Proposal Submission Resources
High-quality creative activities and research in the College of A&S at UND boosts educational quality and experience. Funding enables creative activities and research, allowing students and faculty to reach their full potential. Funding also increases effective student participation and thus provides excellent experiences, essential for future careers.
The College of A&S has developed support for proposal/funding submissions. The steps in proposal submission are:
- Submission of the A&S Research Proposal Pre-Submission Form. The ideal is to submit as soon as the faculty member starts considering the proposal, yet at the latest 2 weeks before the submission deadline. Timely submission will alleviate potential challenges with submission and enable the faculty to request appropriate support. Even if all information is not at first available, please fill out the form as much as possible prior to submitting the proposal in Novelution OR if you are applying to an internal award and would like assistance with the process/budget. If you have any questions while filling out the form, please email storey.gillen@und.edu, the A&S Grants & Contracts Specialist.
- The Grant specialist connects with the PI to provide requested support.
- The faculty develops budget w/wo help of the Grants and Contracts Specialist. The budget is requested in the form of an Excel file (Excel is the preferred format as it allows for easy revisions), DATE_Name CAS-award-budget-setup.xlsx.
- The faculty develops narrative of the proposal, and other required documents necessary for submission.
- Faculty or Grants and Contracts Specialist (upon request) uploads proposal and budget with the budget justification on Novelution (ERAC). This must be done at least 5 days prior to the deadline (we recommend it be done earlier), the Novelution system will automatically route the proposal through department chairs and dean's office approvals of all lead personnel when submitted, to ensure the proposal approval process. To ensure effective routing, faculty are advised to let Co-PIs in other colleges know at the time of ERAC submission, as well as informing their grant support personnel.
- Following the Novelution submission and approvals, the proposal is submitted by the faculty or UND Grants & Contracts Office (depending on solicitation).
There is a broad range of sites to search for solicitations listed below. To help, please check out our Hanover resources tab, which may help with streamlining the process. Besides Hanover search which includes both federal and foundation funding, the search can be done utilizing:
UND Resources
- Office of Research & Sponsored Program Development: GrantForward. You can create an account to access GrantForward to take advantage of all of the features that GrantForward offers, you will have to create an account using your institution email address. See GrantForward YouTube Channel for instructional videos.
- Chester Fritz Library Scholarly Communication: Foundation Directory
Federal Resources
- Grants.gov , which is one-source access to standardized grant information, application packages, and processes for federal grant programs across all federal grant-making agencies. See the Workspace Applicant User Guide – A detailed guide to registration, finding, and applying for grant opportunities.
- National Science Foundation and search NSF funding opportunities
- National Endowment for the Humanities
- National Institute of Health and search NIH funding opportunities
- Department of Energy, Department of War (formerly defense), NASA, EPA, U.S. Department of Education
Other Resources & Opportunities
Don’t forget to look at local/state opportunities such as the Ag Products Utilization Commission, ND Corn Council, ND EPSCoR, ND Soybean Council and ND Industrial Commission.
UND A&S has contracted Hanover Resources to provide a wide range of proposal development support. Hanover can support proposals of all sizes, from standard proposals to large, complex submissions. The primary goal of this partnership is to increase the success rate of extramural funding.
Description of Available Hanover Services
By Request
- Proposal Review* (~2-3 weeks): Critique of a proposal draft focused on alignment with the targeted funder and improving grant writing craft aspects of the proposal.
- Proposal Revision* (~3-8 weeks): Editing and revision of a proposal draft with an eye toward funder compliance and alignment, grant writing craft, style/ presentation, and overall competitiveness.
- Consultation Call* (~1 week) : One-on-one consultation with a Hanover Grants consultant on research/program design, addressing reviewer feedback on an unfunded proposal, and/or obtaining feedback from a PO.
- Prospecting Report* Research into suitable funding prospects based on information provided by the PI and research team
Review, Revision, and Prospecting all include scoping calls between Hanover and the faculty to determine needs for proposal submission or prospecting.
On-demand
- Grants Newsletters and Webinars - sign up to receive Hanover's monthly grants webinars, grants calendars, and weekly grant alerts sent directly to your email. Faculty and staff can sign up directly for these updates here (opens in a new window).
- Grants Learning Center** - offers on-demand grants training including essential sessions covering grantsmanship skill building (topics like prospecting, resubmissions, concept development, program office outreach, etc.) and funder-specific modules (NSF CAREER, NIH grants, and non-federal funding resources)
- Hanover Digital** - Hanover's on-demand resource portal. This resource is not only suitable for research, but also provides insights for the educational mission of UND and our programs. Access allows for specific funder searches as well as various reports addressing common topics within Higher Education. Example non-research topics include: Academic Program Demand, Student Support and Success, Enrollment Management, Marketing, Finance and Operations, Artificial Intelligence, and more.
These resources are provided on a first time basis. Our annual agreement allows CAS to assign up to two projects at a time to Hanover.
*The scope and extent of specific services varies; please contact Alena Kubatova, AD for CAR, Alena.Kubatova@UND.edu, for an initial conversation.
**Please contact Alena Kubatova for information on how to access the Grants Learning Center and Hanover Digital.
Besides training resources and webinars provided by Hanover, there is range of resources available.
- Hanover Webinar for NSF Early Career proposal submission recording from Hanover October 2025 CAREER webinar here and the slides.
- Recording from ERAC (Novelution) training, 26-05 15
- Recording from Budget training, 26-05 28
The Excel template shown in the presentation: award-budget-setup-form-remediated.xlsx
- Novelution Training Videos
- RSPD Grant Preparation Resources including Proposal writing series
- Award project and budget reports instructions
Additional UND Resources
- UND Division of Research & Economic Development
- Division of Research & Economic Development Committees
- Research & Sponsored Program Development (RSPD): mediates institutional proposal review, development and submission including budget review and budget preparation.
- Grant & Contracts Accounting: assists with post-award financial and administrative matters related to sponsored projects and is responsible for submitting all required reports to sponsoring agencies
- Conflict of interest
- Policy Updates
- Office of Research Affairs & Compliance
- Excel Budget Templates
- Additional Budget Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Most projects on-campus research rate of 41% of the Modified Total Direct Costs. MTDC are the Total Direct Costs of the project minus individual items of equipment $5,000 or greater, tuition remission, participant support costs, and subcontracts in excess of the first $25,000 for each award. The indirect cost are typically now requests for equipment +$10,000, tuition, participant support.
All proposals are required to include Indirect Costs unless, the Indirect Costs are not allowed by the sponsor (or only allowed at a specific rate). The faculty will need to provide evidence of this and upload it to Novelution. Any projects over $100,000 need to seek VPR approval by submitting an Indirect Cost Waiver/Reduction Form.
CAR Contacts
Regular updates are shared in A&S CAR brief. If you are interested sign up here to be included on Listserve: Join AS CAR listserve or unsubscribe
Do not hesitate to contact us to get started on proposal consideration or submission for initial conversation:
