Administrative Review and Approval of Proposals for External Support

Purpose

To ensure that proposals submitted for external support of research and other sponsored projects comply with University, Federal, State and Sponsor policies and procedures.

Policy

All proposal submissions seeking external support for research and other sponsored projects must be submitted to the Office for Sponsored Programs (OSP) for review and approval prior to submission to an external sponsor, even when institutional sign-off is not required by the sponsor.

All letters-of-intent and pre-proposal submissions seeking external support for research and other sponsored projects must be submitted to the Office for Sponsored Programs (OSP) for review and approval prior to submission to an external sponsor if the signature of an authorized official, a detailed budget, or cost share is required.

Proposals submitted without OSP approval may be administratively withdrawn if the submission is found to be non-compliant with university or agency requirements.

All proposals must be submitted to OSP for review and approval no less than 5 business days prior to the agency deadline. Budgets can be reviewed in advance, by emailing the budget, budget justification and program guidelines to preaward@uconn.edu.

The University of Connecticut reserves the right to withdraw any proposal that does not comply with this policy.

Procedures

All proposals must be approved by the responsible Department Head, Center Director and/or Dean. When a project involves more than one department, Center and/or School, the approval of all responsible Department Heads, Center Directors and/or Deans is required. If the Principal Investigator is a Department Head, the approval of the Dean is required. A completed Internal Proposal Review Form signed by the Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator(s) and the appropriate Department Head, Center Director and/or Dean must accompany each proposal.

In order to comply with federal regulations regarding potential conflict of interest, a completed and signed Significant Financial Interest Review Form for all key personnel must accompany the proposal.

In order to secure certifications required by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a completed and signed NIH Certification Form must accompany all NIH applications and Progress Reports. Forms are required for all Principal Investigators, including Principal Investigators from other institutions, if the application involves multiple Principal Investigators. For multiple PI applications, a Contact PI must be designated and his/her name should be included on the form.

Late Proposals

A proposal is considered late if it is not submitted to OSP at least five (5) business days prior to the funding agency deadline.

OSP makes every effort to review late proposals prior to submission, but it cannot guarantee that a late proposal will be reviewed and approved before submission to the funding agency.

Submitting late proposals is a disservice to colleagues who submit proposal applications in advance: the review of their proposals may be delayed so that late proposals can be reviewed before submission to the sponsor.

OSP will send a late notice by email to the Principal Investigator who has submitted a late proposal.

When submitting a late proposal for the second time, the Principal Investigator will receive an email notice that is copied to his/her department head.

When submitting a late proposal for the third time, OSP may decline to review the proposal.

Roles and Responsibilities

The Executive Director of the Office for Sponsored Programs has overall responsibility for this policy.

The Executive Director will review this policy annually.

The Principal Investigator accepts responsibility for the scientific and technical conduct of the project and for the provision of required technical reports if a grant or contract is awarded as a result of the application. The Principal Investigator attests that all related significant financial interests have been disclosed.

The Department Head, Center Director and/or Dean attests to the academic purposes of the proposed project and its appropriateness in terms of budget, committed effort, space and equipment.

The Executive Director of the Office for Sponsored Program is the authorized signatory for all proposals for sponsored programs. In the absence of the designated official, arrangements are made to ensure timely signing by alternate University signatories.

Principal Investigators, Department Chairs, Deans and other individuals are not precluded from signing internal processing documents, but they are not authorized to sign a sponsored projects proposal on behalf of the University.