Grant Information and Guidelines

Proposal submissions

According to the university policy titled “Resolution Authorizing Certain University Officers and Employees to Execute Contracts and Other Documents,” faculty members who wish to submit sponsored program proposals and receive sponsored program awards from external entities -- including federal, state and local governments, private industry, public and private foundations or other entities -- must submit their proposals for internal review and approval prior to submissions to the external agency or organization.

The associate dean of the School of Pharmacy or their authorized designee must approve all sponsored program proposals submitted by or involving any faculty member or employee of the School of Pharmacy. All sponsored program proposals must be coordinated through the School of Pharmacy’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies prior to submission to the dean or VCU's Division of Sponsored Programs (DSP).

 

Services provided

The School of Pharmacy’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies will provide the following services to assist with proposal preparation and submission:

  • Provide salary information to PIs who are developing budgets

  • Prepare and review all sponsor-required administrative and budget forms

  • Provide guidance to principal investigators on sponsor requirements

  • Coordinate the request and receipt of subaward proposal documents

  • Serve as a liaison between the SOP and DSP, other schools at VCU, and other universities

  • Review prepared proposal documents for compliance with sponsor guidelines prior to submission to VCU’s DSP

  • Submit proposals to the VCU DSP for review and submission to the sponsors. VCU DSP is the only office authorized to submit sponsored program proposals on behalf of VCU


Faculty responsibilities

Faculty members must advise the grant and contract administrator at least 10-20 business days in advance of the sponsor deadline of their intent to submit a proposal via the school of Pharmacy Proposal Submission Form.

In 48 hours from submitting the form the PI will receive:

  • A link to a personal Google folder with a folder for each form required (shared with Katrina and me)

  • An Excel budget sheet with the correct salaries for personnel included in the form, updated fringe rates and F&A

  • The FP number for the proposal

  • A subaward packet and email to send to the collaborator (we will email them if contact information is included)

  • The deadline date of when the proposal needs to be routed to DSP

 

**Junior faculty may request examples of documents they are not familiar with

 

Proposal tips 

  • Budget draft information to include details for each year of the project (Ex: if costs are the same each year you can indicate for X years/all years)

  • Percent of effort for both academic and summer periods for nine-month faculty members, or calendar year effort for 12-month faculty members

  • Names of other key personnel/faculty, if any, and their effort amounts and role on the project

  • Number of graduate students to include in the budget (we include tuition for all graduate students unless restricted by a sponsor)

  • Any other non-key personnel positions which should be included in the budget such as undergraduate hourly positions, technicians, etc., and estimated amounts and percent of effort if less than 100 percent.

  • Estimated costs for non-personnel categories, i.e., travel, lab equipment, lab supplies, etc.

  • If your project involves any organizations external to VCU, please provide the contact information for the principal investigator, their administrative contact, and the estimated budget amount for the subaward. Proposals involving an external organization require additional lead time to allow for the external organization to submit a proposal to VCU signed by their authorized official. It is very important to provide this information early in the process.

  • Subaccount information. If your proposal involves a key person within a separate department, provide details of costs for the overall budget that will be allocated to them in addition to their salary effort costs, i.e., travel, graduate student, supply amount, etc.

  • Provide adequate information to allow an internal budget to be drafted and finalized.

  • In order to insure submissions are completed in a timely manner please respond promptly to requests for information from the School of Pharmacy’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies and VCU’s DSSP.

  • The SOP Office of Research, requires the proposal to be submitted for review three working days in advance to ensure the DSP has five working days to review the proposal prior to the sponsor due date.

  • The VCU Division of Sponsored Programs, DSP, requires that finalized additional proposal documents  be submitted to the sponsor five working days prior to the sponsor due date.

Award administration

Post-award, the School of Pharmacy’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies will:

  • Advise principal investigators regarding compliance requirements and interpretation of sponsor rules and regulations

  • Coordinate post-award requests such as no-cost extensions, key personnel effort revisions and budget reallocations with appropriate VCU offices and sponsors

  • Assist in preparation of closeout administrative reports such as patent/invention and equipment reports and coordination with the appropriate VCU offices for any required signatures of electronic submissions to the sponsor

Resources

 

Funding opportunities

To begin searching for funding opportunities, including VCU internal sources, federal, non-federal and nonprofit organizations and foundations, visit the VCU Office of Research website.

Pivot: Pivot combines the most comprehensive, editorially maintained database of funding opportunities worth an estimated $33 billion with a unique database of 3 million pre-populated scholar profiles. Its algorithm compiles pre-populated researcher profiles unique to VCU, and others, and matches them to current funding opportunities in the database. This allows users to search for a funding opportunity and instantly view matching faculty from inside or outside VCU. Conversely, a search for a scholar will link to matching funding opportunities.

Foundation Directory Online: This unique database includes information on the more than 98,000 foundations, corporate donors, and grantmaking public charities in the U.S. and 1.7 million of their recent grants. To access, contact Melissa Throckmorton.

Grants.gov: Free searchable database and email notification service for all federal funding opportunities.

 

Grant Writing Tips

From NIH

 

Helpful Resources and Links  

To obtain an eRA Commons account with the National Institutes of Health, fill out the NIH Commons Account Form.

To complete your COI forms please log into AIRS.

Quick Guide for NIH Grant Applications [PDF]