Proposal Development

This topic explains how to create, maintain, route and submit Proposal Development documents. Proposal Development documents are electronic documents that are part of the KC Proposal Development module and are linked to Budget documents in the system.

In this topic:

Overview

Access

Jump to page subtopics:

Abstracts and Attachments

A Proposal in KC can be developed by an individual or a group. It provides detailed technical and business information pertaining to a proposed project that is presented to potential outside sponsor organizations, either unsolicited or in response to a specific funding announcement. Ideas for possible projects are submitted to sponsor agencies for their review and consideration. If the ideas proposed to the sponsor are favorable to both parties involved, the successful outcome of the proposal submission is that an award agreement to the institution is initiated that grants the researcher a designated dollar amount for use in their outlined mission.

Overview

The Proposal Development Document e-doc screen is comprised of a document header, ten pages, with action buttons appearing at the bottom (some of which are unique to specific pages). The proposal development document represents a series of pages that enable the user to create an electronic version of the proposal, but it also includes access to functionality to the Budget Document, which is a separate e-doc that is meant to be used in conjunction with the proposal. These pages will accommodate all the information required by the sponsor and the institution for a full proposal submission.

Access

Here are some of the various ways you can access a Proposal Development document in the KC user interface:

• Researcher menu > Proposals menu group > Create Proposal link

• Unit menu > Pre-Award menu group > Proposal Development add button

• Central Admin menu > Pre-Award menu group > Proposal Development add button

• Action List screen > Document Id column > link

• Doc Search screen > Search Results table > Document Id column > link

• Budget document > return to proposal button

When the new Proposal Development Document appears, the document type is displayed in the upper, left corner of the screen just under the header area.

User Interface Labeling Differences:

• Proposal Development Document, Proposal Document, Proposal E-Doc and Proposal refer to the same thing in KC and are user interface terms that may be used interchangeably, both within the KC user interface screens themselves, and throughout the various types of KC documentation when referencing them.

• The Create Proposal link and Proposal Development add button accomplish the same thing: the creation (or initiation) of a new, blank Proposal document with a unique document number.

• Document Number, Doc Nbr, and Document ID refer to the same thing in KC and are user interface terms that may be used interchangeably.

• Document ID links from Action List or Doc Search workflow screen tables both access existing (as opposed to new) Proposal documents.

For more information about e-doc access, see “Access” on page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Document Header

The document header in the Proposal document (top, right corner of screen) displays six fields of identifying information about the proposal.

Figure 142Proposal Development Document - Document Header

The new Proposal Development Document is automatically assigned a Document Number (Doc Nbr) by the system with a status of ‘In Progress’. This information is displayed in the upper, right corner of the screen.

Table 51 Document Header Definition – Proposal Document

Field	Description
Doc Nbr	This is a number that uniquely identifies the proposal that is currently accessed and displayed.
Initiator	The user name of the person who first added (or created) this proposal.
Sponsor Name	The textual name that uniquely represents the primary sponsor associated with this proposal (required entry by Initiator during add process).
Status	The state this document is currently in as it relates to the completion of the document (not its routing or submission).
Created	The time and date this document was created.
PI	The textual name of the Principal Investigator as specified on the Key Personnel page. The individual bearing primary responsibility for all essential aspects of the project or protocol, including programmatic work, compliance with government, sponsor and university policies and regulations, fiscal stewardship of sponsored funds, and all administrative requirements of the project. The Principal Investigator/Project Director/Program Director (PI/PD) is the individual designated by the grantee, and approved by the sponsoring agency, who will be responsible for the scientific or technical direction of the project. If more than one, the first one listed will have primary responsibility for the project and the submission of reports. All others listed are considered co-PI/PD, and share in the responsibility of the scientific or technical direction of the project. The term "Principal Investigator" generally is used in research projects, while the term "Project Director/Program Director" generally is used in education, and service projects. The federal government is making the switch to the term “PD/PI” for all projects.

	It is important to note that the document headers in KC are not always the same regardless of document type (for example, the Budget document’s is slightly different than other e-docs).
	For more information about the document header are, see Header Area in E-Doc Fundamentals.

Pages

Proposal documents are made up of the following twelve pages, each of which contain one or more tabbed sections:

Figure 143Proposal Development Document Page Layout

Each clickable folder tab represents a different “page” within the larger Proposal Development Document. The currently-displayed page’s tab has a white background, while the others have a grey background. The Proposal tab is by default the first tab to be displayed. In general, the pages are ordered in such a way as to facilitate completion from left to right.

Table 52Proposal Development Document - Page Descriptions

Page	Description
Proposal	Record basic proposal information, including a minimum amount to save a work-in-progress document.
S2S	Submit federal proposals directly to the Grants.gov or Research.gov on-line systems for certain funding opportunities, based on eligibility requirements specified by each sponsoring agency.
Key Personnel	The role in which each Key Person will be assigned for the proposed sponsored project. A named contributor (other than the PI) who is integral to the proposed sponsored project, or who makes a significant contribution to the scientific development or execution of the project, including Consultants (if applicable) and mentors on Career awards. This includes Key Personnel and Other Significant Contributors as defined by NIH and Grants.gov. All individuals who contribute in a substantive, measurable way to the scientific development or execution of the project or protocol, whether or not salaries are requested (NIH definition).
Special Review	A special review refers to a grant proposal that requires additional review by an institutional committee or official (e.g. proposals that include the use of human participants in research).
Custom Data	A set of additional data elements needed that are not available out of the box from the application.
Abstracts and Attachments	The abstract, or project summary, is a concise, clear, and brief description of the project. It should outline the problem, the objectives, expected outcomes, including significance of the project to the field being studied. The abstract is usually written in less technical language than the proposal narrative.
Questions	Collect institution-specific data by question groups. In the Proposal module, the Questions page is also used to collect answers to specific grants.gov questions.
Budget Versions	View information about the different potential budgets that are works in progress in addition to the one currently accessed. One of these candidates will eventually be selected to be the final version associated with a Proposal document. This is the page that is displayed by default when the Budget document is first accessed.
Permissions	Identify which users are permitted to perform which actions to which areas of the document.
Proposal Summary	View information about this proposal as presented to approvers.
Proposal Actions	This page allows you to validate the document against predefined rules, fix errors, print, copy & route the Proposal document for approval.
Medusa	Displays a hierarchical view of Proposal > Award or Award > Proposal information.

Action Buttons

Upon initiation of a new, blank Proposal Development document, three action buttons are displayed: save, reload & close.

You must populate the required fields on the Proposal page to progress to subsequent pages.

Upon navigation to the Proposal Actions page, additional action buttons appear: submit and cancel.

For more information, see “Action Buttons” on page 71 in Selection, Entry & Action Tools.

Concurrent Editing

The Proposal Development document has three sections that can be edited simultaneously by multiple people – Proposal, Attachments, and Budget. After one section is being edited, that section is locked, meaning only clicking the close button will “exit” the document and remove the lock.

Process

The Proposal Development shares functionality that is common to most e-docs in KC. Many basic procedural tasks that apply to the Proposal Development document also apply to many other e-docs. These generic or common procedures are in the Overview portion of this documentation set – a convenient cross-reference to which is provided below:

For general procedural “how-to” information about initiating, copying, saving, reloading, closing, canceling, searching for, submitting, and routing e-docs such as Proposal Development, see “Common E-Doc Operations” on page Error! Bookmark not defined. .

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