Proposal Submission Deadline: Revised Policy
- Policy statement: Wanda Ellison Crockett, Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor, Office of Sponsored Research
- Policy statement: Erik Lium, PhD, Interim Director, Contracts & Grants Division, Office of Sponsored Research
September 1, 2009
Dear Colleagues:
This memo serves to reinforce Administrative Policy 400-15 of the UCSF Office of Sponsored Research (OSR), and to provide important information regarding a change to this policy which pertains to institutional approval of proposals for extramural support and the submission of those proposals to sponsors/agencies. The enforcement of 400-15 and policy change discussed herein has been endorsed by the Chancellor’s Executive Committee.
First, in accordance with policy, proposals with sponsor/agency deadlines of October 1, 2009 – January 31, 2010, all proposals received after the OSR deadline of 9:00 AM four working days prior to the sponsor/agency deadline will NOT be reviewed and will NOT be transmitted to the agency for consideration. Incomplete proposals will be returned to the Department without review.
Under existing UCSF policy, proposals must be submitted to the applicable division of the Office of Sponsored Research for compliance review by 9:00 AM four working days prior to the agency deadline. Enforcement of this deadline is necessary due to the continued high volume of late submissions, which averaged approximately 42% for FY09. Such delinquency places an extraordinary burden on OSR and departmental staff, increases the risk that proposals will be submitted to the sponsor/agency with inadequate compliance documentation and compromises UCSF’s ability to transmit to funding agencies those proposals that have been submitted on time.
Second, the OSR deadline for proposal submission will increase from four working days to five working days prior to the agency deadline for all proposals with agency deadlines of February 1, 2010 or later. Benchmarked against our peer institutions demonstrates that this new submission deadline is consistent with established standards; Stanford and UC Berkeley require submission of proposals 5 days prior to the sponsor/agency deadline.
Pursuant to UC policy, the OSR conducts a compliance review of the administrative and budget sections of all proposals submitted on behalf of the Regents of the University of California. Electronic proposals submitted through Cayuse, Departments can attach the scientific section post OSR review and approval. Detailed procedures can be found on the website: http://or.ucsf.edu/cg/cg/5377-DSY.html#dsy5377-DSY_cg.
Over the past five years, UCSF’s extramural research support has increased approximately 41%, from $661M to $933M. This remarkable achievement reflects the talent, dedication and hard work of our exceptional cadre of investigators, staff and trainees. While noting this success, we are also cognitive of the magnitude of the state budgetary reductions to UC and the salary/furlough implementation on personnel. Consequently, taking steps (such as the two outlined above) to balance workloads and institutional priorities is particularly important during these extremely challenging economic times.
If you have questions regarding the policy change, please work with the appropriate administrator in your department or school to have them addressed. Along with the Deans, they will be providing additional communications to ensure that your proposal submissions are timely.
Sincerely,
Wanda Ellison Crockett
Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor of Sponsored Research
