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A sponsor is the funding entity. They are the creator of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) you will apply to and��they provide the money for your project.��They can be industry, government, State institutions, other universities��and nonprofits.

A PI is a Principal Investigator. They are primarily responsible for project management and reporting. Only certain staff are eligible to be a PI;��see the PI Eligibility policy for requirements.

A Co-PI is a Collaborative Principal Investigator. They are also responsible for the management of a project, but collaborate with the PI to make decisions.

Pre-proposals (Step-1) are sometimes required by a sponsor to help them decide which projects they would like to fund and/or for a sponsor to get an idea of how many full proposals to expect. A pre-proposal (Step-1) may be required when a sponsor wants the option to “invite” a PI to submit a full proposal.

Note: Sometimes a pre-proposal (Step-1) will not require a detailed budget nor an official signature. If neither of these are required, you can submit without OCG's involvement. As soon as a budget is required, please involve your Proposal Analyst who will provide details on next steps.

Proposal guidelines and award terms and conditions are not always clear as to when OCG needs to be involved in a proposal or award. The best course of action is to��contact your Proposal Analyst about all proposals, and they can assist in making this determination.

OCG allows and encourages PIs to submit on their own without OCG’s involvement when��all of the following conditions apply:

• Funding will be awarded directly to the PI or student and does not need to be routed through OCG. This is typically based on award terms and conditions
• A budget is not required for the proposal
• An authorized organization representative (AOR) or other institutional representative signature is not required on the proposal
• There are no human subjects, use of animals, biohazards or other compliance related areas involved in the project
• The PI can submit their proposal on their own per the proposal guidelines

If any of the above do not apply to your proposal, a Proposal Analyst needs to assist with a proposal submission. While providing budgeting and proposal preparation expertise, Proposal Analysts can also help prevent budgeting errors and other issues that delay awards.

A collaborative proposal is one in which investigators from two or more organizations wish to collaborate on a unified research project.

Collaborative proposals may be submitted in one of two methods: as a single proposal, in which a single award is being requested with subagreements administered by the lead organization; or by simultaneous submission of proposals from different organizations, with each organization requesting a separate award. In either case, the lead organization’s proposal must contain all of the requisite sections as a single package to be provided to reviewers.

All collaborative proposals must clearly describe the roles to be played by the other organizations, specify the managerial arrangements, and explain the advantages of the multi-organizational effort within the Project Description.

Internal competitions within the University’s system happen when a sponsor desires a limited number of submissions from one entity. University of Colorado Boulder has a process that we follow in these instances. More information is available about��Limited Campus Competitions on the Research and Innovation Office website.

When GRAs appear on your proposal budget, please refer to the GRA Salary table in our��Frequently Needed Information and the��Bursar's Office Tuition & Fees Rate Sheet��page for budgeting purposes. The salaries that are listed on the GRA Salary sheet are for a 20-hour work week, which is considered full-time for a student during the academic year. If the student is working full-time during the summer, the time referenced from the sheet needs to be multiplied by two. Tuition and fees remission will appear as line items under Other Direct Costs.

GRA salary rates and compensation are negotiated between departments and the Graduate School and must follow the��Graduate Student Appointment Manual. Any deviations from graduate student appointment policies must be approved by the Graduate School.

For Graduate Research Assistants working on NIH research grants, there is additional policy guidance:��NIH Limits on Graduate Student Compensation.

Tuition and fees costs are not included in the Indirect Costs calculation.

Cost share essentially means “donating” a quantified amount of money, employee effort, or tangible goods towards the direct costs of a sponsored research project. These contributions are made by ��������Ƶ��Boulder, the PI, or by other third parties, but all are a form of cost share.

If cost share is an element of your budget, there are differences in the budget template used. Additionally, required cost share will be entered into a form that your Proposal Analyst will complete and return to you for the Chair’s and other contributing parties’ signatures.

For detailed information about cost share at the proposal stage, see the Proposals and Cost Share �貹����.��

Additional information about cost share can also be found on the Campus Controller's Office webpage.

When a sponsor limits the amount of Indirect Costs (IDC) we are allowed to charge to a project there is a slightly different process for budgeting.��The IDC section of the budget will be adjusted to reflect the amount the sponsor allows, even if it is zero.

