FAQs: Proposal Preparation & Submission

Unless the sponsor guidelines mandate cost sharing, MIT policy discourages voluntary cost sharing. Refer to the Cost Sharing section for more details on cost sharing.

In cases where there is no pre-defined proposal format, the Office of Strategic Alliances & Tech Transfer (OSATT) recommends you use the Common Components of a Proposal for guidance.  However, there are additional elements that should be included in an industrial proposal that will assist OSATT in putting together a contract.  The proposal should spell out:

• What is the research you will be conducting?
• What is the research the company will be conducting, if applicable?
• Will you or anyone in your lab be conducting any of the research at the company?
• Will the company be sending any personnel to MIT to participate in the research?
• Will you be receiving any materials or data/databases from the company to conduct this research?
• Will you be sending any materials or data/databases to the company as a part of the research effort (as opposed to sharing the research results in a summary report)?
• Will you be using any material or data/databases from a third party in this collaboration (i.e. will you need to use material/data/databases you received from another university, company or other institution)? 
• Will you be collaborating with any third parties (i.e. Broad, a local hospital, another university)
• Do you have any Background IP that you will be bringing to this research effort?  If yes, can you identify that BIP or provide us with the name of your Licensing Officer at the TLO.
• Do you anticipate any patentable inventions arising from this research?

OSATT will provide the sponsor with an MIT Industrial Agreement for their review that reflects the research, as we understand it. Please contact OSATT as early as possible regarding industrial agreements. 

Check the MIT Facts for Proposal Development page.

This is the critical first step in preparing a proposal. RAS has developed some basic information on each of the major sponsors.

In addition, check the sponsor’s website for solicitation guidelines and correct forms. For federal sponsors, use www.grants.gov. Be sure to confirm that the principal investigator (PI) has the current, accurate program solicitation. Refer to Finding Funding.

Research activities will be established in Research WBS elements (numbers 6xxxxxx and greater), and should be proposed at the current negotiated research F&A rate.

Non-research activities will be established in Fund WBS elements (numbers between 2xxxxxx and 3xxxxxxx), and should be proposed at the sponsor’s approved rate. Examples of non-research activities at MIT that receive sponsored program support include:

• Instruction
• Educational service
• Public service
• Student service
• Professional (non-research purpose) travel
• Professional (non-research purpose) conferences
• Graduate and postdoctoral fellowship awards

It is important to understand the distinction between subrecipients and vendors.

Vendors:

• Provide goods and services as part of their normal business operations
• Do not participate in the intellectual direction of the project and, therefore, would not be included as authors on publications.
• Provide similar goods and services to many different purchasers
• Operates in a competitive environment
• Are not subject to compliance requirements

This may be required. Anticipated under-recoveries should be reviewed with the DLCI’s RAS Contract Administrator.

When the sponsor does not have an approved rate for non-research activities, the DLCI should contact the Provost Office to discuss whether the F&A objective should be equivalent to the current fund account overhead and fund transaction fee or to some other rate.

Yes, there are often additional requirements for government contracts. Read the RFP carefully and contact your RAS administrator with questions.