IFAS Proposal Deadline Policy

For proposal solicitations published by the sponsor at least 30 calendar days from the due date, proposals from IFAS faculty must be received by 9 am five (5) business days from the agency deadline (3 days for IFAS and 2 for DSP) to complete the review process. 

Proposals submitted in response to a solicitation announced less than 30 days from the sponsor’s due date are exempt from this deadline policy. The IFAS Proposal Office and DSP will fully review and submit these exempt proposals, depending on time and staff availability.  

Target deadlines are generally to be considered soft deadlines.  If you have a target deadline the IFAS Proposal Office requests that you follow the 9 am five (5) day deadline policy.

Note: The volume of proposals that come into the IFAS Dean for Research Office can vary throughout the year and there maybe times that we will ask for additional days to complete our review (more than the normal 3). Please be patient during these times as we are reviewing each proposal to the best of our ability.

• Approval process

  IFAS Proposals will review agency application, documents, cost share and verify the indirect cost before approving. All proposals must include the following items: Please Note: all of these items should only be attached in UFIRST documents once (i.e. Submission Documents or Internal Documents). If submitting through an external submission portal (FastLane, Nspires, etc), a downloaded copy of the application should be attached into the submission documents section of UFIRST.

  •  agency guidelines
  •  scope of work
  •  itemized budget
  •  budget justification
  • Subaward Documents including :
  • Letter of Intent signed by authorized representative 
  • Budget
  • Budget Justification
  • Scope of Work (subaward portion only)

  If a pre-proposal is required to route through UFIRST, based on DSP guidance at Pre-Proposals, Letters of Intent & White Papers - UF Research (ufl.edu), and the sponsor does not require a detailed budget and/or budget justification, our office will not require one either.  Please note that UFIRST routed preproposals containing subawards, require entry of subaward totals into UFIRST and subrecipient AOR approvals must accompany the pre-proposal.  To create the application, any pre-proposals submitted via UFIRST SF424 requires entry into UFIRST. 

• What should faculty know?

  - Link to PI Eligibility 

  - Certification of UFIRST Proposal

  - Faculty Introduction Sheet- Proposal Processing

  - IFAS Policy - Faculty Leaving UF

  1. Faculty(PI) should notify department Research Administrator(RA) of departure to get a list of all projects he/she are PI or Co-PI on
  2. PI should meet with department chair/center director to produce an exit plan, addressing disposition of awards/projects and oversight of student committees.
  1. If faculty member is a Co-PI he/she should meet with the project PI to discuss Co-PI status on those projects and then these projects can be added to the plan
  3. Once an exit plan is produced PI should setup a meeting with the IFAS Research Dean to discuss plan and get approval
  4. Once exit plan is approved by the dean then department RA & PI work together to put plan in place as well as making sure they follow UF’s policy When You Are Leaving UF - UF Research (ufl.edu)

  - IFAS Policy - Faculty Changing UF Departments

  1. Follow all the same steps for leaving UF, but make sure to follow UF’s changing department policy When You Are Changing Departments - UF Research (ufl.edu)
• What should unit leaders do?

  - Approve proposal in UFIRST

  - Work with your unit RA and faculty to understand the unit-level implications of complex proposal components such as cost sharing, budgeting faculty time, and release of temporary budgets. UF/IFAS RA List