Pre-Award

Step-by-step process

Research proposals are prepared in accordance with sponsor guidelines. Therefore, the process differs from one submission to the next. The step-by-step process at EHD is:

1. Opportunity identified (e.g., RFP)
2. Faculty member notifies pre-award contact of intent to submit
3. Faculty and pre-award team develop budget and related proposal documents
4. Subaward documentation gathered by pre-award associate (if applicable)
5. Funding proposal created in Huron
6. Approvals gathering in Huron (e.g. PI certification/ancillary review)
7. Proposal submitted for review and submission to sponsor

Deadline Policy

To ensure that your proposal is provided with a thorough, quality review to identify any problems or omissions that may prevent submission, our School has instituted a deadline policy.

Proposals are due to the School's Office of Research Administration (ORA) five (5) business days prior to the sponsor's deadline for final review and submission. This includes:

• All completed, final administrative and technical components (including budget, justification, letters, and sub-award documents)
• The Huron funding proposal, including approvals (PI certification, ancillary reviews, department/school approvals)
• The sponsor's solicitation
• The sponsor's published indirect cost policy (if our approved rates are not being used)
• Any additional related documents

The School's pre-award contact has delegated signatory authority for the School of Education ad Human Development (EHD). Proposals are submitted through EHD and do not need to be sent to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) for submission.

Principal investigators (PIs) are strongly encouraged to give their local (department or unit) research administrators (RA) at least two (2) business days prior to the five (5) business day deadline (seven (7) business days prior to the sponsor deadline) to complete all final application components and upload into Huron and other sponsor systems if necessary, and send for internal review and obtain approvals, including any necessary ancillary reviews.

During certain proposal-intensive periods when there are multiple applications due on the same day, such as the annual summer IES deadline, we suggest a slightly more detailed internal timeline:

To assist the research team in planning the submission process for more complex proposals and proposals that invoice a significant number of personnel and subawardees, the following timeline is recommended:

Deadline Policy FAQs

Why do we have an internal deadline policy?

• EHD aims to provide a quality, thorough review to identify any problems or omissions and give the team enough time to make corrections.
• Local research administrators (RAs) are working on multiple proposals at any given time. Deadlines are every week!
• There may be external factors that we need to account for: technical issues and downtimes, faculty/staff time off, holidays, etc.

What happens if our proposal is submitted late for internal review?

• It is important to strive to submit proposals to the sponsor by the deadline.
• However, the review will be limited. Any errors must be corrected prior to submission. Errors can prevent the submission and/or acceptance of the proposal for sponsor review.

What can be done proactively?

• Keep current on conflict of interest (COI) requirements.
• Obtain sponsor login credentials (NIH, eRA Commons, NSF ID).
• Meet with your local RA early, and communicate often! They are not the experts on your research and they will have questions that only you can answer.
• Put RAs in touch with your collaborators and their research administrators, both internally and externally.
• Decide early on subawards and consultants - and for subs, allow time (≥ 5 business days, minimum) for their institution to prepare/submit documents.
• If the sponsor caps F&A less than 25%, or you want to seek a waiver, discuss it with your local RA ASAP.
• If you think your proposal will be submitted late for internal review, reach out to us ASAP.
• Some sponsors (Spencer, Wallace Foundation) are moving to a 2-step authentication process - let us know if your sponsor is doing that.

EHD practice on collaborative proposals

EHD recognizes the unique value of multi-disciplinary, collaborative research in driving impactful social change. As part of this commitment, our researchers are frequently asked to participate on proposals being submitted through other schools at UVA. In these instances, EHD adheres to UVA’s internal F&A sharing procedure. This includes the expectation that, at the time of submission, the Huron funding proposal must include a separate internal budget including all appropriate direct and indirect costs for the EHD portion of the proposed research. If awarded, we expect a sub-grant to be set up in the relevant EHD cost center(s).

When pursuing a collaborative proposal with EHD, the lead school’s pre-award contact should reach out the appropriate EHD pre-award research administrator (RA) based on the EHD investigator’s primary cost center. This individual will provide assistance in preparing EHD’s proposed budget and any additional information necessary to support the submission.

Please note, the following ancillary reviews must be completed at the time of submission for all collaborative proposals. If there are any questions, please reach out to the assistant director of research administration-pre-award (contact information at the bottom of this webpage). Ancillary reviewers include:

1. The EHD faculty member
2. Their department chair or center director
3. Senior associate dean for research and faculty development (for the dean)
4. Assistant director of research administration-pre-award

Additionally, ORA requests that the appropriate unit's pre-award and post-award research administrators be given view-only access to the funding proposal. 

Budgeting Effort Against Institutional Base Salary (IBS)

So that salary costs are captured as accurately as possible, Year 1 effort on all proposal budgets must be calculated using the researcher’s estimated institutional base salary at the time of the proposed start date of the project. The institutional base salary at the time of proposal submission is used as the basis for this calculation. However, the estimated salary basis takes into account estimated annual merit increases (4% for both faculty and staff) and any additional anticipated salary adjustments, such as promotion and tenure. At the time of award, effort will be charged against the institutional base salary in effect.

Please also note, EHD further requires that annual salary escalation is included in all proposal budgets except where explicitly prohibited by the sponsor in writing or in the case of sponsor-based salary caps.