Route, Submit, and Track Proposal

Routing

Internal Routing and Approval:

The “Routing and Approvals” feature in Cayuse 424 is designed to obtain sequential departmental and institutional approvals of grant application submissions.
This system will be used for internal sign-offs on all applications regardless of whether the actual submission will be made electronically to a federal agency or through the mail.
In the case of NIH submissions, no application can be submitted without the routing chain being complete and approval by the AOR given as the next to last step on the chain.

Begin Internal Routing through Cayuse EARLY:

An application should have all edited fields filled out prior to the beginning of routing.
Once the routing chain has begun, the grant is "locked down" to editing in SP.
You may, however, continue to edit the 424 application.
Please note that biosketches and scientific attachments do not have to be included at this point. They can be added post-approval and prior to submission.
Once an application is complete, with mandatory forms filled out and included in the documents section, routing should begin as early as possible, to give all internal compliance departments ample time to review and approve the submission.
Should you need to edit a field that has been locked down in SP, while the grant is still moving through departments, contact Ray Hosein.

Approving Units

It is the PI’s responsibility to ensure that all required institutional reviews and approvals are issued prior to submission of this grant application.

The routing chain is a string of units and individuals who need to approve a proposal. The Admin unit is always the first on the routing chain.

Other units will be added when:

a person in a unit is added to the research team as a key participant.
the unit is a parent of the unit that has been added.

NOTE: If you add a unit in error, you can remove the unit before routing. All departments have two units. The “Z” units were created to allow administrators to add him/herself to the routing chain before OGS Budget.

Please see the below example:

Parallel Routing

Parallel Routing is enabled so that many of the approvals IRB, OCT, IACUC can occur simultaneously.
Build your routing order in column 1 below.
You can use the same number for multiple department approvals.
If you do so, those with the same number will route for approval simultaneously.
The routing chain works in tiers:
- Tier 1 has to approve first, then its routed to all 2s. Once all 2s approve, its routed to 3s and so on

For more information on the Einstein Administrative Departments, click here.

Cayuse SP Routing and Approvals

Cayuse Handbook

Cayuse FAQs

As per the Cayuse Policies and Procedures GRT-POL-2018-001 Section III.B.3, effective February 12, 2019, please route your grant application eight (8) days prior to the deadline.
If it is a clinical trial, or involves patients’ charges, OCT needs to review the budget. They require at least 2 weeks.
Applications are “locked down” for editing fields in SP and uploading anything into the budget section when the routing button is checked off
You can ask for permissions to go in and edit, post-completion of routing, however only for the scientific and administrative portion, not the budget
All federal applications must be submitted through Proposals 424; non-federal application submission steps might vary
If a grant submission is “last minute,” it can be a lengthy process involving various departments and there are many factors that can delay approvals. It is up to the PI and/or his/her administrator to make sure they contact every department involved (and monitor the progress) in order to get it submitted on time.

Click My Proposals on the Proposal Dashboard.
On the Unsubmitted Proposals tab, click the proposal number that is ready to be routed.
Click “submit for routing” beneath the Item List on the left side of the screen. If you get an error when you click this button, the proposal cannot be routed yet. Check the Item List and complete the necessary sections.
Read the Submission Confirmation statement to understand what will happen when the proposal record is submitted for routing.
Click ”Yes” to acknowledge the submission certification.

Note : You will not be able to change the application in Cayuse SP once the routing has started. If you need to make changes to the proposal after submitting it for routing, you can ask a Cayuse SP System Administrator to change the proposal back to the Unsubmitted status, or you can ask the first unit approver to reject it, which will reopen the proposal. Reopened is similar to Unsubmitted in that you will be able to edit the proposal while it is Reopened.

Order of the cayuse routing chain:

PI
Chair
Office of Grant Support-Non-Budget
Dean’s Office
As Needed: CCI (Einstein’s IRB), IACUC, and/or EH&S
- (if Humans, Animals or Health/Safety issues are involved)
Office of Grant Support-Budget
Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR)*
FCOI (Financial Conflict of Interest)
Office of Biotechnology (if applicable)
MWBE (if applicable)
Graduate division (if it is a graduate student fellowship)

Reminder: There is parallel routing in tiers. The Cayuse SP status will change from Unsubmitted to Approved.

