Grant Submission - Getting Started

If you are applying for a grant through the School of Social Work, the School's Research Development Office (RDO) can help you with budget preparation, "boilerplate" content, human subjects protection, negotiating the Grant and Contract Services office, and grant mailing. For your information and to aid you in planning your grant, we are outlining below the technical assistance and support that you can expect. This assistance is available for all grants submitted through the School, though competing continuation grants will often be shepherded primarily by the project staff, with less direct involvement of RDO staff.

We favor a start-early approach because Grant and Contract Services (GCS) requires final financial figures and a rough draft of your grant text for institutional review and signature no less than two weeks ahead of the funding agency's due date. Some funding agencies also require early notification, depending on budget size (NIH grants over $500K require approval of the budget 6 weeks before the grant application is due, for example).

Initial Meeting: When you decide that you'll apply for a grant, contact Cy Talebi immediately to set up a meeting to discuss a budget and timeline for completion. At least a few months before the deadline is ideal, especially for large or complicated projects. Bring to the meeting any relevant materials -- a copy of the request for proposal, application guidelines, a website address or whatever written material you have that describes the program to which you are applying.

Space: As your project takes shape, it will be important to consider what kind of space you will need to conduct the study. If you will need to hire new personnel for the project, resulting in a need for additional space beyond your own office, contact Diane Morrison to discuss whether there is likely to be space available in the SSW building at the time your project will begin. Since the SSW building consistently operates at full occupancy, it is probable that you will need to plan for off-campus space for any new projects. This is important to settle on early because it will affect your budget and indirect cost rate.

Budget Preparation: After the initial meeting, Cy will prepare a preliminary budget spreadsheet for your review. After you approve of the budget figures, they will be transferred to the funding agency's budget forms and a form EGC-1 will be completed. The EGC-1 is the UW form that transmits your grant paperwork to GCS where it will undergo institutional review and signature. Cy will assist with setting up any subcontracts that may be required. The Principal Investigator should plan to write the budget narrative and to check it against budget forms for accuracy.

Human Subjects: The Research Development Office can help you decide what level of clearance your project requires, although the final decision rests with the Human Subjects Division (HSD). The HSD has an excellent website at http://www.washington.edu/research/hsd/index.php. Some sponsors, including NIH, will accept new grant proposals with the understanding that the researcher will proceed with the human subjects review process upon receiving notification of a score in the fundable range. This is called the Just-in-Time review process, which requires no human subjects paperwork at the time of grant submission. All Human Subjects forms can be downloaded from http://www.washington.edu/research/hsd/forms.html. If you have questions about a complex application that are not answered by the website, consult the Research Development Office, or call the HSD directly at 3-0098.

Miscellaneous Grant Pages:

Face Page or Cover Sheet: Cy will complete the face page for NIH submissions or cover page for submissions to non-NIH funding agencies.

"Boilerplate" Pages: Cy can provide you with an electronic boilerplate for pages such as "Resources", which you can modify to fit your grant, and with other technical pages such as the PHS398 Checklist.

Proposal Content: In addition to the assistance that Cy can provide with the technical aspects of grant preparation, the Associate Dean for Research can assist with the content of your proposal. This can range from talking through your ideas, to reading and commenting on a draft, to arranging a full "mock review" of the proposal. This latter option is especially recommended for investigators writing their first proposals.

Grant Appendices: Provide Cy with collated copies of the appendices 72 hours ahead of the mailing date. Office Services can help you with copying; allow them a few days to make these copies.

Grant Mailing: Our Admin Staff will copy and mail your grant, however, in order to assure that the grant meets the funding agency's deadline, plan to provide us with a final copy of the grant text and other related pages at least 48 hours ahead of the mailing date. UPS picks up at the School after 2:00 p.m. If you miss this deadline, the responsibility for mailing the grant becomes your own! You can deliver your grant to UW Mailing Services for overnight mailing, but note that it must arrive at Mailing Services at 3900 7th Avenue N.E. by 4:30 p.m. (Directions to Mailing Services are available at http://www.pubserv.washington.edu/contacts.html.) There is also a late-night U.S. Post Office near the airport, but there you're really on your own -- plan to contact them yourself for their cut-off time!

The University of Washington Health Sciences Research Funding Service offers classes on finding a funding agency and writing your grant (http://healthlinks.washington.edu/rfs/wkshp/index.html#g101). The School of Social Work is part of Health Sciences, meaning that you can take advantage of the services they have to offer.

Questions or comments e-mail to:
Cy Talebi, Assistant Director of Finance and Research
farorkh@u.washington.edu
(206) 543-5154 Office: 220G