Submission Process
All institutional proposals are submitted to the sponsor by the Office of Grants and Research on behalf of the Board of Regents of the Universities of Wisconsin. All submissions must be administratively reviewed and approved before submission. We will assist principal investigators with this process. Please provide your complete and final proposal to OGR at least five business days prior to the sponsor deadline to allow enough time to review your proposal, solve any issues and complete the approvals process. Consulting with OGR early as you develop your budget and project plan can help the approvals process go smoothly.
1 Notify Your Department Chair & OGR
Notify your department chair and the Office of Grants and Research (OGR) about your intent to submit. Make sure your Department Chair supports your proposal idea and the potential time commitment or other resources that will be dedicated to the project. Inform the Office of Grants and Research about your intent to submit so that they can appropriately prepare for your submission.
2 Review the Funding Solicitation
Carefully review the sponsor’s guidelines. Decide as to whether you have enough time to develop a successful proposal AND complete the internal approval process. Look for cost-sharing or matching requirements, indirect cost restrictions, course release needs, subaward plans or other requirements that will require additional campus or collaborator meetings or requests.
3 Review the Submission Checklist
Review the UWGB Proposal Submission Checklist to find a list of all forms and directions required for internal review of your submission prior to submission to the external sponsor.
4 Develop Your Proposal
If you're a principal investigators (PI), please contact us early and keep in touch throughout the process. We'll contact principal investigators (PIs) approximately three weeks prior to the external agency’s proposal submission deadline. During the proposal, we support the PI development process to prepare the OGR for internal approval and for final submission to the agency. Please keep in mind:
- Proposal Details
- PI name and any other collaborators
- Funding agency
- Funding opportunity
- Agency submission deadline
- Internal review and approval routing deadline
- Agency submission procedure (online portal, email, other)
- Agency required components for submission
- Responsible person submitting to the agency
- PI/Co-PI required training status (RCR, COI, etc)
- Required compliance (IRB, IACUC, IBC, Export Control, etc)
- Proposal Budget & Budget Narrative:
- Overview of project
- Project-specific needs (e.g., space, server storage, contracts, etc)
- Any UWGB match (cash or in-kind) and required approvals/documentation
- External match (cash or in-kind) and required approvals/documentation
- Sub-recipient budgets and necessary documentation
- Indirect cost restrictions
- Agency-specific budgeting requirements
- Consider these budget items:
- salary and wages
- fringe
- indirect costs
- effort
- travel costs
- capital equipment
- other project-specific expenses
Proposal Submission Checklist
Below is a checklist of likely documents or information you will need for your proposal submission. This isn't a complete list, but it will help you through the internal grant submission process. We will work with you throughout the process and will review the documents and other information prior to final proposal submission to the external funding agency.
- Proposal narrative (including any required attachments or letters of support)
- Budget
- Budget justification
- Link to the Request for Proposal (RFP) or funding opportunity
- Any correspondence, confirmation, or documentation received regarding "institutional implications" such as course releases, equipment, extra space needs, matching funds, etc.
- Subrecipient documentation: subrecipient budget, budget narrative, letter of commitment
The letter should include the project name, start and end dates, the scope of work or objectives/activities to be undertaken by the subrecipient, the total budget requested and should be signed by the subrecipient organization’s authorized signatory. Additional information may be necessary based on funding agency requirements. - Any additional documentation required by the RFP or solicitation for the grant.
Examples include:- Approved copy of IRB protocol for original submissions.
If pending, include a statement that it is pending and indicate when you submitted the protocol. - Approved copy of IACUC protocol for original submissions.
If pending, include a statement that it is pending and indicate when you submitted the protocol. - Letters of support
- Approved copy of IRB protocol for original submissions.
All grant proposals must be reviewed, routed and approved internally prior to being submitted. For proposal routing, the Universities of Wisconsin uses the Research Administration Management Portal (RAMP). Working with principal investigators, the Office of Grants and Research will initiate the routing process through RAMP, which will include all information regarding the proposal, including compliance, intellectual property, conflict of interest, and outside activity commitments.

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