Bixby Center Pre-Award Guidelines & Resources

The following guidelines will help you prepare a proposal in a timely matter.

I. GENERAL INFORMATION
     A. Purpose of the Pre-Award Unit
II. GLOSSARY OF TERMS
     A. Pre-Award
     B. Principal Investigator Status
     C. Direct and Indirect Costs
     D. Definition of Grant, Contract, and Gift
III. PROCESS
     A. Grant or Contract Proposal
          1. General Guidelines
          2. Pre-Award Process and Timeline
     B. Processing Gift Funds

Pre-Award Resources on Bixby Intranet

Other Resources

Bixby Center Pre-Award Guidelines

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

A. Purpose of the Pre-Award Unit

The Pre-Award Unit is designed to do the following:

Centrally coordinate the preparation and submission of all grant and contract proposals through the UCSF system
Ensure proposals meet UC and funder guidelines
Ensure proposals are developed and submitted in a timely manner
Advise faculty regarding institutional and funder policies in developing their proposals
Provide electronic and paper record keeping of pre-award submissions
Compile and maintain an electronic archive of updated faculty CVs, bios, other support pages and other routine proposal documents
Notify faculty of funding possibilities

II. GLOSSARY OF TERMS

A. Pre-Award

These are the three ways faculty can receive funds to support their research efforts at the University:

Gifts: Gifts funds are processed through the UCSF Development Office.
Grant or Contract from Outside funders: Outside grants or contracts come through the Office of Research Affairs (ORA) either through the Contracts and Grants or Industry Contracts Divisions
University Research funds: Internal grants (either internal to UCSF or from the overall UCSF system). These are processed internally and sometimes processed through the ORA

The processes and requirements to receive each type of funding differs and must be followed to make sure the funds come to the faculty and can be spent in an appropriate manner.

B. Principal Investigator Status

Only certain faculty titles are eligible for PI status. Fellows can be a Principal Investigator on a grant that supports their fellowship research. The titles that enable faculty to be PIs are: Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Instructor, Professor in Residence series, Professor of Clinical X series, Adjunct Professor series, Clinical Professor series, Professional Research series, and Librarian series, with a 50% or more appointment. Faculty or staff who are not PI eligible must submit a PI waiver form, signed by the Chair and Dean, in order to be a PI. This process must be initiated at least 4 weeks prior to submission of the funding proposal through the University
There can only be one PI on a proposal. Other faculty can be Key or Co-Investigators.
The PI must be listed on the budget for the grant proposal. Even if salary support is not being requested, the percent of effort must be listed. The minimum percent effort to be listed is 2.5%
Faculty cannot be more than 100% in effort (paid or unpaid) on extramural funds. Some teaching faculty positions can only be 95% total effort on grants. The remaining 5% must come from non research funds. The total effort includes both PI and non-PI effort.

C. Direct and Indirect Costs

A Budget is made up of direct costs and indirect costs.

Direct costs are funds that directly support the research and are available to spend when funds are awarded
Indirect costs are what the University charges to support the infrastructure of the University – for example, buildings, lighting, heating, janitorial, administrative functions like Accounting or Human Resources. Indirects are generally charged on direct costs (with some exclusions) at either 51.1% for on-campus projects or 26% for off campus projects. The Indirect rate can vary contingent on grant guidelines or established alternative rates a funder has with the University. Funders may also request a reduction or waiver of indirect costs. Such waivers are only granted to private, non-profit funders and obtaining a waiver can be a lengthy process. Contracts & Grants will accept an agency's indirect cost rate if it is official and appears on their website or on their stationery.

