Proposal Development

Step 1: Notify your Research Administrator

Once you decide you want to apply for external funding, the first thing you should do is notify your Research Administrator (RA). You and your RA should then develop a submission timeline, ensuring that you will meet the internal deadlines:

• 5 work days prior to submission deadline the budget and administrative materials are due at OSR
• 2 work days prior to submission deadline the complete proposal is due at OSR

Click here for the complete policy on OSR’s internal deadlines.

Step 2: Plan the project

PI and RA should carefully read the solicitation or funding announcement. There are many different kinds of sponsors and funding programs with their own sets of proposal requirements. It is extremely important to be aware of your particular proposal guidelines and communicate with your RA on any issues early on in the proposal process.

• Develop content
• Initiate cost share process (if applicable).  Contact Kelly Morrison in OSR at kellym@northwestern.edu
• For academic salary cost share requests greater than 1%, contact Kelly Mayo, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies (see the WCAS cost sharing policy)
• For Limited Submissions, ensure your PI has been granted approval to submit on behalf of NU. If you are unsure, contact ORD.
• When submitting a proposal to a foundation, notify Foundation Relations
• Identify key personnel
• If you are going to include a subcontractor in your proposal you will need to include the following documents, at minimum, from the subcontractor:
  • Budget
  • Budget justification
  • Statement of work
  • Letter of intent endorsed by organizational official.

  Please view NURAP's presentation on determining consultants versus subcontractors.

Step 3: Create Proposal Package

PI or RA should create a new proposal in InfoEd PD.   All proposals, regardless of submission vehicle, will be routed and approved in PD.  Proposal submission requirements are provided on the OSR website and summarized below:

• Federal sponsors accepting proposals via Grants.gov – submitted in InfoEd (System to System)

• NSF proposals - submitted using FastLane (Non-System to System)

• NEA/NEH and ED proposals -  submitted using Adobe forms through Grants.gov (Non-System to System)

• Non-federal proposals (i.e. foundations) – submitted per sponsor guidelines

The following links will help assist you in completing the proposal package:

• Project Cafe's InfoEd PD website
• OSR's useful data for forms
• 4 Digit Zip Code Lookup

RA should prepare budget & budget justification with PI's input:

• WCAS Budget Template w/o Cost Sharing (Updated 4/6/12)
• WCAS Budget Template w/ Cost Sharing (Updated 11/16/11)
• NRSA Budget Template
• Academic Base Salary and Summer Salary Calculation Spreadsheet
• FY2012 NIH Salary Cap and Effort Reporting Summary from ASRSP
• Fringe Benefit Rates
• Indirect Cost Rates (Rate Agreement)
• Graduate School RAS tuition rates

• Many sponsors will require a breakdown of travel costs.  You may find using the government per diem rates to be a helpful tool:
• • Domestic per diem
  • Foreign per diem
• For additional information on preparing proposal budgets, see OSR’s budget webpage.

RA should update and/or collect biosketches & current and pending (if applicable).

PI should prepare the scientific portions of the proposal.

• ALL science documents need to be completed and sent to OSR 48 hours in advance of the proposal deadline.
• Data management plan: NSF requires that all proposals include a supplementary document of no more than 2 pages labeled “Data Management Plan.”
• Instructions can be found on NSF's website and OSR’s website
• Guidance from NU Library
• Data Management Plan Tool provides step-by-step instructions and guidance
• Examples can be found on various Universities websites, such as University of California, San Diego

PI should prepare and/or submit Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or Institutional Review Board (IRB) forms. Depending on your sponsor, you may need to obtain approval or submit the IACUC and/or IRB protocol forms prior to your proposal submission.

• Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)
• Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Step 4: Gather University signatory approvals on proposal routing form

Proposal Routing Form

• InfoEd PD routing is the required mechanism for securing the required NU approvals for the proposed project. 

Required Documentation

• Refer to the WCAS Dean's Office Review Checklist for InfoEd PD to ensure you've included all the required items

OSR-100

• The OSR-100 form is how key personnel disclose any conflicts of interest.  You may obtain signatures on OSR-100 forms using eProposal (click here for instructions) or uploading paper signatures as PDF's in InfoEd (click here for paper form and instructions). 

Step 5: Finalize proposal documents

Once documents are complete, the proposal in InfoEd PD should be submitted into Final Route.

At this stage the PI, RA and OSR Grant Officer will work together to ensure that the proposal follows the guidelines set forth in the solicitation. 

Step 6: Submit Proposal

For system-to-system proposals, OSR will submit the proposal to the sponsor once all materials are complete.  For non-system-to-system proposals you will need to work with your OSR Grant Officer to determine how the proposal will be submitted.