All proposals after review and approval are submitted by an Institutional Representative on behalf of Stanford University. All proposals must have a designated Principal Investigator. Each school has its own procedures for routing a proposal. Below is a brief, generic description to give you an overview of how the process works.

All proposals must be submitted to your Institutional Representative at least 5 business days before the deadline. Read the policy

Department

The PI develops a proposal with the support of various staff members. While constructing a proposal, the PI must consider the availability and use of space and personnel. If the research involves human subjects, animal subjects, or hazardous substances, approval from the relevant committees must also be obtained prior to submission to the Dean or his/her designee.

Dean

The Dean or the Dean’s designee reviews and approves the proposal and forwards a signed SU-42 form to the Institutional Representative. Dean’s designees are: The Research Management Group in the School of Medicine, and the Engineering Research Administration in the School of Engineering

Institutional Representatives

The Institutional Representative endorses the proposal for submission to the sponsor. See "Institutional Representatives" for more information. Proposals endorsed by the department and Dean should be submitted three business days in advance of the sponsor's deadline for the final institutional review for conformance with University and sponsor requirements

Key Contacts

• The Office of Sponsored Research (OSR)
• The Research Management Group (RMG)
• Engineering Research Administration (ERA)
• Industrial Contracts Office (ICO)

Things to remember when assembling and then submitting a proposal…

• If a proposal is being submitted in response to an RFP, please send the RFP (or the URL of applicable Web site) to your Institutional Representative office at least one week prior to the deadline, to allow adequate time for review of the RFP's terms and conditions. On occasion an RFP may include terms and conditions that conflict with Stanford’s research policies. Your Institutional Representative may need some additional time to secure special approval or strategize on how to proceed.

• If the project involves Co-Principal Investigators from different schools, each school should follow its own policies for determining who will act as lead investigator. One person should be assigned to coordinate the proposal process to facilitate processing with the Institutional Representative.  

Electronic Submission

The federal government has mandated that all federal grants be submitted electronically via their program Grants.gov. The submission process entails several submissions between Stanford and Grants.gov, then Grants.gov and the sponsor, then the sponsor and Stanford. Because it is taking longer to submit the applications, Stanford has changed it's deadline policy.

Electronic files must be submitted to your Institutional Representative at least 5 business days before the deadline. Depending on file size, email as an attachment, or deliver it on a CD or USB drive.

This policy applies to ALL proposal submissions.
Read the policy

If you are submitting federal grants, please follow the guidelines on Stanford's Grants.gov page.

Limited Submission Programs

Limited Submission Programs require an Internal Review pre-approval by a Selection Committee. In limited submission programs, the sponsor restricts the number of applications or proposals a campus can submit to the agency. The guidelines for these programs require institutions to screen pre-proposals or nominations to determine which applications will be submitted for competition.

Proprietary Data in Proposals

Stanford as an Institution can not agree to protect a sponsors proprietary information. An individual may enter into a non-disclosure agreement with a sponsor.