Office of Sponsored Programs

Proposal Process

Proposal Development

  1. CREATE RAMP RECORD: To begin the process, simply login to RAMP Grants and create a funding proposal.
  2. INTERNAL DEADLINE: Mason has adopted an internal deadline of four full business days, excluding the day of submission, in advance of the sponsor’s deadline. OSP must receive Department/College reviewed and approved final documents from your Department Approver within this timeframe. Your college or department may have their own deadines outside of this policy. Please follow this link for full details on this policy: Internal Proposal Deadline Policy
  3. LOCAL RESEARCH ADMINISTRATOR: OSP, the Department/College and the Principal Investigator (PI) need to work together to meet this goal.  We recommend you initiate a proposal in RAMP and contact your local Research Administrator as soon as you begin considering developing a proposal for external funding.
  4. PROPOSALS GREATER THAN $5M: OSP can sign proposals up to $5 million per year. Above that amount, additional reviews and approvals are required from the Vice President or Executive Vice President of Finance. Please allow additional time if you have a proposal where the budget will exceed $5 million in one year.
  5. LETTERS OF INTENT: Sponsors may request Letters of Intent (LOIs) to allow them to assess whether or not there is a good match between the proposed project and their interests:  Letters of Intent Procedures.
  6. LIMITED SUBMISSIONS (new process as of 10/1/2025):
  7. PI RESPONSIBILITIES: The PI is a faculty member who submitted a proposal that was accepted and funded by an external sponsor, also referred to as the project director. The PI has the primary responsibility for technical compliance, completion of programmatic work, and fiscal stewardship of sponsor funds.

Current and Pending Information / Foreign Security Requirements

Pre-Award Research Security Training Compliance

Current and Pending/Other Support requirements and forms

Confidential Information

As a part of sponsored project activities or preliminary discussions with a potential sponsor, it is often necessary to disclose confidential or proprietary information owned by Mason or the sponsor to each other. In those cases, separate nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) may be executed to specify restrictions on the use of such confidential information and the requirements for safeguarding it. Typically, NDAs require the parties to use the same reasonable efforts to protect each other’s confidential or proprietary information as they do their own and only those directly participating in the project activities are permitted access to such information. It is the responsibility of the PI to ensure that all project participants understand and agree to terms of use regarding the confidential or proprietary information. It is Mason policy for each PI to sign their NDA in a “read and understood“ capacity acknowledging their responsibilities for safeguarding the confidential or proprietary information of the sponsor.  OSP will review, negotiate and provide the institutional signature for all NDAs executed by the University.  Please contact the Contracts Team for additional information or assistance.

Conflict of Interest

Each investigator is required to disclose situations where “significant financial interests” are present through submitting an online Conflict of Interest Certification. Proposals cannot be submitted until all named personnel submit their disclosures.

Organizational Conflict of Interest

Organizational conflicts of interest means that because of relationships with a parent company, affiliate, or subsidiary organization, the non-Federal entity is unable or appears to be unable to be impartial in conducting a procurement action involving a related organization. 

  • Some Sponsors require Mason to sign an Organizational Conflict of Interest certification at the pre-award stage. This is typically under contracts, especially DOD related, as well as private Sponsors.
  • Due to changing federal requirements, Mason is developing an organizational conflict of interest policy and will have supporting procedures and business process for how to review and certify. This is expected in late 2024.
  • In the meantime, OSP and ORIA have put in place a process when the OSP Pre-award Director is asked to sign Representations and Certifications (Reps & Certs) that include OCI certifications.
    • This process can take several days to a week and may also require obtaining information and attestations from the PI and subrecipients.
    • If a proposal has an OCI certification as part of Reps and Certs, it is important that the Research Administrator submit a request for an OCI review at least seven days before the due date. It can be sent separately and before the entire proposal package if sub recipients are identified.

Cost Sharing

Cost Share is the portion of project expenditures related to a sponsored project that is contributed by parties other than the sponsor, and not directly charged to the sponsored fund.  See University Policy Number 4016.

Types of Cost Share include:

  • Mandatory Committed (tracked and reported to the sponsor) – required by the sponsor and is therefore referenced in the proposal by dollar amount and type.
  • Voluntary Committed (tracked and reported to the sponsor) – not required by the sponsor, but is still referenced in the proposal by dollar amount and type. Becomes mandatory if project is awarded.
  • Voluntary Uncommitted (tracked internally, but not reported to the sponsor) – not required by the sponsor, not mentioned or referenced anywhere in the proposal.

Cost Sharing must be proposed, approved, administered, and accounted for in a consistent and prudent manner. This includes understanding workload implications of the cost share commitment, determining when cost sharing is appropriate, and accurately recording and reporting cost share expenditures.

If a sponsored project includes cost share, use the appropriate non-sponsored organization number, with the cost share activity code provided in the project’s OSP award letter, to charge and track cost shared expenditures for the life of the award.

Cost sharing Represents Real Costs to Mason

  • Cost sharing represents a redirection of University resources from instruction or other activities to support a sponsored project. The PI, department chair, college dean or director, and other administrators should carefully weigh the cost-effectiveness and the expected benefits of cost sharing prior to making the commitment in a proposal. Effort committed may not exceed that allowed by the faculty or staff member’s appointment.

Some projects allow for pre-award expenses. However, any costs incurred prior to the award are incurred at the PI’s risk and may not be reimbursed if the sponsor does not allow pre-award spending.

Combatting Human Trafficking Policy

Sponsor-Specific Resources:

Uniform Guidance – Update October 2024 – In August 2024, the Office of Management and Budget announced changes to the core set of regulations governing federal sponsored projects, found at 2 CFR 200 and generally known as the Uniform Guidance.  Federal agencies were instructed to implement the updated rules no later than October 1, 2024. These implementations are in the process of being released by federal agencies.  

Additional Proposal Resources:

NIH Data Management Plan Resources

Mason Libraries and OSP conducted a webinar on the new NIH Data Management Plan requirements with proposal submission and awards.  The session outlined the new requirement to include a Data Management Plan with all National Institutes of Health proposals as well as the support and resources Mason offers to assist you in developing these plans.  Below are links to the recorded webinar as well as the PowerPoint presentations used by the Library and OSP that are available by logging into MasonLEAPS:

NIH Open Access Policy

On July 1, 2025, NIH’s Open Access policy for new AND existing grants takes effect requiring final peer-reviewed manuscripts to be submitted to PubMed Central (PMC) for immediate public access without embargo.   The policy applies to manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 and impacts researchers who publish a journal article accepted for publication (author accepted manuscript) resulting in whole or in part from NIH funding.