Contracts & Grants: Resource and Reference Materials

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Proposal Templates

Box.com site for Templates and Examples of many common proposal elements for several sponsors. 

List of Helpful Links on the OCG Website

Budget Guidelines

The proposal budget captures all of the expected project expenditures and should be aligned with both internal policy and the sponsor's budget requirements. A proposal budget is accompanied by a supporting budget justification outlining the details for each budgeted item. See the Budget Preparation and Cost Share page for more information.

Budget Templates

Budget Calculator (updated 10/07/2024)

See Box.com site for Budget Templates and Examples for several sponsors. 

Budget Preparation Cheat Sheet (4/9/2020)

Internal Guidelines

• UCOP Contract and Grant Manual, Chapter 7, Budget and Expenditures (systemwide policy)
• UCOP Contract and Grant Manual, Chapter 8 - Indirect Cost
• Sec. 291, Guidelines for Recharge and Income Activities

Federal Cost Principles

• 2 CFR 200 Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards

Application Guidelines

Sponsor application guidelines specify required proposal components, forms, and templates to be submitted for a funding opportunity. The guidelines also may specify formatting requirements such as page limits, character limits, spacing, margins, font type, and font size. Most importantly, guidelines often outline general grant review and evaluation criteria. Details regarding submission deadlines, eligibility criteria, program goals, project expectations, duration, and award size are given within the a separate document, the 'call for proposals/applications'.

Sponsor Guidelines

State agencies: 

• UTC-220 - University Terms & Conditions - Exhibit “C” for University of California and California State University Agreements
• Model Agreement Template with Exhibits  

Federal agencies:

UC ANR research, extension, and education is supported by several federal sponsor. Review the guidelines for common sponsors given below.

• United States Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA)
• USDA NIFA - Application Development Guide (Proposal development grant writing tips for success)
• United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• United States Forest Service (FS)
  
• National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
  

   

Internal Guidelines

• UCOP Contract and Grant Manual, Chapter 2 - PROPOSAL SUBMISSION AND AWARD ACCEPTANCE/ADMINISTRATION
• Policy on the Requirement to Submit Proposals and to Receive Awards for Grants and Contracts through the University

Forms and Templates

Sponsor-specific templates such as cover pages, biosketches, current and pending support, facility descriptions, and letters of support/ commitment are available for use and reference.

• Internal Forms
• Proposal Checklist Toolkit (internal)
• Request for custom templates

Standard Language

Proposal development will often involve the crafting of specific language to describe UC ANR's institutional research and/or administrative capacity to successfully conduct the proposed research project. The following resources provide an overview of UC ANR's mission, structure, and programming.

• Cultivating California

For standard language templates, please contact your assigned OCG analyst for assistance with a standard grant proposal, or the proposal development coordinator for eligible large grant proposals.

Data Management Plans

Data management plans are commonly required for federally sponsored grant opportunities.  The following select resources guide researchers in the development of data management plans consistent with agency-specific requirements.

• United States Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• National Science Foundation
• National Institutes of Health
• University of California, Data Management Plan (DMP) Tool: Create a Data Management Plan
• Dryad
• Guidelines for Effective Data Management Plans
• Ten Simple Rules for Creating a Good Data Management Plan

Current and Pending / Other Support

Information on Current and Pending and Other Support forms assist awarding agency staff in the identification of potential overlap of support. The goal is to ensure there is no duplication of funding for scientific aims, budgetary, or commitment overlap. An individual’s effort commitment may not exceed 100%. The PI is responsible for reviewing and ensuring accuracy of the information provided prior to submission.

• USDA NIFA Current and Pending Support Template
• NIH
  • UC ANR NIH Other Support Information
  • NIH Other Support website
• NSF Current and Pending Support Website

Data and Analytics

The following open source data resources are available from federal, international, and private organizations that support research within a wide range of disciplines.

These proposal development resources are categorized by topic area as follows:

• Sustainable Natural Ecosystems (SNE)
• Healthy Families and Communities (HFC)
• Sustainable Food Systems (SFS)
• Endemic and Invasive Plants and Diseases (EIPD)
• Water Quality, Quantity and Security (Water)

	SNE, HFC, SFS, Water Data.gov provides access to newly-generated government data. The website features open source data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations. Data.gov is managed and hosted by the U.S. General Services Administration, Technology Transformation Service.
	SNE Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) is the foundation of new innovative environmental science through a distributed framework and sustainable cyberinfrastructure that meets the needs of science and society for open, persistent, robust, and secure access to well-described and easily discovered Earth observational data.
	SNE, SFS, Water The databases within Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) cover a broad spectrum of topics related to food security and agriculture.
	All Initiatives Haver Analytics updates and manages historical time series data for macro strategy and research ranging from daily market data to annual economic statistics.
	SNE The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) is an international repository intended to facilitate ecological and environmental research. It houses metadata gathered from studies conducted at field stations, laboratories, research sites, and individual researchers.
	All Initiatives Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) promotes policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. It features international datasets, statistics, and tools.
	SFS USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) provides statistics for US Agriculture. Production and supplies of food and fiber, prices paid and received by farmers, farm labor and wages, farm finances, chemical use, and changes in the demographics of U.S. producers are only a few examples.
	SNE, SFS The WorldBank provides free and open access to global development data.