Washington University has a pre-award office to advise and assist researchers with proposal preparation. The Office of Sponsored Research Services (OSRS) provides communication, education, and assistance related to proposal development for the WashU research community. The information below contains information relevant to preparing and submitting proposals including institutional data, grant writing resources, and submission information. For information specific to Principal Investigators, please visit the Proposal Preparation for Faculty page.
Proposal Timeline
Getting Started: Identify Key Information
Research Management System
Pre-Award Compliance Requirements
Resources
The process to submit a proposal can take six months or longer, and requires the involvement of the PI, department administrators, and central offices.
Proposal Timeline
Getting Started: Identify Key Information
Research Management System
Pre-Award Compliance Requirements
Resources
The first step in identifying what information is needed for the proposal is to download the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) from the sponsor.
Confirm PI EligibilityDue Date
After identifying your proposal’s deadline, plan to submit the proposal in consideration of the RMS Deadline Date Timeline.
Subaward
Submission Method
Login early to verify all forms and requirements.
F&A Rate Flow Chart
Use the Facilities & Administrative Rate Flow Chart to assist in determining the F&A rate for your project.
Fringe Rate
Budget Considerations
The Uniform Guidance imposed a variety federal requirements detailed in these Budget Considerations.
*Every proposal with a budget requirement (including pre-proposals) must go through RMS and the approval process. Because RMS calculates salary and fringe rates, do this early in the process.
**Once the budget meets the PI’s approval, admin routes to the central Office of Sponsored Research Services (OSRS) for Partial Review. OSRS may approve or request changes. Admin makes requested changes, in consultation with PI (if necessary). Once approved, admin generates Proposal Certification forms (PC forms) and sends to PI for signature, followed by the department chair.
RMS User Guide
This guide provides extensive details and step-by-step instructions on how to use RMS.
This comprehensive list of What to Submit to OSRS includes details of what should be submitted via RMS for S2S NIH grants, S2S non-NIH grants (e.g. DoD, DoE), and non-S2S grants (e.g. CDI, BJHF).
The minimum requirements for what you should submit in RMS to begin the routing process includes:
Required information to finalize RMS routing and approvals:
For proposals with subawards:
These two items are required from proposed subrecipients (outgoing subawards). If WashU is the subrecipient (incoming subawards), OSRS will sign the letter of intent.
A letter of support can come from a partner organization, major donor, another foundation, congressional representative, business or other key stakeholders. It provides a compelling and persuasive reason why a funder should support your grant application or proposal.
While letters of collaboration are permitted, unless required by a specific program solicitation, letters of support should not be submitted as they are not a standard component of an NSF proposal. NSF provides a recommended format for letters of collaboration.
The NSF-approved formats include the NSF Fillable PDF or SciENcv
