EPCF Submission

EPCF – How to Submit Your Proposal for OSP Internal Review 

Hi, I'm Dale Huls, Director of the Office of Sponsored Programs or OSP. 

 

Welcome to the OSP Training module where we'll cover the Electronic Proposal Clearance Form or EPCF for short. Leslie Schmidt will lead you through the key elements of the proposal submission process and the system itself. 

 

Please note the EPCF system is internal to MSU. I want to emphasize it is not a submission to the sponsor. That happens through the sponsor’s proposal system after OSP's review at MSU,  

 

Five hundred and twenty-four new grants were open in fiscal year 2023, with OSP engaging the project life cycle each step along the way from proposal submission to the close out of a grant or award. All of these are submitted first through EPCF, the system we use to manage, track, report on, and collaborate with stakeholders in the project. It's really at the heart of our ability to effectively manage MSU's research projects. We hope you'll find that the system is intuitive and easy to use. 

 

This presentation is a good overview, but if you have any specific questions or issues, OSP is here to help. Now I'll turn it over to Leslie to walk you through how to navigate the main areas of the system and how to submit your proposal for review and approval. 

 

1:19 

Let me start by defining the EPCF, which stands for Electronic Proposal Clearance Form. This is a form as well as a complete system used for submitting, reviewing, tracking, approving and reporting on grants and proposals. It is a required step. This is the way to have your proposal reviewed before you submit to your sponsor.It is also the way that your extramural activity is communicated to your department head and dean. It provides information for the Activity Insight database, so you don't need to enter this data when completing your annual review materials. 

 

1:54 

Proposal Timeline 

This step in the research proposal timeline is one of the last ones. As you know, there is much work that is done on a proposal before you get to the point where you are ready to submit it in the EPCF system for review and approvals. You may well start your proposal much earlier than four weeks ahead of the deadline with department reviews, collaboration with sub awards, developing your budget, gathering and completing the required forms and templates, and final preparation of the proposal, depending on your commitments and the complexity of your proposal.  

 

No later than 72 hours from the proposal submission deadline, you'll want to submit your final or near-final package to the Office of Sponsored Programs to be reviewed and gain the required approvals. 

This allows sufficient time for your proposal to be reviewed thoroughly by all the appropriate parties and for any errors or deficiencies to be addressed. By waiting until the last minute to submit your proposal, you may jeopardize your submission and all of your hard work. 

 

OSP will then submit the proposal on your behalf to the appropriate site as required by your sponsor. 

 

3:03 

You might ask, why do OSP and other approvers need the proposal three days ahead of the submission deadline? Here's why; there's a fair bit to review. 

 

OSP will be looking at: 

• Do we have the right documentation? 
• Are the right forms and formats being used using experience from many other proposals? 
• Is your budget missing anything? 
• Are the expenses in the right category?  
• Are the costs in the right categories? 
• Is there anything we expect the sponsor to object to for sub awards? 
• Do we have any risk with a proposed collaborator? 
• Do we have history with a partner that's relevant related to compliance? 
• Do you have the right protocols identified? 

 

Your department head and dean will be looking at what resources will be allocated and how the project fits into the overall MSU strategic plan. 

 

And finally, the Vice President for Research and Economic Development or her designee will be signing off on the University's overall support of the research. 

 

4:03 

To log into the EPCF application for the first time, you'll need to have your net ID added to the EPCF security tables by calling OSP. The number is on the screen. Your user ID is your net ID which is a 7 digit alphanumeric combination, and you will want to allow popups from the browser when prompted.  

 

There is a page on the OSP website shown to the right with the login Start page link and some other useful information. 

 

4:32 

Let's start by clicking “Begin and Revise Proposals” and open a new proposal. If it's a full proposal, you'll click here. 

 

If it's a pre-proposal, you'll click here. 

 

If you're doing a full proposal as a result of a pre-proposal, you can refer to the proposal number and it will pull in some information that you entered in the Pre proposal stage. Then click “Begin New Form”. 

 

4:55 

You will see that some of the fields are highlighted in bright yellow. Anything in this yellow color is considered a required field. 

 

You can navigate amongst the different tabs without completing all the required fields, but you won't be allowed to submit unless all the required fields are complete. There is a tab that identifies for you what's missing that I'll show you in a few minutes. 

