Office of Research and Project Administration

I would like to remind UR investigators and administrators that applications requiring electronic submission must be completed, routed through sign-off and submitted to ORPA in final form at least five (5) business days prior to the Grants.gov submission deadline.  While the UR community has gained in experience with Grants.gov, we are still experiencing “growing pains”.  Just this week, the Grants.gov system went down for most of one day.   Adherence to an earlier internal deadline will assist in securing the success of your application.

As an example, if the agency deadline falls on a Friday at 5:00pm, the proposal application must be received by ORPA the preceding Monday at 8:30am.   This means that all aspects of the proposal must be completed at time of submission to ORPA, including the scientific proposal or research plan. Individual departments will need to continue to work with their own internal requirements to ensure review and approval of the application in advance of submission to ORPA.

Once an NIH application has been submitted by ORPA, PI review of the entire proposal on Commons is necessary.  This review is critical and is for transmission errors (from Grants.gov to Commons) not proofreading.  Proofreading must be done prior to submission to ORPA.  NIH Commons permits applicants two (2) business days to review an application in Commons before the application is verified by NIH. Note that NIH recognizes July 4 as a business day for the purposes of Grants.gov submission, thus the two-day window for review includes July 4. However, July 4 is a University holiday and ORPA will not be available to access and reject an application (if necessary) on Wednesday July 4.  Please plan accordingly.

We are appreciative of your ongoing efforts to accommodate an earlier internal deadline.   Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or your ORPA Research Administrator.

Gunta

Gunta J. Liders
Associate VP for Research Administration
Office of Research & Project Administration
510 Hylan Building, RC Box 270140
Rochester, NY  14627-0140
(585) 275-5373 phone
(585) 275-9492 fax
gunta.liders@rochester.edu