New Proposal Review Form Revised 09/10/2008 Office of Sponsored Projects (512)

Meeting the Needs of a Dynamic Research Community The Office of Sponsored Projects is pleased to announce the release of its new proposal review form (PRF). This release is the result of a collaborative effort between members of UT-Austin’s faculty, departmental administrators, OSP personnel and ITS programmers. Users will still answer the same questions that were on the old PRF (and a few new ones). These questions remain, because they are required by university, state, or federal regulations and/or policies. The new PRF, however, organizes the questions into more common-sense categories and provides some background information regarding the collection of the data. Many features have been added and a number of enhancements to existing features have been incorporated into the new PRF.

Some features remain the same. To start a new Proposal Review Form, users still select the “Create a New Proposal” link.

PI’s view of the Create New Proposal page.

Administrative Assistant/Associate view: A UT EID is required on the “Create New Proposal” page.

Enhancement  Search function has been added to allow users to find associated OSP numbers when creating a PRF for a supplement or a non-competitive renewal.

Click on the search feature (magnifying glass) to go to PI’s project listing to find the applicable project number. HINT: click on any magnifying glass for search capability.

Enhancement  New Status Dashboard  At a glance, a PI can determine  OSP number  Title  Primary PI’s name  Date PRF created  Status of PRF (proposed, submitted, returned, etc.)  On each page, a user can upload supporting documents  Users no longer have to wait until the last page to upload documents

Status Dashboard

Enhancement  New Interface  Tabbed navigation (Page 1 and Page 2)  Each page contains section headers  Questions organized into common-sense sections  Documentation Checklist tab  Provides a general list of documents a PI may require in support of the proposal  Errors/Warnings tab  Allows users to identify errors within the PRF and provides a link to each error for ease of navigation to problematic fields

Page 1

Page 2

Documentation Checklist

As a user scrolls over each section, the link will change from orange to blue to let users know which section will be selected.

Questions are organized in common-sense categories that users can expand/collapse at will. Users can expand all categories, or can expand one category at a time.

When a user clicks each header or presses the “Show” button, the information fields contained in that particular section drop down.

Enhancement  Users have three ways to save data  If a user forgets to press the “save” or the “save and validate” button, the PRF will automatically save any new data when a user navigates from tab to tab.  Each section has a “save” button that allows users to save data without validation  Each section also has a “save and validate” button that will save the data and will simultaneously run a check for errors/warnings contained in the PRF

Toggling from Page 1 to Page 2 will automatically save any new data entered into the PRF.

In addition, users are able to “save” or “save and validate” from each section. The “save” button will merely save any data entered into the PRF, even if the data is incorrect.

The “save and validate” button will run an assessment of the data entered into the PRF. All errors will be identified and compiled in the Errors/Warnings tab.

The Errors/Warnings tab will show a user the list of warnings or errors preventing submission. HINT: Each error is a link that will guide the user to the error.

Enhancement  Users can click live links and access sites that may contain information needed during the course of preparing a PRF

When a user moves his/her curser over a live link, it will turn blue

Clicking on the link will open another window and take the user to the site.

The following are additional examples of live links.

Some links will be contained within comments or questions.

Enhancement  Users cannot accidentally submit a PRF to OSP before it is completed.

The ‘Submit to OSP’ button will not highlight until all required fields have been correctly entered.

Once all fields have been saved and validated and no errors are found, the ‘Submit to OSP’ button will be activated.

After clicking ‘Submit to OSP,’ a certification statement will appear.

By selecting ‘I Agree,’ the Submit button will activate to finalize submission to OSP.

After clicking ‘Submit’, text will appear letting a user know he/she is finished submitting to OSP. A “Request Return” button will appear, should a user need to update any information.

Enhancement  Users cannot accidentally request a return of a PRF

After clicking the ‘Request Return’ button, a user must let OSP know why the PRF must be returned. Without an explanation, a user cannot recall the PRF.

After selecting ‘Request for Return,’ a message will appear letting the user know he/she will be notified when OSP has returned the PRF. The reason will be posted in the status dashboard.

“Helping Make Research Happen” Questions / Comments should be sent to: