Key Rules & Procedures Governing Grant Submission and Spending
Grant Submission
EHHD Internal Letter of Intent
Ideally submit the LOI form 4 weeks before your proposal is due. This DocuSign form is to be filled on-line. Note: LOIs should be submitted for internal MSU grants except those invited by the EHHD Dean, or those submitted through the Department Head and Dean (such as Faculty Excellence Grants).
This DocuSign form is to be filled on-line.
Note: LOIs should be submitted for internal MSU grants except those invited by the EHHD Dean, or those submitted through the Department Head and
Dean (such as Faculty Excellence Grants).
Office of Sponsored Programs electronic Proposal Clearance Form
- The electronic Proposal Clearance Form (ePCF) is your gateway to most grant submissions and awards. The ePCF requires signatures from your department head, dean, and OSP (and if relevant the head of the IRB). OSP is signing off on your budget (particularly important if you're committing match), and in most cases it is the alert to OSP that a state or federal proposal will need to be submitted by them once you're ready to submit (OSP asks you to be ready to submit your grant proposal 72 hours before the deadline). Since the ePCF can take a little time to route for signatures, you should start it circulating another 48 hours or so before submittal. It will take longer if you have a co-PI in another college (add that department/college to the "approvals" list on your ePCF). The pieces that must be done and included in the ePCF are your budget and your project summary/abstract, and even these can be changed in doing the submission if necessary.
Notes:
- In most cases, OSP knows to submit the grant after you have clicked on something like "Notify AOR" in your on-line proposal software (AOR = Authorized Organizational Representative). However, it's always a good idea to be in close touch with your OSP fiscal manager about the timing and process of submission.
- Under special circumstances (e.g. the funder allows only 501c3 non-profits to submit) proposals may be submitted through the Montana State University Alumni Foundation (MSUAF); however, the vast majority are channeled through the MSU Office of Sponsored Programs.
- Generally, OSP holds the purse-strings if your grant is funded (most grantors want to know the authority and credibility of the institution is behind a proposal). For example, OSP issues your spending "index" number, advises you of legal obligations, and puts together your grant's financial reports. Therefore they need to know about all non-MSUAF proposals, even those that don't require their participation to submit (a few funders want you to email or submit directly yourself).
