When a proposal is ready for review, it must be submitted into Worktribe workflow for formal financial assessment and approval. JRO Pre-award will identify via Worktribe dashboards any proposals that are ready for review using the Worktribe Bid Approval status; there is no requirement to email the JRO pre-award liaison to initiate this process.
Bid Approval
Users should highlight any relevant information to approvers by adding a summary note in the comments section on the Worktribe proposal. This is particularly important for any non-standard funding applications where the nature of the funding call or any specific requirements are not clear. This helps all approvers to identify what they are being asked to review.
The requirements for review are:
- Completed Worktribe costing
- Quotations for external third parties
- Research Partner budget breakdowns
- Draft application form budget with finances section completed
The Faculty of Medicine has two Departmental level approvals prior to JRO Pre-award review stage, typically a Divisional or Research Manager approval, followed by a Department Manager or Head of Department approval. High value bids also require approval by the Director of Research Strategy prior to JRO assessment stage. Departments should allow sufficient time to secure Departmental level approvals prior to JRO financial assessment.
The JRO Pre-award liaison will review the application and costings information to ensure that the proposal is financially viable and assess whether any revisions are necessary.
This is only possible if the JRO Pre-award team are given sufficient time to support the application. If revisions are required, JRO Pre-award will liaise with the PI and/or Department. The earlier the submission of an application the more time the JRO and Dept can work in partnership to resolve any potential issues which arise.
Five-Day Rule
An application budget should be submitted into Worktribe workflow and reach JRO Pre-award for financial assessment a minimum of five working days prior to the funder deadline.
The five-day submission rule is in place to allow sufficient time for JRO Pre-award to conduct their financial assessment and raise any queries, for Departments to be able to respond to those queries, and time for any budget amendments required to be made and re-approved by all parties, where necessary. This also allows JRO Pre-award to resource and prioritise in advance as they will be in receipt of multiple applications per week.
Approval and Authorisation
Once a costing has approved on Worktribe, the application can be submitted to the funding body for consideration. If not approved, the application will be withdrawn.
Please click the Approval and authorisation link for detailed information regarding Faculty Approval, College Authorisation, processing time and documentation required.
Many of the larger funding bodies use electronic portals systems and the process typically involves a two- or three-step authorisation before a proposal is received by the funder (Academic > Head of Department > JRO > Funder). Some funder portals are registered under a central contact from the Research Office, but JRO Pre-award will act as the submitter for any applications that go through electronic portals.
Due to the volume of applications within the Faculty we recommend that academics plan to submit applications that require institutional approval via a funding portal 48 hours prior to the funding deadline, to the benefit of all parties. This ensures there is sufficient time to secure approvals where there is more than one authorised signatory required. JRO Pre-award requires time to undertake the final checks on the portal submission and to resolve any outstanding queries. This also reduces the risk that the proposal is not submitted due to either funder system issues or lack of notification that a bid has been submitted into a funder portal.