Once the budget is finalized, an��IDC Addendum will be filled out by your��Proposal Analyst and sent to�� the Department Chair and the College Associate Dean of Research (ADR) for signature. This form is sent back to the Proposal Analyst to indicate that the Chair and ADR understand that less money in the form of Indirect Costs or no Indirect Costs will be returned to the Department if the proposal is funded.

If you need assistance with identifying base salary budget estimates for to-be-named positions in your proposal budget, the compensation team in Human Resources can help identify market salary rates for various types of work in all fields, including Professional Research Assistants and Research Associates. Send whatever information you have on the proposed position title(s), duties, and the date you need the information back in an email to��resfachr@colorado.edu.��A compensation consultant will follow up with you.

A subagreement is work on a project that is being completed by another institution or business and that is an intellectually significant portion of the overall project effort. Subrecipients appear as a line item on the PI’s proposal budget. This means that funding will be distributed to the subrecipient from the University.

In order for us to work with a subrecipient, they need to fill out a Signed��Subrecipient Commitment Form �ǰ���Subrecipient Statement of Collaborative Intent (for use with FDP Universities) and at minimum must provide a statement of work, budget, and budget justification. All subrecipient forms and information must be received and reviewed by your��Proposal Analyst prior to submission of a proposal.

Work that is completed to assist in research activities, but does not dictate outcomes for the project is considered Consulting. Work that is completed by another party that has a direct impact on and is responsible for the outcome of a project is performed via a Subagreement.

Note: If a subrecipient fails to perform as agreed on a project, the PI is responsible for making sure that work continues or contacts OCG immediately for any renegotiation to be attempted with the sponsor.

Further clarifying information can be found on these forms:

• Subrecipient or Vendor Determination table
• Subagreement/Vendor/Consultant Decision Tree

Modular budgets are usually required when submitting to NIH for any budget with direct costs less than or equal to $250,000 per year. Modular budgets will be mentioned in the funding opportunity announcement. The format differs from the detailed budget as it only includes direct and indirect costs.

Including travel in a budget requires the inclusion of several details such as number of persons traveling, number of times traveling to the destination per year, destination, number of nights, airfare, ground transportation, conference registration, and ��for the travel location.

Sometimes the budget already provided to the sponsor will need to be�� corrected or revised. In these cases, it’s best to contact your��Proposal Analyst and explain the need for the change. If the proposal has already been awarded, contact your Grant or Contract Officer for the revision.

Several federal agencies use Grants.gov to receive proposals from Principal Investigators (PIs). NIH uses ASSIST for proposal development and submission, but applications are routed through Grants.gov.

For all Grants.gov submissions, the application package is downloaded by your Proposal Analyst. They fill in as much information as possible.

NIH Applications - All PIs must have a Commons ID. If you do not have a Commons ID, please email Lyn Milliken,��lyn.milliken@colorado.edu, in OCG to have one set up.

Once the proposal documents are ready, the PI emails them to��grantgov@colorado.edu and to the Proposal Analyst. Your Proposal Analyst will upload the documents and budget into the Grants.gov package within ASSIST. The��OCG Forms page�� has proposal checklists to assist with proposal preparation.

When everything is ready, your��Proposal Analyst will review the proposal for anything that might prevent submission or review and then submit the package through Grants.gov and follow up if any errors occur.

For NSF, we use the Research.gov system for proposal submission. If you do not have a Research.gov login, please email Lyn Milliken in OCG,��lyn.milliken@colorado.edu, to have a login set up.

Your��Proposal Analyst will start a proposal in Research.gov and complete the Cover Sheet and budget forms once the budget is finalized. When the proposal documents are ready, you are responsible for uploading the required documents to Research.gov�� (except for the budget) and reviewing the proposal for completeness. Our��OCG Forms page has proposal checklists to assist with proposal preparation.

Your Proposal Analyst will review the proposal for anything that might prevent submission or review.

When everything is ready, you will need to Allow SRO Access so that your Proposal Analyst can submit your proposal.

For NASA, we use the NSPIRES system for proposal submission. Lyn Milliken,��lyn.milliken@colorado.edu, in OCG handles all NSPIRES registrations.

Our��OCG Forms page has proposal checklists to assist with proposal preparation.