The pre-award analyst assigned to your college, department, or center will help you develop a checklist of required documents and address key components of your proposal, including budget, narrative, required compliance documents, institutional information, and a description of core facilities and other resources.
View/download detailed timeline (.pdf) for Principal Investigators.
Development Steps
- Notify your RSP liaison of intent to submit and provide agency information.
- Contact your College’s Grants Officer, if applicable.
- Work with RSP to (1) develop a draft budget and (2) identify all required proposal components.
- Identify collaborators and subcontractors, if applicable.
- Develop drafts of all proposal components.
Elements of the Proposal
The pre-award analyst assigned to your college will follow up with you to develop a checklist of required documents and address the following key components:
Budget: CSUN requires that your request for funding is supported with a detailed budget showing accurate salaries, reassigned time, fringe benefit rates, travel allowances, student training stipends, indirect/facilities and administrative costs, and other appropriate expenses. Your pre-award analyst will provide current rates and help you create an accurate budget. Our required internal budget template can be downloaded from Box.
Narrative: The narrative is where you explain the importance of your research and describe your project in detail. Although this is primarily the responsibility of the PI, your pre-award analyst can steer you toward narrative samples and connect you with reviewers who can provide valuable feedback on early proposal drafts.
Research Integrity and Compliance: If your research has human or animal subjects, your application may have additional requirements. To ensure your research is in compliance with the protection of human and animal subjects, please email irb@csun.edu (for human subjects) or iacuc@csun.edu (for animal subjects) during proposal development to request information on the protocol review process. All protocols must be approved before the start of any research project and prior to expending any research funds.
If potential conflicts of interest are identified, or if your project involves hazardous materials, drones, or potential export control issues, there may be additional steps to resolve before your proposal can be submitted. Please see the Research Integrity section of this website for more information about these areas.
Institutional Information: Commonly requested Institutional Information is provided for your convenience. For submissions made through grants.gov, Cayuse 424 will auto-fill many of the institutional data fields.
Other Resources: Please review the Resources provided to find information on grantsmanship workshops, data management tools, agency guides, and much more.
Drafts of all materials should be provided to your assigned analyst 14 days prior to the deadline, and final documents should be ready for a final review by RSP 2 days prior to the submission deadline (4 days for hard copy submissions).
Assembly/Finalization Steps
- Send working drafts of all proposal components to RSP for review.
- Finalize budget.
- Complete Cayuse SP record and notify RSP that it is ready to route for approval.
Your RSP liaison will follow up with your college to resolve any routing issues.
Create a Proposal Record in Cayuse SP
Cayuse SP maintains proposal records electronically. Records are accessible to Principal Investigators (PIs), appropriate Department Chairs, DFOs, Deans, and CSUN research administration staff. Coordination with RSP is key to a successful, on-time, error-free submission. You may begin your proposal in Cayuse SP, or contact your assigned analyst with questions. Details for creating records in Cayuse are available here.
You can access Cayuse using your CSUN credentials.
Submission Steps
- College-level approvals must be complete.
- Send final drafts of all proposal components to RSP for processing, upload, and submission.
