Sponsored Research Proposal Deadline
Effective September 19, 2008, the School of Engineering has adopted the Institute-wide policy requiring that all proposals be submitted to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) five business days in advance of the sponsor deadline. A late submission to OSP will require a compelling justification in addition to the approval of the department head, laboratory or center director, and the dean (see below for details on the appeals process). This new policy applies to all proposals, paper or electronic.
OSP needs your help in order to continue to submit MIT’s proposals successfully as proposal submission has become more complex and time consuming. This new policy has been tested since March 2008 and has proven to reduce dramatically the number of late proposals from DLCs. Adhering to the policy does not require any additional work, merely a scheduling adjustment. When planning for proposal submissions, faculty and DLC staff should also factor in Institute holidays and work to be completed in the department, laboratory, or center.
School of Engineering Appeals Process
Principal investigators who do not submit proposals to OSP by the internal five-business-day submission deadline will require the approval of the department head or lab director and the Dean of Engineering before their proposal can be processed by OSP.
- OSP will no longer grant extensions on its own to principal investigators to submit proposals late. All extensions must be approved as outlined above.
- This policy applies to paper and electronic submissions of new, competing renewal, continuation and re-submission proposals regardless of sponsor, or if the sponsor specifies a deadline. (If no deadline is specified, OSP will expect to have five business days to process the proposal from the time of submission.)
- Sponsor requests for annual progress reports, revised budgets, and other requests are not affected by this policy.
- School of Engineering policy is to grant only a single waiver per proposal.
For approval to submit a proposal after the OSP deadline, the principal investigator must send a request via e-mail to the appropriate department head or lab director, and their administrative officer, explaining why the proposal is late and the reasons why it could not or cannot be submitted on time. The justification will need to be compelling for the appeal to receive consideration. All requests must contain the following information:
- Name of the principal investigator
- Title of project
- Sponsor name
- DLC
- Actual due date for proposal
This request, if approved within the department or lab, must then be forwarded to the Office of the Dean of Engineering (soe-lateprop@mit.edu – this email address was created for this purpose) where it will be reviewed by the Dean or the Associate Dean for Research. In the case of an approval, their decision will be communicated directly to OSP; in the event of a denial, they will communicate this decision directly to the PI, with a cc to the appropriate department or lab representatives. All requests will be decided upon within one business day.
Any PI in the School of Engineering who has questions or needs clarifications on any of the points above should send email to soe-lateprop@mit.edu.