 

When you log in as an OSP approved PI, it will automatically pull in your credentials. 

 

5:22 

If you're adding a Co-PI or other personnel, you can look for their name in the drop down box. 

If “No” is showing next to their name, they will need to have their logon credentials updated by calling OSP. 

 

5:38 

Your information will automatically populate. Your organization is your home organization. 

For this I'll show you the drop down with the organizations on campus all populated with contact information and your OSP Fiscal Manager. 

 

You can change these individuals or add fiscal shared services, but reach out to your fiscal manager if you're planning to change the fiscal manager assigned. This sometimes happens if you're working cross-departmentally and you're not going to go through your home department fiscal Manager. 

 

Next, enter in your proposal title and any keywords that you want to be able to search under. In the sponsor area, once you begin typing, it will pull down all of the approved sponsors in the preloaded information. If you have a new agency that doesn't show up, choose “Other” and provide the information. In that case, the record will be created in Banner and the EPCF once you submit the proposal, so it will show up in the future. 

 

You then enter the proposal due date, the actual date the proposal is due to the sponsor. Enter the project start and end dates. These are required fields even though they are not highlighted. Then, if you have the contact information at the sponsor, it's handy to have you enter it here, but it is not required. 

 

Does the sponsor limit the number of proposals? If yes, this is a limited submission opportunity. 

 

An e-mail will automatically be sent to the Office of Research Development during the approval queue process and they will confirm you have been authorized to move forward on behalf of MSU. 

You do need prior approval to move forward with a full proposal on a limited submission, opportunity.  

 

Submission method, electronic or paper. We do still have some sponsors who will accept proposals via e-mail, but the vast majority will require electronic submission through a government approved submission platform or portal. 

 

OK, at this point we do want to hit save before moving on to the next tab. 

 

7:52 

Let's move on to the next tab, the compliance tab. This is where you're required to answer yes or no to any of the compliance review boards: human subjects, biomedical animals, agricultural animals, biosafety, and Radiation Safety. 

 

If you aren't aware of the policies and procedures for each of these review boards, you can click on the policy link and go straight to the policy related to that area. 

 

If you already have protocols for some of these review boards or an exemption, you can attach it here. Otherwise, you can just check, yes, indicating you will be submitting it if your proposal is funded. 

 

8:32 

Next is the conflict of interest. 

 

Do you have any proposed investigators, including family members who have an interest, including financial, where you are applying? It's OK to say yes. You'll just need to provide documentation that you vetted this through the Research Compliance group and that they are aware of any potential conflict of interest and we'll just need to manage it. 

 

If you are applying to HHS or NIH, does the PI receive any sponsored or reimbursement for travel from a third party? We'll say no in this situation. Do you have a relationship as defined in MSU's relationship in the workplace policy? This happens with investigators who have personal relationships with other investigators at MSU. Again, it's OK to say yes. We just need to make sure it's documented in the Office of Research Compliance so we can manage it appropriately. 

 

9:26 

Controlled Research  

Is this a controlled research project? Will this involve classified research, controlled unclassified information export controls, or the use of the Applied Research Lab? Usually no, but we do have some, so this is where it is identified. If the answer is yes, then the Office of Research Compliance will be flagged in the approval queue, and you will need to make sure you follow up with the specifics to that organization, attach any relevant documentation. We'll say no to that question today. 

 

9:59 

Other proposal involvement. 

 

Will the proposal require any major renovations? Usually no. But if you require a lab renovation, for example, this will flag Facilities so they are aware and they can begin working with you on the project, bids, construction, et cetera. 

 

And finally, does your research produce copyrightable material? If so, the Technology Transfer office will need to review and it will be flagged in the approval process. Please remember to save this once you've completed the tab.  

 

10:34 

Let's work on the Budget tab next. 

 

This can be confusing because we are asking for budget for the first year only and then the cumulative budget across all budget periods. Note that when you enter the direct costs, which is everything except the F and A, the indirect and Total costs are calculated for you if you click on the red Total Cost link.  

