Once you have completed the application (“proposal”) and the Internal Sponsored Coordination and Financial Interest Disclosure forms, submit everything via a CD, e-mail or USB drive to the appropriate Office of Research Administration associate director at least five business days before the agency's submission deadline. (Please refer to Detailed Proposal Process for further details). Do not submit the application package to Grants.gov – ORA must do this for you.
The ORA associate director will review the package carefully, work with you to ensure everything is in order, and then submit the final application to Grants.gov on your behalf. Administrators, PIs and staff cannot submit the application directly to Grants.gov.
Please note that until you have been notified that the application has been electronically accepted by Grants.gov and the funding agency, changes may be required to correct errors (such as missing or incorrect components, unacceptable page counts, or other issues). Grants.gov may also reject the application if an electronic scan reveals incorrectly completed fields or viruses. Changes and corrections must be completed quickly to stay within funding agency deadlines; you should work closely with your ORA associate director until you are assured that the application has been accepted at the funding agency. Grants.gov sends email notifications to the ORA associate director who submitted it to verify receipt and acceptance. The sponsoring agency retrieves the application once it is accepted by Grants.gov. The sponsoring agency sends email notifications to the submitting ORA associate director and in the case of NIH, to the PI as well, to verify receipt and to report errors that must be corrected in order to accept the proposal package.
ORA will track the application’s progress, notify you of any errors or changes required by Grants.gov or the agency, and notify you when the application has been electronically accepted by Grants.gov and subsequently by the relevant funding agency. The application will then undergo review at the funding agency as it would have with a paper submission.
NOTE: If you intend to submit a grant proposal to NIH or AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality), the PI must first be registered in the NIH eRA Commons at least two weeks in advance. Please contact Elizabeth Brady at (617) 636-6550 for the Health Sciences Campus or Suzanne Rocha at (617) 627-3683 for the Medford/Somerville Campus to register.