Points To Consider When Preparing and Submitting Investigator-Initiated Research Grant Applications

Points for the Principal Investigator to consider
Points for the Departmental Chair to consider
Points that the Grants Management Office considers

Points for the Principal Investigator to Consider

Do I accept responsibility for all aspects of preparing the application, including conceptualizing, writing, budgeting, justifying, typing and copying?

Have I arranged for others in my laboratory or my department to perform tasks that I cannot perform myself such as typing?

Have I discussed the application with my chair, particularly the amount of time the project will require if funded, both for me and other participants in the department?

If other departments are involved, have I or my collaborators discussed the application with the chairs of all participating departments?

Have I asked colleagues at Meharry or elsewhere to review the application before it is submitted and provided them with the sponsor’s instructions?

Am I able and willing to plan a project whose full direct and indirect costs can be covered by the maximum amount that the sponsor allows?

Have I distributed a timetable that allows all the players—collaborators, typists, pre-reviewers, my chair, the Grants Management Office--enough time to do their parts well?

Have I notified the Grants Management Office of my intent to submit the application and provided them with the sponsor’s instructions?

Have I arranged my schedule so that I will be at Meharry during the five working days leading up to and including the day the application must be submitted?

If I have a collaborator at another school, do I understand the documentation her school requires to approve her participation, and the amount of time she needs to secure this approval?

If I am collaborating in an application to be submitted by a colleague at another school, do I understand the documentation that Meharry requires to approve my participation, and the deadline by which my colleague needs Meharry’s approval?

Do I have all the software I need to submit the grant electronically?

Do I understand my responsibility during electronic submission (e.g., PI is expected to divide continuous research narrative into sections required by grants.gov application and convert these files to PDF).

Do I accept responsibility for meeting the college’s requirements to secure approval for use of human or animal subjects, for biosafety, or for other regulatory and safety requirements?

Points for the Departmental Chair to Consider

Have I ensured that departmental staff are familiar with departmental and college procedures for processing grant applications?

Has the application been reviewed by the PI’s colleagues at Meharry or elsewhere?

Are the commitments of time and effort proposed in the application, reasonable to complete the work proposed?

If the grant is awarded, can I release the PI and other departmental participants from their present responsibilities for the effort proposed in the application?

Does the budget cover all the costs that the department will incur? For example, does the percent of salary requested by the PI match the percent effort she proposes to devote to the project?

Are the salaries requested accurate?

Can the department commit the space and other resources described in the application? For example, does the project require renovations? An additional laboratory for the PI? Office or bench space for new laboratory personnel? New equipment that is not covered in the grant budget?

Does the project fit into the department’s general plans for development?

Points that the Grants Management Office Considers

Does the application conform with the sponsor’s instructions, including such items as eligibility, organization, page limits, typeface and size, budgeting, regulatory concerns?

Have the chairs of participating departments approved the proposal?

Does the budget cover all of the college’s costs, both direct and F & A?

Is the budget correctly computed?

Does the budget justification correspond with the budget?

Are the persons listed in the personnel section employed by Meharry?

Are the proposed salaries accurate?

If funds are to be subawarded to another institution, has the other institution approved its proposed role in the project?