D. Definition of grant, contract and gift

Grant: A grant provides funds to support a research or training work. Funds are provided to a faculty member for a specific scope of work, but the faculty member is given some degree of latitude regarding how to best use those funds to support the research or training efforts. A grant usually requires reporting of progress and a financial summary of expenditures on an established basis (quarterly, yearly). Grant funds are provided to the investigator as a lump sum, up-front payment or according to an established payment plan. Financial accounting for a grant is generally more lenient than for contract based funding.
Contract: A contract also provides funds to support research or training and will also have established reporting of progress. Contracts funds are generally for a specific set of “deliverables” related to research or training goals. Contract funds are generally more restrictive than grant funds in terms use. In addition, unlike grant funds, the agreed upon award amount for a contract reflects the maximum amount the funder will pay for the research. How much is actually paid to support the research is generally based on “actual costs” and the University must invoice for payment on a regular basis. There is one exception to the invoicing – occasionally a funder will establish a fixed fee contract with the University. Under a fixed fee contract, the funder pays the University a fixed amount on an agreed upon schedule. This amount is not tied in with actual costs incurred by the University for the research.
Gift: A gift can also provide support for research, training or just general support for a program or faculty member. What distinguishes a gift from a grant or contract is that a gift cannot, under any circumstances, require any financial or progress reporting. Once gift funds are received by the University there is great latitude for how they are spent to support the faculty member.

III. PROCESS

A. Grant or Contract Proposal

Any funds that have restrictions in terms of dates of award, requires a budget or requires financial or written reports must be processed through the Office of Research Affairs either through Contracts and Grants or Industry Contracts.

Industry Contracts handles all grants or contracts from for-profit agencies. Examples are clinical trails or grants from pharmaceuticals to support fellowships.

Contracts and Grants handles all other private or public grants or contracts.

All proposals must be submitted to the Contracts or Grants or Industry Contracts by the pre-award unit. They cannot be submitted directly through the University by the faculty member. Sometimes proposals are submitted to funders for preliminary review. If the funder decides to fund the proposal, it still must go through the official process.

The contents of a contract or grant proposal vary based on the funder, so each proposal needs to be evaluated regarding content. However, these are the minimum parts of a grant/contract proposal:

C&G cover page signed by the PI and the Chair or Dean at SFGH
Cover letter to the funder
Line item budget
Budget justification – briefly describes the budget categories
Proposal or scope of work – can be short but this details out what the funds will be supporting

1. General Guidelines

Pre-Award Unit Responsibilities

The pre-award unit provides the following services.

Advice and direction regarding Departmental, University and funder policies and timeline for submission of a proposal
Budget review and preparation
Provision of draft budget justifications to faculty
Provision of updated faculty CVs, NIH bios and other support
Completion of “front end” documents (C&G cover page, conflict of interest forms, etc…)
Ensuring that the proposal meets departmental, UC and funder guidelines
Review and compilation of complete packet before submission
Copying of packet before submission
Electronic and paper archiving of the completed grant proposal
Transition of the grant proposal to post-award financial and contracts and grants management if funded

Faculty responsibilities

Early communication of intent to submit a proposal – talk to us, email us, let us know your plans – this can’t be stressed enough, and will save you time down the road.
Regular and clear communication throughout proposal process
Provision of the grant guidelines to the Pre-award Unit
List of other faculty and key personnel involved in your proposal (so we can obtain bios, conflict of interest forms, etc…) and confirm that they can be on the grant for the effort requested
Development of budget costs to match your research goals
Completion of the budget justification.
Preparation of the technical portion and appendices in a timely manner. Pagination of these pieces to coincide with the “front end” documents
Signature on C&G form and other forms in a timely manner

2. Pre-Award Process and Timeline

The following is an overview of the steps in preparing a proposal. Please see attached flow chart as well.

Pre-Award Timeline

Early and clear communication regarding the intent to submit a proposal is critical. The minimum amount of time needed to prepare a simple proposal for submission through the Office of Research Affairs or Industry Contracts is three weeks. The pre-award unit needs at least 5 days to prepare the proposal, the Ob/Gyn or SFGH Chair needs 5-10 days for review, the SFGH Dean’s Office needs 3 days for review and the Office of Research requires 4 days for processing. However, more complex proposals (NIH grants, contracts, proposals involving subcontracts with other institutions or letters of support) will need at least 6-8 weeks to prepare and process.

