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Proposal Basics

Proposal Development

The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance (SPARC) supports your efforts to find, develop and submit proposals for external funding.

Develop a Proposal

Once you have found your source of potential funding and you have decided that you will submit a proposal, please contact our office as soon as possible. Our ability to support your proposal development efforts depends on the amount of notice we have prior to the proposal deadline.

Almost all proposals require more than just the application and narrative.

The Proposal Development Toolbox and FAQs contain dozens of helpful resources to support your proposal preparation efforts. If you are looking for something that you don’t see listed on our website, please contact us so that we can better assist you.

Proposal Content Development

  • Proposal development assistance and review
  • Formatting, editing, and style
  • Project management assistance to confirm all parts of a proposal are ready
  • Gathering letters of support
  • Assistance with revisions for resubmission

Proposal Advice

  • Start early!
  • Discuss your preliminary ideas and specific aims with colleagues.
  • Evaluate the potential sponsor (e.g. whether your idea is a good fit). See what they have funded in the past and even ask to see successfully funded proposals.
  • Thoroughly review sponsor guidelines and follow them to the tee, including evaluation criteria (SPARC can help with this).
  • Engage collaborators early and ensure their eligibility. Collaborators may have their own university requirements to wade through.
  • Contact the sponsor to gauge their interest and to get feedback.
  • Meet with the SPARC Proposal Development Team to discuss timeline/proposal checklist/budgetary needs.
  • Don’t overlook the budget.
  • Have colleagues and even graduate students read your draft proposal to ensure clarity and lessen the likelihood of grammatical errors.
  • Volunteer to serve on a review panel for a sponsor. NSF, NIH and many others are constantly seeking reviewers. This is a great way to get an inside look at what separates a winning proposal from the rest.

Submit a Proposal

The Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance office is here to help you submit your proposal in a timely fashion. Our office has experienced tremendous growth over the last several years and continues to see a rise in the number of proposals sent to external funders.

For that reason, our office must prioritize proposals to ensure timely submission.

Although every effort has always been and will continue to be made to ensure compliant proposal submission regardless of when you provide final packages to the staff, we ask that you provide at minimum a draft budget, budget justification and the sponsor's guidelines as soon as you have them in your possession.

Notify SPARC of your upcoming submittal by contacting the proposal development team from the right-hand sidebar. We ask that you comply with the following suggested timeline for proposal submission.

  • Two weeks prior to the sponsor due date, please notify the proposal development manager of your intent to submit a proposal and provide details.
  • One week prior to the sponsor due date, please have your proposal routing in OSPREY, the university's proposal and award tracking database.
  • Three days prior to the sponsor due date, please finalize your proposal and be available to correct errors reported back from the sponsor.

With these suggestions in mind, we also want you to be aware of the following:

  • Proposals sent to SPARC on the due date must be complete, ready for submission and approved in OSPREY. SPARC cannot guarantee staff will be available for in-depth review of proposals or help with completion of proposals on submission due date.
  • SPARC will not submit your proposal prior to routing in OSPREY, and depending on the number of people who need to see the proposal at various levels and their schedules, it can take as long as one week to receive all approvals. Please leave yourself ample time to route your proposal in OSPREY.
  • OSPREY is only for internal proposal routing and approval. Only UNCW faculty and staff should be listed as CoPIs. Having final approval in OSPREY does not mean that your proposal has been submitted to the sponsor. It is only one step in a multi-step process.

Federal agency servers routinely experience problems during peak demand times that occur when hundreds of institutions are submitting proposals at the same time. Federal sponsors have little to no tolerance for errors on last-minute proposal submissions.

Grants.gov and Research.gov are the two most common electronic submission portals. Neither is perfect and both experience problems regularly. For this reason, we encourage you to plan your submission several days prior to the deadline.

