Using Data to Evaluate the Impacts of Internal Deadline Policy on Grant Proposal Success
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| Title: | Using Data to Evaluate the Impacts of Internal Deadline Policy on Grant Proposal Success |
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| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Hanin Alhaddad, Celeste Rivera-Nuñez, Joshua Roney |
| Source: | Research Management Review. 2025 28(1):1-21. |
| Availability: | National Council of University Research Administrators. 1015 18th Street NW Suite 901, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-466-3894; Fax: 202-223-5573; e-mail: info@ncura.edu; Web site: http://www.ncura.edu/ |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 21 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Grants, Program Proposals, Research Proposals, Administrative Policy, Research Administration, Success |
| Geographic Terms: | Florida |
| ISSN: | 1068-4867 |
| Abstract: | Grant proposals contribute to advancing research at higher education institutions. Pre-award research administration is critical in developing proposal submissions through services provided and the application of internal and external policies. Internal submission deadline policies enable research administration personnel to ensure proposals meet institutional standards and comply with funding agency requirements. However, the impact of internal deadlines on proposal success needs to be better understood. A data-driven analysis was applied to proposals submitted by a public R1 institution in the United States (American Council on Education, n.d.) between 2017 and 2022. The analysis focused on, first, understanding the effect of an internal submission deadline policy on proposal submission trends, success rates, and funding amounts. Further, it explored the association between compliance with the internal deadline policy and factors such as proposal success, funder category, deadline month, Principal Investigator (PI) previous funding, PI's previous proposal submission, award tier, institutional divisions, and PI appointment, and whether the proposal was COVID-19-related. Statistical tests, including paired t-tests and Chi-Squared tests, were used to assess the impact of the policy by comparing years before the internal submission policy and its implementation in an electronic Research Administration (eRA) system with years following the internal submission policy and its implementation and, additionally, to understand the association between the internal submission deadline policy compliance and other factors during years the policy was active. The findings from the first part of the analysis suggested that although implementing the internal submission deadline policy did not significantly affect the institution's overall success rate, a notable increase in submissions was observed, indicating that the policy did not hinder the submission rate. In addition, the analysis revealed a strong association between compliance with the internal submission deadline policy and factors such as funder category, deadline month, division, year, and award tier. Yet, no significant association was found between internal policy compliance and PI's previous submission, PI's previous funding, or PI's appointment. A post hoc test was carried out to understand where the differences came from; the results revealed patterns across the institution's proposal submissions related to divisions, funder types, months, and award tiers. While the results indicate that 32% of all funded proposals at the institution were late to the internal submission deadline policy, the success rate for noncompliant proposals submitted to the different funder types was, on average, 5% less than the success rate for proposals submitted in compliance with the internal submission deadline policy, in addition to finding a stronger likelihood between non-compliant proposals that are declined over those that are funded. Finally, with the COVID-19 pandemic and institutional operations switching to increases in remote work overlapping with the fiscal years 2020, 2021, and 2022 used in the analysis, the results did not indicate a negative impact on productivity. On the contrary, an increase in submissions by 10% and 8% was observed in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 from fiscal year 2019, respectively. The results were used by the institution to evaluate and revise the current policy; the analysis provides a data-driven evaluation methodology that can be applied at other institutions. This paper expands on a 2023 National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) pre-award conference presentation demonstrating early results, and a subsequent conference paper with additional data, research, and findings (Alhaddad et al., 2023; National Council of University Research Administrators [NCURA], n.d.). |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2026 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1507970 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | Grant proposals contribute to advancing research at higher education institutions. Pre-award research administration is critical in developing proposal submissions through services provided and the application of internal and external policies. Internal submission deadline policies enable research administration personnel to ensure proposals meet institutional standards and comply with funding agency requirements. However, the impact of internal deadlines on proposal success needs to be better understood. A data-driven analysis was applied to proposals submitted by a public R1 institution in the United States (American Council on Education, n.d.) between 2017 and 2022. The analysis focused on, first, understanding the effect of an internal submission deadline policy on proposal submission trends, success rates, and funding amounts. Further, it explored the association between compliance with the internal deadline policy and factors such as proposal success, funder category, deadline month, Principal Investigator (PI) previous funding, PI's previous proposal submission, award tier, institutional divisions, and PI appointment, and whether the proposal was COVID-19-related. Statistical tests, including paired t-tests and Chi-Squared tests, were used to assess the impact of the policy by comparing years before the internal submission policy and its implementation in an electronic Research Administration (eRA) system with years following the internal submission policy and its implementation and, additionally, to understand the association between the internal submission deadline policy compliance and other factors during years the policy was active. The findings from the first part of the analysis suggested that although implementing the internal submission deadline policy did not significantly affect the institution's overall success rate, a notable increase in submissions was observed, indicating that the policy did not hinder the submission rate. In addition, the analysis revealed a strong association between compliance with the internal submission deadline policy and factors such as funder category, deadline month, division, year, and award tier. Yet, no significant association was found between internal policy compliance and PI's previous submission, PI's previous funding, or PI's appointment. A post hoc test was carried out to understand where the differences came from; the results revealed patterns across the institution's proposal submissions related to divisions, funder types, months, and award tiers. While the results indicate that 32% of all funded proposals at the institution were late to the internal submission deadline policy, the success rate for noncompliant proposals submitted to the different funder types was, on average, 5% less than the success rate for proposals submitted in compliance with the internal submission deadline policy, in addition to finding a stronger likelihood between non-compliant proposals that are declined over those that are funded. Finally, with the COVID-19 pandemic and institutional operations switching to increases in remote work overlapping with the fiscal years 2020, 2021, and 2022 used in the analysis, the results did not indicate a negative impact on productivity. On the contrary, an increase in submissions by 10% and 8% was observed in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 from fiscal year 2019, respectively. The results were used by the institution to evaluate and revise the current policy; the analysis provides a data-driven evaluation methodology that can be applied at other institutions. This paper expands on a 2023 National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) pre-award conference presentation demonstrating early results, and a subsequent conference paper with additional data, research, and findings (Alhaddad et al., 2023; National Council of University Research Administrators [NCURA], n.d.). |
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| ISSN: | 1068-4867 |
