Pre-Award

The Office of Research and Grants (ORG) assists faculty and staff with extramural grant inquiries, grant submittal, and grant renewals and/or supplements. The pre-award processes are outlined in detail in the Grants Handbook (PDF). This section provides guidance for developing various sections of the proposal and explains the APU proposal review process. All APU proposals are required to go through a routing process.

Note: All grant proposals must be routed through ORG for review, approval, and submission. The grant routing deadline is 10 business days prior to sponsor deadline. Learn more about grant proposal routing.

Grant Proposal Development

Elements of a Grant Proposal

ORG has developed a library of templates and supporting documents to help with various proposal pieces.

Institutional Details

Grant Budget Development

The proposal budget reflects the principal investigator’s (PI) best estimate of funding needed to complete the scope of work. Budget should be aligned with the sponsor budget limits, institutional policies, and applicable federal or state regulations. The ORG pre-award staff will work with the PI to develop the budget and ensure compliance with all requirements.

View budget and budget justification templates, as well as details on indirect costs, fringe benefits, faculty compensation, and other budget guidelines.

APU has a Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs rate negotiated with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This F&A rate is applied to eligible direct costs and it is the accepted sponsor method to reimburse universities for the indirect costs incurred by sponsored projects. The current APU federally negotiated rate is 30% applied to Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC), and you may view the agreement.

APU Grant Routing Process

ORG assists faculty and staff with grant inquiries, grant submittal, grant resubmittals, ORG-initiated grant efforts, grant resources at APU, and grants management and administration. Grant routing is required for all grants submitted by APU and is due 10 business days before the sponsor deadline. The routing is done completely online through Cayuse SP and the procedure is outlined on APU’s Grant Proposal Routing Process website.

Grant Submission

Online Submissions

Online grant submissions have become a requirement for most funding agencies. APU federal grant applications are always submitted through ORG, which uses an online interface, Cayuse 424, for federal grant applications submissions. Cayuse training is available upon request.

Other applications (state, foundations, private corporations, etc.) are submitted by principal investigators in coordination with ORG only after the routing process is complete and the approval of the application package is confirmed by the director of sponsored research.

Other Submissions

Occasionally, applications are required to be submitted by mail, email, or combination of mail and email. Some funding agencies require that communication and submission be done exclusively through the central grants office. Independent of the specific agency requirements, ORG will coordinate the grant submission.

Post-Submission

The pre-award team will attend to any required additional steps following the application submission. This includes providing more requested information, checking and resolving error messages, planning and hosting sponsors’ site visits, and communicating with the funding agency.

Pre-Award Director

  • Marta Cenac-Mehedinti, MSc

    Director of Sponsored Research

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