Academic Policy  1535.10 

In relatively rare situations, funding agencies solicit proposals but limit the number to be submitted by an institution. In such cases, the University of Arkansas will endeavor to determine which proposals are submitted from the campus on the basis of a competitive selection process that is open, fair, and unbiased.

The Office of Research Support and Sponsored Programs (RSSP) will monitor program announcements and bring those that limit the number of campus proposals to the attention of the Associate Vice Provost for Research (AVPR). The AVPR will disseminate information regarding the solicitation to indicated department chairs/heads along with a deadline for either an expression of interest or a campus pre-proposal. The AVPR will seek to minimize unnecessary faculty effort while gathering sufficient information for a valid review. In the event that an individual faculty member receives a solicitation for submission of a proposal for which campus submissions are limited, the faculty member is responsible for informing RSSP in a timely manner of his/her desire to submit a proposal so that the campus selection process can be initiated if this is a solicitation of which the RSSP is not yet aware.

If there are more expressions of interest or pre-proposals than submissions allowed by the funding agency, a campus competition will determine which proposals should go forward. The AVPR will set an internal deadline for submission and specify the length and content of pre-proposals. Unless otherwise indicated by the funding agency, the Vice Provost for Research (VPR) shall be the final authority on determining the outcome of the campus competition. The VPR may appoint an appropriate committee to review the pre-proposals and recommend those to be submitted.

The content of a campus pre-proposal is the intellectual property of the principal investigator and must be provided only to those persons involved in the evaluation process. Those involved in the evaluation will be formally instructed not to divulge such information to anyone outside the evaluation process before, during, or after the process. The identity of those faculty members submitting pre-proposals shall be kept confidential only if they expressly request confidentiality. Otherwise, the institution will be free to encourage collaboration among investigators to create proposals which may be more competitive.

Reformatted for Web October 2, 2014
5/15/05