We have a 10-working day, five working day, two working day policy for routing for approvals, final review, and submission.

1. 10 working days ahead of deadline, initiate a pre route of our electronic proposal approval system (an Infoed product).
2. Five working days ahead of deadline, route the final application for approvals in our electronic proposal approval system (as well as any external application portal that does not work system to system)
3. Then, two working days ahead of deadline, replace the draft narrative/strategy with the final, polished done version, for final official review, comments, and submission.

About exceptions to that policy, I have one file that was to final five day route on 8/23 and so I wait to be reminded about how the exception process works.

Which leads to me say, generally the 10-5-2 works.

From: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org <xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org> On Behalf Of Chantal Ebarle
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2022 3:15 PM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org
Subject: [RESADM-L] workload and late-night, last-minute proposals

You don't often get email from xxxxxx@csueastbay.edu. Learn why this is important

This email originated from outside ECU.

Hello Research Administrators,

Warning: I have a big long complex problem that we created and now we need help getting out of it. I plead for all of you to contribute anything you may be aware of that can help. You can respond to me directly at xxxxxx@csueastbay.edu  I thank you in advance!

Scenario: Our pre-award team (myself and a newly trained analyst) were up until 9pm (pacific time = midnight eastern time) the last 2 nights to submit 2 different DOE RENEW proposals because we were the prime. We have always discouraged after hour, last-minute submissions but we realize faculty don’t care how late we are up working as long as their proposal gets submitted. We analyzed recent scenarios leading up to last minute submissions, and it is always because pre-award does not have all the requirements to submit a complete application until close to the deadline.

We request a minimum of 30 days to coordinate a proposal before it is due but we are often sent final docs within an hour or so of a deadline. (we harass and ask but faculty are almost done…) There is no consideration for our “workday” or if the deadline is 5pm, 8pm, or 11:59:59pm.

We  (ORSP) have stated we don’t want to be notified if there is less then a week before deadline but faculty beg and promise “it’s a resubmission, I already have all the documents done & this is so important for students”. (they don’t realize all those revisions that are needed with resubmits ) Also: we (pre-award) do not have a limit or capacity for the number of proposals that can be accomplished in a set amount of time. Meaning, we take them all and try our hardest to get them done which means mediocre service.

I admit 100% that we (ORSP) is at fault for building this environment and not setting limits because we have always tried our hardest to accommodate everyone but now the rare “last minute special exception” is becoming the everyday norm and we need to put a stop to it. People are taking advantage of us and instead of having family time after work, that time at home gets spent with faculty over zoom.

I have several questions and would love any advice, policies or guidance you can provide on the subject. They will all be shared within our department so we can build our own policy that works. Any decisions we make will be supported from cabinet but we would like to know what works for you?

We do NOT want to discourage faculty from writing proposals but we can’t keep up with the current workload we have. We are trying to hire multiple positions but that’s been unsuccessful. We really need any guidance you can provide. Please answer as many as possible:

Do you put a limit on pre-award analyst regarding how many proposals can be worked on at once? What is that limit? What happens when you push those limits ? Do you reject faculty until after submissions?  I understand rare last-minute submissions are part of our job but how do you define rare? How often is it allowed and within what timeframe can faculty make that request? Who gets to decide when/if your pre-award staff will work and will not get to attend their kids’ school performance? (I bet that’s bad for retention)How do you explain declining faculty to Deans that demand an answer? How do you create balance to be fair for faculty and ORSP staff?  

Do you have a proposal “deadline” or timeline policy/ guidance that is respected and enforced? How is it enforced?

When you have been working with a PI and your internal deadline is (for example) noon- but you don’t have everything- what do you do? Use draft versions? Scold the PI but accept late docs? Or completely stop working on proposal and say its not getting submitted? How do you enforce your rules so they are followed?

Do you allow revisions to budget the night before the deadline? (which means revisions to several other documents to match) How do you manage getting proposal pieces in advance to avoid late nights? What do you handle not getting documents you need from PI’s when you request them? Is it any different for subawards?

We want clear rules in black and white so faculty know they can’t skip to the front of the proposal line when “they just found out about this opportunity due in 5 days”.

Our research has really amped up lately and we just received R2 classification. We need to set rules in place so we are efficient and everyone understands what is expected of them and what won’t be tolerated. Any advice you can provide would help set us up for success. I would be interested in hearing what didn’t work too so maybe we can avoid making that mistake as well.

To everyone I have provided half ass service to lately due to “workload”:  that wasn’t an excuse. I really am looking for answers.

I’m grateful to have this community that is always willing to help each other.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Chantal Ebarle

Chantal Ebarle

Senior Pre-Award Specialist

Office of Research & Sponsored Programs

California State University, East Bay

510-885-4239

Click here to rate our interaction or my customer service.

- = - = - = - = - = - = -

This email was sent to xxxxxx@ECU.EDU via the Research Administrator's mailing list.

To unsubscribe from RESADM-L, go to https://lists.healthresearch.org and go into the Account Settings area.

List archives are available at: https://lists.healthresearch.org/resadm-l

To change your settings (such as Digest Mode or to temporarily suspend list emails): https://lists.healthresearch.org