Proposal Submission

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Internal Deadlines for Proposal Routing
Three-Day Deadline
Requirements for Proposal Review
Credit Allocation
Approving a Proposal in UAccess Research

Proposal Changes that Require Re-Routing

Sponsored proposals are submitted for review and approval through the University of Arizona's electronic research administration system, UAccess Research (UAR). If you have a University of Arizona NetID/password, you have permission to create a proposal in the UAR system. If you are required to view all proposals/awards in your given department or college OR you need authority to approve for your department and/or college, you need to obtain privileges through the UAccess Provisioning Tool. Instructions for obtaining these privileges are available on the UAccess Research page.

Internal Deadlines for Proposal Routing

Sponsored Projects Services (SPS) must receive proposals in final form (completely approved in UAccess Research (UAR) and ready for submission to the sponsoring agency) three full business days prior to the sponsor's due date. The proposal routing process must be completed prior to submission of an application. Budgets submitted to sponsors that have not been approved by SPS through the UAR proposal routing process should be considered provisional, and are not binding to the university. If the sponsor requires an institutional official to sign or submit a Pre-Proposal, please contact Sponsored Projects Services early in the preparation process to determine if it should be routed through UAccess Research subject to internal deadlines.

In order to provide fair and equitable proposal service from Sponsored Projects Services, institutional review and submission priority is 'first-in, first-out' (FIFO) as proposals reach SPS in final form without needing major changes. SPS will continue to review proposals in the order they are prioritized but there is no guarantee of submission by the sponsor deadline if they have not met the three-day deadline. If circumstances beyond Principal Investigator (PI) control will prevent a proposal from being prioritized for submission by the sponsor deadline, approval from the Dean or designee and Research, Innovation & Impact is required to authorize SPS to deviate from 'first in, first out' submission order. Details are provided in the Late Proposal Request – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and requests are submitted using the Late Proposal Request web form.

Three-Day Deadline

The mission of the Sponsored Projects Services (SPS) Preaward Services team includes facilitating the submission of proposals by helping UArizona researchers comply with budgetary requirements and government regulations. Most Federal agencies require online proposal submission through Grants.gov, ASSIST, Research.gov or FastLane. The necessary steps for a comprehensive review of these proposal submissions takes time. While some agencies allow an easy file upload for submission, others require more complicated procedures, involving multiple steps for the Principal Investigator and for the SPS Preaward Services team. It is necessary to establish an internal deadline for submissions so that Sponsored Projects can provide adequate and timely assurances to investigators.

The policy states the following:

• All proposals, routed UAR proposals and electronic submission, should be submitted to SPS in final form* 3 full business days prior to the funding-agency deadline (8am the day it is due to SPS).
• Requests for Facilities & Administrative (F&A) Cost waivers should be submitted to SPS with the attached signed form 5 business days prior to the proposal agency deadline for paper proposals, 8 business days for electronic submissions.
• Terms and conditions that need to be reviewed by the Office of Research Contracts (ORC) or documents that require ORC signature require between 7 - 10 business days for review and/or negotiation.

*Final form for electronic proposals means that the proposal is completely finished, including proposal routing, and ready for submission to the sponsoring agency.

• Colleges and departments may have additional submission deadline requirements.
• This policy includes any items that need an authorized signature or review before correspondence or submission to the sponsor (like RPPRs and revised budgets).
• Proposals routed outside of the 3-Day Deadline run the risk of not being submitted to the sponsor. 
• Submission to a sponsor outside of internal review is against UA policy and is not legally binding.

Requirements for Proposal Review

Once the proposal is created in UAccess Research, attach the following documents for Sponsored Projects Services (SPS) review:

• Application Page or Title Page
• Abstract (draft science)
• Budget
• Budget Justification that describes the budget and reflects the costs listed therein
• Letters of financial commitments
• Other documents that require University of Arizona signature, such as cover letters or assurances

SPS will review documents for accuracy, completeness, and for compliance with sponsor submission procedures. SPS does NOT review the technical aspects of the proposal, including page limits and margins.

