Pre-Award/Proposal Submission
Interested in submitting a proposal?
Start Here | Next Steps | Frequenty Asked Questions
Services
- All UFIRST entry, revision and guidance.
- Solicitation review and guidance.
- Budget preparation, review and guidance.
- Document review and guidance, including all required documents for submission.
- SF424 initiation, review, and completion.
- Research.gov entry, review, and guidance.
- Post submission updates in UFIRST.
Pre-Award Team
- Traci Aquara, Research Administrator III
- Lupe Gonzalez, Research Administrator III
- Jamie Ramos, Research Administrator III
Contact Us
For questions, reach out to resoffice@clas.ufl.edu. All CLAS RO personnel have access to this account, which ensures a quick response time.
Start Here to Submit a Proposal
Review the proposal deadline policy and deadline calculator, and submit completed proposal inquiry form.
What Happens Next?
CLAS RO Assigns
RA
Research Administrators are assigned based on deadline and current workload
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Proposal Development
CLAS RO works with PI to develop proposal
PI must stay engaged during the process
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UFIRST Proposal Routes
Submit-ready proposal routes to Department & College for review & approval
No later than 4 business days prior to Sponsor deadline
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UFIRST Proposal to DSP
Department/CLAS-approved proposal routes to DSP for review & approval
No later than 9 AM on business day prior to Sponsor deadline
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Proposal is Submitted
When approved, DSP will either submit on behalf of UF/PI or release proposal for submission
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Post-submission Updates
If the Sponsor requests any revisions after submission, contact CLAS RO
Pre-Award/Proposal FAQ’s
- If your Department/Unit is College supported, our office will assist.
- If your Department/Unit is not College supported, please reach out to the Department/Unit administrator(s).
- Visit the CLAS RO website to complete and submit the Proposal Inquiry Form.
- For any questions, please reach out to CLAS RO resoffice@clas.ufl.edu.
- As soon as you confirm interest in submitting.
- Please visit the CLAS RO website to review the CLAS Proposal Deadline Policy and the Proposal Deadline Calculator to review submission deadlines specific to your opportunity.
- Please be aware, CLAS RO prioritizes immediate deadlines.
- There are 5 deadlines to meet
- Initiation Deadline
- Document Completion Deadline
- College Deadline
- DSP Deadline
- Sponsor Submission Deadline
- If a subaward is involved, please refer to Subaward FAQ section below
- CLAS RO will attempt to accommodate late requests. However, out of respect for faculty who have notified our office in a timely manner, and the workload of our Research Administrators, we cannot guarantee the proposal will be submitted.
- The ultimate decision will be at the discretion of CLAS ADR.
- Proposals are assigned based on RA workload and immediate deadlines.
- At a minimum, a PI should be actively engaged from Initiation deadline through the days leading up to the Submission deadline.
- This includes providing draft documents for review, and timely responses to requests and questions from CLAS RO, College Leadership, and DSP.
- A submit-ready proposal will have attached complete, final, and error-free versions of all documents that will be submitted to the sponsor and have been certified in UFIRST by the PI.
- Generally, documents cannot be edited after the Document Completion deadline, unless specifically requested by CLAS RO, College, or DSP.
- This is specific to each sponsor and your assigned RA will review and provide guidance.
- If Principal Investigator (PI) signature is required, the named PI on the proposal should sign.
- If Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) signature is required, this is limited to individuals with signing authority at the University of Florida. Division of Sponsored Programs (DSP) will facilitate all items required by AOR. Always confirm with your CLAS RA if there are any questions.
Please engage your UF faculty mentor on the solicitation/proposal and have them work with you to submit a proposal inquiry form. Ensure your mentor’s name is also listed in the form.
Please reach out to CLAS RO as soon as possible. We will help determine whether UF can accept the award and if a UFIRST proposal is needed. In the future, please engage our office before any proposal submission.
Budget FAQ’s
- UFIRST pulls active data from myUFL, uses most recent fringe, and IDC rates. CLAS RO Research Administrators draft all new/incoming budgets using UFIRST.
- Yes, but with the possibility of requests for exceptions to be approved by the College. Please review our CLAS Proposal Budget Policy for full details.
- To ensure a consistent calculation, salaries for all appointment types are annualized to 12 months full-time in the UFIRST budget workspace.
- The proposed calendar months of effort will be entered, and the system will calculate the correct cost-per-month.
- Per the Graduate Assistants United contract, GRAs are appointed at a maximum of 0.5 FTE to ensure they have enough time available for their studies.
- Consequently, the maximum GRA effort budgeted on proposals is 6 CM per year.
- If a department does not have a pre-established minimum salary greater than the UF minimum, CLAS RO will default to the contracted UF minimum annual salary for graduate students. https://admin.hr.ufl.edu/employee-management/positions-and-assignments/student-appointments/
- UF requires tuition to be budgeted for GRAs, unless prohibited by the Sponsor.
- Tuition is charged proportionally to the GRA appointment effort.
- When tuition is prohibited by the Sponsor, it is expected that Departmental funds will be utilized to cover this expense.
- As a standard practice, CLAS RO budgets tuition at the sponsored research rate recommended by UF Research. https://research.ufl.edu/dsp/proposals/budgeting/graduate-student-salary-tuition-costs.html
SubAwards FAQ’s
- Yes, please include at a minimum, an additional 5 business days to the initiation deadline, to allow us ample time to reach out to the institution and collect documents in a timely fashion. Please note: an additional 5 business days may not be enough if the subaward institution requires additional time to perform their own internal review.
- For this reason, it is important to inform our office at your earliest convenience.
- When UF is participating as a subaward, the “Sponsor Submission Deadline” is set by the lead institution. Their deadline for UF documents may be well in advance of the published solicitation deadline.
- Please review DSP’s webpage to determine whether a subaward or contract is more appropriate: https://research.ufl.edu/dsp/outgoing-subawards/subawards-at-the-time-of-proposal-processing.html
- Please work with your assigned Research Administrator to determine how the collaborator should be captured in the proposal.
Post Submission Update FAQ’s
- This can vary depending on the sponsor. PSU’s may include, but are not limited to, Just-in-time (JIT) requests, Current & Pending (C&P)/Other Support updates, or budget revisions.
- CLAS RO will work with PIs to review and complete all PSUs.
- Please reach out to CLAS RO to determine next steps.