Oakland University
Office of Research Administration
Requirements for Proposal Submission

TIMING OF PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS

Permit time for institutional approval of proposal submission.  Typically, a 2-3 day period before deadline is sufficient to route and receive electronic approval of the department and college before submittal to the Office of Research Administration.  Five days is recommended to ensure adequate time during high volume periods.

Electronic Portal Submissions (Grants.gov et al)

Electronic submissions through Grants.gov and other portal systems should allow two additional days for validation.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DOCUMENTS REQUIRED

eProposal Routing Application (ePRA) Webform
Principal Investigator, dean and chair signatures that indicate institutional approval of proposed activity, as well as any approving commitment of personnel, equipment, space and regulatory compliance assurance.  Application questions on anticipated review for laboratory safety, research involving animals or humans, and export compliance must be completed.  Upload all required documents and any additional material that you anticipate submitting to the sponsor.

Statement of Work – Summary of activity proposed to be funded by external sponsoring organization.

Budget – Estimated cost that includes the period of performance and detail of resources that will be used.

Proposal Submission Requirements for Federal Sponsors:

Check the application instructions thoroughly and work with a grant officer for federal proposal submissions.  Grant officers are assigned by sponsoring agency and are familiar with the requirements of a particular sponsor.  For grants.gov submissions the SF-424 application instruction link may be accessed [here].  Each funding announcement will also contain additional instruction unique to the program needs.  It is important to read the funding announcement and to contact the OU grant officer or the sponsored program official named in the funding announcement for questions.  Upload all required documents to the SF-424 grants.gov portal and route the ePRA and additional material by upload on this webform.  Do not upload extraneous material to the SF-424 grants.gov portal. 

Proposal Submission Requirements for Industry Sponsors:

Industry proposals typically result in a contractual agreement between the industry sponsor and Oakland University.  An ePRA should be initiated by the principal investigator and routed for institutional approval of the proposal.  The contract agreement, if received directly by the principal investigator, should be sent to the GCSR Director in the Office of Research Administration wrench@oakland.edu or the director’s contact information should be provided to the industry sponsor.  The industry contact person for contract negotiation is usually a procurement official at the sponsor, not the technical contact; be sure to provide procurement contact information if it is available.  

Contracts are reviewed by the Office of Legal Affairs and other areas potentially affected by the contract terms and conditions, prior to acceptance by Oakland University.  You will receive an email notification of the contract status through Smartsheet® when information is updated. Typical processing time to allow for review of contracts is from five days to two weeks from presentation of the contract and any materials incorporated by reference.  Contracts that contain unusual conditions such as restrictions on publication, hiring restrictions or stipulations, intellectual property rights granted to other than the university, requirements to indemnify, special insurance provisions and other types of terms, may take longer to negotiate as Oakland is unable to accept some provisions as a state-funded higher education institution. 

Proposal Submission Requirements for Foundations, Associations, Other Non-Profit Organizations:

Foundation, association and non-profit sponsors usually have a very short list of items required for a proposal submission.  Oakland University requires only these items and the ePRA for institutional approval of the proposal.  If you have an agreement which has a restriction on the use of funds, reporting of use of funds or the research requires approval of any compliance committee, the proposal should be managed by the Office of Research Administration.  Any governmental source funding is also managed by the Office of Research Administration.  University Relations manages gift funds, which are funds without restriction of how the funding is used and where compliance committee approval is not required for the research.