Limited Submissions

What Are Limited Submission Opportunities?

Many sponsors limit the number of proposals an institution may submit for a specific funding opportunity. For example, while most NSF opportunities allow unlimited submissions per institution, some like the Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) only allow one or two proposals per institution per cycle. In these cases, if multiple PIs are interested in submitting to that call, 精东影业 needs to make a determination internally of which PI(s) should be allowed to represent the college with their proposals. It is the responsibility of the Office of Research to run fair and timely internal competitions for all such opportunities.

The Grants and Sponsored Projects (GSP) Office will not approve your submission to a sponsor on any limited submission call without the prior approval of the Associate Provost of Research or research/proposal development staff in charge of the limited submission process.

The Limited Submissions Process

All internal competitions, including the initial submission of a letter of intent (LOI; previously called an "EOI"), are now handled through . Visit to browse open opportunities and submit an LOI.

The Office of Research follows a multi-step process to assess faculty interest in limited submission opportunities and to determine who should submit on behalf of the university:

  1. Post the Opportunity. All solicitations will be posted to .
  2. Collection of Letters of Intent (LOIs). We ask that all interested PIs submit an LOI by the stated deadline via . All open calls for LOIs are listed on the site. The Office of Research typically sets the LOI deadline between 1-3 weeks from the date of the announcement, depending on the timeline for submission to the sponsor. For tight sponsor deadlines, we sometimes must also set a tight LOI deadline to ensure that the selected team has sufficient time to write a high-quality proposal. The information submitted in the LOI form will not be used to select proposals for submission to the sponsor, but will instead be used by our office to:
    • Determine whether an internal competition must be held.
    • Recruit reviewers for the internal competition who have relevant expertise.
    • Identify possible opportunities for collaboration between PIs who may be interested in similar opportunities. 
  3. Solicitation of Whitepapers. If more PIs submit EOIs than spots 精东影业 has available for submission to the sponsor, the Office of Research will run an internal competition. PIs who submitted an EOI will receive a whitepaper template and instructions (including review criteria) via InfoReady. Generally, PIs are given 1-2 weeks to write whitepapers, depending on the sponsor timeline for final submission.
  4. Peer Review. Proposals are reviewed by 精东影业 faculty volunteers. The Office of Research provides reviewers with a scoring rubric, typically designed based on sponsor review criteria. 
  5. Approval. The final decision on all internal competitions rests with the Associate Provost for Research. This determination is typically made based on consensus from reviewers, but in cases where there is no consensus, other factors such as early-career status may be considered at the Associate Provost鈥檚 discretion. Once a determination is made, all competitors are notified and the identity of the winning PI(s) is released.
  6. Submissio