Proposal Approvals & Forms

Building a Budget

The first step in seeking funding is to determine what project expenses you hope to charge to a sponsor. We offer several templates that can assist you with developing a project budget—particularly the Budget Generator, which produces a tabular budget and an editable draft of a budget justification.

• "Budget": a tabular account of funds requested for a project based on UNO's budget categories
• "Budget Justification": a detailed, written account of funds requested for a project including calculations used to obtain individual amounts; a persuasive document organized by UNO's budget categories; also called a "budget narrative"

Both a budget and a budget justification are necessary to confirm your request and the reasoning for it.

Though some sponsors may require you to complete their own budget or justification forms—and you must always follow the sponsor's guidelines—we recommend using a UNO budget template first. This ensures that budgets follow university accounting guidelines and reduces the need for budget amendments later.

The Office of Research can help you transpose the UNO budget into the sponsor's format!

Getting Approval

Since proposals involve committing university resources to a project (employee time, overhead, etc.), all budgets must be approved by the following individuals before submission to a sponsor:

• Principal Investigator
• Co-Principal Investigators
• Department heads/chairs/directors
• Deans/vice presidents
• Office of Research

How do you get your budget approved? The proposal routing form!
 

The proposal routing form notifies the Office of Research of your intent to apply for funding from an internal or external source and solicits approval of your budget from your supervisors.

The form requests information about your project, your investigative team, and the solicited funding agency (or "sponsor"). Though the form will ask you to upload your proposal narrative, you may upload a working draft.

Submit your proposal no later than two weeks before the sponsor's deadline.

Your investigative team and all supervisors must all sign off on your proposal; the Office of Research must approve it.

Download and follow the embedded help guide to complete the Proposal Routing Form.

Proposal Routing Process

PIs and business managers do not need to use Workday for any portion of the proposal routing process.

The Cognito Form collects:

• PI and co-PI contact information
• sponsor information and project dates
• project and budget requirements
• proposal narrative and budget
• worktags associated with sources of cost share
• mandatory certifications
• signed conflict of interest reports for the PI and the Co-PIs
• supervisory approvals

Form Routing

The Cognito Form routes to the following individuals:

• Principal Investigator/initiator
• Co-Principal Investigators
• Department heads/chairs/directors
• Deans/vice presidents
• Office of Research

Terms & Definitions

Routing Statuses

INCOMPLETE: Initial status of incomplete form.

AWAITING CO-PI: Form is awaiting the signature of the listed co-principal investigator on the conflict of interest report.

AWAITING PI: Form is awaiting the signature of the principal investigator on the conflict of interest report.

AWAITING CHAIR: Form is awaiting the signature of the listed department head/chair/director.

AWAITING DEAN: Form is awaiting the signature of the listed dean/vice president.

REJECTED: Someone has rejected the form. The initiator may re-submit the form after addressing the reason for the rejection.

SUBMITTED: All department- and college-level signatures have been obtained; the form has been submitted to the Office of Research for processing.

AWAITING APPROVAL: The Research Administrator has processed the form; the form is now awaiting final approval from the Office of Research.

COMPLETED: All signatures have been obtained; the proposal may now be submitted to the sponsor.

Sponsor

Sponsor: The Sponsor is the organization that would issue funds to UNO. If the Louisiana Board of Regents is giving UNO an award, then the Sponsor would be the Louisiana Board of Regents. Every award has a sponsor.

Prime Sponsor: A Prime Sponsor is a top-level organization where funding originates. If the Louisiana Board of Regents is giving UNO an award, but their funding originates from the National Science Foundation, then the Prime Sponsor would be the National Science Foundation. Not every award will have a prime sponsor.

Project Information & Requirements

Extra compensation: compensation over the institutional base salary paid to faculty and professional research employees through the University

National Science Foundation (NSF) funds: applies to projects funded by the National Science Foundation and to projects which receive any NSF funds. The funding can either be directly from the NSF or indirectly through another entity (pass-through funding).

Public Health Services (PHS) funds: applies to projects funded by a Public Health Services (PHS) entity; this includes all institutes within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (which includes the National Institute of Health). The funding can either be directly from the PHS entity or indirectly through another entity (pass-through funding).

Export controls: applies to transmission of items overseas by anyone, including U.S. citizens, or to a foreign national on U.S. soil.

Foreign nationals restrictions: foreign citizens (not including dual citizens of the US); immigrants who are not lawfully admitted for permanent residence; foreign governments; foreign political parties; foreign corporations; foreign associations; foreign partnerships; and any other foreign principal, as defined at 22 U.S.C. § 611(b)

Transfer of biological or chemical materials: when one party (the provider) makes a tangible product, material, or resource available to another party (the recipient) for use in a research project.

Human subjects or human tissue: living persons about whom an investigator obtains specimens or data through direct interaction or intervention through identifiable, private information. Includes human organs, tissues, body fluids, and recorded information.

Vertebrate animals or animal tissue: an animal of a large group distinguished by the possession of a backbone or spinal column, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Cephalopods are invertebrates with large, vertebrate-like central nervous systems and are treated according to the rules for Vertebrate Animals.

Safe & Inclusive Working Environments

Off-campus or off-site research: data/information/samples being collected off-campus or off-site, such as fieldwork and research activities on vessels and aircraft. This does not include subawards. For any off-campus research, complete a Safe & Inclusive Working Environment Plan and attach the PDF generated to the Proposal Routing Form.

