Pre Award Team

Our Goal

The Pre-Award Team partners with COEIT faculty to provide comprehensive administrative and financial support throughout the entire proposal process—from initial internal routing to final submission.

By serving as a collaborative liaison between faculty and the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), we aim to reduce the administrative burden on PIs. This allows our researchers to focus their expertise where it matters most: developing high-quality, competitive technical proposals.

Pro Tip: Early engagement is key. We encourage faculty to submit a pre-award request as soon as a funding opportunity is identified to ensure all internal and sponsor deadlines are met.

What Services Do We Provide?

Our team provides end-to-end support to streamline your submission experience:

• Documentation Management: Creation of collaborative Box folders for secure document editing and storage.

• Solicitation Analysis: Preparation of a one-page Executive Summary of the RFP/FOA/NOFO.

• Financial Planning: Drafting initial budgets and justifications, and refining them alongside the PI until finalized.

• Subaward Coordination: Managing communications and required documentation for all external subrecipients.

• Systems & Compliance: Entering proposals into Kuali for internal routing and uploading finalized materials to sponsor platforms.

• Quality Assurance: Reviewing all proposal components for accuracy and compliance with institutional, federal, and agency-specific regulations.

Working with the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP)

OSP is the only institutional office authorized to submit proposals on behalf of the University. To ensure a successful submission, please keep the following UMBC Deadline Policy in mind:

• 3-Day Rule: Proposals must reach a “ready-to-submit” state no later than three (3) UMBC business days prior to the sponsor deadline.

• Final Cut-off: Any proposal not in a “ready-to-submit” condition by 9:00 am on the sponsor due date will not be submitted and will be returned to the PI.