Submitting a Proposal to SRA or FSURF? Remember the “Three Day Rule”
It’s here – proposal submission time! You’ve worked diligently over the past few months to prepare all the required documents. You’ve reached out to your Grants Officer and had conversations with them about various items. Your budget/budget narrative are complete, you’ve entered information in RAMP, and you have prepared a rough draft of the scope of work. Now, all that’s left to do is press submit and send it to the agency, right?
Actually, not quite! Before hitting submit we need to ask ourselves, “Is the proposal “complete,” and did you provide SRA with enough time to review? This is what’s known as the “Three-day Rule,” and ensures SRA has adequate time to review all proposals before being submitted.
The three-day rule is in place to ensure that SRA or FSURF staff have time to review the proposal and ensure it is fully prepared to be submitted. Quite often, necessary changes are identified. There have been cases where proposals had to be submitted without a complete review by SRA or FSURF (due to not being submitted to SRA or FSURF in time) and the proposals were rejected with PIs not being allowed to resubmit. A tremendous amount of work goes into proposal preparation, and this should not happen. Thus, it is important to provide adequate time for SRA or FSURF to fully review the proposal prior to submission.
This rule is not an arbitrary number, but rather FSU policy – Proposal Submission Policy 7A-19, in fact.
It states, “completed proposals” are required to be submitted to SRA or FSURF via RAMP-Grants (i.e., the Grants module of FSU’s Research Administration Management Portal) by 9 a.m., three working days prior to the agency’s deadline.
But what exactly does “completed proposal” mean? And does the three-day rule include the day of the proposal? Luckily, Policy 7A-19 can provide clarification.
To start, there are certain criteria for a proposal to meet the threshold of being “complete.” The Policy covers all the necessary components, which you can read, but here are some highlights:
- Information must be uploaded to the Grants module in RAMP;
- A budget must also be created in RAMP;
- A scope of work is required, but can be a rough draft at this stage; and
- All requests for internal approvals must be completed.
There are other required elements of a completed proposal, so always be sure to review Policy 7A-19 for guidance. It can be found on SRA’s website, in the Policies/Procedures section.
Now, about that “three working day” rule…
Here’s an easy way to remember it – SRA or FSURF requires three full days of review, not including the day of submission. So, if the proposal is due on a Friday, SRA or FSURF would need a completed proposal entered into RAMP by Tuesday of that same week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to review).
Here’s something else to keep in mind! Saturdays, Sundays, and FSU’s observed holidays are not business days, and as such any deadlines on these days should use the business day before as the deadline. In other words, if the proposal is due on Sunday, a complete proposal should be uploaded to RAMP by Tuesday.
Of course, the 3-day Rule is the final deadline, and SRA or FSURF would obviously love to have more time to review your proposals. So, if possible, please submit all materials as far as possible in advance of the deadline to ensure their team has adequate time for their review. This is especially true for complicated proposals. For more information on the Proposal Submission Policy and Guidelines for submitting a Completed Proposal Process, visit the Research Administration Manual (RAM). If you have any questions related to this process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Grants Officer.
Together, you can help us ensure that all the proposals are reviewed on time, and we’re able to meet the agency’s deadline.