PI Certification

Applications will not be approved by the OGS without PI Certification. PIs must certify the Cayuse proposals either electronically or by signing a paper form, which needs to be uploaded to Cayuse SP.

You will receive an email from Cayuse:

Log in to Cayuse SP and on the left-hand menu, click on PI Certification Inbox
Beneath the “To be Certified” tab, click on the proposal number of the proposal you need to certify
Review the proposal by clicking on the PDF icon or proposal number
After reviewing the proposal, click on Certify Proposal beneath the Item List or on the Proposal Routing Status screen
Enter comments regarding the proposal (required). These will be visible to the Research Team, and the Central Admin Office
Click Submit Certification to acknowledge the certification statement.

Step 1: PI receives an email alerting the PI Certification is required with a link to Cayuse.
Click on the Certification link from the email
Click "PI Certification Inbox" under the certification/Approvals section
Click the Proposal Number (ex: 20-0010)
Under "Proposal Routing Status" click the pdf after "Proposal:"
Click "Certify Proposal"
Another page will appear with a comment box underneath and a Submit Certification tab below it. Enter comments (required). These will be visible to the Research Team, proposal reviewers, and the Central Admin Office.
Click Submit Certification to acknowledge the certification statement.

Note: For an MPI application, only the Contact PI needs to certify the application.

Authorizing or Rejecting a Proposal

Review the proposal
At the bottom of the proposal menu, click Authorize Proposal or Reject Proposal on the Proposal Routing Status screen.
Enter any comments you have regarding the proposal. This field is required. Your comments will be visible to the Research Team, proposal reviewers, and the Central Admin Office.
Click Submit Authorization or Submit Rejection to acknowledge the authorization statement.

When you reject a proposal, it receives the status Reopened, and the Research team and creator will be able to edit it and resubmit it for routing.

If you authorize the proposal, the next Approver will receive an email notifying them that they need to review the proposal.

Submitting

Please visit NIAID’s Submit an Application Site

Once routing is complete and approval by an AOR has been given, the PI may submit the grant application.
Please follow Einstein’s submission guidelines by submitting well before (at least 1 day before) the deadline to allow for correction of unforeseen errors.
Make sure a grant tracking number is obtained at the time of submission (it appears in the pop-up window approximately 60 seconds after the 'submit' button is pressed).
Federal guidelines suggest that applications be submitted two days before that deadline so that the applicant can review the correctness of the submission and resolve any difficulties that may arise in the submission process
You can always submit a changed/corrected application until the deadline.
Post-deadline corrections may result in a rejected application, withdrawn without review.

For DOD applications: Grants.gov (Cayuse 424) is only used to submit the Full Application. Any pre-application (LOI) materials must be submitted via eBRAP. The information submitted in the pre-application must be identical to what is submitted in the full application in order to prevent errors.

For NSF applications: Research.gov must be used for all NSF submissions.

NSF submission guidelines
NSF automated proposal compliance checks (similar to errors/warnings)

Submitting through Cayuse

Cayuse Submission Steps:

Log in to Cayuse 424
Find the application
Review the Errors and Warnings at the bottom of the main panel. Click on the error box to expand and view the error/ warning detail.

Note: The errors and warnings are based on the sponsor selected in the drop-down box to the right. They will change based on whether NIH, HSS - Other, etc… are selected.

The NIH validation type is built for the eRA Commons validation system.
The HSS – Other validation type is a broader validation type that does not include eRA Commons validation system.

Click on Electronic Submission on Proposal Management (at the bottom of the left panel)
A new page appears
Check off the button “Submit to Grants.gov after validation”
Click Validate Proposal

DoD Submission Process:
All applications, even DOD, must be entered and routed through Cayuse. Cayuse SP approval by OGS is mandatory. Once validated in 424, the application will get assembled in eBRAP via system-to-system transfer from grants.gov. The AOR can log into eBRAP and notify the PI/DA if there are any errors. PI must fix the errors (if any) and verify at the end on eBRAP for final submission.