Conference proposal: primarily purpose of the proposal is to host a conference, as discussed in NSF PAPPG 23-1, Part I, Chapter II, Section F.9, Conference Proposal and in NIH Support for Scientific Conferences (R13 and U13).

Travel proposal: primary purpose of the proposal is to support travel, as discussed in NSF PAPPG 23-1, Part I, Chapter II, Section F.11, Travel Proposal.

Budget Notes & Exceptions

Subawards & Contractual Services: Complete our interactive classification form to classify these costs according to the below descriptions:

Budget Category	Subaward	Contractual Services
Entity Classification	Subrecipient	Vendor/Contractor
Description	UNO and another agency work collaboratively on the project. UNO provides pass-through funds (subaward) to the partner agency (subrecipient) for carrying out part of the project funded by the prime sponsor. Subawards create an assistance relationship with the subrecipient. Subrecipients are responsible for adherence to applicable program requirements specified in the prime award. The subrecipient's performance must be measured in relation to the objectives of the program.	UNO purchases property, goods, or services by establishing a contract with an individual or entity, creating a procurement relationship with a vendor.
Example	UNO requests funding from NSF and includes a subaward for another university partnering on the project.	UNO requests funding from NSF, including the cost of hiring an animator to produce a video used in the project.
Required	• Signed letter of commitment • Itemized budget • If awarded, Unique Entity ID (UEI)	• General cost estimate or quote • If awarded, Federal Tax ID or SSN

Cost Share: occurs when a portion of the project funding is not provided by the sponsor—so the University of New Orleans shares in the costs. These are real dollars which may be from the UNO general fund or a restricted fund, but must be auditable. Cost share dollars may fund faculty time, supplies, equipment, etc.

If cost share is required by the sponsor, documentation must be provided. The source(s) of cost share funding must agree to provide cost share.

Off-campus research: applies when more than 50% of a project is conducted on premises not owned or leased by the University of New Orleans where F&A costs do not benefit the project. The effort calculation excludes subawards.

F&A costs: facility and administrative costs; real costs incurred by the University of New Orleans and its departments, schools, centers, and institutions in support of sponsored activities.

F&A rate: F&A costs are applied to all grants, contracts, and other agreements with federal, state, and private entities. The rate is negotiated at the federal level through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is calculated on all direct expenses except: equipment, fellowships, scholarships, tuition, off-site facility rental costs, and the portion of subgrants or subcontracts in excess of $25,000. Adequate justification must be provided in the award proposal form for the project to qualify for the off-campus F&A rate.

The F&A rates cannot be adjusted unless required by the sponsor.

Intellectual Property

Patentable invention: machines/devices, software, compounds/materials, or methods of manufacture that are patentable subject matter, novel (some aspect of it must be new), non-obvious, and useful.

Copyrightable works: does NOT include journal publications/articles, class notes, books, theses and dissertations; educational software; non-fiction, fiction, and poems; musical works, dramatic works; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; or other works of artistic imagination that are not created as an institutional initiative

Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA): a legally binding contract that establishes a confidential relationship with an outside company, university, or other entity.

Collaboration: working with any outside company, university, or other entity to reach a goal or contribute to a project.

Lab Safety

Biohazards: biological substances that pose a threat to the health of living organisms; could include a sample of a microorganism, virus or toxin that can adversely affect living organisms; all human blood and certain bodily fluids are treated as if known to be potentially infected with blood borne pathogens.

Radioactive materials: any material containing unstable atoms that emit ionizing radiation as it decays.

Sealed source: any radioactive material or byproduct encased in a capsule designed to prevent leakage or escape of the material.

X-rays: an electromagnetic wave of high energy and very short wavelength, which is able to pass through many materials opaque to light.

Chemicals: any substance (liquid, solid, gaseous, or other) that has a Safety Data Sheet (SDS).

Recombinant DNA (rDNA): DNA molecules formed by laboratory methods of genetic recombination (such as molecular cloning) to bring together genetic material from multiple sources, creating sequences that would not otherwise be found in the genome.

Gene transfers: the transfer of genes between organisms.

Class IIIB or IV lasers: lasers that operate in the ultraviolet and infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum and can emit laser energy in excess of the AEL values of Class IIIR lasers during any period of time, and can emit power of less than 500 milliwatts (mW); Class IV lasers emit laser radiation levels that exceed the AEL values of Class IIIB.

DEA-controlled substances: drugs, substances, and certain chemicals used to make drugs are classified into five (5) distinct categories or schedules depending upon the drug’s acceptable medical use and the drug’s abuse or dependency potential. A listing of drugs and their schedule are located on the DEA’s website.

Mandatory Certifications

The PI and Co-PIs must not be debarred or suspended from doing business with the federal government.

The PI and Co-PIs must certify that their statements are true, complete, and accurate; they must agree to accept responsibility for the scientific conduct of the project.

The PI and Co-PIs must certify that the project will comply with all applicable guidelines, laws, policies, rules, and regulations.

The PI and Co-PIs must certify that UNO is the legal applicant, not the department, college, or individual.

Plagiarism

The PI and Co-PIs must certify that the proposal has been or will be submitted to Turnitin through the Office of Research’s Canvas course. The results will be reviewed by a Grant Writer in the Office of Research.