CANR Grants Development Office

CANR Grant Proposal Development Instructions & Checklist

This proposal checklist was developed for use by CANR faculty and staff. 

Proposal materials should be emailed to canrgrants@uconn.edu or faxed to 860-486-1332.  Electronic files are preferred whenever possible.  Scan/email is preferred over fax.  Paper copies should not be submitted unless specifically required by the sponsor.

1. As soon as you decide to apply to a particular funding opportunity, submit the following items to the CANR grants office to begin the proposal development process:

• Internal Proposal Review Form aka ‘Routing Sheet’. Complete page one and email entire form to grants office.  Signatures are not needed at this time, but the form must be signed by the PI, any UConn Co-PIs, and their respective department heads before the proposal is submitted to OSP.

• Request for Proposals (RFP) or Request for Applications (RFA) and Guidelines if separate or links to same.

• Either a budget prepared on a CANR or OSP Budget Spreadsheet or list of budget requirements so GDO can draft a budget for you.
• Budget Justification provide a detailed explanation for all items listed in the budget in the order of the items on the UConn budget template

2. If the application will be submitted through Grants.gov, the GDO will download the application package from Grants.gov for you, pre-complete the standard information within the package, and then email you the file for completion.

3. Subawards – When individuals from different institutions will be working together on one project, one institution will be subordinate to the other and will be referred to as a ‘subawardee’ or ‘subrecipient’.

When UConn is Primary Institution (will submit proposal to sponsor)
Please inform the GDO as soon as you know that there will be one or more subawards included in your proposal. Subawardees are required to provide the following items to the GDO at the latest 6 business days in advance of the sponsor’s due date:

• Subrecipient Checklist and Consortium Statement completed and signed by both the subawardee PI and their Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR)
• Statement of Work (may be included as part of  a Letter of Support from the subawardee PI)
• Budget (if grants.gov, budget must be sent to us on the R&R Subaward Budget Attachment(s) Form extracted from the application package)
• Budget Justification
• Biographical Sketches from subawardee PI/co-PIs and senior/key personnel
• Current and Pending Support forms from subawardee PI/co-PIs and senior/key personnel unless not required by sponsor (as is the case with NIH)
• Conflict of Interest forms from subawardee PI/co-PIs and senior/key personnel if USDA

When UConn is Secondary Institution (another institution will submit proposal to sponsor)
When you will be a subawardee on someone else’s proposal as the deadline date for submission of your proposal to OSP will be 10 (TEN) business days in advance of the sponsor’s due date.  In addition to any items required of you by the primary PI (most likely all of the items listed above), you will need to provide the following:

• Consortium Statement (aka ‘Letter of Intent’) – The Consortium Statement needs to be completed and signed by both the UConn PI and our AOR (Antje Harnisch). This form should be submitted to the GDO along with the balance of the final proposal.

4. To complete the CANR proposal process, the following items are to be provided to the GDO no later than 5 (FIVE) business days in advance of the sponsor’s due date when UConn is primary institution:

• Final Proposal including all elements required by sponsor
  • If Grants.gov:  Completed application package with all attachments converted to PDFs, named properly, and uploaded into it (with the exception of the project narrative, instructions for which follow below
  • If NSF/Fastlane:  Completed application within the Fastlane system with all attachments uploaded into it.
  • Other systems or sponsors:  Electronic version of fully completed proposal
• UConn Forms and Requirements
  • Internal Proposal Review Form – completed and signed through department head level.
  • Significant Financial Interest Review Form – Completed and signed by all UConn PIs, Co-PIs, Collaborators, and other senior/key personnel
  • Subrecipient Checklist or Consortium Statement if you either have, or are, a subawardee and all other subaward requirements given above
• Project Narrative – Draft copy of your project narrative describing objectives, methodology and significance of the proposed projects

The only files that should still be in draft stage at the time of submission for review to OSP are the Project Narrative [or Research Strategy in the case of NIH] and the accompanying Bibliography. Final versions of these files are due to the CANR Grants Office no later than 8:00 a.m. on the sponsor’s due date. The GDO will convert the file(s) to PDF, check that they converted properly, upload them into the final application package, and deliver your final application package to OSP for on-time submission.

Proposal Cover Sheet – The Cover Sheet is ONLY provided as something for the AOR to sign when the sponsor does not have its own Cover Page.  This sheet is NOT required when the proposal will be submitted electronically by OSP through Grants.gov, Fastlane, or other web portal.