A new box pops up. Click the Submit button.

You may not have permission to submit. If you see these buttons are greyed out, contact Ray.

Submitting through Other Submission Portals

Not all proposals can be submitted through Cayuse. Some grants need to be submitted using the appropriate portals.
Click here for additional submission portals. For more, please visit your sponsor’s website.
The following sites are also submission portals, but Einstein does not use these for pre-award submission. Einstein uses these for post-award management:
- ASSIST
- Grants Solutions
- Workspace

Tips for Submitting with Subawards

If you are using subcontractors or sub-awardees in your proposals and if the subaward institution is using Cayuse, recommend your co-investigators use the web portal at www.Subawards.com to develop their budgets.
Make sure that key personnel in all sub-awardees have eRA Commons ID and those are entered correctly.
Ensure that the internal key personnel are correctly affiliated with new Einstein and their roles are correct.
Try to submit the proposal a day early even it is not complete. Thus, you will be able to determine what is missing or if anything is wrong administratively. You will be able to submit a changed/corrected application as many times as needed up to the deadline without any penalties.

Submission Helpdesk

Are you experiencing system issues with ASSIST, Grants.gov, System for Award Management (SAM), or the eRA Commons that you believe threaten your ability to submit on time?

NIH will not penalize applicants who experience confirmed issues with federal systems that are beyond their control. The PI must report the problem to the appropriate helpdesk before the submission deadline.

NIH eRA Commons

Contact the eRA Helpdesk for issues related to the electronic grants process

Phone: 301-402-7469

Toll Free: 866-504-9552

TTY: 301-451-5939

Business hours M-F 7a.m.-8 p.m. EST

Email: commons@od.nih.gov

Grants.gov Customer Support

Toll Free: 1-800-518-4726

Business Hours M-F 7 a.m.-9 p.m. EST

Email: support@grants.gov

ONLINE Ticketing System - Submit a Web Ticket

Tracking

Each PD/PI is responsible for tracking his/her own applications.

Pre-submission: routing progress should be monitored, in case of email failure/departmental delay--and the appropriate departments should be contacted if something is taking longer than expected.
Post-submission: NIH (in particular) sends out several email notifications, in quick succession. IF they are not received, this may be a sign of a potential problem. Contact the Office of Grant Support for assistance.

Once the proposal is submitted, eRA Commons is used to:

View errors and warnings
Track proposal statuses - NIH Table
View assembled application image
Track receipt and referral
View scores/ summary statement- Note: The scores are only available to the PI, not the DA or OGS/ the AOR

View Errors and Warnings

A complete list of eSubmission errors and warnings for NIH grant programs can be found here.

Please see NIH’s Submit, Track, and View Your Application site

Once you submit your application to Grants.gov, they perform some basic application checks and they send notifications to the PD/PI and AOR email addresses on the SF424 (R&R) form regarding:
- Errors prevent successful submission–your application will not be accepted until all errors are resolved and the AOR submits a complete “Changed/Corrected” application through Grants.gov.
- Warnings do not stop processing and are addressed at the discretion of the applicant.
Email can be unreliable. Check your application status in eRA Commons. Allow up to 4 hours from the time you submit to Grants.gov for the status to appear in eRA Commons.
If a problem is found, Grants.gov rejects your application with a "Rejected with Errors" status. You must address all errors and submit again. If no problem is found, Grants.gov places your application in a queue for agency retrieval.
Once the agency receives your error-free application, a consolidated document of all your submitted forms and attachments is created in a consistent format. Headers, footers, a table of contents, and bookmarks are added and the assembled application image is placed in eRA Commons Status tab for you to view.

