Proposal Preparation Quick Guide

Understand the Sponsor Funding Mechanism

The type of funding mechanism a sponsor uses determines the extent of sponsor involvement in the project as well as programmatic flexibility and the regulations that apply.

Federal sponsors use grants, cooperative agreements, contracts and other transaction agreements for awarding funds.

Federal contracts and other transaction agreements have specialized and sometimes, unique, requirements and, therefore, take longer to prepare and review. This is also true in instances where the UW will be receiving federal contract or other transaction agreement flow-through funding from other institutions.

Identifying Key Terms in Solicitations

A variety of terms in notice of funding opportunities indicate a higher level of review by the PI and/or the University is required before the proposal can be submitted.

These examples highlight some of the compliance requirements and terms which may take longer for PIs to prepare for and require more scrutiny before applying.

Examples:

• Requirements which may be cost prohibitive and a PI may decide not to move forward with a proposal, such as
  • Are there IT or other data security requirements
• Intellectual property conditions
  • Does the sponsor require rights to background IP?
• International relationships
  • Are there limitations on who can participate?
• Training required prior to proposal submission, such as Research Security Training

Challenges to be aware of in the Funding Opportunity:

• Formats not standard across sponsors, information is variable, and it’s not the ONLY place to look.
• Other sources mentioned in the funding opportunity announcement e.g. policies & proposal guidelines, sponsor websites must be understood.
• Sometimes a single reference to a requirement may mean multi-office or lengthy (days+) review process at the UW
• Information presented in a funding opportunity may require more scrutiny. Some requirements may mean the PI and/or the UW may not be able to submit.

Review more in the following section Understand & Prepare Key Proposal Elements.

Identify external collaborators so you can:

• Accurately portray subrecipients vs consultant vs vendors ^[7]
• Gather all subrecipient documentation to incorporate into the proposal, such as
  • Letter of intent, scope of work, detailed budget & justification, compliance, or other sponsor proposal requirements
• Obtain contractor quotes for their scopes of work
• Collect letters of intent from consultants

Are there international collaborators?

• International collaborators may mean additional requirements
  • Does the sponsor allow international collaborators?
• Review guidance on Foreign Interests in Sponsored Programs ^[8]
• Are Export Controls required?
• Is there International/Global Team Recruitment ^[9]?

Are collaborators considered investigators or key personnel?

• Who is an Investigator and needs to disclose SFI? ^[10]
• Completed Biographical Sketch, and/or current and pending support documentation
• Including disclosure of all foreign interests ^[8]

Which personnel included in a proposed project are considered covered individuals?

• Covered individuals ^[11] typically need to complete Research Security Training ^[12] before a proposal can be submitted.
  • Review Federal Sponsor Research Security Requirements ^[11]
• Have these individuals made their Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program attestation ^[13]?

Confirm all proposed personnel have completed any required training as early as possible such as:

• Financial Conflict of Interest ^[14]
• Responsible Conduct of Research ^[15]
• Review Required Training ^[16]

Sharing Data and Materials

• What do you need to include in your proposal when using or sharing information and data ^[17] and/or sharing materials ^[18]?
  • Confidentiality & Non-Disclosure agreements may need to be in place before developing or submitting a proposal.
• Are Data sharing plans required?
  • For example NIH data management & sharing requirements ^[19]
• Are there controlled-access data requirements?
  • Guidance from Human Subjects Division ^[20]
  • Requesting datasets from dbGaP ^[21]
• Do Export Control measures ^[22] need to be in place?

Information Privacy & Security

• Classified or Restricted Information ^[23]
• Computing for Restricted Access Data ^[24]?
  • Are there IT requirements that must be in place for proposal to move forward?
• Will you need separate agreements ^[25] or approvals in place before the proposal is submitted or work takes place?
• Understand Privacy and Data Sharing ^[26] requirements

Intellectual Property

Will there be intellectual property (IP) ^[27] or background IP ^[28] involved?

Some funding opportunities may require the UW to provide the sponsor rights to the UW’s IP by virtue of submitting a proposal.

These proposals require greater institutional scrutiny and should be submitted to OSP no later than 7 days before a sponsor’s submission deadline.

Human or Animal Subjects Identified?

• Identify Human Subjects or Animal use in the projects appropriately.
• Plan for securing protocol approval should you receive a fundable score.
• Proposals should not include specific protocols until the compliance office has reviewed this scope of work in relation to the protocols. Note that eGC1s, however, may list intended protocol numbers if they are pending.

When is the proposal due?

• A key tip is to work backward from the UW’s internal GIM 19 seven business-day deadline ^[31].
• Make sure to consider any unit/school specific deadlines in your planning as well as unit/school specific deadlines for routing proposals.
• Units & schools may need to return proposals for correction, take this into consideration when planning to route your proposal.

Complex proposal?

• Use project management tools for proposal development ^[32] to ensure elements are completed on time.
• Get subrecipient materials early: they often have their own internal deadlines as well.
  • Consider allowing at least two weeks before the UW’s GIM 19 seven business-day deadline ^[31] for subrecipients to get their final material to you. E.g. budget, scope of work, etc…
  • Review guidance on preparing proposals that include subrecipients ^[33] (GIM 7).

Project Dates

• Consider the start & end dates
• Some sponsors have specific project dates you must adhere to
• Make sure personnel, space, locations, equipment will be available during the time frame being proposed. This will help inform appropriate estimates for the budget.

How is the project being proposed?

Budget & Budget Justification

The budget should be a reflection of all the elements within a project and how the project intends to spend sponsor funds to achieve the goals. It must also be consistent with sponsor requirements and the funding opportunity.

• Review more on proposal Budget Development. ^[34]
• Use SAGE Budget ^[35] can help you set up proposal budgets with UW institutional data (F&A, Benefit Rates, etc.).
• Refer to the Institutional Facts and Rates ^[36].

Scope of Work

The scope of work (SOW) or research plan should be a detailed blueprint or outline of the entire project and how it will be accomplished, including project tasks, deliverables, and timelines. It should specify exactly what, how, and when things will be done. A SOW must meet sponsor requirements.

When submitting draft proposal material, the scope of work must be far enough along to support meaningful reviews. In these cases, make sure there are enough details around the “who, what, where, when, and how”” so your campus unit and institutional reviewers have the information they need to carry out their review.

Abstract

The abstract also known as the project summary should be a clear & concise outline of problem & objectives with expected outcome of the proposed project.

Abstracts are typically part of a proposal and there is also a section for the abstract in the eGC1. These two sections should match. In the absence of an abstract requirement in a proposal, the eGC1 abstract should be a high-level description of the scope of work.

Some sponsors like NSF require the project summary to address the intellectual merit & broader impacts that will result.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Review and Submission Requirements for Proposals – GIM 1 ^[37]
• Internal deadlines for proposal submission ^[38] – GIM 19

Deadlines for Proposal Submission

Review UW Internal deadlines for proposal submission ^[38] – GIM 19

Financial & Budget Elements

• Understand F&A/IDC and their relationship to location & types research – GIM 13 ^[39]
• Benefit Rates – GIM 3 ^[40]
• Effort reporting & Institutional Base Salary – GIM 35 ^[41]
• Cost sharing – GIM 21 ^[42]