Proposal Development

Proposal Development Guidelines

For assistance please contact: Pre-award Manager assigned to your department.

The Pre-award group assists university faculty and staff with:

• proposal development and submission
• ensuring that UMass Dartmouth is in compliance with sponsor, state, and university requirements.

Are you looking for a sample for the proposal you are contemplating? Please check out the Open Grants List - a list of grants that are openly available on the web. These grants can help with learning grantsmanship, understand particular funders and their programs, and communicating science.
Sample proposals are just a click away @ https://www.ogrants.org/.

Pre-award Workflow

• NIH Checklist
• NSF Checklist
• Proposal Checklist
• Forms
• Complete Proposal Criteria

Internal Forms (required to sign & date)

• Proposal Routing Form: PDF  (Download & save PDF on your computer prior to filling it out)
• Proposal Routing Form: Word doc
• New Proposal Routing Form
  
• Disclosure Summary Forms: (Fill out and submit only applicable forms)

External Forms & Requirements
Common External Forms & Requirements

• Data Management Plan (DMP) DMPTool 
  
  • More information about DMPTool
• Proposals with sub-awards: for each sub-awardee on a project PI should submit to ORA the following
  • Letter of Intent (LOI)
  • Scope of work
  • Budget
  • Budget Justification
  • F&A Rate Agreement, if applicable

Agency-specific External Forms & Requirements

• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• New NSF Grant Proposal Guide
• NSF Prospective New Awardee Guide 
• National Science Foundation IRB Form
  
• Current & Pending form (Fillable in Word)
• NSF Biographical Sketch
• National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Summary of Changes to NIH Policies
  • Summary of Form Changes: FORMS-E
  • NIH Grant Podcast
  • NIH Office of Extramural Research Blog
  • NIAID All About Grants

Note: Applications which are subject to the NIH’s policy regarding applications or a group of collaborative applications requesting $500,000 or more in subtotal direct costs for any year (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-02-004.html) must seek agreement to accept assignment from NIH Institute/Center staff at least 6 weeks prior to the anticipated submission deadline. ORA Pre-award staff will assist the PI with the submission of a cover letter identifying the program staff member or the Institute/Center that has agreed to accept the assignment of the application.

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• Other federal agencies

Budget Templates

• Budget Template
• Simple Budget (No Subs) Template

Budget Justification Templates

Samples

• Other Cost Justification

Agency specific

• NSF Budget Justification Template FY18 & 20
• NSF Budget Justification Sample 1
• NSF Budget Justification Sample 2
• Travel Costs Justification (DOD)

Budget Development Resources

• Institutional Facts and Rates
  (F&A, Fringe Benefits Rates, Etc.)
• Bursar's Office 
  (tuition & fees information)
• Effort Conversion Table (PDF)
• Cost Allowability Chart (AARC) (PDF)
• Policy on Charging Administrative Salaries & Costs to Federal Grants
• Travel costs guidelines
• Course Buy-out policy
• Grant Course Buy-out Form (DOC)
• Purchasing computer equipment guidelines
• Cost Sharing

Per diem rates

• Per diem rates: Domestic
• Per diem rates: Foreign

Pre-Award Managers work closely with PIs to ensure proposals meet the highest standard of compliance. Utilizing a set of proposal review checklists, they review each proposal for compliance with the guidelines and policies of the sponsor and UMass Dartmouth. After the initial review Pre-Award Manager will e-mail corrections & suggested changes to the proposal for the PI’s consideration. A final review is completed after all necessary changes are made and the proposal is approved internally.

Electronic Submission Systems

• Cayuse 424 (system-to-system tool)
• FastLane (NSF)

Other online portals

• EERE-eXCHANGE (DOE)
• NSPIRES (NASA)
• Proposal CENTRAL (selected non-federal agencies)
• Grants.gov
• Research.gov

Paper & Email Submissions

Coordinate proposal submission with Pre-award Manager assigned to your department.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued the 2020 Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) effective June 1, 2020. Among the most significant changes are new requirements for biographical sketches and current and pending support documents which will be required to be submitted in the new NSF-approved formats.

The Office of Research Administration encourages all faculty and staff to take necessary steps now to ensure proposals are compliant with these new requirements ahead of the June 1, 2020 transition date.

Approved formats for creating biographical sketches are:

• SciENcv - NSF is partnering with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to use Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) as an NSF-approved format for use in preparation of the biographical sketch section of an NSF proposal. Adoption of a single, common researcher profile system for Federal grants reduces administrative burden for researchers. SciENcv will produce an NSF-compliant PDF version of the biographical sketch.

• The NSF fillable PDF is now available for use in preparation of the biographical sketch.
• Please test the two approved formats for creating biographical sketches (SciENcv & NSF fillable PDF) prior to June 1, 2020 to see which format works best for you.
• See FAQs on using SciENcv & FAQs on using the NSF Fillable PDF.