Grant Submission

CNS Research Support Services (RSS)

The CNS Research Support Services (RSS) provides a centralized service for all faculty in the college to receive comprehensive grant proposal development and submission assistance.  Although some limited pre-award responsibilities remain within departments, the majority of grant proposal submissions from CNS faculty are processed with the guidance and expertise of a four-person team of highly skilled college-level grants administrators.

The RSS team is dedicated to helping CNS faculty prepare and compile proposal applications for external research funding. RSS staff provide support and guidance to applicants on all types of grant proposals with all types of sponsors including federal and state agencies, institutes and foundations, industry and private funding sources. RSS grant coordinators have expertise with interpreting funding announcements, calculating budgets in the Kuali Research Admin System and populating sponsor portals for completion of an accurate and compliant proposal package. RSS staff will coordinate with administrators in colleges across the UMass campus or at other Universities when facilitating a multi-disciplinary or multi-PI proposal in order to coordinate official subcontracts or faculty collaborations. RSS routes the proposal for PI approval in Kuali and serves as the point of contact and to assist with any items that need to be addressed during OPAS (UMass office of pre-award services) review. Once evaluated for compliance OPAS officially submits the proposal as AOR on behalf of the faculty to the external funding agency.

Submission Steps

  1. Determine if someone in your department provides pre-award administrative support for research proposal submissions.  
  2. If there is limited department proposal assistance, contact the CNS Research Support Services (RSS) office by completing the Grant Submission Assistance request form.
  3. As soon as you know your targeted agency deadline, meet with your pre-award grants administrator even if you have not begun writing.  Early notice will help a grants administrator to work with you more effectively to create a plan that will ensure that the proposal will be completed on time.
  4. Submit RSS requests at least 30 days prior to the sponsor deadline.