 

In this case, the first year costs are equivalent to the total cost because the project is approximately one year. In the indirect cost F and A area. Typically you are applying for a federal research grant and you will be using the 45% of modified total direct cost base. If you're using another rate, maybe we have a negotiated rate with the state agency for example, you'll need to enter that and explain why that is. 

 

For example, with one state agency we have a 25% negotiated rate and we will enter that in and note in the comments, this one is actually on total direct cost, so we'll click that. 

 

11:36 

Moving on to share distribution of expenditures. 

 

This happens when investigators are cross departmental and not housed in the same home department. If you click Yes, you can provide a breakdown of how each investigator will be allocated to the project and how each investigator will spend their portion of the budget. 

 

If the proposal is awarded, we can set up different fund codes for each investigator's department so they can spend funds in their home departments and get credit for expenses. 

 

Credit for centers and institutes. You may have may be in the Department of Engineering, but 100% of these expenses are going to be used within the Center of Engineering. 

 

We use an example today, the MEERC. 

 

You can click yes, choose the center from the drop down list and mark the percentage that should be allocated. 

Click Update Credit. This list is a set of centers approved by the Board of Regents, so it can't be easily added to.  

 

Moving along to the Faculty Research Incentive program. Typically we want you to check Yes. You can refer to the policy by clicking on it. This is a program to incentivize researchers to charge their salary during the academic year to the research project during the academic year, freeing up portions of their salary paid by University funding. This excludes summer salary.  

 

Subawards. 

This is either a yes or a no. If you aren't clear if you have a sub award, you can refer to the policy or reach out to your fiscal manager or subawards team.  

 

Attachments. You can attach your budget detail here. We have several templates you can use and again, remember to save the tab as you work through the EPCF. 

 

MSU’S policy on cost sharing is that it's not allowed if it's not required in the proposal as an eligibility criteria. Since it's a small percentage of proposals at MSU that actually include cost sharing and each one tends to be different with many nuances, our recommendation is that if you're submitting a proposal with cost sharing required to reach out to your fiscal manager and they will help you with this form, but also with the tracking that happens in the background. For this training, we're going to click No and move on to the next tab. 

 

Remember to click Save. 

 

13:59 

This tab is an inventory of all attachments you've made on any of the tabs. It's often a handy reference, especially for the easy access to the two required documents: the executive summary and the detailed budget attachments which are often referenced and required. 

 

We realize you might be making edits or updates to the final technical portion of your proposal at the time you submit the EPCF, so if you can at least get a statement of the work, executive summary and something that tells us the type of work being proposed. It will help the fiscal manager, the compliance team, and others to understand what kind of work is being proposed. 

 

14:40 

The approval queue is prebuilt based on the investigator and the co-investigator on the proposal. 

 

If you have a co-investigator, you want to add their organization here so the approval queue includes their department head. Other approvers are automatically added such as center approvers if you added a center and applicable review boards. 

 

15:00 

Once you click “Submit the EPCF”, it is routed sequentially through the approval queue, with the initial approver being the PI and a courtesy notification to the OSP Fiscal Manager. 

 

If you need to pull it back and you want to make a change, for example, your fiscal manager can pull it back for you. They have administrative rights. No changes can be made to it once it's been routed, approved, and assigned a pending number, you'll hit Save here. 

 

This is where you fill out checkboxes that help MSU see what alignment our research proposals have with our strategic plan. 

 

• Does the research align with the Grand Challenges in MSU strategic Plan? Yes or no. 

• And then which Grand Challenge is primary and which is relevant? 
• And finally, does the research involve any Native Americans or other minority communities? 

 

…something else we're tracking and will trigger notification to the relevant department. Then if that's applicable, check Yes. 

 

16:09 

So, when you're ready to submit, this is where you can see what you have missing in order to submit. 

 

The submit button will be grayed out until you include all that needs to be submitted. 

 

When something is listed as missing, you can go back to that area on the form and complete the question or attach the required document. 

 

After you submit the e-mail approval request, begin first to the PI and Fiscal Manager and once approved and then on to the next approvers in the queue.  

 

16:44 

A final reminder of the 72-hour deadline. We want to give your proposal a thorough review, so please give us time to do that. 

 

16:50 

And finally, MSU’s ORD and OSP are ready and happy to assist you with the preparation of your budget. So please don't hesitate to reach out to our offices. It's our job to help.