When submitting a proposal, the principal investigator is responsible for:

• Identifying the total costs of the project and sources of funding for cost sharing
• Having committed space, facilities, and use of other resources
• Completing the applicable compliance reviews prior to initiating the project, e.g., biohazards, hazardous waste, recombinant DNA, animal subjects, human subjects, radiation safety, and conflict of interest

Credit Allocation

Investigator award credit may be captured two different ways on the UAccess Research proposal:

• Credit for Award. Also known as academic or intellectual credit, is allocated by percentage to investigators and departments/colleges. These amounts are used in University publications about externally funded activity.

Award Credit may be influenced by factors like:

• Intellectual ideas and merit
• Pre-proposal work or anticipated post-award activity

• F&A Revenue. Credit is allocated by percentage to investigators and departments/colleges. These amounts are used to distribute quarterly F&A revenue distribution at the college level.

F&A Revenue distribution may be influenced by factors like:

• Proposed budget authority for each investigator
• Institutional space to complete the award
• Units that will provide post-award administrative support

Enter award credit percentages in the Credit Allocation page of the UAccess Research proposal. The amounts carry forward from proposal to award, and can be modified by routing a revised UAccess Research proposal document.

For projects with more than one principal investigator and/or more than one department, credit for the award and F&A revenue will be distributed according what is entered in the UAR Credit Allocation.

Do not confuse this section with investigators’ level of effort - percent level of effort is not relevant to this section.

Determine and enter the Investigator credit amounts. The unit splits are a percentage based on the investigator credit and must always total 100.

Examples:

Each investigator receives a total portion of the credit: 90% and 10% in this example. Their portions are then allocated to their unit(s).

 Notes on Credit Allocation:

• Proposals that involve more than one department or college often involve negotiation of credit split between the units. Be sure to plan adequate time in the proposal preparation process to contact involved units.
• Changes to credit allocation require a revised UAccess Research proposal document. Removing or adding a department or college may require additional approvals.

Approving a Proposal in UAccess Research

Performance of a sponsored project implies a certain level of commitment of University of Arizona resources to a project. To ensure the ability of the university to meet these commitments, proposals submitted to external funding agencies are reviewed and approved by a pre-determined set of approvers using the UAccess Research system. Instructions for Approving Proposals in UAccess Research describes the approval process. The UAccess Research Proposal Routing Flowchart provides a graphic representation of the approval route.

Who needs to approve the proposal prior to submission to the sponsor is determined by a number of factors, including but not limited to:

• Investigator’s departments/units
• Budgetary issues such as cost sharing and F&A considerations
• Use of Cancer Center facilities
• Use of recombinant DNA/microbial pathogens
• Involvement or engagement of Native Americans or international indigenous groups
• Use of human subjects
• Use of animal research

All proposals must be approved by the following:

• Principal Investigator
• Co-Investigator(s)
• Key Person(s)
• Department Head
• Dean or Director
• Sponsored Projects Services on behalf of the Senior Vice President for Research

National Institute of Health proposals with multiple PI’s must be approved by all University of Arizona principal investigators. The contact PI should be listed as the PI/Contact in the UAccess Research Proposal.

The principal investigator assumes significant responsibility when proposing a project on behalf of the University. Therefore, the University requires the principal investigator and co-principal investigator(s) to personally approve the Proposal in UAccess Research. This responsibility may not be delegated to the unit research administrator or any other individual.

Approvals occur in the following order:

• Department initiator submits into UAccess workflow
• Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator(s), Key Person(s) and all departments must approve before workflow proceeds
• College(s), and Division(s) if applicable, must approve before the proposal routes to SPS
• Sponsored Projects Services

SPS may route the proposal on an ad hoc basis to Research, Innovation & Impact and other units for review based on the budget or compliance items.

Approving the proposal imparts a set of the roles and responsibilities to each approving party. A summary of these is available at Submitting the Proposal - Roles and Responsibilities.

Proposal Changes that Require Re-Routing

Major Changes require the proposal to be returned to the initiator for changes and re-routed for all approvals. Submission queue priority is not retained if a proposal is returned for major changes. Sponsored Projects Services will make routine, minor corrections based on information in the proposal or mistakes in UAccess Research data entry. All corrections will be noted in the proposal without re-routing for approvals.