Whether or not the agency will accept the proposal depends on the
agency.  I have had experiences at both extremes.  At a previous
institution, we had a million dollar proposal that was late because the
express carrier didn't get it there on time.  We got our money back from
the carrier (that's what they guarantee) but the federal agency wouldn't
accept the proposal because it missed the deadline.  They didn't care that
it wasn't our fault.  At the other end of the spectrum, we had a proposal
that was late to NSF because a snowstorm shut the university down for a
week, so we received approval to submit by the following Tuesday.  Well,
the PI took several days to get the internal approvals, and didn't send it
out until Wednesday, then it didn't get there overnight either.  The
program officer contacted us about the fact that it was so late and did
accept the proposal once we could provide proof that the express courier
didn't get it there overnight as requested (he didn't seem to notice that
we would have been late anyway since the PI didn't get it sent out when he
was supposed to).   So you never can tell what the agency will do.

Claire Carlson

At 09:01 AM 11/15/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>On Wednesday, November 13th, I mailed a grant proposal via express mail
>from Illinois to California.  There was no set deadline for the proposal to
>be postmarked or received (thankfully).  I checked the "delivery by next
>afternoon" on the shipping slip, so it should have arrived by the end of
>the day on Thursday, November 14.
>
>When I tracked the shipment at the end of the day yesterday, it was still
>enroute.  However, it was only 2:30 p.m. California time, so I assumed it
>would be delivered later in the afternoon.  (We use this company frequently
>and have never encountered problems.) This morning (11/15), it was still
>enroute.  I just called the express mail company and they said the envelope
>had missed the plane out of Illinois on Wednesday evening and should be
>delivered this morning (11/15).
>
>If this had been a proposal to an agency with a set received deadline, I'm
>wondering what would have happened.  Would the agency still accept the
>proposal for review because we did everything we could to meet the
>deadline, or would they return it without review?
>
>I'd be interested to hear if anyone has experienced this situation, and
>what the results were.
>
>
>
>
>
>Cathy Thomas
>Assistant to the Director
>Grants and Research
>Eastern Illinois University
>Charleston, IL  61920
>Phone: 217-581-2125
>Fax:  217-581-7181
>E-mail:  xxxxxx@eiu.edu
>
>
>======================================================================
>  Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
>  subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
>  via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
>======================================================================

Claire L. Carlson
Associate Vice President for Research
The University of Montana
E-mail: xxxxxx@selway.umt.edu
Phone: 406-243-5796
Fax: 406-243-5739

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
======================================================================