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Proposal Processing:

Getting Started

Timelines: The College Research Office (CRO) requires four (4) business days to process proposals and highly recommends seven (7) business days for proposals being submitted through Grants.gov

Note: We are being told again and again by our sponsors not to wait until the day the proposal is due to submit. Some sponsors are even telling us to submit a month early. As always, we will do our best to accommodate the needs and wants of our faculty and departments, but there comes a point were we can not take accountability for missing deadlines and making mistakes.

PINS: Prepare your PINS record with all appropriate paperwork attached (i.e., Statement of Work, Budget, Budget Justification, Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA)/Request for Proposal (RFP)/Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), etc.).

Facilities and Administration (F&A): If your proposal requires that you apply a rate other than our federally negotiated F&A rate and/or capped F&A rates as posted on the NCSU SPARCS web site, you will be required to provide supporting documentation from the sponsor and upload same into the PINS record. In the absence of such supporting documentation, and if you still wish to reduce the F&A you will need to communicate directly with the COE Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs, Dr. Dick Keltie. The practice of waiving and/or reducing F&A is strongly discouraged by both the University and the College.

Standard Project Agreement (SPA):  In cases where we are proposing to entities that may not have a standard type agreement the University has prepared a Standard Project Agreement (SPA) which can be used for research, development and public service projects. We are at liberty to share this document with our sponsor so that they are aware of the terms and conditions by which the University operates concerning scholarly activities. Should you require an SPA to be included with the sending of your proposal, please be sure to complete the Industry Funded Projects information in PINS as this will signal the processor to request for SPARCS to include this document. web site: http://www.ncsu.edu/sparcs/forms/agreements.html

Cost Share: Cost share should only be provided when mandated by a sponsor and should not exceed the minimum level required. Your first step is to seek internal sources within your department (i.e., faculty release time, etc.) and/or external, third party sources. 1f your cost share requirements are over and above what your department and/or external sources can provide you will need to communicate this request directly with the COE Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs, Dr. Dick Keltie. In general, we are discouraged from cost sharing to a project when it is not mandated by a sponsor as these are real dollars and as such real funding that is being contributed. Cost share also impacts our F&A rate as it tends to drive the rate downward.

Proprietary Information: remove the proprietary contents from the PINS record, classify the PINS record as a Preproposal with appropriate comments, and forward the proposal contents, via email, to SPARCS. (a) Process the record as a Pre-Proposal with the following comment, "Because of proprietary information, the record is categorized as a Preproposal. If and when the project is awarded SPARCS will need to change the proposal type from Preproposal to New. After College review/approval of the budget, budget justification and any other related application material.... (a) The proposal contents will need to be forwarded (via email) to SPARCS. SPARCS will share the information with Contracts and Grants, along with the award as Contracts and Grants normally houses all final documents for projects. When awarded the PI/Department may need to provide SPARCS with an electronic version of the entire proposal application. (a) Delete the entire proposal package and budget from PINS (this assumes that the budget/budget justification is sensitive as well). If these sections are not to be considered proprietary then please be sure they are uploaded in PINS. (b) Make sure the RFP is uploaded in PINS. (d) SPARCS will import the record in RADAR.

Less Then Full Proposal: As an added service to our customers, CRO can accept less than a full proposal to begin the processing. In other words, we will begin our review and recommendation upon receipt of a PINS record, budget, budget justification, cost share (documentation required for both College and/or University) and  Request For Proposal (RFP) (i.e. Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), Financial Assistance Opportunity (FAO), Program Solicitation, Funding Opportunity Number (FON) etc.) when available. This allows our P.I. to continue working on the programmatic section of the proposal while we are processing the financial section.

Once the above has been completed and CRO receives your PINS record, it will be logged into our database and assigned to a processor.

Reminder:

  • Proposal Budgets/Justifications: my office will not review any budgets or justifications without the proper PINS record being completed and routed.
  • Do not send us budgets/justifications via email for review.
  • A proper PINS records should contain at least the following: budget, justification, cost sharing commitments, waiver/reduction of F&A and if applicable, the RFP (request for proposal). This will allow the faculty member to continue working on the science/technical portion.
  • We require 4 business days for processing of all proposals. If being submitted via Grants.gov, then we require 7 business days. If not granted the proper processing time, my office will not be responsible for any missed deadlines or incomplete proposal packages. We understand about occasional rushes and quick turnarounds, however, this should be the exception and not the norm.
  • Our office follows the University operating schedule. Our office hours are basically 8:00am until 5:00pm. Of course we will work with our faculty within reason. If the University is officially closed, so is my office.

 

Processor Steps

The processor will be reviewing the proposal based upon compliance issues following Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circulars, A-21 , A-110 , and A-133 , in addition to University and sponsor guidelines.

The processor's review generally includes, budgetary issues including restrictions and limitations, formatting, and other proposal requirements that may have been identified in the funding initiative.

An email will be sent to the P.I. and/or their representative to provide status of our review and recommendations as may be appropriate.

Proposals containing terms and conditions and special representations and certifications will need to be reviewed by the SPARCS office and generally can not be processed as a RUSH .

Depending on the sponsor and the proposal, our office may have delegated authority to sign on behalf of the University. If so, the proposal will be signed at the CRO. If not, additional processing time may be needed to finalize the proposal.

Note: In extending signature privileges to the Colleges, the University requires that delegates must submit to SPARCS within 24 hours of their signature an electronic version of the entire proposal document submitted to the sponsor. Failure to finalize the PINS record as required makes us out of compliance and subject to disciplinary action which can revoke the College ability to sign on behalf of the University.

For a proposal which is to be sent to a sponsor by means other than an electronic portal, i.e., Grants.gov , NSF FastLane , etc., CRO will be responsible to mail the proposal to the sponsor via UPS Next/Second Day Air. Upon request, we can also return the completed proposal to our P.I./representative for their sending to the sponsor. We generally do not send proposals via email but rather refer the proposal back to the P.I./representative so that the proposal can be emailed directly by our P.I./representative. In this case, we ask that we are copied on the outgoing email.

Once the agency receives the proposal and wants to make an award, communication with the SPARCS offices begins.

  • It may mean a revision has to be submitted following the process above. If a revision is required on a proposal that contained cost sharing, then the cost sharing should typically be reduced accordingly.
  • SPARCS is the only office to negotiate the terms and conditions of the project.
    Once this has been completed and an award is made, then the SPARCS office will
    prepare the University Award Notice.
  • The Notice then goes to The Office of Contracts & Grants (C&G) to be set up in the financial system and for account number assignment.
  • CRO receives the University Award Notice and emails it to the Department Contract
    Manager.
  • Upon receipt of the Notice of Award it is strongly recommended that the department review the account set-up by comparing to the proposed budget and notifing our office immediately of any discrepancies.
  • It is the responsibility of the department and PI to monitor the project in terms of expenditures, cost sharing, interim and final technical reporting as may be required.
    When the project terms the department will prepare the College Financial Reconciliation Report. It should be submitted to the College of Engineering - Office of Research Administration (COE-ORA) for review and approval.
  • The COE-ORA then sends the report to Contacts & Grants for final financial billing.

Quick Reference Web links for assistance on Pre Award and Post Award issues:

Pre Award     http://www. ncsu.edu/sparcs/

Post Award   http://www7.acs.ncsu.edulCNGI

If you have any questions, please direct them to Rosette J. Tavolacci, CRA, Assistant Director, College of Engineering, Office of Research Administration at (919) 515-701 1 (carbon copy Patrick Hayes, Director)

Revised: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 3:21 PM