Proposal Submission Policy
Summary
Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA), acting on behalf of The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, is responsible for the review and approval of all proposals and proposal updates for research and other sponsored activities that are to be funded by external agencies. We understand proposal development takes considerable time and effort and in order to provide optimal and equitable service to all University faculty, there is a need for proposal submission deadlines. The proposal submission policy defines the types of deadlines, expectations for a complete proposal submission to SPA, and the review levels associated with the timelines.
Exceptions
Approval of exceptions will be rare and will be the responsibility of Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation (VCRI) to make the final determination. An exception request to this policy must be reviewed, endorsed, and transmitted to the VCRI by the College Dean or Institute Director where the grant would be housed. If the PI’s home department is in a college, endorsement of the unit executive officer is expected to be included in the exception approval request.
Exceptions requests should be emailed to Dr. Susan Martinis at martinis@illinois.edu with a cc to Jaimie Willard jamiew2@illinois.edu and Melissa Edwards mme@illinois.edu.
Should an exception be granted, SPA requires a copy of the email that has the approval from Dr. Martinis as an attachment. Additionally, if you receive an exception, you must have someone available to answer any questions or changes to the proposal until the proposal has been submitted
Details
- It is the responsibility of the unit and PI to submit a proposal to SPA that is compliant with the Sponsor’s guidelines.
- A proposal is considered complete if it is received by 8:30am, 4 business days prior to the sponsor’s deadline AND includes all the documents noted in the table below. 8:30am deadline is based on a typical sponsor 5pm deadline. Should your sponsor’s deadline be anything besides 5pm CST please utilize the proposal deadlines calculator as it will impact when the proposal is due to SPA.
- A full day means business hours from 8am-5pm. The Sponsor deadline date does not count as one of the 4 lead time days.
- Example based on a typical submission deadline time:
Sponsor deadline is Friday August 1st 5pm
Day 4 = Monday 7/28 8:30am, Day 3=Tuesday 7/29 8:30am, Day 2=Wednesday 7/30 8:30am, Day 1=Thursday 7/31
- Example based on a typical submission deadline time:
SPA’s business hours are 8:00am-5:00pm. SPA will not submit proposals after 5:00pm on the Sponsor due date, regardless of Sponsor’s deadline time.
Proposal Review Level
- On-time proposals will receive a comprehensive review for compliance with institutional and sponsor requirements prior to submission.
- Late proposals with exception approval will receive a limited review to ensure they meet institutional requirements. However, they may not be checked for compliance with sponsor requirements. If submitted to SPA on the sponsor’s deadline day, they will receive either a cursory review or no review before submission. SPA cannot guarantee the review will be complete or the proposal will be error free or result in a submission failure.
- Pre-proposals (white papers, letter of intent, etc.) must go through SPA if the submission requires either the signature of an authorized representation or submission by an authorized representative.Proposal Update and Just-In-Time (JIT) Requests
Proposal Update and Just-In-Time (JIT) Requests
Proposal Items and Timeline
| Proposal Items | Proposal Development Request to SPA 5+ business days prior to the Sponsor deadline date and time | Complete Proposal Submitted to SPA via myProposals by 8:30am 4 business days prior to the Sponsor’s deadline date and time | Final Proposal Submitted to SPA via myProposals at least 9 business hours prior to the Sponsor’s deadline date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waiver requests (such as F&A, PI, Form A) | X | ||
| Request for approval to provide over 50% of the prime funds to subrecipient(s) | X | ||
| Data request for data to be used in a proposal | X | ||
| Provide SPA with non-traditional or complex Sponsor reps & certs or questionnaires | X | ||
| Courtesy notice to SPA of complex proposal and limited submission proposals | X | ||
| Sponsor submission information, guidelines and hard deadlines | X | ||
| Statement of work (includes project summary, project description, abstract) and references cited | X Draft | X Final | |
| Budget and budget justification (including financial commitments such as cost share approval letters) | X | ||
| Appropriate project personnel approvals (PI, Co-PI, Co-I) | X | ||
| Appropriate department/college approvals | X | ||
| Compliance actions initiated or approved (such as IACUC, IRB, COI, EC) | X | ||
| Approved waivers (such as F&A, PI, Form A) | X | ||
| Subrecipient documents (letter of intent, SOW, budget, budget justification, certifications and/or approvals if required) | X | ||
| Any other required completed documents (such as reps & certs, SBSP, IP management plan, Data sharing plan, Letters of Collaboration/Support) | X | ||
| Research Security Training completed by all individuals | X |
Policy Type
Institutional PoliciesRelated Research Topics
Related FAQs
- When utilizing the draft materials option, what can be considered as draft materials?
- Do I need to request an exception if I don’t have all materials from subawards?
- Will a proposal be returned to in development status, if the proposal is not accessible in the sponsor system for SPA to review?
- What should I put as the deadline if we are a subrecipient on a project?
- Do pre-proposals, continuation proposals, and supplement proposals fall under the submission policy?
- What if a proposal is submitted without SPA review and then awarded. Is an exception required?
- Do Proposal Updates, Just-In-Time Requests, and incremental funding requests fall under the 4-day submission policy?