I would recommend shorter lead times through sponsored research offices,
streamlining of institutional (internal) administrative requirements and a
policy that clearly delineates how proposals that do not meet internal
deadlines are handled.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has one of the shortest amounts of lead
time for proposal processing among research universities--2 days.  We take
the philosophy that we want to give our researchers as much time as possible
to work on the sections of the proposal that most matter to reviewers, the
science.  However, we typically receive draft budgets in advance of the
two-day window.

Any proposal that is not received in advance of the 2-day requirement is put
into a queue to be processed, and if we have a large number of proposals in
the queue, we inform the PI/dept that submission cannot be guaranteed.  We
also inform PIs and departmental administrators that proposals coming in at
the last minute receive the minimum of administrative review, and little/no
time for any corrections, which can harm a proposal's chance for meeting
sponsor technical requirements.

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