LIMITED SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES
Last Update: October 2, 2026
Certain federal, state, and foundation funding opportunities are categorized as “limited submissions.” This occurs when a sponsoring agency restricts the number of proposals that an institution can submit. Due to these limitations, Florida Atlantic must have an internal review process to select the best-qualified candidate to apply for these “limited submission” funding opportunities. Following are guidelines for limited submission processing.
Our office is now accepting internal applications for limited submissions via GrantForward.
LIMITED SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITIES
To view limited submission opportunities, please visit GrantForward. You must have a GrantForward account (free to all Florida Atlantic employees) in order to access. Opportunities that are limited will be marked as such in the GrantForward portal. Please note that anyone identifying a funding opportunity that has limitations on the number of proposals allowed per institution, but it is not listed on Grant Forward (or not listed as limited), is required to email limited@fau.edu to indicate the opportunity. The Office of Research Development (ORD) will review the guidelines and follow up, as applicable.
INTERNAL DEADLINES
Most internal (Florida Atlantic) deadlines occur 45 days prior to the agency deadline. For some highly-competitive internal competitions, a deadline of 60 days prior will be assigned. Examples of highly-competitive opportunities include (please note that the list below may be periodically updated):
- NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI)
- Searle Scholars Program
- Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program
- U.S. National Science Foundation State and Regional Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Hubs
Exception to the above: The deadline for submitting an internal (FAU) application for the Florida Department of Health’s Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer's Disease Research Program will vary each year. Stay tuned for announcements from our office.
Any eligible PI will be expected to submit an internal application in GrantForward by close of business (5 p.m.) on the stated internal deadline to be considered. Internal applications may be submitted after the internal deadline; however, in this event, if agency limit has not been reached, submission approval may be provided (not guaranteed) on a “first received” basis. Approval may also be granted on a first-received basis for limited submission opportunities posted by an agency less than 45 days (or 60 days, for opportunities listed above) to the official due date.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN INTERNAL APPLICATION
Access the GrantForward portal to locate a funding opportunity of interest. On the top right-corner of the opportunity, refer to the internal submission section titled “Internal Competitions for this Grant” (if the opportunity does not have this section, please contact limited@fau.edu). The internal (FAU) deadline will appear in the submission section as the “Applicable until…date.” Click the "Submit" button to access the form used to submit an internal application.
Internal application required documents are outlined below. Pages must be letter size (8.5x11 inches) with 1-inch margins; type must be single-spaced in a typeface of 11 pt. or larger.
1. Project Description: Please adhere as closely as possible to the expectations and requests listed in the sponsoring agency funding opportunity notice (no more than 2 pages). Upload as a Word document.
2. Budget Justification (Brief): Please provide high-level description only of no more than 300 words.
3. Biosketch for PI and any other senior personnel (if applicable). Max 5 pages per biosketch. Upload as a PDF.
4. No references should be included.
INTERNAL APPLICATION STATUS
GrantForward allows PIs to track the status of their internal applications. To view application status, within the portal, navigate to Grants > Internal Grants/Competitions > Manage Applications from the top menu. All submitted internal applications will be displayed, with the current status shown in the Status column. For additional details, select View under the Actions column. The buttons on the right side of the page provide information for each stage of the process:
- Submission Phase: View your submitted application materials.
- Review Phase: View reviewer comments and scores, when available. If no comments or scores are displayed, reviews have not yet been completed.
- Finalization Phase: View the final outcome of the competition, including whether a slot was allocated to your application.
For step-by-step guidance on submitting and tracking internal applications, visit GrantForward and navigate to Supports > Researcher Support to access the “Apply for an Internal Competition” PDF and YouTube video.
STEPS IN THE REVIEW PROCESS
After close of business on the internal deadline, ORD will review the number of internal applications that have been submitted. If the number of internal applications does not exceed the institutional limit, ORD will generally approve the applicant to submit a proposal to the agency, provided the proposal meets eligibility criteria. If the number of internal proposals exceeds the institutional limit, members of ORD's Review Panel will evaluate and rank all internal applications.
1. Panel reviewers will evaluate internal applications according to the criteria listed in the funding opportunity.
2. Once the review has concluded, the ORD will officially approve the institutional nominee(s) based on the reviewers' recommendations.
3. ORD will notify the Principal Investigator (PI) in a timely manner to allow sufficient time to prepare a competitive proposal. The PI is responsible for notifying all Co-PIs and team about the outcome of their application.
4. If a PI is selected to submit a full proposal, but subsequently cannot complete the proposal, the PI must immediately notify ORD.
5. Florida Atlantic’s Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) will also be notified of the internal review results.
6. The investigator(s) selected to submit a proposal must send the proposal through OSP’s electronic proposal routing system.
7. All proposals should adhere to the Proposal Submission Deadline Policy (refer to OSP website).
COLLEGE LIMITS
When an agency imposes a limit on the college (e.g. Science, Medicine, etc.) and not the institution (Florida Atlantic), ORD will NOT hold an internal selection process for this opportunity; please follow your College’s internal procedures for evaluating the best application. In this event, if your team is chosen by your college, please submit documentation of College approval for the specified opportunity by emailing limited@fau.edu so that our office may notify OSP.
PI LIMITS
Investigators are urged to carefully review funding opportunities for limits on the number of submissions per PI; ORD will not monitor for these specific limits.
NOTIFICATION
Investigators should not move forward with a limited submission proposal to an agency until they have received a communication from the ORD, via GrantForward, indicating approval to proceed (PI Chair and relevant Associate Dean for Research, as well as OSP, will be sent the same notice). Proposals not selected to advance will also receive communication that they did not advance and cannot submit the proposal to the agency.