How to Prepare and Submit Proposals

Internal Sponsored Coordination Form
Lead Time Requirements
Format
Budget
Subcontracts to Tufts
Special Reviews
Useful Web Resources for Grant Writing

Internal Sponsored Coordination Form
When a proposal is submitted for any sponsored activity, a PI must complete an Internal Sponsored Coordination Form. This form authorizes the proposal submission with the signatures of the project's Principal Investigator (PI) or Project Director (PD), co-investigators, the department chair or director, and the appropriate dean. The form has several purposes:

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Proposals must be submitted to the Office of the Vice Provost five business days prior to the submission deadline.

Click here for a complete step by step list for proposal submission through the Office of the Vice Provost. This page includes useful shortcuts.

Lead Time Requirements:
The time necessary for review of a proposal varies with its size and complexity. To assure the smooth processing of your proposal follow these guidelines:

Although the Internal Sponsored Coordination Form must be signed in a specific order, the process will be smoother if the PI sends the Research Administration a copy of the filled-out form and a draft of the proposal and/or budget before meeting with them.

Remember, none of the signatories can guarantee last-minute review.

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Format
Many of the major funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, have specific forms and submission requirements.

The Office of the Vice Provost has provided many of the NIH forms with information appropriate to Tufts already filled in here. NSF proposals must be submitted via FastLane. If you have not used FastLane before, please read the Quick FastLane Tutorial.

When applying to other funding sources, visit their website to find out what forms or guidelines they have for applicants. If the funding agency does not provide forms or other guidelines, the proposal should include such items as:

1. Cover/title/endorsement page including the title of the proposed research program, name(s) and title(s) of principal investigator(s), proposed period of performance, proposed sponsor, the date, any required endorsements, and the dollar amount

2. Introduction/Abstract, a brief description of the objective of the contemplated research or other activity

3. Table of contents with page references

4. Detailed program description complete with research or project plan explaining the objectives, and a description of the procedures to be followed in carrying out the objectives

5. Description of current facilities and equipment and the percentage of time these facilities or items will be available to the proposed program

6. List of personnel

7. Curricula vitae of key research personnel

8. List of publications of principal investigator(s)

9. Budget with justifications and supporting documents, where appropriate

10. Other support of principal investigator(s)

11. Letters of collaboration

12. Certifications and representations which may be required by the sponsor. (These are signed by the Associate Director of Research Administration.)

Remember, even direct electronic submissions to granting agencies must be processed through the Office of the Vice Provost.

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Budget
The budget consists of direct and indirect costs. If you have not sought sponsored funding before, you can request a sample budget and advice from the Office of the Vice Provost. Budgets should reflect the actual costs of the project. Funding agencies, particularly NIH and NSF, generally understand the costs of research. Overestimates or underestimates do not reflect well on the entire application.

Direct Costs
These are costs that can be identified and charged to a specific sponsored project. These costs include salaries, employee benefits, supplies and materials, equipment, etc. Department managers or the Office of the Vice Provost can be very helpful in providing accurate figures for salaries and benefits. For animal care and other core facilities, contact the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine or the core facility director to obtain current rates for services. Sales representatives can also be helpful in determining supply budgets.

Personnel Costs

• Faculty Academic Year Salary: Contact your Department Chair to determine the percentage of faculty time that can be spent on Tufts-related sponsored research without arranging release time.
• Faculty Summer Salary Supplement: Tufts allows a maximum of three months or (33%) of academic year salary. Most agencies allow three months as well. Exception: NSF 2 ninths of academic year salary. Note: NSF does allow principal investigators to work on non-NSF supported grants for the third summer month.
• Research Faculty/Staff are hired on a 12 month calendar year basis and are thus entitled to request full year salary from the agency, although many at Tufts charge portions of their salary to various grants that they are working on.
• Graduate Student Stipends: For current rates consult your Department Chair or Manager. Stipend level should not exceed the TA stipend in your department.
• For summer work:
  • Take the nine month TA stipend for your department for the academic year prior to the summer in question.
  • For two months full-time research assistance: multiply above figure by 2/9.
  • For three months full-time research assistance: multiply above figure by 3/9.

B. Fringe Benefits: Fringe benefits should be calculated for all Tufts participants on the project. Different rates apply for academic year and summer effort. Current rates can be found by clicking here.

C. Other Direct Costs include:

• Equipment: Permanent equipment is any article of nonexpendable tangible property having a useful life of more than two years and an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more per unit.
• Travel: Includes transportation, per diem, and meeting registration costs.
• Materials, Supplies and Consumables
• Publication and Documentation Dissemination
• Animal Care Per Diem Expenses (Contact IACUC Administrator)
• Consultants: Tufts faculty and staff cannot be reimbursed for consulting within the Tufts community. Consultants are paid a consulting fee plus travel expenses. Refer to the agency's program literature to determine the allowability of and rates for consultants.
• Computer Services

D. Subcontracts

Indirect Costs (F & A Costs)
Facilities and Administration (F&A) Costs are costs incurred that cannot be readily identified with a particular sponsored project. Typical indirect costs include library services, plant operation and maintenance, depreciation, and administration. In general, these costs are fixed as percentages of direct costs, but they vary depending on the campus and the type of project. These rates can also be found here.

Subcontracts on Tufts' Proposals
When another university is proposed as a subcontractor to Tufts University, subcontractor's proposal to Tufts should contain the following:

• Letter of intent from subcontractor's PI to Tufts' PI. The letter can contain the statement of work, or reference the work in the proposal, and be counter-signed by the subcontracting university’s authorizing official.
• Statement of work (if not included in the letter or the proposal
• Sponsor’s Application Face Page (if applicable) signed by the subcontractor’s authorizing official
• Budget: detailed budget in sponsor's budget format
  • NSF: subcontractor will enter budget data in Fastlane, after receiving authorization from Tufts
  • Grants.Gov: Tufts will e-mail the subcontractor module from the Grants.gov package
• Budget justification
• Bio sketch(s) for all named key personnel – in sponsor's format
• Resources page in sponsor's format. This is not required, but useful if subcontractor has special equipment or similar resources required by project

The Subcontracting institution should send Tufts the proposal at least 5 business days in advance of the proposal deadline and should be encouraged to send a budget spreadsheet as early as possible. The proposal is best sent by e-mail as a scanned PDF attachment.