Sponsored Projects Administration Proposal Review, Approval and Submission Deadlines

UCR has long had a policy that indicates the proposals are due to the Sponsored Research Administration three business days before the sponsor's deadline, and seven days before the deadline for complex proposals.

• Standard Proposal Lead Time – three (3) full business days prior to the Sponsor Due Date.
• Non-standard Proposal Lead Time – a minimum of seven (7) full business days prior to the Sponsor Due Date. Principal Investigators are strongly encouraged to start working with their unit administrator and the Office of Research at least one month prior to the Sponsor Due Date for non-standard proposals. This will ensure that there is sufficient time to review and resolve any issues, secure special approvals, coordinate with the UC Office of the President, etc. prior to the Sponsor Due Date.

However, it is widely ignored and many proposals come in with less than 8 hours to review before submission. In 2017, 13% of the proposals were received on the same day they were due.

Starting Dec 1, we are going to enforce this deadline, but give one extra day for those that need it.

If SPA receives an eCAF and final proposal less than two (2) full business days, the eCAF will be returned and the proposal will not be submitted to the sponsor. 

Two (2) Business Day Example:

The eCAF and Final Proposal (all components in final form and ready for submission) must be received in RED at least two (2) full business days before the sponsor’s submission deadline.   

There are several reasons for enforcing this policy.

1. UCR's faculty and proposal submissions have grown more rapidly than SPA staff, and the number of UCR awards has increased even faster.  UCR staff handle more proposals per person than staff at any UC campus and more than double the average for a UC campus.
2. As a consequence, staff have been prioritizing proposal submission over award set up. Unfortunately, faculty have been waiting far too long to be able to spend the money they have been awarded which slows down hiring students and buying equipment.
3. The context shift of starting to set up an award or read the proposal instructions, putting it down to do a same day review wastes considerable time. Some research, including that of my former colleague at UCI indicates that it takes 20 minutes after an interruption to catch up. (see Worker, Interrupted: The Cost of Task Switching for a discussion of this research.
4. Advance notice will allow teamwork and balancing of staff efforts. This isn't as effective in real time.
5. We have received requests from various departments to enforce the deadline, since not enforcing creates similar problems in departments.

Please note that the intent is not to reduce the number of proposals. It's to allow the staff to plan and be more efficient so the same number of staff can keep up with the proposal volume AND improve award setup. Just make a mental note that the deadline is 2 days earlier.

Additional contacts for our units served: