Pre-Award

Pre-Award Support: Getting Your Grant Ready

This section covers the essential steps and considerations before your grant is officially awarded.

What are Grants?

Grants at UMBC refer to external sponsored awards for research, instruction, or public service. These funds come from outside sources (federal, state, private) under a legal agreement and require specific adherence to regulations and guidelines.

Key Players in Pre-Award

  • Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP)
    The institutional office authorized to submit proposals on behalf of UMBC. OSP handles proposal submissions, negotiation and acceptance of sponsored agreements, and provides guidance on sponsor guidelines.
  • Provost Office Shared Services Center (POSSC)
    We provide dedicated administrative and financial support to faculty and staff from various departments under the Provost’s purview for proposal development, budget preparation, and liaison with OSP.
  • Principal Investigator (PI)
    The faculty or staff member leading the proposed project

Pre-Award Process Highlights and Process Flow

  1. Funding Opportunity Identification: Identify potential funding sources. The POSSC and OSP can assist with sponsor research.
  2. Consultation & Planning: Initiate discussions with the Provost Office Shared Services Center (POSSC) as early as possible. They will help discuss your vision, establish timelines, and outline required documents.
  3. Proposal Development
    • Budget Preparation
      Work with the POSSC (initiated via email and/or RT ticket) to draft a detailed budget and justification, ensuring it aligns with sponsor requirements and UMBC policies.
    • Required Documents
      Gather all necessary documents, including the Request for Proposal (RFP), pre-award questionnaire, project summary/Statement of Work (SOW), and any institutional forms.
    • Subawards
      If your project involves a subawardee, coordinate with the POSSC to receive and review all required documents from the subrecipient. UMBC has specific policies and forms for subawards. A key distinction:

      • Subrecipient: Performs substantive programmatic work, shares responsibility for programmatic decision-making, and often collaborates in proposal development.
      • Vendor/Consultant: Provides routine goods or services within its normal business operations, with specified deliverables and often paid on a fixed-price basis.
  4. Internal Routing (Kuali)
    All proposals must be routed through UMBC’s electronic research administration tool, Kuali, for internal approvals from departments, centers, and OSP. Sufficient lead time is crucial for this process. Every submission requires at least 3 business days, so we will work towards ample time for the submission to be reviewed by OSP.
  5. Compliance
    Ensure all proposal documents comply with the Uniform Guidance, and is in line with institutional, funding agency, and federal regulations. This includes completing Financial Conflict of Interest (COI) forms and PI eligibility procedures.
  6. Submission
    OSP is the authorized office for final proposal submission to the sponsor.


Allowable Costs (Pre-Award Considerations)

When developing your budget, ensure all proposed costs meet the following four tests of allowability under Uniform Guidance (RACC):

  1. Reasonable: The cost is what a prudent person would incur under the circumstances and is necessary for the project.
  2. Allocable: The cost directly benefits the sponsored agreement.
  3. Consistent Treatment: Costs incurred for the same purpose in like circumstances are treated consistently as either direct or indirect costs across all activities.
  4. Conforms to Limitations: The cost adheres to any limitations or exclusions set forth in Uniform Guidance or the sponsored agreement.

No-Indirect Cost Waivers (Facilities & Administrative Costs – F&A)

Indirect Costs are also synonymous to the term ‘F&A’  at UMBC. We generally require the application of the full federally negotiated F&A cost rate on all sponsored project proposals. However, waivers may be considered under limited conditions.

  1. Sponsor Policy Limitation – if the sponsoring agency (federal, state, or private) has a published written policy that limits or excludes F&A costs, a waiver is not required; simply upload the policy to Kuali.
  2. New and/or Established Investigator in New Field – for proposals designed to initiate a new investigator or an established investigator in a new research area, a reduction or elimination of F&A may be considered to preserve direct cost expenditures. These are typically limited in duration and scope, aiming to foster future funding with full F&A recovery.
    • Process: An F&A Cost Waiver Request DocuSign form is available on the OSP website. It’s recommended to start the Kuali proposal but not route it for signatures until the waiver is reviewed and approved by OSP and ORCA. The finalized waiver must then be attached to the Kuali proposal. https://research.umbc.edu/forms-for-grants-contracts/

Navigating Gray Areas (Pre-Award)

  • Preliminary Proposals/White Papers: Our office can assist with determining if pre-award involvement (routing through OSP) is needed based on whether the sponsor requires a budget and/or a signature. Refer to OSP’s Pre-proposal Policy.
  • Data Use Agreements (DUAs): DUAs must be routed through OSP as an Unfunded Agreement, like a traditional funding proposal, including a specific DUA questionnaire in Kuali.
  • Cost Sharing: If cost sharing (matching) is required or voluntarily committed in the proposal, it becomes a binding obligation. All proposed mandatory and voluntary committed cost sharing must be recorded, tracked, and reported. Allowable cost-sharing generally adheres to the same allowability principles as direct costs.

For further assistance and detailed information, please refer to the following UMBC resources:

Office of Contract and Grant Accounting (OCGA): https://cga.umbc.edu/ (Financial post-award, allowable/unallowable costs, policies)