View Assembled Application Image

Viewing your application in eRA Commons is the best way to ensure NIH has received it correctly.
You have a 2 business day application viewing window (weekends and federal holidays don't count) to check your assembled application image before it moves on to our receipt and referral staff for further processing.
- If you decide to make additional changes within this window, you must reject the eApplication and then submit a changed/corrected application.
- You must complete any corrective submissions before 5 p.m. on the due date (even if making corrections within the viewing window) to be considered on time.
- For administrative supplement applications, NIH offers an option for a signing official (SO) to bypass the full standard 2-business day application viewing window in eRA Commons Status and move the supplement application forward for agency processing without waiting for the application viewing window to expire. See NOT-OD-23-011. As a reminder, applicants are encouraged to discuss potential requests with the awarding institute or center prior to submission.
- Organizations must carefully review their applications prior to using the Verify action to mitigate the need for resubmissions.
You can no longer make changes to your application through Grants.gov after the application viewing window unless you officially withdraw your application from consideration.
Your corrective submission (whether done before or after the deadline) replaces your previous submission. You cannot reject or withdraw your submission and return to a previous version (i.e., previous submission is void.)

If changes are still needed after the viewing window has expired, it may be possible to request them by contacting the CSR Division of Receipt and Referral. To correct something like the title, the AOR/SO needs to send a PDF making the request with their ink or electronic signature. Be sure to include title, contact PI name and any other identifiers such as application ID or grant tracking number. Once received, DRR can update.

Source: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/how-to-apply-application-guide/submission-process/submit-track-view.htm

Track Receipt and Referral

Please see NIH’s Receipt and Referral and Submission and Assignment sites

All grant applications submitted to the NIH go to the Division of Receipt and Referral (DRR) within the Center for Scientific Review (CSR).
They will check your application for completeness, assign it to a Scientific Review Group, and assign it to one or more Institutes/Centers (ICs) for funding consideration.
Tracking during “Receipt/Referral” phase - The assignment and the contact information for the Scientific Review Administrator (SRA) will be reflected in eRA Commons under Status.

Requesting a Change in Study Section

If you submitted an investigator-initiated R01, R21, or R03 application and feel your application was not assigned to an appropriate study section, you can request a change:

Check the CSR Integrated Review Groups to find an alternative. Find roster links at the top of the study section pages.
Discuss your alternative with the chief of the IRG for your assigned study section. Find his or her contact information in the CSR Staff Directory or ask your SRO if you cannot find it online. (Don’t contact the listed reviewers.)

To make your request, email csrdrr@mail.nih.gov requesting a new assignment and briefly stating the rationale for the change. Below is an example of an acceptable and an unacceptable request.

Acceptable: "The focus of study section X seems to be more on the structural biology of molecules of immunologic importance. Since my application proposes to develop new antibodies for Phase I human studies, the clinical perspective of reviewers on study section Y is critical to appreciate the approaches I have taken."
Not acceptable: "I don't want X reviewers but want Y instead."

Peer Review: View Scores/Summary Statement

Please see NIH’s Peer Review site

Peer Review Process:

The first level of review is carried out by a Scientific Review Group (SRG; also referred to as study sections) composed primarily of non-federal scientists who have expertise in relevant scientific disciplines and current research areas.

Review Criteria and Scoring

What Peer Reviewers Look For

Usually within one week of the review committee (study section) meeting any available score and percentile information can be found in the Application Information section of the Status Screen (see: Scoring System and Procedure).

Tracking during “Peer Review” phase

Score and percentile - Following the review group meeting, any available score and percentile information can be found in the Application Information section of the Status screen.
Summary Statement - Approximately 3 weeks after the review meeting a full Summary Statement is available in the Other Relevant Documents section.

Finding your score and summary statement

The second level of review is performed by Institute and Center (IC) National Advisory Councils or Boards. Councils are composed of both scientific and public representatives chosen for their expertise, interest, or activity in matters related to health and disease.

Only applications that are recommended for approval by both the SRG and the Advisory Council may be recommended for funding. Final funding decisions are made by the IC Directors.
PIs whose applications were scored as competitive may receive a request to send post-submission additional materials to the funding IC. Please note that only a portion of the applications in this group will eventually be funded and the request for this just-in-time information is NOT a guarantee that your application has been selected for funding.
Reviewers will use Internet Assisted Review (IAR) to submit critiques and preliminary scores, which allows reviewers, SRAs, and GTAs to view all critiques in preparation for a meeting.

See the NIH FAQ site for Scores and Funding and NIAID’s Understanding Paylines and Percentiles

Office of Grant Support