Submitting a Proposal

This section highlights what has to happen for proposals to be submitted at GW, who has responsibility for various approvals, and what is being approved when reviews of proposals and signatures are provided.

GW's Routing Process
An overview of the steps in this process and the internal approval forms that must accompany proposals as they are reviewed and approved for submission for external funding.

Obtaining Approvals for Research
All proposals for external funding must be reviewed and approved by the authorized institutional officials before they can be submitted to sponsors. Institutional review considers, among other issues: personnel commitments; salary arrangements; requirements for equipment, special facilities, and space; verification of costs (including fringe benefits); appropriateness of the budget to the work proposed and allowability of costs; availability and approval of matching costs or cost sharing proposed; and consistency with institutional and sponsor policies.

Program Plan/Preparing for Award
There are restrictions on pre-award spending imposed by the the sponsor and the University. Because it is important that all charges to a sponsored program be properly allocated to that program, it is important to get advance approval before spending any money against an anticipated award, i.e. through an administrative establishment. A formal review and approval process is required to obtain such approval for pre-award spending to proceed.

Sponsor Contact and Negotiation
The OCRO is responsible for negotiating grants, contracts and cooperative agreements on behalf of GW. Within the OCRO, the responsibility for negotiating these awards is assigned to the Contracts Managers. These Contracts Managers work closely with the PIs and the RSCs, as well as experts in the Office of Health Research Compliance and Technology Transfer, Risk Management, the General Counsel’s Office and others involved in the proposal to verify that the University’s interests are considered and protected. 

Electronic Proposal Submission
More and more agencies are changing over to electronic submission for their proposal competitions. The federal government's "one-stop" for all things grant-related, Grants.gov, has been designated by the Office of Management and Budget as the single access point for all grant programs offered by 26 Federal grant-making agencies. Currently the National Institutes of Health are going through major transitions toward electronic proposal submissions for their major grant programs. Read more about the news with NIH's electronic submission process.

NIH eSubmissions
Grants.gov Update