Campus Ready for Stimulus Proposal Submissions

The Office of Grants and Contracts Administration (OGCA) is ready to process the proposals that will be submitted for stimulus funding.

"OGCA staff are ready to deal with the additional work load just as we have done in past high-volume situations," says Carol Sprague, OGCA director.  "We will do what we need to do to get proposals out to the agencies for consideration." Sprague notes OGCA has already seen an increase in submissions, including stimulus related supplements going to NIH. "The turn-around time on those are very quick," says Sprague.  "We have been receiving notification of intent to award these supplements within two weeks.  We are currently working on a round of facilities applications for NIH as well."

Sprague points to the Research and Engagement area's newly created ARRA web page that has the most current information on the stimulus act as a good source of information for PIs. The funding opportunities contain very unique and detailed proposal preparation instructions.  It is imperative that the guidelines are carefully followed to insure successful submission.

The ARRA resources web page links to all agencies so that PIs can keep on top of new opportunities and the guidelines that come with them. "The additional terms and conditions that come with these funds will require more reporting to the sponsor by the PI and the Controller's Office," says Sprague. "Because of the anticipated overload on the grants.gov system, OMB has issued a directive to each agency to come up with alternative submission plans for stimulus funding. Therefore, PI's should be reading very carefully and checking the sites often to be sure they have the most current information."
When proposals must be submitted via grants.gov, PI's are strongly encouraged to provide OGCA as much lead time as possible and applications as complete as possible. Because of the overload on the grants.gov system, applications must be submitted well before the deadline day to insure they are received on time. Heavy traffic on the grants.gov system has caused the system to generate false errors causing applications to fail. At times the traffic is so heavy that submittal is impossible.

 

Do you have questions about stimulus proposal submission? Contact the Office of Grant and Contract Administration 545-0698. Click here for OGCA proposal contacts.

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National Associations, Other Universities Issue ARRA guidance

 

Federal research agencies continue to issue additional guidance, information, and announcements about funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act under their jurisdiction. Other national research universities and associations are also providing ARRA stimulus funding guidance through web memos and web resources. Here are some Research and Engagement Area staff recommendations:

Limited Submission Solicitations

 

Some of the stimulus-enabled programs have a limit on the number of applications an institution can submit. When there is widespread interest in one of these programs it triggers the campus's limited submissions process. Limited submissions means a campus committee must conduct an internal proposal selection process to determine which will be chosen for submission to the program.

 

On March 30, the National Institutes of Health announced a new funding opportunity to use up to $100 million of Recovery Act funds to enable academic institutions "to hire, provide appropriate start-up packages, and develop pilot research projects for newly independent investigators, with the goal of augmenting and expanding the institution's community of multidisciplinary researchers focusing on areas of biomedical research relevant to NIH."

 
Information on RFA-OD-09-005 "Recovery Act Limited Competition: Supporting New Faculty Recruitment to Enhance Research Resources through Biomedical Research Core Centers" is available here. Letters of intent are due April 29.