External Grant Application Policies & Procedures
The Office of Sponsored Projects and Research Administration (OSPRA) and the Controller's Office are available to provide expertise and assistance to prepare competitive proposals for faculty and staff. The administrative review cycle is a critical portion of the submission process. The following parameters have been put into place to ensure that quality proposals are submitted.
All individuals who are planning to apply for an external grant of any size are required to notify OSPRA a minimum of 15 business days prior to the submission date using the OSPRA Grant pre-notice form. It is preferred that OSPRA is notified as soon as a decision is made to pursue a grant opportunity so that the office can provide guidance.
Final draft version of the proposal (in MS Word format), final budget (in the funding agency form/format), budget justification (Budget Justification example) and the Sponsored Projects Approval form must be submitted 8 business days before the submission date for proper review and vetting by OSPRA and the Business Office. Submissions must be sent electronically to sponsored.projects@usi.edu. Or
contact your OSPRA Grant Administrator for assistance.
Any proposal that does not meet the eight business day deadline will require the PI to submit a petition to the Provost to begin the review cycle. Exceptions will be rare and require that the proposal have very minor or no revisions, and meet all University, State, and Federal compliance regulations. OSPRA will determine if an expedited review and submission is possible.
It is expected that the ‘final draft version’ of the narrative has been thoroughly read and edited before it is submitted for the review cycle. Grant proposals (narratives and budgets) that have significant typos, misspellings, missing information, or clearly do not meet the guidelines of the grant application will be returned to the PI for revisions before it will be entered into the review cycle. The OSPRA staff is here to help faculty and staff with proposal development including budgets, and is more than willing to review and provide
feedback on early drafts of the narrative and budget if provided in advance of the eight day grant proposal review cycle period.
Note: Once the review cycle begins, the PI may make minor revisions (formatting, minor rewording, etc.) to the proposal narrative, but should not make any significant changes to the project plan that would affect the budget once the proposal is forwarded to the Controller's Office (day 4 of the review cycle). If changes are made to the budget, the review cycle starts over.