The Internal Approval Form (IAF) is to be used for all proposals that are to be submitted to external organizations requesting support for research, education and service projects. This form is also to be used for submissions to external organizations requesting fellowships, travel funds and other types of support for individual faculty, staff and students where the University is to be the recipient of the funds.

The new IAF form is designed so that an applicant can enter the required information using either Microsoft Excel or Adobe PDF programs. A blank IAF also can be printed and completed by hand (see futher explanations below).

Copies of the IAF (MS Excel) can be downloaded or obtained at Office of Sponsored Research and Programs in Room 407 of Carrington Hall.  Applicants should download the Instructions (PDF document) for assistance in preparing the IAF.

Internal Approval Form (fillable PDF document).

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New Internal Approval Form

As of April 1, 2008, a new Internal Approval Form (IAF; PDF) took effect. Submission of an Internal Approval Form is required for all proposals seeking external funding to support University-based projects. Changes in federal government requirements necessitate revisions, along with the implementation of the Credit-Sharing Plan that also is to be implemented on April 1, 2008 (instructions for the new IAF can be found below).

The old internal approval form will no longer be accepted and all users are asked to save the new internal approval form to their desktop if needed.

Assurances:
The Public Health Service (NIH is a component) and NSF have new compliance requirements regarding assurances. The University is required to secure and retain a writ-ten assurance from the Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PI) prior to submitting an application While this assurance is no longer required as part of the submitted application, it remains a compliance requirement. Therefore, we must retain a unique signature and date for each submitted application. This assurance must be available to the sponsoring agency or other federal officials upon request.

Such an assurance must include at least the following certifications:

1. that the information submitted within the application is true, complete and accurate to the best of the PI’s and Co-PI’s knowledge;
2. that any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or claims may subject the PI’s and Co-PIs to criminal, civil, or administrative penalties; and
3. that the PI and Co-PIs agree to accept responsibility for the scientific conduct of the project including submission of required progress reports if a grant is awarded.

In addition, NIH and NSF also require grantee institutions and investigators to comply with the requirements of 42 CFR Part 50, Subpart F, "Responsibility of Applicants for Promoting Objectivity in Research for which PHS Funding is Sought.” That subpart promotes objectivity in research by establishing stan-dards to ensure there is no reasonable expectation that the design, conduct, or reporting of research funded under PHS grants or cooperative agreements will be biased by any conflicting financial interest of an investigator.

The "Conflict of Interest" section of the IAF has been re-vised to comply with this requirement. This also will be required of persons in organizations to which subcontracts are to be issued.

Credit-Sharing:
PI and Co-PIs are to determine the percent of the total credit for a project. This would include their creative input to the project, the time to be dedicated to the project, as well as the time and effort that they and their administrative unit will dedicate to the administrative unit will dedicate to the project.

A space has been provided for each PI and Co-PI to insert the percent of the Shared Credit that should be assigned to them for a specific project. These percentages will be reviewed by department heads/supervisors and deans/VPs during the submission process for the IAFs’. Once an award is made, these percentages will be the basis for distribution of recovered indirect costs in accordance with the Distribution of Indirect Costs Policy. These percentages also will be used to assign credit of these awards to the PI/Co-PIs and their home units in monthly and annual reports of institutional funding.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR IAF  

 Applicants should download the Instructions (MS Word) and Instructions (Adobe PDF) for assistance in preparing the IAF.

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Important :

If you don't have Microsoft Excel, you may download and install Microsoft Excel Viewer free software to view *.xls documents.

If you don't have Microsoft Word, you may download and install Microsoft Word Viewer free software to the documents in MS Word.

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you may download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader free software to view *.pdf documents.

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