Skip to main content Skip to secondary navigation

2025 Federal Administration Transition Information & Resources - This will be updated as new information is available.

SeRA Proposal Development & Routing Form (PDRF)

Main content start

Proposal PIF & PDRF Routing 

School of Medicine Proposals

Stanford SoM proposals are submitted through the School of Medicine’s Research Management Group (RMG).  The PI/ department must complete and route a SeRA Proposal Intake Form (PIF) to RMG for review and approval (recommended at least 30 days in advance of the sponsor deadline). The RMG Research Process Manager (RPM) will follow up with a draft budget, internal deadlines, and proposal guidance as needed.

Non-School of Medicine Proposals

Stanford non-SoM sponsored project proposals are submitted through the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR).  The submitting PI/ department must complete and route a SeRA Proposal Development Routing Form (PDRF) to OSR for review and approval in accordance with the Stanford internal proposal deadline policy.


Proposal Development Routing Form (PDRF) Guides

  • Pre-Proposal - Use for Pre-proposals or letters of intent (LOIs) that REQUIRE and/or include any of the following.  Note, these require institutional (OSR or RMG) review and ARE subject to the Stanford Internal 5- Day Proposal Deadline Policy
    • Institutional signature (written or electronic)
    • Submission through a portal or platform where OSR or RMG as institutional officials/Authorized Organizational Representatives (AORs) must complete the submission i.e., "push the button" such as NSF LOIs and/or Preproposals submitted through Research.gov.
    • ANY commitment of institutional resources including, but not limited to: PI time/effort, staff time, space, facilities use, project completion, students, and/ or post-doc participation/time, etc.  Most often, but not always, these resources are expressed in a budget and/or matching and/or cost sharing information.
  • Initiate a New PDRF Guide - Use for a new sponsored project proposal submission.
  • Budget Details Guide
  • Non-SoM Fellowship PDRF Guide
  • Non-Competing Continuation (NCC) / Progress Report PDRF - Use for projects which require project progress reports to be submitted by an institutional official to trigger subsequent year's funding e.g., most NIH awards.
  • Renewal PDRF Guide -  A renewal application competes for funding with all other peer reviewed applications for the given sponsor and must be developed as fully as though the applicant is applying for the first time.
  • Resubmission PDRF Guide - A resubmission application is a previously unfunded application that has been modified following initial review and is now being resubmitted to the same sponsor for new consideration.
  • Supplement PDRF Guide - A supplement application is a non-competing application [i.e. does NOT go through peer review] that provides additional funding to a currently funded project to meet increased costs that are within the scope of the approved project, but that were unforeseen when the new or competing renewal application was awarded.
  • University Research Award PDRF Guide - University Research Awards (URAs) are Internal to Stanford research awards where funding is provided through an internal competitive application and award process.

PDRF Approval Guides

  • Default PDRF Approvers and FYIs Guide - Use to setup automatically populating department approvers and/or department FYIs on all PDRFs created for your unit/department.
  • PI PDRF Approval Guide
  • Other Stanford Investigator PDRF Approval Guide - ALL participating Stanford faculty whose effort is budgeted and/or cost shared on a proposal and senior/key personnel that are Stanford and/or SLAC personnel, e.g., Academic Staff Researchers, Snr. Scientists, post docs etc. MUST approve their participation in a proposal and certify the completeness and accuracy of their proposal contents.

Non-SoM IDC Waivers


When PDRFs are Returned for Edits

When a PDRF is being routed for approval each approver e.g. participating investigators, staff approvers, and institutional officials  have the option to return the PDRF for either Minor or Major Edits.

When a PDRF is returned to an administrator for Minor Edits all PDRF fields can be edited EXCEPT the following which can only be edited when the PDRF is returned for Major Edits.

PDRF Edits that can only be made when a PDRF is returned for Major Edits
PDRF PagePDRF Field/Question
PI and Project LocationListed PI
PI and Project LocationIs all of the PI's effort charged directly to this project?
PI and Project LocationHow is the effort being accounted for?
Admin & Sponsor DetailsSponsor
Project PersonnelSLAC Personnel - since the inclusion of SLAC personnel requires routing through the SLAC Proposal Advancement Office
Budget QuestionsDoes this project include cost sharing?
Project QuestionsWill any SLAC personnel (paid by SLAC) be paid by this project? - since the inclusion of SLAC personnel requires routing through the SLAC Proposal Advancement Office
Approvers & CommentsApprovers i.e., adding or deleting
Approvers & CommentsFYIs i.e., adding or deleting
Approvers & CommentsInstitution Official - Name and Office

Need further SeRA assistance? Have questions, feedback, or are experiencing other issues? Please submit a HelpSU ticket to the SeRA Support Team by clicking HERE, and a SeRA Support Analyst will contact you shortly.

<< Back