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The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (SPaR) is responsible for assisting faculty members with developing and submitting their grant applications. To fulfill these responsibilities of preparation, internal approval, and grant submission, Grants Officers (GO) must receive final proposals 5 business days before the planned submission date (i.e., 5 business days in advance of the sponsor’s deadline).
Why does SPaR require five days?
This 5-day window will provide the Grants Officer assigned to the grant application sufficient time to minimize the incidence of errors resulting in the rejection of a proposal’s e-submission. Over this period, the Grants Officer will:
- Ensure that both sponsor and internal requirements are met;
- Review in details the budget proposal and incorporate any necessary adjustments;
- Coordinate with outside organizations (e.g., consortium partners), as needed;
- Address any questions, concerns, errors that do arise; and
- Request Chair approval for submission.
The deadline policy also promotes parity among faculty. Multiple faculty members often need to submit applications for the same deadline. Therefore, early submission to the SPaR Office will help ensure the appropriate allocation of the workload so Grants Officers can dedicate sufficient attention to each application.
An early submission will also give the PI the opportunity to review the application and either approve its submission or request any necessary edits. This review and any necessary edits must be completed no later than two full business days before the submission deadline. The application automatically moves forward to the receipt and referral staff for further processing after the application viewing window has elapsed unless the PI explicitly “rejects” the application in eRA Commons.
Failure to comply with this policy
Early submissions (before the 5-day deadline) will be prioritized over submissions received late.
If the PI does not submit the final application to the Grants Officer 5 business days before the deadline, the late submission waiver request (available under Forms and Documents) must be completed and signed. Through this form, the PI accepts full responsibility for any issues in the application caused by the delay in sharing its final version with the Grants Officer.