If you plan to submit a proposal to an external sponsor please contact your LBC administrator at least ten (10) business days prior to the sponsor’s deadline provide preliminary information about the program solicitation/funding opportunity announcement/guidelines, the proposal title, and initial list of costs to include in the preliminary budget. For proposals submitted electronically, to ensure successful submission and allow room to address last minute issues with the submission and problems with the sponsor’s proposal portal or internet connectivity during periods of high traffic, please make the final ready-to-submit proposal available to your LBC administrator by noon Central Time the day before the deadline.
Reminders: Proposals routed to URA at least four (4) business days prior to the sponsor’s deadline receive a full review. Proposals routed after the URA review deadline receive contingent endorsement, and this should be avoided unless critically necessary. Proposals approved with contingent endorsement or final ready-to-submit proposals reaching the LBC after noon the day before the sponsor’s deadline will be finalized by the LBC and routed to URA for submission, but we cannot guarantee the submission of a compliant proposal.
The PSD-LBC team is committed to assist with all proposal submissions and will work arduously to complete each submission successfully. Please help us help you as we navigate through the upcoming changes being implemented.
The calculator tool provided below identifies the required timeline to complete a grant proposal.
“Submission deadline date” is the deadline to submit the proposal to the sponsor who will provide funds to University of Chicago. If UChicago is a subaward, this is NOT the funding agency/prime sponsor’s deadline but the date the lead institution needs the proposal documents from UChicago.
For submissions without a firm due date or with a desired due date prior to the sponsor deadline, the desired submission date should be used when determining the proposal processing timeline.
To confirm the individual due dates for the various steps in the proposal process, please enter the proposal due date below to calculate the processing timeline.
Pre-Award Development for Faculty Seeking Grant Funding
Notify your grants and contracts administrator (GCA) of intent to submit proposal as soon as a decision has been made to pursue the opportunity, providing as much detail as possible:
- Link to funding opportunity/call for proposals (can take the shape of NOFA, FOA, BAA, solicitation, RFP, foundation guidelines, and more)
- Project working title
- Projected total award amount and period of performance
- Whether you will require additional resources, cost-sharing, if there are subawards, or any other special circumstances.
- Discuss cost share requests, IDC waivers, cross department approvals, etc., with GCA
- Prepare/edit proposal budgets and budget narratives with your GCA
- Send information for subrecipients (subawards/subcontracts) to your GCA
- Please include the following information:
- Subrecipient institution name
- Subrecipient PI
- Subrecipient contact information
- Target cost ceiling
- Please keep in mind most subaward institutions will have their own internal proposal deadlines (typically two weeks or more) that must be considered.
Help us help you plan ahead: if you have this info earlier, share it with your GCA!
- Prepare technical proposal components
- Update, revise, and certify Current and Pending Support with GCA
- Update and certify Biosketches/CVs in the appropriate or required format
- Complete proposal assurances and provide requested information in a timely manner.
- Provide concurrence to submit proposal when ready for final submission.
- Complete Annual FCOI Disclosures/ COI Annual Disclosures
- Complete the Annual Research Security Training for NIH/NSF prior to submission.
- Complete COI CITI training every 4 years, as applicable for PHS agencies including NIH.
- Complete Responsible Conduct of Research and/or CITI Human Subjects Training every 4 years for NSF and NIH applications as applicable.
- Provide any IACUC, IRB, or IBC protocol information to the departmental pre-award research administrator as needed for proposals.
What Happens Next?
When the GCA has received all final materials, they will review all materials for compliance with sponsor guidelines, institutional policy, and relevant state and/or federal regulations and will work with you to address any needed updates. They will then route the proposal in AURA for institutional review to have 5 complete business days to complete a full review of all materials. Once your proposal has been approved for submission, the URA grants specialist will submit to the agency and forward relevant submission receipts. Notify GCA of any post-submission materials to be submitted. Provide any IACUC, IRB, or IBC protocol information GCA as needed. Provide any correspondence, award agreements or notifications, or other materials received from the sponsor for timely processing.
For further details and information on the proposal process for faculty,
please see the Pre-Award Activities information available on the PSD-LBC website,
or visit the URA Pre-Award and Sponsored Development pages.