Proposal Submission

The Office of Research Services (ORS) assists faculty on the Lake Shore and Water Tower Campuses in processing proposals to external sponsors, reviewing and negotiating awards, assuring compliance with sponsor regulations, coordinating oversight of human subject review (IRB), animal care review (IACUC), radiation safety, and biohazards. The staff are available to answer questions about sponsor policies and procedures, budgets, application deadlines, as well as the procedures for approval of projects using humans, animals or restricted substances.

This site contains information for submitting a proposal for extramural funding. For internal funding information, go to Internal Funding Opportunities. For additional information on preparing proposals, click here.

The following should be provided to ORS before a proposal for submission to a potential sponsor can be approved:

1. 1. Proposal Transmittal and Approval Process (PTAP) approved by appropriate personnel, usually the Chair and Dean.
   2. A complete copy of the proposal including appendices, application forms and a budget.

The proposal should be received by ORS at least five working days before the sponsor's deadline for submission. Earlier contact is recommended--ideally two weeks--for proposals to private sponsors, to allow time for coordination with the office of Corporate and Foundation Relations.

NOTE: Electronic submissions pose a special challenge. For example, if a proposal submitted through Grants.gov has an error, it will be rejected and must be re-submitted. If the re-submission cannot be done before the deadline, the proposal will not be accepted even if originally it was submitted in time.

Research Administrators in ORS will review the proposal and PTAP prior to sign off. The Research Services Director is the final approver on the PTAP forms, and is responsible for signing the application documents on behalf of the University. Information on how to contact ORS is available here.

Faculty members who submit proposals for research, training and public service projects are expected to budget the proportion of their academic year salaries proportional to percent of effort the project will require of them. Faculty are also encouraged to build summer salaries into proposals when the project requires faculty effort during summer months.

The budget of any project that contains salaries or wages should include the employer's share of fringe benefits. The rates are available here.

In order to more effectively grow our graduate programs, faculty are requested, whenever possible, to request tuition costs for graduate students in their proposals budgets. There will be a limited number of tuition dollars available to match graduate student stipends paid on grants where the sponsor's policy prohibits the payment of graduate student tuition.

For additional information on preparing budgets, click here and then click on "Develop a Realistic Budget."

Direct costs such as salaries, supplies, and equipment are relatively easy to identify, but costs associated with the use of facilities and administration are more difficult to quantify. The federal government negotiates facilities and administrative cost rates (F&A rates), previously called indirect cost rates, with the University. The rates are available here.

The applicable F&A rates negotiated with the Federal government should be used in all proposals for external support of research, training or public services. When sponsors do not allow this level of F&A support, faculty are encouraged to recover a portion of costs in other ways. See http://www.luc.edu/ors/pdfs/Research/Facilities_Costs_Non.doc.

Sponsors may require that proposals contain additional information about the University. This information generally falls into these categories:

• Institutional Official Proposals may be signed only by the Institutional Official:
  
  Meharvan Singh
  Vice Provost for Research
  Granada Center, 400
  Chicago, IL 60626
  msingh@luc.edu
  
  
• University Legal Identification Codes available here.
  
  
• Legislative Districts available here.
  
  
• Federal Assurances available here.

The Proposal Transmittal and Approval Process (PTAP) is a University document that must be completed online by faculty (or a Research Administrator on behalf of the faculty member) planning to submit a proposal for a research, training or other initiative to an external sponsor. The information collected from this process is used for internal reporting purposes and to identify proposal characteristics, prior to approval by University representatives.

Occasionally sponsors will request a pre-proposal or letter of intent (LOI). Prospective principal investigators (PIs) should let their Research Administrator (RA) know so that the RA can determine if a PTAP should be created. If the sponsor is a foundation or corporation, entering an LOI into the PTAP system will automatically notify the office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR). Sometimes a sponsor will describe what is needed as a “Letter of Intent” or a “White Paper/Pre-proposal” but will also require budgetary information and/or cost share commitments, and these should be run through the PTAP so that when the PI receives the go-ahead to submit the formal proposal there won’t be any surprises (e.g., a cost share commitment that the dean is not willing to make).

Generally, only full-time Loyola faculty can submit proposals. To access the website, click here.

For existing faculty to log into the PTAP system:

• Enter username and password.
• Click Login.

New users should click on the Request ID link and follow the instructions to obtain a user ID and password. If you forgot your password, follow the steps in the login process to retrieve it. For assistance, or if you are a staff employee and require a PTAP account, please call the ORS Helpdesk at 773 508-2471. 2. Completing the PTAP To create the PTAP for a new proposal, click on the "Start A New Proposal" link. A new PTAP should appear with your name as PI. If any preprinted information is incorrect, please ask the ORS Helpdesk to correct it. Clicking on the help [?] icon next to options on the PTAP will provide additional information about the option. If you have questions, are not given an appropriate choice or need to add data, such as a new sponsor, please contact the ORS Helpdesk. The average PTAP should take no more than ten minutes to complete if all the required information is available. 3. Editing the PTAP If you are interrupted with working on the PTAP, you may save your data by clicking Continue Later at the bottom of the page.

To resume at a later date, reenter the website by logging in, and click on the "Saved for Editing" link. 4. Submitting the PTAP to ORS When the PTAP is complete, you may submit it electronically to ORS by clicking "Save and Proceed to Next Step".

Any errors on the screen need to be corrected. If there are no errors, the next screen will indicate whether you have any additional forms to fill out. These forms will appear only if you responded positively to one or more Proposal Attributes, in Section C of the PTAP.

You will not be able to submit without uploading the budget (in Excel) and proposal abstract. The latter must be in PDF format. If you need assistance converting a document to PDF, contact the ORS Helpdesk. Once submitted, you cannot make further changes. If changes are necessary, call the ORS Helpdesk. 5. Submission to the Sponsor Once the PTAP is approved and the proposal is signed, ORS will submit the proposal to the sponsor (unless the request for grant funding is being made to a corporation or foundation, in which case CFR will submit to the sponsor).

ORS will make required copies of the proposal, arrange and pay for express mail delivery (UPS only). The faculty member is responsible for providing the sponsor's mailing address, especially if express mail has an address different from normal mail.

Please note that P.O. boxes cannot be used with any provider other than U.S. Postal System. ORS does not recommend use of the U.S. Postal System, when sending proposals to the Washington DC area, because of delays associated with Homeland Security. 6. Amending a PTAP The PTAP may be amended in the case of a change in the award period without additional funds (“no-cost extension”), a change in the dollar amount awarded without a change in the award period (“supplement/increment”), or a combination of the two (“continuation with funds”). These post-award changes in the PTAP will be done by ORS at the request of the Principal Investigator.