ECE Guidelines for a Successful Proposal Submission

  1.  PI identifies an opportunity (FOA, PA, RFP) and informs ECE Preaward regarding the intention to submit by filling out the ECE Proposal Intake Form. Initial notification to ECE Pre-Award regarding a proposal submission will now be via the Proposal Intake Form.  No other form of communication (including Email or PINS routing) will be considered notification. If you have already drafted your budget, feel free to upload to the ECE Proposal Intake Form.
  2. PI completes the ECE Proposal Intake Form at minimum 13 business days in advance of the proposal due date.
    1. Why 13 days? (5 days ECE, 8 days COE=13 business days) ECE needs 5 business days to allow sufficient time to review the RFP, provide a draft budget to be finalized by the PI, complete required forms, provide guidance and due dates to subawards and to avoid potential errors or delays that could prevent timely submission to COE. COE requests 8 business days to identify and prepare for heavy submission deadlines. It allows time for the college research office to respond to PI or department complex or unique questions, allows time for the college to respond appropriately to the sponsor’s potentially problematic terms and conditions, as well as, review the provided information, and offer feedback (or “preliminary review”), and it allows time for the PI and department to make necessary revisions and for the college to engage other offices when necessary.

The goal is to reduce this as much as possible by automating our process. This process will help streamline the exchange of information during proposal development so the proposal can be routed to in a COE timely manner. *The amount of service/review by ECE Pre-Award is dependent on when the PI completes the Proposal Intake form, the complexity of the proposal, and the sponsor’s due date.

  1. The ECE Director will assign a Research Administrator to facilitate the proposal, and the administrator will make initial contact with the PI and create the PINS record. 
  2.  If your proposal involves multiple departments or external organizations as subcontractors, the Research Administrator will need to send them an email as soon as possible to make sure we get all their documents in time for COE’s approval. Please email your Research Administrator the subcontractors’ administrative contact name, email, and phone # so your RA can contact them and explain what documents will be needed for the proposal submission. After the intake form is submitted, you have 5 business days to work with us. 
  3. If ECE will be a subaward to someone else, we’ll need details from the lead organization, such as their internal due date for receiving ECE’s documents, project start/end dates, NCSU as a sub-budget amount, etc.
  4. The assigned Research Administrator will contact the PI to discuss budgetary requirements and provide you with a draft budget and follow-up email.
  5.  Once the budget is finalized, an email will be sent to you requesting you initiate the PINS record so ECE can approve the PINS record for COE review. *NOTE: Failure to submit necessary subcontract, cost-sharing documents, and/or non-scientific documents by the specified deadlines could change the priority to rush.
  6.  After the PINS record has been routed, the PI can begin uploading their docs to the sponsors’ portal.
  7. COE requests the final proposal be released >4+ business days before 12pm before the sponsor deadline. Once approval is received from COE, they request permission from the PI to release the full proposal in the portal as the AOR. If no portal is used, the PI will be notified that they are authorized to submit the proposal.
  8. Rush** If the final proposal is released with permission to submit after 12 pm 4 business days, then it’s considered a rush, even if PINs was initiated under normal circumstances per COE guidelines.