately and on time. SPA Proposal Coordinators work on many proposals simultaneously, often for the same deadline. They are also working with Principal Investigators on other time-sensitive pre-award actions such as sponsor-requested budget revisions and just-in-time requests for new awards. Constantly responding to last-minute submissions interrupts SPA’s work on other proposals and reduces staff ability to provide a thorough review and on-time submission for all NIU proposals and pre-award actions.
All proposals for external funding must receive approval by Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) prior to submission to the sponsor. All proposals include those where NIU is the lead institution submitting to the sponsor and those where NIU is a collaborator (e.g., subcontractor or subrecipient) on another organization’s proposal.
All proposals are reviewed and submitted in SPA on a First in/First out basis.
Proposals submitted without SPA approval may be administratively withdrawn or the offer of funding (award) may be declined if the submission is found to be non-compliant with University, Federal, State, or sponsor policies.
Northern Illinois University reserves the right to withdraw any proposal or refuse acceptance of any award that does not comply with this policy.
The Assistant Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs (AVP) has overall responsibility for this policy.
The Associate Director for Pre-Award oversees implementation of this policy.
SPA staff are responsible for reviewing proposals for administrative compliance with University, Federal, State, and sponsor policies.
The Principal Investigator is responsible for adhering to the timelines in this policy, working with their department and college to secure necessary budget, space, or other approvals, and confirming the accuracy of the information presented in their proposal.
The Department Chair, Center Director, and/or Dean attests to the academic purposes of the proposed project and its appropriateness in terms of budget, committed effort, space, and equipment.
The SPA Associate Director, Assistant Director, and Senior Proposal Coordinators are authorized to approve proposals for sponsored programs.
Investigators must notify their Proposal Coordinator of their intent to submit a proposal at least 30 business days before the sponsor deadline.
Investigators who choose to prepare their own budgets and all other proposal components must submit their detailed budget, budget justification, and scope of work in final draft form to their Proposal Coordinator at least 15 business days before the sponsor deadline. This provides the Coordinator with approximately one working week to review the budget and work with Investigators to make any changes before beginning the internal review process in InfoEd.
A scope of work is necessary for SPA to review the budget for compliance (e.g., location of work for F&A rate confirmation purposes). When NIU is a subrecipient, SPA needs only a short summary explaining NIU’s scope of work. A copy of the full proposal in this case is not necessary.
The internal review process will begin at least 10 business days before the sponsor deadline for all proposals. At minimum, the internal review needs:
The Proposal Coordinator must have all final non-budget proposal components required by the program announcement/solicitation at least 5 business days before the sponsor deadline. At this point the Coordinator will begin preparing documents for uploading into sponsor systems. This timeline is also applicable to hard copy mailings. SPA makes no guarantees of an accurate or on-time submission when this deadline is not met.
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