The following chart summarizes a 6-week timeline for submission:

6 weeks or more
Notify Pre-Award Unit of intent to submit a proposal as soon as you are aware of the funding possibility. Complex or large proposals will need significantly longer amount to prepare and process through the University – up to 3 months before submission. Early communication is essential. The Faculty member should being working on and finalizing the technical portion of the proposal.

Clarify Pre-Award unit vs. Investigator responsibilities. Grant guidelines are provided. A list of other faculty or key personnel is provided, with contact information.

5 weeks
Investigator and Pre Award Unit discuss budget. Faculty member provides information for cost categories (staffing needs, line item costs, etc… Investigator works to finalize the technical portion of the proposal.

4 weeks
A draft budget is developed and provided to the investigator along with a sample budget justification format. Over the next two weeks, the investigator and pre-award unit exchange iterations of the budget and justification to finalize.

4 weeks to 2 weeks
Pre Award unit collects various front end documents and prepares forms. Budget and justification are finalized.

2 weeks
Investigator submits final technical proposal to the Pre-Award Unit who combines this with the budget, other forms and reviews the proposal template with the investigator. Proposal is circulated to the Chair’s office or SFGH Chair and Dean’s Office for signature.

1 week
Any changes to the technical proposal or budget or other parts of the proposal is provided to the pre-award unit. Copies are made by the pre award unit and electronic and paper files established.

4 full business days before due date
The Pre-Award Unit delivers submission to Contracts & Grants by 9am, 4 business days before the grant deadline.

B. Processing Gift Funds

Gift funding can be provided by an individual, foundation or company (either non- or for-profit). Gift funds cannot have any restrictions placed on the funding, any reporting requirements or any timeframes for the use of the funds. Although a budget may be provided to the funder to initiate requesting the gift funds, the funds are not related to any specific budget once they are provided. Processing a gift is simple and requires the following:

A check made out to the UC Regents for the amount of the gift
A letter from the funder (we have templates that can be used)
If the funder is a private company, the faculty member must also complete a form that summarizes any other funding they have received from the company (to show that there is no conflict of interest).
No indirect costs are charged but Development takes 4% of the check as a Development tax off the top.

Pre-Award Resources on the Bixby Center Intranet

Each faculty member and fellow will be provided with a login and password to the Division Intranet site. The intranet provides more detailed information as well as many helpful links to resources. The intranet site also provides a reporting tool that summarizes the status of all pre-award submissions.

To access the intranet, go to the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health home page (http://bixbycenter.ucsf.edu/index.html), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and log in to the intranet. After you have logged in, you will see a menu on the left-hand side of the initial page; click on the Proposal Center button.

There are five sections in the Proposal Center site: Funding Resources, Pre-Award Guidelines, Application Documents & Information, Faculty CVs, Biosketches & Informal Bios, and Pending Submissions. Their contents are detailed below.

FUNDING RESOURCES
This section includes listservs, websites, and resources for finding funding agencies, as well as a list of recent funding opportunities posted on the Bixby Center listserv.

PRE-AWARD GUIDELINES
This section provides information to help you prepare a proposal and submit it to Contracts & Grants.

APPLICATION DOCUMENTS & INFORMATION
All supplemental forms (with instructions) needed for proposal submission from NIH, UCSF Contracts & Grants, and Bixby Center can be downloaded from this section.

FACULTY CVS, BIOSKETCHES, AND INFORMAL BIOS
Bixby Center investigator information commonly required as part of submitted proposals. The Pre-award unit updates all materials on a regular basis. All documents in this section can be downloaded.

PENDING SUBMISSIONS
Status reports on Bixby Center proposals in all stages of development are available in this section. At any time after notifying the Pre-Award Unit of your intent to apply for funding, you may check the status of the grant using the Pending Pre-Award Submissions Report.

Other Resources

Another helpful resource for Investigators is on the Office of Research Website. This section, called “New Investigators: A Quick Guide to Starting your Research at UCSF,” has specific information on Committee on Human Research approvals, financial disclosure considerations, the investigator’s responsibilities, and more.