Develop Proposals

The Office of Research & Engagement (R&E) provides a number of resources to assist faculty and staff in developing proposals for sponsored projects: 

  • R&E offers proposal preparation services for faculty, departments, academics units, and administrative offices that do not have their own staff assistance. These services are also available when local support services experience occasional high volume of proposal support needs.
  • Proposal Response Teams (PRT) - a free suite of services that spans multiple offices to help provide comprehensive support for complex, large scale, and other proposals of high priority to the campus and academic units.
  • Numerous trainings and workshops for faculty and staff.
  • Office of Research Development (ORD) offers a number of resources to assist investigators in finding extramural funding for research and scholarly activities. Please consult “Find Funding” for more detailed information.
  • ORD also offers individual grantsmanship consulting including 1:1 support for narrative development and development of Broader Impacts statements. 
  • Office of Pre-Award Services (OPAS) is the university's Authorized Signatory for all proposal submissions. OPAS supports proposals prior to notification of award by providing resources and support for proposal development, review and submission services, and submission of responses to post-submission sponsor requests, such as Just-In-Time or revised budget requests. 
  • The UMass Innovation Institute (UMII) is available to facilitate academic-industry partnerships, projects, and funding non-federal industry-related projects. 
  • Research IT offers expertise to answer questions.

Additional Guidance:

  • Foundation Relations is available as well to help identify non-federal foundation based funding and may assist with proposal development, including writing and budgeting.
  • Departments and Schools and Colleges have additional resources. Be sure to check with your department or college before starting to develop a proposal. 
  • Work with available pre-award support (department, college, or R&E) as needed to build the proposal in Kuali
  • Consult with the Proposal Preparation Guide for detailed information on important topics like Budget DevelopmentBudget Justifications, and Cost-sharing to name a few.
  • Finalize and then route the completed proposal via Kuali to associated Co-PI(s) Chair(s), Dean(s), and related auxiliary signatories as applicable for approval.

The completed proposal must be logged in at OPAS with 5 days lead time to the sponsor deadline; see Five Day Proposal Submission Procedure for details.

See “Review and Submission” for details on the complete submission process.

See further information on Roles and Responsibilities in the proposal process.