UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
Office of Research
Division of Research Proposal Services
Policies, Procedures, and Guidelines

Guidelines

Programs that have a limitation on the Number of Institutional Submissions
Effective Date:
January 1980
Revised: April 2002

Many funding agencies (e.g., National Science Foundation, Whitaker Foundation, etc.) place limits on the number of letters of intent, proposals, or applications that any one university may submit in response to an announcement. In order to prevent any potential disqualification of submissions by the University of South Florida, the following guidelines have been established.

When the application process has a limit on the number of institutional submissions, the following guidelines are to be followed:*

  1. Interested faculty must prepare an internal Letter of Intent (electronic form) and submit a brief pre-proposal to the Director of Research Resources, with copies to their Department Chair and Dean/Director, at least sixty** days before the agency deadline.

  2. If fewer than the allowed number of pre-proposal applications are received, the normal process for grant proposal submission will be followed.

  3. If more than the allowed number of pre-proposal applications are received, the following process will be implemented:

    a. Pre-proposal applications will be reviewed on merit. However, if multiple eligible applicants are within one college, the dean of that college will rank the applications on behalf of the college. This does not preclude multiple applications from the college.

    b. A subcommittee of the Research Council will rank the pre-proposals and make a recommendation to the Vice President for Research within a two-week timeframe.

    c. The Director will notify the faculty and appropriate official (e.g., Chair, Dean/Director) as to which proposals are to be submitted on behalf of the University.

If the above guidelines are not followed, the Division of Research Grants will return the application to the faculty member, and it will not be considered for the limited submission.

*   If the number of participants does not exceed the number of allowable submissions no internal competition will be necessary.
** Calls for pre-proposals may require that the timeframe be adjusted to accommodate competing program announcements