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Attaching Files
Attaching Files in Kuali for Grants.gov and other Submissions
Overview: Kuali can transmit files directly to Grants.gov as a System-to-System (S2S) submission. However, there are some key steps to take to be sure that files transmit correctly and without generating errors. Tips on attaching files for other submissions are presented as well. See also Kuali Zendesk Proposal Attachments.
Attaching Files in Kuali – S2S Submissions
- Navigate to the Attachments section.
- Load all PDF attachments (NOT fillable PDF forms) to the Proposal and Personnel tabs (and occasionally the Abstract tab) when submitting S2S/Grants.gov based proposals (best practice is not to use the Proposal or Personnel tabs for non-Grants.gov proposals).
- A couple of exceptions—the Human Study Record attachment and the R&R Subaward Budget attachments—will be explained below.
- To avoid Grants.gov errors, print files to PDF before uploading to be sure that they are "flat," keep file names less than 50 characters, and avoid using spaces or special characters in the file name.
- Go to the Proposal tab to upload non-personnel related documents.
- Select the +Add button or Drag and Drop to upload multiple attachments. Let go of the mouse (drop) when +copy appears – do not drop when → move shows. Hover over the blue tab Upload and Add.
- Make sure to select an Attachment Type to associate with your file. It is critical to select the correct Attachment Type. The Attachment types are very specific and map to the appropriate section of the sponsor proposal. If the document gets linked to the wrong attachment type, it will not be positioned in the correct location within the final synthesized proposal. This could create grounds for a proposal to be rejected by the sponsor.
- Select Status and choose either Final or Draft. Shortcut: Instead of picking from the Status drop down for each document, click the Select option at the right of the screen, select Final for example, and then select Set All Statuses. Then go back and reselect the Status options for the individual documents that should for example be in Draft form. The Science/Technical documents can be routed in draft form, with the final documents to be loaded and updated and status set to Final within 48 hours of the proposal deadline.
- Some sponsors include a requirement to use a form called an Attachments Form. Documents that must map to this form are still loaded through the Proposal tab. Select the Attachment Type of Other and be sure to type a unique filename in the Description field. The text entered in the Description field will map as the filename into the Grants.gov proposal. Be sure to observe sponsor driven filename conventions. Any additional text in the Description field will be counted as part of the filename. More details.
- Once done loading to the Proposal folder, select the Personnel tab to upload Biosketches and other personnel documents required by the sponsor. Remember, only load mandatory attachment types.
Forms and User Attached Forms (Fillable PDF Forms)
Most forms are ported into Kuali from Grants.gov when you link to an opportunity. If some forms are not available in Kuali, you may need to load the form as a User Attached form before you will be able to connect to the opportunity. There are a couple of other places where fillable forms may be uploaded. However, do not upload any fillable forms in the Kuali Attachment section. This will cause a Grants.gov error on submission, even if Kuali does not generate a validation error prior to submission.
The two other places where you may need to upload a fillable form are both used predominately for NIH submissions: the Human Subject Study Attachment and the R&R Subaward Budget.
NIH Human Subject Study Record
When developing a System-to-System NIH proposal with human subjects, PIs are often required to complete a Human Subjects Study Record. To include the study record, navigate to the Compliance tab in Kuali, then click Add compliance entry. Choose Human Subjects from the Type dropdown and Pending from the Approval Status dropdown. At the bottom, you will see Human Study Attachment with a Choose File button. This is where the Study Record is uploaded.
Download the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information Form from Grants.gov. Open this form in Adobe, and click Click here to extract the Human Subject Study Record Attachment (you may need to answer the ‘Are Human Subjects Involved?’ and ‘Is the Project Exempt from Federal Regulations?’ questions ‘Yes’ and ‘No,’ respectively, before you are able to extract the Study Record).
For the Kuali S2S function to work properly, fillable PDF forms must be in the Forms section in the S2S Opportunity section, either as a Kuali provided form or as a User Attached form. As an exception, the Human Study Record form must be attached in the Compliance section under the Human Subject Pending entry. R&R Subaward budget form likewise gets attached via the Budget module under Subaward.
Save the extracted Study Record, open it in Adobe, and complete it, answering all the required questions and attaching all of the required attachments. If you are unsure which questions and attachments are required in your specific situation, please see the Study Record section of the Application Guide.
Save the completed Study Record, and upload it to the Human Subjects Pending entry you created in the Compliance tab. You do not need to upload the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form from which the Study Record is extracted – that form will be generated automatically by Kuali based on your answers to the Questionnaire and entry in the Compliance tab.
Subaward Budgets in System-to-System Proposals
When developing a proposal with subawards, Kuali makes it easy to include the subaward budget by simply uploading the subrecipient’s completed RR Budget. Just open the Kuali budget, and click Subawards on the left side of the screen. On the Subawards screen, you will see an Add Subaward button on the right, click it. Be sure to also add the subrecipient organization in the Other Organizations tab and check Yes, this proposal includes subawards on the Sponsor & Program Information screen (see the Subaward guide for additional information).
Search for the subrecipient organization by clicking the magnifying glass to the right of Organization ID. Once you have found your subrecipient, click Choose File next to File Name, and upload the RR Budget that the subrecipient provided, then click Add Subaward.
Be sure that you provide the subrecipient organization with the correct Grants.gov RR Budget form, downloaded from Kuali. It must be in PDF form – scanned documents will not work. Also, be sure to check that they have properly filled out the form. Check that the UEI is correct, that Subaward/Consortium is checked to the right of Budget Type, and that the budget period start and end dates are consistent with the UMass budget. Even if the subaward is for one year and the project is five years, the subaward budget must have the same number of periods and the same period start and end dates as the UMass budget.
Once you have successfully uploaded the subaward budget(s), the subaward amounts will automatically be added to the UMass budget.
Attaching Files in Kuali – Non-S2S Submissions
For proposals that are submitted to the sponsor via a sponsor’s portal (such as NSF’s Research.gov or ProposalCentral), most of the files attached to a proposal will go in the Attachment section in Kuali, under the Internal Tab. You can use the Description field to let OPAS know which files go to the sponsor. For an email submission, it’s also okay to use the Proposal tab to show which files need to go to the sponsor. Warnings about the filenames can be ignored in this case.