Limited Submission

Updated November 21, 2025

Purpose

This procedure applied to all faculty and staff at Arkansas State University eligible to submit proposals to funding mechanisms with limited submission requirements. This document outlines Arkansas State University’s process for managing limited submission opportunities, where the number of proposals an institution can submit is restricted by the funding agency. This ensures the strongest proposals move forward for submission.

Procedure

1. Call for Applications

The Research and Technology Transfer (RTT) office announces an internal competition via email to identify proposals for submission to the funding agency. The announcement includes details about the funding opportunity, submission limits, and internal deadlines. The announcement will be shared with the college deans, carbon copying the members of the Faculty Research Awards Committee, so they are aware of their upcoming responsibility in the process. The deans are responsible for broader dissemination to the departments. RTT will also provide a 3-day Daily Digest notification of the limited submission opportunity for direct, campus-wide dissemination.

2. Submission

Interested applicants must submit a one-page project summary via email to research@astate.edu. The summary should include the elements below, as they pertain to the solicitation:

• Description of the proposed project and its
  • An estimate of the cost, including any plans for academic year buy-
  • Faculty research activities that will be enabled by the
  • Student research training
  • Preparatory activities completed for the
  • Intellectual merit and broader impacts of the proposed research
• A letter of commitment from the relevant dean or department chair, indicating support for the project based on the RTT-provided template, must be included.

3. Internal Review Process

The internal review process consists of two steps:

• Eligibility Review: RTT will review the project summaries to ensure they meet the funding agency's program requirements and that the applicant is eligible to apply.
• Committee Review: The Faculty Research Awards Committee (FRAC) will review eligible project summaries to select the strongest proposal(s) for submission.
  • FRAC will use a 1 (strongest) – 10 (weakest) scoring system to evaluate the The mean of the scores will be used to determine the top scoring proposal.

4. Notification of Selected Proposals

RTT will notify applicants of the outcome of the internal competition. This notification will include next steps for the selected applicant to prepare the full proposal.

Timeline

An example timeline is provided below for the Limited Submission process. This may be modified depending upon the time between original notice and sponsor deadline for full submission.

• Announcement of Internal Competition: As soon as RTT is notified of the opportunity
• Submission Deadline for Project Summaries: Two weeks after initial notification
• Internal Review Period: Two RTT will send a reminder to FRAC members who have not completed their scores one week before the deadline and one day before the deadline.
• Notification of Selected Proposals: One business day after the deadline for internal review
• Finalized Proposal Documents: Must be sent from the PI to RTT 10 business days before the sponsor deadline
• Submission Deadline to Funding Agency: One business day before sponsor deadline