About Us
Welcome to the Pre-Award unit of Grants & Contracts Administration (GCA)! Our unit
is committed to serving as the central resource for faculty and staff who are seeking
external funding for their research and other sponsored programs. Our mission is to
provide administrative support to Principal Investigators (PIs) in their pursuit of
sponsored funding while ensuring compliance with University of North Texas (UNT) policies
as well as federal, state, and private sponsor regulations, terms, and conditions.
Pre-Award services and processes are designed to help facilitate the overall proposal
submission process while balancing the need for institutional and sponsor regulatory
compliance.
All proposals for sponsored program funding, whether new or continuing, must be processed
through the GCA-Pre-Award unit for formal UNT approval and signature prior to submission
to external sponsors.
PIs that have identified a funding opportunity that they would like to pursue should
submit a Grants & Contracts Specialist Request form (GCS Request) to alert GCA Pre-Award of the upcoming submission. A GCA Pre-Award
Specialist will respond to your request within 1-2 business days with your internal
GRAMS Funding Proposal and further instructions.
A GCS Request Form should be submitted 4-6 weeks in advance of a proposal submission
deadline or target submission date. For proposals that are collaborative with other
organizations or universities, the GCS Request form should be submitted at least 8-10
weeks in advance, or even earlier for larger collaborations (3 or more organizations
involved).
Our Services
-
- Assist with ensuring that applications or proposals for funding are prepared in accordance
with sponsor application guidelines
- Our office acts as the Authorized Organizational Official for submitting proposals
for sponsored research, training and other programs through various official web portals
- Serve as a business official/liaison with sponsors for proposal submissions
- Support PIs by providing information, interpretations and guidance for proposal preparation
and submission
- Contact and collaborate with partner institutions to secure all necessary subcontract
documentation or coordinate collaborative submissions as needed
- Assist with budget development
- Review proposals for compliance with sponsor guidelines, federal regulations, cost
accounting standards, and institutional policies for research
- Serve as the source of information for proposal submissions and various sponsored
projects topics
- Prepare and provide education and training resources on issues impacting Pre-Award
aspects of sponsored programs
- Coordinate review and acceptance of awards
- Review grant awards terms & conditions and coordinate for any needed authorized signature
before accepting the award
- Ensure internal compliance approvals are in place for incoming awards
- Review and submit Just-in-Time (JIT) requests
- Submit Programmatic Progress reports
- Initiate no-cost extensions
- Coordinate PI Change requests
- Maintain internal records for accurate reporting of proposals
The level of service that can be provided for review of proposal submissions is dependent
on internal deadlines being met and appropriate lead time being provided. Proposals
that do not meet the internal deadline will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served
basis as time is available, and will not take precedence over other proposals that
have met internal deadlines. Proposals that have not met internal deadlines will receive
a modified level of review, as outlined on the Submission Deadlines page.
Institutional Information
GCA maintains information on UEI, Tax ID, Institutional addresses, Congressional District,
etc., that may be required for your proposal submission. UNT is the applicant on proposal
submissions; institutional legal name and addresses should be used where needed. For
a list of standard UNT information for proposals and awards, please visit the Institutional Information page
University of North Texas 
