Any faculty or staff member applying for an external grant or fellowship that will be processed through the College (including as part of a subaward), is required to acquire Internal Approval and undergo Final Institutional Review, as outlined below. Materials for these processes are due to the OSRFR, at a minimum, five business days prior to the funder's submission deadline.
Internal Approval
To obtain internal approval, the Principal Investigator and/or Project Director are required to complete two forms: a Pre-Submission Review Form and a Financial Conflict of Interest Form.
The Pre-submission Review Form serves as your official mechanism for securing the necessary pre-submission approvals from authorities on campus. You will need to input the requested budget information, upload a copy of your draft proposal narrative, disclose any facilities impacts and costs to the College, and confirm compliance with various College policies (which are outlined under Preparing a Proposal: Resources, Internal Policy and Processes).
The Financial Conflict of Interest form alerts the college to any potential conflict that may require a management plan. Amherst College's Financial Conflict of Interest Policy can be found here. The standard for PHS grants is applied toward all grant seeking activity at the College.
Your contact in the Office of Sponsored Research and Foundation Relations will provide you with the necessary forms via DocuSign. If you have not yet been in touch with anyone in the OSRFR about your upcoming application, please reach out as soon as possible. Additional information can be found in the FAQs below.
Final Institutional Review And submission
The final institutional review of your complete proposal materials should be requested at least five business days prior to the submission deadline. It is important to ensure adequate time for the OSRFR to conduct a final review of proposal narratives, attachments and budgets for completeness and adherence both to funder guidelines and college policies.
All proposals must be submitted to the funder by an Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR), which can only happen once institutional review is satisfactorily completed. The Director of Sponsored Research and the Director of Foundation Relations serve as the AOR for all grant proposals that are submitted through the College.