Key Terms & Definitions

Allocable costs are clearly associated with the respective project. For example, chemicals purchased for use on a specific project should only benefit that project. Re-stocking general chemical supplies used for a variety of purposes would benefit many projects and may not be easily allocated to individual projects.
Allowable expenses are permitted by institutional and sponsor regulations and are consistent with UNCW charging practices.
Annualized salary is a person’s salary over 12 months and is different than someone's 9 or 10 month appointment.
A financial proposal that reflects the work proposed.
Categories of budget line items, such as personnel salary, other personnel salary, fringe benefits, travel, equipment, materials/supplies, indirect costs, participant support costs, consultants, subrecipients, etc.
A written description of the estimated project costs, including explanation and justification for the individual costs that make up each larger budget category.
Individual items included in the budget, such as lead PI salary, hourly student payment and effort, etc.
Senior/key personnel not listed in the official Co-PI or PI role. This role is not scientifically diminutive; it just denotes a lesser administrative or management role for the project.
Paid or unpaid personnel that are integral to the project and are listed as senior personnel. Senior personnel in this role may have committed effort or may simply offer as needed advice, such as the NIH “other significant contributor” role. If a non-paid collaborator will have committed effort and is employed outside of UNCW, it is important to get a letter from their institution approving the collaboration. This allows the collaborator’s institution to record committed effort and approve use of facilities for the project.
Consistent treatment of costs is a basic cost accounting principle and is specifically required by Uniform Guidance to assure that the same types of costs are not charged to federally sponsored agreements both as direct costs and as facilities and administrative (F&A) or indirect costs. These cost elements cannot, under routine circumstances, be both. So, consistency in this context means that costs incurred for the same purpose, in like circumstances, must be treated uniformly as either direct costs or as F&A costs.
An individual that provides consultation and/or advice to a project but is not responsible for completing the scope of work. UNCW employees should not be listed as consultants on proposals submitted from UNCW.
An investigator with equal administrative authority with the PI. It is important to note that sponsoring agencies have very distinct definitions of PI’s.
Cost sharing occurs when a sponsor doesn't’t pay the full cost of a sponsored project, and the applicant institution (UNCW) therefore bears some of the costs. Cost sharing may voluntary or mandatory. In addition, it can be in-kind, such as a valued donation of goods, or cash for project purchases. The allowability of types and amounts of cost sharing varies by sponsor and program.
Direct costs are expenses that are clearly associated with and necessary to complete a sponsored project or program.
The amount of time, either as a percentage of overall effort or in person-months, that an individual will work on a sponsored project.
See "Indirect Costs"
An association of federal agencies, academic research institutions with administrative, faculty and technical representation and research policy organizations working to streamline the administration of federally sponsored research.
Funds that originate from a federal sponsor but are paid to the university through another entity, such as the State of North Carolina or another academic institution.
Financial interests that may pose a conflict of interest with a sponsored program or project. Researchers are required to disclose financial interests in the electronic COI system in accordance with federal and state regulations and university policies and procedures.
UNCW does not have a “composite” rate, which is where one averaged rate is used for different classification of personnel – i.e., students and/or faculty. Instead, UNCW uses a fringe benefit calculator to determine the proper fringe rate for the specific personnel. The fringe benefit rate is comprised of social security, retirement benefits, worker’s compensation and unemployment, and healthcare insurance.
Solicitation for proposals or applications. Also known as a Request for Proposals, or Request for Applications
Indirect costs are associated with the general operation of UNCW and cannot be readily assigned to individual projects. These costs include facilities & maintenance, general and departmental administration, clerical and administrative salaries and fringe benefits, general office supplies, general purpose equipment, routine postage, building maintenance and utilities and library expenses.
Amount of direct costs to which the F&A rate should be applied.
An indirect cost rate is a device for determining what proportion of indirect costs each program should bear using sound administrative principles. The indirect cost rate is designed to provide a method for full cost recovery, and it is an equitable, logical, and consistent process for allocating costs not directly associated with a single grant/contract, project or cost objective. The University has federally negotiated rates based on these principals; however, rates may vary based on sponsor policy and program guidelines.
IACUC is an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee mandated by the Animal Welfare Act and the Health Research Extension Act. Research involving animal subjects must obtain IACUC authorization.
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) Administration Unit in RIO is committed to following the federal regulations to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects involved in research conducted under the auspices of UNCW. Research involving human subjects must obtain IRB Administration authorization.
See "Senior Personnel"
Indirect cost base where indirect costs are charged to salaries and wages, fringe benefits, materials, supplies, services, travel and subgrants and subcontracts up to the first $25,000 of each subgrant or subcontract (regardless of the period covered by the subgrant or subcontract). Modified total direct costs shall exclude equipment, capital expenditures, charges for patient care, student tuition remission, rental costs of off-site facilities, scholarships and fellowships, as well as the portion of each subgrant and subcontract in excess of $25,000.
The negotiated indirect cost agreement. See “indirect cost rate.”
Direct costs for items such as stipends or subsistence allowances, travel allowances, and registration fees paid to or on behalf of participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with meetings, conferences, symposia or training projects. UNCW employees cannot be participants on a sponsored project.
The Principal Investigator has primary responsibility for achieving the technical success of the project, while also complying with the financial and administrative policies and regulations associated with the award.
Reasonable costs would generally be accepted as necessary per a “prudent” person’s review.
Solicitation for proposals or applications. Also known as a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) or Request for Proposals (RFP).
Solicitation for proposals or applications. Also known as a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) or Request for Applications (RFA).
Program providing graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, staff, and NSF funded undergraduate students with information, training, and tools to address the increasingly complex issues that they will confront during their careers.
Narrative description of the work to be conducted.
“Non-replaceable” expertise on the project. These are usually all of the faculty level investigators, but may also include others at the discretion of the PI.
An agreement with a third-party organization performing a portion of the project or program scope of work.
Indirect cost basis where indirect costs are applied to all project costs.
Indirect cost basis where indirect costs are applied to all direct costs.
An Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circular that provides federal regulations regarding administrative requirements, cost principals and audit requirements for federal awards.
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