OSA External Funding/Sponsored Project Proposal Submission Policy

Responsible Unit: Office of Scholarly Activity | Executive lead: Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
Created: 3/27/2023 | Reviewed/Revised: N/A | Effective: 4/11/2023 
Compliance: NWCCU 2.E.3  
Approving Body: PAC | Classification: Institution-wide 

Policy:  
Every proposal submission for external/sponsored project funding; to a federal, state, or local government agency or an external award recipient disbursing pass-through funds to PNWU from a government agency must be vetted through the Office of Scholarly Activity (OSA) and must receive administrative approval (e.g., Provost, Chief Financial Officer, Department Chair, College Dean, Program Director, OSA Director, etc.) prior to submission. There are no exceptions to this rule. External/sponsored project proposal submissions may only occur as follows: 

Proposal Development: Individuals interested in and/or planning to submit an external funding/sponsored project proposal must notify OSA immediately prior to beginning the proposal development process. This is to validate that PNWU is eligible to apply and to verify that the funding opportunity is a good fit for the institution and for the individual.  

Submission Approval: OSA determines the process and documents necessary for administrative approval to submit external funding/sponsored project applications. Project directors and principal investigators (PD/PI) must follow the proposal submission procedures established by OSA.

Proposal Submission: Only OSA’s designee (e.g., Grants and Contracts Administrator), on behalf of the Provost, may submit external funding/sponsored project applications to government agencies either as a prime applicant or sub-applicant with another institution. Faculty, staff, and students are not authorized to submit a proposal as they are not authorized officials that can legally bind the institution. PNWU’s Provost is the Authorized Official/Signing Authority for all governmental proposal submissions.  

Award Acceptance: Only the Chief Financial Officer, Provost, or OSA’s designee (e.g., Grants and Contracts Administrator) can accept external funding/sponsored project awards on behalf of PNWU from federal, state, and local government awarding agencies. In addition, all awards for research, including research funds from donors, corporations, foundations, etc., will be reviewed and accepted by OSA even if the original proposal was submitted by or funds were initially processed through the Office of Development (OD).

Failure to comply with the above policy will result in a review of the individual’s actions by the representative deans and program directors. In the event of an award of a non-compliant proposal submission, a review by the representative deans and program directors will also be conducted, and all awarded funds are subject to being rejected, and funds returned to the funding agency. 

Exception: Proposal submissions to individual donors, corporations, foundations, funds, associations, insurance companies, etc., will be vetted and managed through the OD (except for research funds which are managed by OSA). Contact OD for more information about submitting to these entity types.  

Definitions:  
N/A 

Procedure:  
External Funding Development, Submission, and Award Management Procedure (available in OSA’s MyPNWU)

Related Documents: 
Guidelines for Determining Management of External Funding – Office of Development or Office of Scholarly Activity (available in OSA’s MyPNWU)

Policy Resources

For assistance with policies and procedures contact:

Dee Dennis
ddennis@pnwu.edu