Limited Submission & Internal Competition Policy 

Purpose

This policy outlines the submission process for funding opportunities in which the sponsor sets an institutional limit for the number of proposals it will accept. These opportunities may be from federal sponsors, state sponsors, corporations, or foundations. In order to participate in a Limited Submission Opportunity, Pratt Institute must organize to submit our most competitive proposal(s). This requires an internal competition and institutional peer review. The process is critical to ensure a stronger chance of awards granted, while preventing the submission of more proposals than allowed, possibly leading to the rejection of all proposals from Pratt faculty.

The policy ensures that successful submissions are chosen fairly and in alignment with the Institution’s mission, strategic goals, and academic priorities. The policy guidelines for an Internal Competition apply in the case of Institute Commissioned Works, as they do for Sponsored Works.

Definitions

Limited submission funding opportunities are those wherein the sponsor limits the number of applications an individual institution (in this case Pratt Institute) can submit. Internal competition refers to the process the institution takes to review and nominate applications in limited submission scenarios. 

Policy

The Office of Research and Strategic Partnerships (ORSP) manages both the process for limited submissions as well as internal competitions. Faculty may not apply directly for limited submission opportunities without completing institutional review and receiving institutional approval.

ORSP circulates an Opportunity Watch newsletter, identifying limited submission grants. If a faculty member identifies a limited submission opportunity that has not been published and/or distributed by ORSP, they should notify ORSP of the opportunity before pursuing the application/LOI. 

Limited Submissions Process

Faculty interested in applying for a limited submission funding opportunity are required to submit a letter of intent (LOI) by the deadline published by the Office of Research and Strategic Partnerships (ORSP), which is internal to Pratt and precedes the sponsor’s published deadline. 

1. To provide ample time for proposal preparation, one goal for the Limited Submission Process is to post calls for letters of intent twelve or more weeks prior to the sponsor deadline. The internal deadline for preproposals will be approximately eight to ten weeks prior to the sponsor deadline. Some limited submissions may be released by the funder with very quick turnarounds (less than six weeks), particularly for any government stimulus funding. These Limited Submission Opportunities will be classified as Internal Competitions, but the internal deadline to submit will be approximately one week after public posting of the opportunity.  
2. Interested faculty submit a letter of intent (LOI) via the ORSP Limited Submission LOI  Form by the internal deadline set by ORSP. 
3. Application Review:
   1. If the number of LOIs submitted is less than what is allowable by the sponsor by the internal deadline, there will be no official nomination from the internal competition process. If the number of LOIs exceeds the sponsor’s limitation, LOIs will be reviewed and ranked based on the proposals’ alignment with the Institution’s mission, strategic goals, and academic priorities.
   2. The selected applicants will be notified within 10 business days of initial submission, the Department Chair and Dean will also be notified. Applicants who are not selected will also be notified.
4. Responsibility of PI(s):
   1. If a proposal is selected and the PI or team decides to forgo an application, they must notify ORSP within five days of the selection notice. This allows another proposal to be selected and move forward. If the PI fails to submit a proposal and has not notified the ORSP, the PI runs the risk of being disqualified from future Limited Submission competitions.  
   2. If the proposal is submitted and not funded, the PI may be asked to share feedback received from the sponsor with ORSP of Proposal Support Services, including summary statements and peer and sponsor review comments. This information may be helpful in the selection process for future proposals for that Limited Submission. 
   3. For any sponsored research projects, the applicant must be eligible to serve as Principal Investigator for the project, unless otherwise noted in the Limited Submission. For eligibility requirements, please refer to the ORSP PI Eligibility Policy.
   4. Applicants are expected to respect all internal and external deadlines and may not apply for a limited submission funding opportunity without institutional authorization.
5. Sponsor Deadline
   1. Faculty that are selected to move forward with full submissions will coordinate with ORSP and proceed with the standard proposal development process, e.g. completing a Proposal Routing Form, proposal summary, and budget template, etc.