ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

Submit inquiries to:
irb-brooklyn@liu.edu (Brooklyn Campus) OR
irb-post@liu.edu (Post Campus)

Proposal Preparation

Search for Funding Opportunities

LIU has an account with InfoED SPIN – the world’s largest database of sponsored funding opportunities. Faculty and staff can create an account using their LIU email address on the SPIN website for access from anywhere. Searches can be customized to bring back precisely the results you want, SPIN offers active searching, automated opportunity matching, and daily opportunity notifications. For more information or questions about SPIN, please contact osp@liu.edu.

Before You Begin

Download and review the Grant Submission Checklist.

Before submitting a Letter-of-Inquiry (LOI) or Proposal please contact osp@liu.edu with a cc to Andy.Person@liu.edu with the following information:

  • Your name, college or school, and department
  • Funder and due date
  • Project title and brief project description
  • Link to or copy of funder’s Request for Proposal (RFP)

Once OSP receives above information we will respond typically within two business days with proposal next steps.

Assistance provided by the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) typically includes:

  • Developing and formatting budgets
  • Coordinating proper University clearances and approvals
  • Alerting PI to special requirements and issues
  • Assisting in the coordination of any subcontract materials

For assistance with improving proposal competitiveness , PI's may contact below OSP professionals at least 4-6 months prior to the submission deadline:

Grant Proposal Routing Form

Prior to any submission for external funding, the PI must initiate LIU's Grant Proposal Routing form in OSPPortal to garner the necessary LIU approvals of your proposal. Once the proposal has cleared the routing process, the application is authorized for submission. If you are a new investigator or this is your first grant application, please contact pre-award as soon as possible and submit your annual Conflict of Interest (COI) Disclosure form prior to submitting the grant proposal routing form through OSPPortal. Instructions are below on how to navigate OSPPortal. For additional assistance please contact by email Theresa Faughnan at Theresa.Faughnan@liu.edu.


LIU OSPPortal grant routing form & COI instruction manual
OSPPortal quick guide grant routing form 

Budget Preparation

All budgets must be approved by the OSP prior to submission to the funder. Please contact osp@liu.edu and cc Andy.Person@liu.edu for budget development assistance.

Prior to creating a draft budget:

Faculty/PI must discuss with respective Chair/Director and Dean FTE Percentages and Course Release.

The below information is used to determine FTE Percentages and Course Release/Release Time during budget creation prior to proposal submission:

I. LIU’s Federal Negotiated Facilities And Administrative Costs, and Fringe Benefits cost rate agreement should be used for budgeting purposes.

II. Cost sharing: Typically, cost sharing is allowed only when mandated by the sponsor/RFP. If cost sharing is required, it must be approved by OSP and potentially others prior to application/proposal submission.

III. Course Release Time: Should release time from teaching be requested, PI/faculty must first obtain release-time approval from Chair/Director and Dean prior to proposal submission.

IV. Determining Course Release Time FTE percentages: Course Release Time may be requested when a sufficient FTE % for a particular semester is supported by externally funded grant research activities.

  • After receiving approval from Chair/Director and Dean, all Course Release Time requests must then be approved by Vice President of Academic Affairs (Dr. Adam Marcus), and HR (COO, Joseph Schaefer).
  • The following FTE % may be used as a general guideline, based on a faculty member's annual credit requirement, representing 1 credit of potential Course Release Time for a given semester:
    • 18 credits (9 per semester): 11%
    • 24 credits (12 per semester): 8%
  • LIU’s Cost-of-Living-Adjustment (COLA) is 2.5% on the second year (Based on LIU FY 2024 CBA and subject to change each Fiscal Year). LIU will honor a lower rate if it is mandated by the sponsor and applied to all grants provided by that sponsor.
  • Approval for use of Facilities And Administrative Cost Rates (F&A) lower than the Federally Negotiated rates is required by Vice President for Research (Mohammed Cherkaoui) prior to proposal submission.

The documents below can assist you when thinking about budget categories and required institutional rates for overhead and fringe costs:

Budgeting Primer on externally submitted grant applications 
Budget Template 
Facilities and Administrative and Fringe Benefit Rate Agreements