Cathy,

It depends on the sponsor's regulations on dealing with late proposal
submissions.   With small, private sponsors, there might be some
flexibility.  With most federal sponsors, the proposal deadline is
not flexible.

Just a few months ago, we had a very unfortunate situation where a
proposal to a federal agency in response to a competitive RFP did not
make the deadline due to inclement weather (the airport closed for a
few hours, and the evening flight was delayed until the next
morning).  The PI used a commonly used overnight carrier with a
"guaranty" for overnight delivery to meet the deadline the next day.

Most federal RFPs, state that "late proposal submissions will not be accepted."
The federal regulations govern what constitutes an emergency
situation to accept a late submission.

The PI attempted to make a case that the inclement weather (along the
east coast), the airport closing, and flight delay due to bad
weather, be considered an emergency situation under the federal
regulations. The government did not consider this circumstance
sufficient reason to qualify as an emergency to allow the
government's acceptance of the late proposal submission.  Because the
proposal was submitted under a competitive request for proposal with
a federal agency, and, the government did not consider this
circumstance an "emergency," the agency could not and did not accept
the late proposal.

This was a hard "lesson" for the PI to learn that his/her proposal
didn't make it.

A few weeks later another proposal was submitted by this PI and
delivery was planned for two days before the due date rather than the
day before.

Chris

--
Christine R. Woodroffe
Associate Director
Office of Sponsored Programs
Brandeis University
415 South Street, MS-116
Waltham, MA  02454-9110
Phone:  (781)736-2120
Fax:  (781)736-2123
Email:  xxxxxx@brandeis.edu

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