Martha,

We are a centralized operation.  We have two senior research administrators
and two "junior" RA's.  The Director also assumes at least 4/5 RA load.  We
process about 350 proposals a year.  We do budget development, budget notes,
standard forms (cover sheet, certs, etc.), and current and pending support.
We are pre- and post-award.  We're really, really busy but the advantage of
working on the proposal is that we can be familiar with the budget when the
all-to-often budget reduction revision has to be made.  When it is time to open
an account, we are already familiar with the program and can hit the ground
running.  We work with specific academic departments as opposed to some
offices  where there may be agency specialists.

Ruth Tallman
Lehigh University

-----Original Message-----
From:   Martha Taylor [SMTP:xxxxxx@MAIL.AUBURN.EDU]
Sent:   Monday, January 25, 1999 11:10 AM
To:     xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject:        proposal services

I would like to hear from those sponsored programs offices that provide
"full proposal development/submission service" to Investigators.  I am
mostly interested in centralized offices but department or college level
offices could provide valuable insight as well.  I am not talking about
writing proposals but more in terms of budget development, forms
completion, photocopying and mailing type services.  I am simply curious to
know how you manage the process in terms of time managment, levels of
services provided, coordination with investigators, what other "competing
responsibilities" the office staff have, etc.   I would like some concrete
numbers of people involved, proposals submitted, and time/per proposal
averages.

We have discovered some interesting people around the campus who really
don't care if proposal submission is electronic or hard copy or by magic.
They simply want HELP!.  While I can understand their position, I am at a
loss as to where to start and how much to provide.  The simple logistics or
how many people are in our office and how many proposals come through the
system makes it seem impossible to provide additional proposal submission
services.  BUT, I like to keep an open mind and try to look at all the
possibilities.

Please share your successes as well as your pitfalls with us as we all work
toward improved management of the proposal process on our campuses.  Thanks
much.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Martha M. Taylor, Director
Contracts and Grants Administration
310 Samford Hall
Auburn University, AL 36849-5131

334-844-4438
334-844-5953 (fax)

(xxxxxx@mail.auburn.edu)

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