Research Administration Discussion Group wrote:
>
> Like many sponsored programs offices, we have problems
...
>with faculty "dropping off" proposals for
> processing the day before major federal deadlines.

> Our goal is not to alienate our faculty.  Obviously, there will
> always be some

!!!!!    extreme extenuating circumstance !!!

> which will preclude
> the PI from providing the sponsored programs office with a three
> business day "window."  On the other hand, the problem occurs
> frequently enough that we must do something.  I would be grateful for
> any insight.  Feel free to e-mail me directly at xxxxxx@albany.edu.

[emphasis added and deletions made by respondant]

This is my favorite subject.

The first question is:  Is there anyone in your office who has the
experience of being a faculty member (recently)?  Someone who is
responsible for, oh, 150 students that semester, someone who writes a
proposal every third year?

The second question is:  What is the value added by your office to the
proposal?

The third question is:  If you can (are literally able to and have done
so) process a proposal at 4:55 p.m. on Friday to meet FedEx at 6:00p.m.
then what did you not do for that proposal that you might have done if
you had your three days.

A fourth question is:  Have you considered the internal processes of
your office from the point of view of a customer recently?  Among the
things to ask yourself is ... how many things do we do before releasing
the proposal that actually can be done afterward ... like data entry,
for one instance.

A fifth question is:  How well do the people who submit proposals know
the routine?  Is it published?  Does it change with the seasons of
administrations?

The answers you get to these questions will provide good guidance.  You
may be typing proposals to smooth on old castiron Woodstock typewriters;
that will take time.  Then again, your faculty are probably presenting
you with clean ready to roll proposals, spell-checked, Greek symbols
intact, illustrations scanned in, etc.

Establishing a rational and well-rationalized budget should be done long
before clearance time.  Accepting that, the research office should be
aware of what the scope of work is and, accordingly, whether the budget
fits that scope and that work well before clearance time.  Matching
issues would have been discussed much earlier.  (I have had folk present
me with serious fiscal issues on the last day, and guess what, their
proposal did not go in.)

If you have 1000 faculty members and you know them and their work, how
many surprises can there be in a day?  Okay, so, that many, eh!  I would
submit that's why you are being paid, to look for surprises, not to herd
faculty through some labyrinthine scale model of the Federal and State
versions of chaos.

It is not your job to read proposals for typos or misspellings of the
president's name.  Certainly you are not checking State Bar records or
consulting with DEA before you sign assurances.  Conflict of interest
regulation is reducible to instructions, a check box, and a signature.
The veracity of statements and checked boxes are subscribed to by
faculty signatures.

In a few words(!), you can do the final clearance on a well-planned
proposal process in fifteen minutes and provide the same protection for
the institution (maybe not the proposer, however) as any three-day
ring-kissing contest.  Let them choose you for help with syntax and
persuasiveness, if they need you.

--
James R. Brett, Ph.D., Director,
Office of University Research
CSU Long Beach
310-985-5314   310-985-8665 fax
xxxxxx@csulb.edu
http://www.csulb.edu/~wwwing/research.html