Grant Proposal Submission Process

Primary Contact: Erin Gill, emgill@email.arizona.edu

Internal Deadlines for Proposal Routing

In order to facilitate grant proposals, you must reach out to Erin Gill at emgill@email.arizona.edu at least three business weeks prior to the sponsor’s application due date. This will assist in a timely submission for sponsored projects to review the proposal materials and comply with sponsored projects’ three-day deadline.  This means that sponsored projects must receive the proposal’s final form (completely routed and approved in UAccess Research (UAR) and ready for submission to the sponsoring agency) three full business days prior to your sponsor's due date. Sponsored projects cannot guarantee timely submissions for late proposals. Complete, ready-to-submit means no edits to any document, administrative, financial, or scientific, unless specifically requested by Sponsored Projects after their review.

For detailed information relating to proposal development and requirements from the Sponsored Projects Services office, please visit: https://rgw.arizona.edu

For details on Sponsored Projects Services Proposal Support for Geosciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, and RII Cores please visit: https://research.arizona.edu/research-services/sponsored-projects-services-proposal-support

January 11, 2022 Grant Support Introduction video:Click Here to Watch the Video


Minimum Effort

The University of Arizona Sponsored Projects Services (SPS) office requires a minimum effort commitment of 1% of PI effort to be budgeted in all grant proposals unless stipulated in the funding opportunity that PI salary is not allowed (referred to as Mandatory Cost Share).  Any quantitatively identified effort contributed to a project requires a corresponding budgeted salary otherwise we are voluntarily committing cost-share equal to PI effort.  Voluntary Committed cost share is not required by the sponsor but is included by the University of Arizona as part of the proposal. If the proposal is awarded, it becomes part of the award and is therefore committed by the University.

The SPS policy on cost-sharing is as follows:

Cost Sharing:

  • Should be included in proposal submissions only when it is mandatory based on the sponsoring agency's policy or guidelines
  • Should be used only to the extent required by the program
  • May include associated Facilities & Administrative costs if allowed by the sponsor
  • Becomes a legal obligation to the University
  • Must be approved and the source of funding identified prior to the proposal being routed for signature
  • Cost-sharing from a University of Arizona source is inappropriate if intellectual property developed by University employees will be assigned to a sponsor.
  • Proposal submissions are discouraged from including letters or other references to specific dollar amounts contributed as “institutional support” or similar when such amounts are not intended as cost-sharing. If included, the sponsor or University may consider this support cost-sharing that needs to be tracked. It is recommended that proposers describe any such support in non-monetary terms.

Requirements for Proposal Routing

To request assistance, please fill out the College of Science Proposal Assistance Request form and Erin Gill will follow up.

Below is a list of items needed to initiate the internal routing process to SPS for review, approval, and submission.

Sponsored projects will review the documents for accuracy, completeness, and for compliance with sponsor guidelines. SPS does NOT review the technical aspects of the proposal.


NSF Proposals

For NSF Proposals, NSF will only accept Biosketches and Current and Pending Support documents generated via SciENcv. The NSF still requires the use of the Collaborators and Other Affiliations (Excel) template for senior/key personnel.


SPS:  Three-Day Deadline

The Three-Day Deadline applies to routing proposals in their final form, documents that require an Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) signature, post-submission materials, budget revisions, RPPRs, and anything else that requires certified correspondence with the sponsor in an AOR capacity.

The Three-Day Deadline policy states the following:

  • All proposals routed through UAR proposals and electronic submission should be submitted to SPS in final form* 3 full business days prior to the funding-agency deadline.
  • Requests for indirect cost waivers should be submitted to SPS with the attached signed form 5 business days prior to the proposal agency deadline for paper proposals, 8 business days for electronic submissions.

*Final form for electronic proposals means that the proposal is completely finished, including the proposal routing, and ready for submission to the sponsoring agency.

The following table will give an idea as to when a proposal should reach the SPS route stop in UAR:

Due date (day of the week) Submitted to SPS for review and submission (day of the week)
Monday COB Tuesday before
Tuesday COB Wednesday before
Wednesday COB Thursday before
Thursday COB Friday before
Friday COB Monday before

*If the due date for a sponsor is on a weekend day, I would recommend utilizing the Friday due date to ensure plenty of time for review and submission since SPS is closed on the weekends.

Example: Tuesday, March 16th NIH submissions would need to be in the SPS route stop in UAR by the close of business Wednesday, March 10th to ensure the guarantee of a full review and submission.


Approving a Proposal in UAccess Research

Once the proposal is submitted in UAccess Research for routing the Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator(s), as well as department administrators for each department for a single college must approve before that college may approve. Once the college approves the proposal it can move forward for sponsored projects review and approval*.

*For federal or sub-federal proposals, the Office of Responsible Outside Interests (OROI) must approve prior to it moving forward for sponsored projects review and approval. All COI Investigators must have a current COI Disclosure on file for OROI to approve. See COI Requirements at Proposal Submission for more information.


Award Credit/F&A Split

The definition of award credit is an allocated percentage of academic or intellectual credit to investigators and their respective department/college. These amounts are used in University publications on externally funded activity.  Award Credit may be influenced by factors like intellectual ideas and merit and/or pre-proposal work or anticipated post-award activity. 

F&A Revenue refers to Facilities and Administrative Revenue (otherwise known as Indirect Costs).  The University charges an F&A rate of 53.50% on all externally funded grants.  Once those grants are awarded and spending occurs, the associated F&A for those expenses is collected by the University and distributed quarterly to Colleges and then to departments. The F&A splits we enter in the UAccess Research Proposal Document (or UAR) will dictate how F&A revenue for a grant will be disbursed. F&A Revenue distribution may be influenced by factors like: Proposed budget authority for each investigator; Institutional space to complete the award; Units that will provide post-award administrative support.

Both of these splits should not be confused with an investigator’s level of effort on the grant. That is separate. 

The best tool to determine the appropriate splits is based on the level of contribution to the project. Consider:  Who is primarily responsible for the execution of the specific aims? Which faculty member/department will use the most resources once the grant is funded?  


Postdoctoral Trainees and Fellow Support

The University of Arizona is committed to providing our Postdoctoral Research Associates and fellows an outstanding mentored training experience that is compensated equitably. Postdoctoral Research Associates provide significant contributions in our research programs and are invaluable to our scholarly mission. By offering competitive compensation to postdocs, the University can advance success in the recruitment of high-quality postdocs, while ensuring greater fund acquisition in the process.

To continue this commitment, we ask all Investigators to please follow, at a minimum, current NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Stipends guidelines for that particular year. In addition, please budget postdoc salaries accordingly in grant proposals.

For institutional training grants, (T32, T90, TL1) and individual fellowships (F32), the stipend level for the entire first year of support is determined by the number of full years of relevant postdoctoral experience when the award is issued. Relevant experience may include research experience (including industrial), teaching assistantship, internship, residency, clinical duties, or other time spent in a health-related field beyond that of the qualifying doctoral degree. Once the appropriate stipend level has been determined, the trainee or fellow must be paid at that level for the entire grant year. The stipend for each additional year of Kirschstein-NRSA support is the next level in the stipend structure and does not change mid-year.

Career Level

Years of Experience

Stipend for FY 2022

Monthly Stipend

Postdoctoral

0

$61,008

$5,084

Postdoctoral

1

$61,428

$5,119

Postdoctoral

2

$61,884

$5,157

Postdoctoral

3

$64,356

$5,363

Postdoctoral

4

$66,492

$5,541

Postdoctoral

5

$68,964

$5,747

Postdoctoral

6

$71,532

$5,961

Postdoctoral

7 or More

$74,088

$6,174