Submission Guidelines

Effective October 1, 2026, all external grant proposals must be submitted to the COE Office of Research at least four (4) business days before the sponsor deadline. The university’s central office for Sponsored Awards Management (SAM) enforces a strict three (3) business day lead time to review and officially submit all external university proposals. To ensure our college team has adequate time to review your budget, verify compliance, and package your materials before transferring them over to SAM, the COE Office of Research requires this additional one-day buffer.

To ensure smooth processing, please follow this submission timeline for all USCERA documents and sponsor portal components (with a specific exception for the project narrative detailed below):

• Intake Form Deadline (Ideally 1 Month Prior, Deadline 2 Weeks Prior): To initiate support for an upcoming proposal, submit details through the Office of Research Grant Proposal intake form below as early as possible, ideally one month prior to institutional deadlines. At a minimum, the intake form itself must be submitted no later than two (2) weeks prior to the sponsor deadline.
  
  
• Preferred Component Timing (7 Days Prior): We strongly encourage PIs to submit their initial proposal materials seven (7) business days prior to the external sponsor deadline. This allows for thorough troubleshooting, formatting assistance, and budget corrections.
  
  
• Internal Deadline for Proposal Materials (4 Days Prior): All final grant materials, including budget, compliance documents, and package components, must be submitted to the COE Office of Research no later than four (4) business days prior to the sponsor's deadline. Exception: The proposal narrative may still be in draft form at this 4-day mark.
  
  
• Narrative Exception & Timing: While draft narratives are acceptable at the 7-day and 4-day marks, submitting the final, polished version of the narrative at least one (1) business day prior to the external sponsor’s deadline is strongly preferred to avoid last-minute system glitches and potential submission issues.

 

Policy Enforcement and Loss of Support

To ensure fairness and operational capability across the college, the COE Office of Research will no longer support PIs seeking external grants who submit intake forms less than two weeks in advance or materials later than four (4) business days prior to the submission deadline. Late submissions compress the university's final compliance safety net and place an unsustainable burden on administrative resources. Consequently, proposals received after these internal deadlines will not be processed or authorized for submission.

 

Grant Proposal Information Request Form