September 20, 2017
Grant administrators within CAHNRS will provide outstanding customer service to faculty for grants submission. In coordination with the PI and/or Co-PI, this process includes filling in the grants.gov proposal package (or other agency required package), developing the budget and budget justification, gathering all supplementary documents and completing the proposal package according to agency guidelines, CAHNRS polices, university policies and federal regulations. No proposal will be submitted by ORSO without approval from CAHNRS Grants. Final approval and submission to the agency occurs at the Office of Research Support and Operations (ORSO formerly OGRD).
To ensure the proposal getting reviewed is in compliance with ORSO policy and to facilitate the most competitive proposal possible, CAHNRS has established the following guidelines and requirements. Any exceptions to this time frame will require Chair and/or Associate Dean approval (unless the RFP release does not allow 25 days prior notice).
- At least 25 Business Days Prior to Agency Deadline: As soon as you know you will submit a proposal, notify the Business Center and/or grant administrator of your “intent to submit” and provide the RFP and deadline1. Best practices are to alert them at least 25 business days before agency deadline. The budget and the budget justification should be started and completed as soon as possible.
- 15 Business Days Prior to Agency Deadline: The final budget and budget justification should be finalized with your grant administrator 15 business days prior to the deadline. This is especially important if there is cost sharing/matching, collaboration with other departments or subcontractors.
- 10 business days prior to Agency Deadline: All proposal components must be submitted to your grant administrator 10 business days prior to the deadline. This allows them time to put the complete package together, make sure it adheres to the RFP guidelines, identify any issues, work with the PI on corrections, complete the eREX and work with CAHNRS Grants if any issues arise. If you are submitting through NIH ASSIST, NSF Fastlane, or the online Workspace portal in Grants.gov you may be eligible for the “Narrative Hold Program.”
- 5 business days prior to the deadline: The eREX will be submitted by the grant administrator to CAHNRS Grants for review and corrections. If the proposal has significant problems, those issues need to be corrected prior to the three day submission window (see below).
- 3 business days prior to the deadline: The eREX will be submitted by CAHNRS Grants to ORSO, 3 business days prior to the deadline. This allows one business day to obtain eREX approvals. This is the shortest turnaround for submission to ORSO. If the eREX approvals are not completed 2 business days prior to the deadline, ORSO will terminate and restart the approval process with all signatures required and no delegation allowed. ORSO will require a waiver with PI justification as part of the eREX routing process which will include manual approval by the Chair and Associate Deans. See the newly revised WSU BPPM 40.02 for complete details on this process.
Proposals submitted without appropriate approvals or later than 3 business days before the deadline that have unresolved issues that were not addressed and/or approved prior to submission, will risk having the proposal rejected by ORSO. For example: Conflict of interest (COI) not fully disclosed; COI Management Plan not yet approved; and/or any changes to the approved budget or budget justification after grants administrator and CAHNRS approval.
1Deadline: The date the proposal is due at the agency or if we are a subcontractor, the date it is due at the submitting institution.