Ignoring submission limits can be costly

Recently UT research administrators were notified by a federal project manager that UT had submitted three proposals for a grant competition that allows only two submissions per university. One of the proposals had to be withdrawn, representing a significant loss of time and effort for a UT researcher and colleagues.

Increasingly, federal agencies are putting limits on the number of proposals per institution as the agencies attempt to control their own workloads. Approximately one quarter of all NSF proposals include institutional limits, and NSF officials said recently that there are no plans to end the practice.

The UT response to this trend has been to designate the assistant vice president for research to hold internal competitions. The competitions most often apply to the University of Tennessee as accredited, that is, to the Health Science Center, the Institute of Agriculture, the Space Institute, Institute for Public Service and the Knoxville campus. The process is designed to let the university put forward its best proposals while avoiding the investment of faculty and staff effort in preparing proposals that cannot be submitted.

Internal competitions are held regularly for a number of NSF programs, as well as various THEC programs and other grants and fellowships. Representative faculty with appropriate expertise are used as judges to consider and recommend the proposals that will be submitted in UT's name.

The Office of Research is unable to monitor every award that might limit submissions. It is vital that research administrators for all UT campuses and entities who become aware of such institutional limits notify Arlene Garrison (garrison@utk.edu, 865-974-6410) immediately, so that the need for an internal competition can be determined. Individual researchers preparing a proposal should also be alert for submission limits and contact the Office of Research before they invest time and effort needlessly.