Research Programs » Research Policies and Procedures

Proposal Submission

Prior to submission, all proposals are to be approved by the Departments in which the faculty are appointed and then by the College Research Office and finally by the University. Staff members in the PAMS Research Office (300 Cox Hall) are available to assist the faculty throughout the grant development process. Contact persons:

Rory Loycano, Administrative Officer II, 515-7865
Joanna Jones, 515-7865
Catherine Reeve, 515-7865

Faculty are highly encouraged to alert the College Research Office Pre-Award Staff of impending deadlines for their grant application, work with the staff to resolve budget issues in advance, have a clear understanding of their responsibilities for obtaining all the documentation (especially on multi-investigator/multi-departmental proposals) and allow for sufficient time to prepare a complete proposal package.

• A single copy of an appropriately formatted proposal containing all the completed internal and agency forms is to be submitted by a faculty member to the College Research Office.
• Depending on the sponsor, the documents may be submitted either electronically or a hard copy mailed.
• The mailing address where the proposal is to be submitted and number of copies to be mailed (if hard copies are required) needs to be provided to the PAMS Research Office.
• The proposal is to be submitted to the College Research Office three days in advance of the mailing deadline to ensure that proposals are received by the sponsor before the imposed mailing deadline.
• All internal approvals are obtained electronically. The PI initiates the internal approval process of the proposal in the PINS system (see http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/pins/). This requires electronic approval of the following in the following order:

  A. Principal Investigator
  B. Department Head(s)
  C. College Research Office(s)
  D. University Office of Sponsored Programs

• The College Research Office will obtain the official approval of the University.
• Provided that the final proposal is submitted three days in advance, the PAMS research office will make copies and submit the proposal to the sponsor with the required copies and documentation following College review and incorporation of changes (if any). However, if special graphics are required or if the nominal deadline for the receipt of the final proposal is not met, the PI must be prepared to make copies and mail them.
• After the proposal has been submitted to the potential sponsor, the PAMS Research Office will make a best effort to track and maintain current information regarding the status of the proposal. Note that when an award is made, the funding agency may contact the PI prior to a formal notification to the University Office of Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance (SPARCS). Thus, it is important that the PI notify the PAMS Research Office of the situation as soon as he or she is notified in the event that further negotiations between the university and the funding agency are required, or to expedite obtaining the contract and establishing the post-award account.

Below is a description of the key steps in proposal preparation.

Proposal Preparation

Budget Preparation

Required Forms and Compliances

Submission to the College Research Office

Proposals with Limited Submission

Proposal Preparation

The proposal process originates with a research idea of an individual (the Principal Investigator or PI) or group of individuals (with a PI and perhaps Co-PIs) who prepares the proposal in a format consistent with the requirements of the intended sponsor. The selection of the sponsor is entirely at the discretion of the PI(s), but a proposal should be directed to sponsors that indicate the possibility of funding in the proposed area of investigation. (Federal competitive grant opportunities are listed at www.grants.gov) The proposal submission process is completed after the proposal is written and all the internal and sponsor requirements for submission have been satisfied. The official proposal submission is made by the University and occurs only after the approval of the participating faculty, the respective Department Heads(s), the Associate Dean(s) for Research and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. The process ends with the evaluation of the research.

Budget Preparation

Next to the development of the research proposal, preparation of the budget is perhaps the most important aspect of the proposal development process. Several issues need to be addressed. First, the PI should assess what resources are required to complete the proposed investigation. (This includes faculty effort, graduate student stipends and tuition, and other personnel, and costs for equipment, travel, subcontract, materials and supplies, etc.). Proposals are required to recover full costs, including all applicable Facilities and Administrative Costs, unless explicitly prohibited in the program solicitation.

Generally, each proposal should have a Budget Justification section. Here, an explanation of all major categories of expenditures should be given. Particular attention should be placed on justifying equipment and computers.

