Research Policies and Compliance

Timeline Policy for Proposal Submission

Version Number: 001

Effective Date: October 1, 2017

Responsible Office:  Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Education

 1.0   Purpose

1)      Define the timeline for successful proposal submission through CAAC Research Support.

2)      Comply with Clemson University institutional policy.

3)      Ensure timely submissions of competitive proposals that are complete, accurate, and compliant with funder requirements.

Preparing a strong, competitive grant proposal takes a great deal of time and effort from both the principal investigator (PI) and the CAAC Research Support staff.  For each proposal submitted, CAAC Research staff must complete a comprehensive review to:

• ensure compliance with the funding agency, state and federal policies and guidelines;
• review the budget and application contents;
• coordinate the receipt of required documentation and information from sub-awardees (if applicable);
• create proposal in InfoED, and obtain the necessary signatures in order to authorize the proposal for submission; and
• upload files into the sponsors grant submission portal, allowing for additional processing time associated with electronic systems (e.g. Grants.gov). 

Time required to review a proposal varies according to the complexity of the sponsor’s requirements, federal and state requirements, as well as the condition of the proposal package.  When proposals are submitted with inadequate time for review, chances of audit findings are increased, overall proposal quality suffers, and chances of an award being received are diminished.  This policy has been developed to ensure submission of high-quality proposals in a timely manner, to the satisfaction of all parties involved.

Effective July 1, 2013, all applications seeking support from outside sponsors must be in “Ready to Submit” (see Section 5.0 - Definitions) format and have received the preliminary approval of the applicable OSP Support Center to electronically route for approval by chairs and associate deans for research a minimum of two business days in advance of the immediate sponsor deadline, in order for OSP to guarantee on-time submission.     The full policy is available here

Effective October 1, 2017, all applications seeking support from outside sponsors will be processed as follows:

1)      Draft proposal and budgets, including all required components, must be submitted to CAAH Research a minimum of five (5) business days before the sponsor’s published deadline.  CAAC Research will work with the PI during this time to make final edits in the proposal narrative and appropriate budget adjustments.  Certain circumstances require additional processing time, as described in Attachment 1.

2)      To be considered ready for processing, a proposal must contain at minimum:

• a CAAC Proposal Setup Form;
• a project narrative or scope of work;
• a budget and budget narrative;
• completed sub-award documents, consultant letters with signatures (if applicable);
• sponsor guidelines for submission; and,
• status of required supplementary documents (e.g. CV’s, references, current and pending support, collaborations).

CAAC Research will not begin processing a proposal until all of the above components are present, regardless of when notified that a proposal is being developed.

3)      All proposal editing by the PI must be completed two (2) business days prior to the sponsor’s deadline.  No budget changes or edits to the proposal will be permitted on the deadline day.

4)      Proposal processing will be prioritized according to the first-in, first-out concept.  Depending on the number of proposals already in process, proposals submitted less than five (5) business days before the sponsor deadline are at risk of missing the deadline.

5)      Variance to Policy:  We recognize that, on occasion, there may be extenuating circumstances, that warrant  RUSH processing.  Rush processing is defined as CAAC Research processing of a proposal in five (5), or less working business days.

Rush submissions will only be accepted with written approval from the Associate Dean for Research.

PI’s requesting RUSH submissions must include with their proposal a written justification of the need for Rush processing.  Written justification can be in the form of an email or memo explaining the special circumstance, and must be copied to the PI’s department chair.  CAAC Research Support does not guarantee submission of Rush proposal requests (see #4 above).

University-wide internal competitions will be processed under Clemson’s policy outlined in 3.0 above.

Application:  Includes all required business elements as specified in the sponsor guidelines, to include proposal abstract, narrative, budget, budget justification, cost-share commitments, identification of required resources, bio-sketches, subcontractor supporting documents, conflict-of-interest disclosures as applicable to sponsor and any other sponsor requirements.

 Business Day:  Weekday that CU is open for business.  Excludes weekends and holidays.  Includes business hours from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.  Proposals must be received in time to submit the proposal by close of business on the due date, even when the sponsor deadline is later than 4:30 p.m.  The same deadlines apply regardless of whether OSP or the research team submits the proposal to the sponsor.

 Complete Form:   All major business elements of the proposal are finalized, to include budget, budget justification, senior/key personnel, cost-share commitments, sub-recipient documentation and any other commitments by the University or collaborators.  Only immaterial editorial revisions to the narrative (e.g. project description, abstract, references) are allowed during the final electronic routing process.

 Rush Processing: CAAH Research processing of a proposal in less than five (5) business days.

 CAAC Proposal Setup Form:  document with initial questions pertaining to each submission.

 Ready to Submit:  Finalized and complete application in final format that is ready for submission to the sponsor.

 An updated list of Budget, Compliance, and Policy information can be found on Clemson University's Office of Sponsored Programs website.