Proposal Submission Policy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Holidays do not count as business days. Cornell University’s standard business days are typically Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. excluding university holidays. 

Please see https://hr.cornell.edu/browse-self-service/staff-holiday-calendar for a list of staff holidays.

Administrative content is the non-technical components of a proposal, excluding the science. The specifics depend on sponsor requirements and will generally include the sponsor forms, budgets, CVs, facilities and institutional forms and approvals.

1. After you submit your proposal notification to OSP/PRO, CALS/OPAS, or your department research administrator, you will receive an acknowledgement of receipt and contact information for the pre-award support staff assigned to your proposal within 24 hours.
2. You can expect to receive a summary of required proposal elements and a request for broad budget parameters within 48 hours.
3. Your pre-award support staff will work with you over the next days/weeks to prepare a budget, a budget justification, and other required proposal components.
4. Pre-award staff will populate forms with required information and upload those forms to sponsor systems.
5. When the proposal is completed, your proposal support staff will submit the proposal to the Grant and Contract Officer in OSP, CALS OPAS, or CVM College Research Office for review and submission. 

Administrative documents should be largely final upon submission to the 5-day deadline. Grant and Contract Officers may request changes to administrative documents following review of the proposal. Small changes requested by the PI will be considered. Major changes should not be requested.

If your proposal has been reviewed and approved by the Grant and Contract Officer, it may be submitted prior to the deadline upon request to the Grant and Contract Officer. 

Work with your administrative contacts to prepare materials as far ahead of the deadline as possible. Best practices are:

• Pre-award support: One to two months before deadline
• Admin Content: Before -15 business days
• Research Content: Before -5 business days

Per the policy, you can only submit a request for pre-award support and submit administrative content past the deadlines if your proposal has: 

• No cost share
• Total budget under $10,000,000
• No subawards
• No responses to RFPs that are exemptions from Cornell policies, including but not limited to export control, publication restrictions, IP ownership, citizenship restrictions, sponsor anonymity, and similar restrictions.
• No responses to contract or Other Transaction Authority (OTA) solicitations
• No foreign sponsors, including foreign universities
• Does not require space commitments (e.g., changes to laboratory/office space, additional space, any renovation)