Applicable Rates: Current rates for fringe benefits, tuition, applicable indirect costs and suggested guidelines for estimating other projected costs are maintained on the University Research website. ( http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/budgeting/).

Graduate Student Support Plan (GSSP) Supplement: The University uses the most conservative method of estimating graduate student tuition that still provides adequate support for each research project in preparing a budget to support a Graduate Research Assistant under a sponsored research project. When the residency of the student to be recruited is unknown, the University uses the in-state tuition rate in the budget plus 25% of tuition remission (the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition). Without the GSSP, the University would have to estimate tuition at the out-of-state rate. Under the GSSP, if an out-of-state student is hired, the university pays the difference between the sponsor's contribution and the actual cost of out-of-state tuition per semester. At this time, PAMS requires the budgeting of $4038 in-state tuition and $3012 GSSP supplement (25% of tuition remission) for each graduate student on a sponsored project. Since these amounts are subject to change, please refer to the Cashier's Office for current tuition rates prior to submitting a proposal budget.

Categories with Restrictions: On Federal grant applications, budget items must comply with the regulations and guidelines of the federal and state governments. For example, federal cost accounting standards do not generally allow charges for certain categories of expenditure unless they can be justified as unlike circumstances. These include: technician support, telephone line charges, general use computers, member subscriptions, and postage, all of which are generally considered facilities and administrative (indirect) costs and therefore cannot be charged as direct costs. Federal Circular A_21 defines unlike circumstances in which these costs can be charged as direct charges. In those cases, a clear budget justification has to be given.

Cost Sharing: Proposals are expected to request full cost recovery. Thus, voluntary cost sharing is highly discouraged. However, some competitions require cost sharing by either limiting the indirect cost recovery or by requiring a matching contribution from the University. Any match that is negotiated becomes the responsibility of the College and Department, and must be approved in advance of the submission of the application. Thus, it is necessary to have any required match agreed upon well in advance of the deadline for submission. Documentation of the limitation on indirect cost recovery is required on all grants that have such restrictions, as well as documentation of the sources that will cover cost sharing and cash matching. The cost sharing indicated in the proposal must be fully documented at the close out of the grant.

 

Required Forms and Compliances

After the proposal has been prepared and budget issues settled, the PI needs to complete (with original, authorized signatures) the Internal Pressing Form, the Abstract Form and all required Agency Forms .

All faculty and other full time EPA employees are required to complete annually a Conflict of Interest Form. This is due at the beginning of each academic year and is to be updated whenever a change occurs that affects one's potential conflicts related to employment at NCSU.

Laboratories used in the conduction of research must have at least a pending laboratory safety plan prior to submission. An approved safety plan must be in place prior to acceptance of an award by the University.

Other examples that require compliance issues to be addressed include research involving animals, human subjects, radiation or radioactive materials.

 

Submission to the College Research Office

One copy of the completed proposal and forms with original signature is to be submitted to the College Research Office three days in advance of the mailing deadline.

The proposal is reviewed by the PAMS Research Office for completeness (i.e., all the forms, signatures from the PI and department officials have been completed, issues of subcontracting, facility use, compliances, etc.) and a careful review of the budget is made to insure that the budget is accurate and consistent with cost accounting standards, and that all resource commitments are documented. Final proposal review generally occurs at the College level. Again, it is highly recommended that any proposal with special budgetary requirements or resource commitments be reviewed well in advance of the deadline for submission by the College.

If the above issues have been satisfactorily addressed, then the proposal is submitted to the PAMS Research Office for final approval by the University. Once the approval, the proposal is complete, the College will make the appropriate number of copies and mail them to the potential sponsor by express mail. Copies are also made for the PAMS Research Office and the University Office of Sponsored Programs.

 

Proposals with Limited Submissions by the University

Some proposal competitions limit the number of submissions by the University. Selection of the proposals in this category requires an internal review at the College and University levels. A partial listing with deadlines of some of the proposals that occur on an annual basis are listed on the Limited Submission Programs Homepage.