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 and federal contracts 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 or submit a federal contract of any size are required to submit to sponsored.projects@usi.edu a minimum of 15 business days prior to the submission date using the OSPRA Grant Pre-Notification Form. This is the initial contact with OSPRA and allows for USI grant administrators to create the application package in Caysue 424; USI's grant proposal and federal contract software. To download OSPRA Pre-Notification form please visit the Pre-Notice and Approval Forms page.
Final draft version of the proposal or federal contract , final budget , budget justification (Budget Justification example), Faculty Workload Assignment form, and Conflict of Interest Determination form must be uploaded into Cayuse 8 business days before the submission deadline for proper review and vetting by OSPRA and the Business Office. Contact your grant administrator for assistance. The Faculty Workload Assignment form and Conflict of Interest Determination Form can be on the Pre-Notice and Approvals page.
Any proposal or federal contract 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 or contract 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 and budget development. Grant administrators are 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 will start over.