Agency Electronic Submissions and/or URA Submissions

Submissions where URA must submit the final proposal

Units/PIs must build in adequate time when confirming a proposal is “ready to submit” to allow URA sufficient time to complete the submission activity. Keep in mind, URA Pre-Award Administrators are authorized and responsible to submit proposals for faculty. Faculty should not submit proposals without URA approval.

Additional considerations to keep in mind:

  • Excessive URA workload resulting from multiple sponsors scheduling their deadlines for the same day or the campus submitting a large number of proposals for a Sponsor Deadline (common occurrence around NIH deadline days).
  • Technical glitches or system outages associated with sponsor submission portals which can jeopardize timely proposal submission. Troubleshooting and confirming corrections with the agency specific help desk can take 24 - 48 hours (or more) depending on submission volume.
  • Non-standard deadline – If a deadline falls on a weekend/holiday that is not observed by the sponsor, URA considers the deadline to be 5pm on the business day immediately prior to the sponsor’s posted deadline unless otherwise indicated by the sponsor. This must be appropriately indicated in AURA when routing the proposal for review.
  • Proposals with external deadlines earlier in the day (e.g., before 5 p.m.) should be treated as if they are due by 5 p.m. the prior day to ensure timely completion. This must also be appropriately indicated in AURA when routing the proposal for review.
  • Validation/Access/Approval Requirements:
    • S2S: Please ensure both “Validate Submission” and “Submission Pre-check” are done prior to completing the 'Ready to Submit' Ancillary Review activity.
    • Non-S2S: Review access must be granted in the appropriate sponsor portal/system prior to routing. Submission access must be granted in the appropriate sponsor portal/system prior to completing the 'Ready to Submit' Ancillary Review activity.
  • Any PDF documents uploaded to the FP, Subaward component, SF424 application package, Attachments tab, etc. should be flattened and not generated as “portfolios”.

URA reviews, approves, and submits proposals during its normal business hours (8:30am - 5pm CST). Completed proposals must be submitted by sponsor deadline as indicated in AURA, or by 5 PM CST on the due date.

When a Sponsor Deadline is after 5pm local time, URA considers the deadline to be 5pm CST. This means that the Final Proposal must have been approved by the unit/PI for submission well in advance of 5pm CST on the day it’s due.

In extreme circumstances, if a proposal, Just-In-Time (JIT), supplemental materials, etc. is not submitted by 5PM CST, the unit and PI must immediately provide the URA Pre-Award Administrator an ETA as to when they expect the item to be ready for submission. Submissions extending more than thirty (30) minutes past URA standard business hours will be postponed until the next business day.


PI Approval to Submit Electronic Proposals

URA will not submit an electronic proposal without authorization from the Principal Investigator (PI) or the department administrator delegated to authorize on behalf of the PI. Internet based systems can get bogged down during periods of high traffic. It is good practice to have a final ready-to-submit proposal prepared and approved by a PI as the deadline time approaches. PIs and local administrators are advised not to wait till almost the designated hour of a deadline to provide URA authorization for proposal submission. 

Ensure appropriate steps have been completed in the respective system/portals. See "Validation/Access/Approval Requirements" above.

If you have any questions, please contact your URA Manager.


Federal Electronic Submission

Grants.gov - Grants.gov is the central portal that the federal government has implemented for grant submissions. For more information, visit the URA Grants.gov page.

Research.gov - Research.gov is the National Science Foundation (NSF) online website through which NSF conducts a relationship to researchers and potential researchers, reviewers, and research administrators and their organizations. For more information, visit the Research.gov page.

NIH eRA Commons

Department of Education e-Grants (Education)

Institute of Education Sciences (IIES)

Department of Energy - PAMS (DOE)
DOE revised budget requests are handled similar to the way NSF revised budget requests are handled:

  1. The PI and SRO receive DOE request via e-mail.
  2. The PI (or PC-O) logs into PAMS, uploads the required budget and justification, and forwards to SRO (as they would do with a Proposal File Update in Fastlane).
  3. In AURA, the PC-O creates a JIT request, uploads the required documents, and forwards for URA Review.
  4. The URA-M reviews the proposed documents in AURA.
  5. If there are no comments, the URA-M submits the documents in PAMS and completes the JIT activity in AURA.
    a) If there are comments, the URA-M uses the JIT Changes Requested activity to notify the PC-O and forwards the Budget back to the PI in PAMS. Once the PC-O makes the required changes, forwards the revised Budget back to SRO in PAMS and completes the Changes Made activity, the URA-M then proceeds with the submission as noted above.

Department of Justice Grants Management System (JustGrants)

Office of Naval Research (ONR)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration NSPIRES (NASA)

Space Telescope Grants Management System (STGMS)

Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)


Non-Federal Electronic Submission

proposalCENTRAL - proposalCentral is an e-grantmaking website shared by many government, non-profit, and private grant-making organizations including JDRF and ACS.

AHA Proposal Central is the online proposal submission portal for all American Heart Association applications.

Komen Grants Access - Komen Grants Access is the online proposal submission portal for all Susan G. Komen for the Cure applications.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grantmaking Online - Grantmaking Online is the online proposal submission portal for all Robert Wood Johnson Foundation applications.


Non-Federal Agencies

American Cancer Society (ACS)

American Diabetes Association (ADA)

European Commission (EC)

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF)

National Multiple Sclerosis Society (MS)