Proposal development

Developing your research proposal requires you to think about many moving parts including scope of work, budget, budget justification, roles and responsibility, sponsor required documentation, and other required materials. The goal of the proposal development stage is to create a high quality, appropriately costed, compliant and compliant material with the highest chance of being funded by a sponsor for the research work.

It is primarily the principal investigator (PI)’s responsibility, however, the proposal also requires the chair/director, Office of Sponsored Research, and dean’s office. This shared responsibility ensures eligibility, accuracy and policy adherence.

Overview

It is imperative that the PI review the funding opportunity guidance. Part of what makes a proposal receive funding is ensuring the following details, no matter how small, are included:

Administrative details: font type, letter spacing, complete headers, table of content, activity codes, and all other required formatting.
Budget guidelines: unallowable costs, limitations on F&A costs, required activities or other required costs to the project, required travel costs and all other budget instructions
Technical information: type of labs required, sponsor goals, criteria for research and other required technical details
Personnel details: required criteria for PIs, or co-Pis, limitations to student workers, grad students or fellowships, specific years required of personnel,
Application type: limited submission requirements, CAREER proposal requirements, competing applications, and other sponsor related application requirements
Indirect Costs/Facility and Administrative details: Sponsor limitations or other guidance on indirect costs, UW required rates, subaward F&A costs, international research, on or off campus costs and other F&A requirements detailed on a proposal
Federal awards: special security requirements, contracting forms, timeline of proposal and other UW specific regulations required to conduct

Proposal support services

You are not alone in completing a proposal and managing the in depth criteria required to submit to your intended sponsor. With a hands-on approach, the Office of Sponsored Research can support you through this process, so you can focus your time and energy on moving your research forward. If you would like support for your proposal development, check the Sponsored Research Office Hours calendar to find a time to drop-in.

The Office of Sponsored Research provides Principal Investigators (PIs) resources and direct support in the pre-award proposal submission for grants, budget set up, and compliance while supporting the work that investigators are doing during their award through monthly check-ins, direct support on navigating UW Bothell’s financial systems, and monthly expenditure reporting to determine correct spending, authorized expenditures and provide an overview for PIs. Our office supports the post-award process as well.

Pre-Award: Proposal Submission support, funding opportunities, budget partnership: works with Pi’s to develop a budget that matches the proposal goals, and sponsor requirements, policy management.
Active-Award: Fiscal management: kick-off meeting to support the launch of all new awards, expenditure approval and management, compliance management, facilities and resources management, all award changes including budget extensions, early termination and relinquishment, general reporting.
Post-Award: Award closeout including reporting, when a funded project period ends or when all data have been collected and analyzed. It includes all programmatic and administrative activities related to completing the project.

Subaward development

Typically a subaward proposal will include scope of work, letter of intent, budget, budget justification, compliance considerations, and other required materials. The subaward would be included in a larger proposal with a sponsor, however, occasionally, the need for a subrecipient’s collaboration develops after an award has been made to the UW. Under those circumstances, most sponsor policies require sponsor approval for the subaward before it is issued.

It is the responsibility of the PI to identify and determine the need for a subaward, obtain proposal documentation, work with sponsored research on an appropriate budget, create the proposal and other required materials. OSP will then execute the subaward.

Guiding policies

Keep in mind that your proposal must meet the following regulations:

Federal and state regulations
UW policies (and deadlines)
Sponsor policies
Sponsor deadlines and deliverable requirements
Program guidelines (found in the proposal)

*Note: See our Policy page for more information on sponsored program deadlines, PI required eligibility and other UW research policies as it pertains to the proposal development.

UW systems used to complete a proposal

EGC1: Summarizes your proposal and is Required for all sponsored programs. This routes electronically for review and approval before being sent to the sponsor. PIs are required to complete their financial disclosures within the eGC1 platform.
Sage Budget: Your proposed budget with direct, indirect costs and subaward budgets are required to be completed in this electronic platform. This system auto populates payroll data, calculates inflation rates and total costs automatically.
Workday: Manages award spending, payroll expenses, procurement or travel expenses, inventory management, manage cost share and approves subaward expenditures (by PI only)
Faculty Resources – Sharepoint: The Office of Sponsored Research has developed a private SharePoint site with access to information relevant to the proposal development. For your research proposal, you may be required to share information about UW Bothell and your specific department. OSR has developed language for you to simply copy and paste to use in your proposal. Be sure to login with your UW Email to access the Research SharePoint site here.

Proposal writing resources

Read through a variety of articles developed to support PIs in developing a written proposal: