Development

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Proposal Development

The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance (SPARC) supports your efforts to find, develop and submit proposals for external funding. Please contact SPARC's proposal development team to discuss your idea and planned submission as early as possible (ideally 1 to 3 months prior to the sponsor deadline) to ensure our full level of offered service.

Are you a NEW PI to research or a FUNDED RESEARCHER?  Are you looking for funding? Register for a SPARC Distribution Lists to receive the latest information critical to funded UNCW projects.

Register now for the NEW monthly Budget Support Sessions every fourth Thursday of the month at 11:30 a.m.

Menu of Services

Our menu of services exemplifies a tiered services model offered by the pre-award team dependent on the lead-time offered to our office regarding your proposal deadline. The services offered are consistent with all of the services we have offered in the past, but we delineate based on how many days prior to the deadline our office has to review the documents. We understand last-minute proposals happen, but we want to ensure the submitted proposals are of the highest quality and doing so requires our staff have adequate time to review.''

How does it work? The number of days notice you give our office tolls on the day your OSPREY application is routed for approval. If you need help with OSPREY (budget input, document attachment assistance, etc.), we are always happy to help, assuming there are three days or more before your proposal deadline with the external sponsor. Reminder - if there are three days or less between when you finalize and route your OSPREY proposal and the sponsor deadline, our pre-award team will not be able to assist you with portal review, input of information outside of the administrative portions (i.e., SF424), or document attachment in any external portal (grants.gov, ASSIST, research.gov, etc.). With three days or less, these portals are the sole responsibility of the PI.

Guidelines and Reminders

  • SPARC is the only entity on campus with the authority to submit funding requests and accept awards for external funding of any kind on behalf of the university (grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, etc.).
  • All proposals will be routed in OSPREY for approval from department chairs, deans, and higher administration. For more how-to information, visit our submit a proposal page.
  • LOI's requiring an institutional signature (ink or electronic) or that have a budget figure included, even if rough/general, must be routed through OSPREY for approval prior to submitting externally to the sponsor. OSPREY has a specific LOI template (different from the grant proposal template) that you will select when putting in your LOI proposal. Please reach out to your assigned sponsored programs officer for assistance.
  • For all contracts, grants, and any other document requiring an "authorized organization official" signature, please email aor@uncw.edu and we will have one of our AOR's sign and the document returned to you.

Find Funding

UNCW has a contract with InfoED SPIN, a worldwide database of funding opportunities. Contact us with questions about InfoED SPIN, or for help in finding funding generally, by emailing proposals@uncw.edu.

Mentorship and Team Support

SPARC provides workshops to help faculty find funding, learn about the proposal development process, as well as post-award management of grants. SPARC also can connect you with successful PIs for mentoring, collaboration and/or proposal review. Please email proposals@uncw.edu for more information.

OSPREY 

OSPREY is open for proposal submission. Please click here for more information on OSPREY. Contact us at least five (5) business days before the deadline and your assigned sponsored programs officer will help input your project into OSPREY with 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

Budget Development

SPARC helps you identify budget items needed and how to calculate them. SPARC ensures your budget complies with federal, state and university regulations. Please email your assigned SPO and they can assist you as long as there are at least five (5) business days before your proposal deadline.