Limited submission proposals, as the name implies, have some form of limitation imposed by the sponsor on the number or type of proposals that an institution may submit in response to that particular funding announcement.

It is the policy of UH's Division of Research to monitor funding opportunity announcements, and in instances of limited submission proposals, coordinate a pre-proposal process to assist in fairly determining which proposals will be submitted to the agency.

In these instances, the following steps are taken:

1. The funding opportunity announcement is made through the weekly Cluster funding opportunities email.
2. The funding opportunity announcement will include an internal due date by which individuals or groups interested in submitting a proposal should:
   1. Inform their department head, dean and the Division of Research (via email to Angela Clifton at maclifton@uh.edu) of their interest;
   2. Provide an abstract of the work to be conducted to their department head, dean and the Division of Research (via email to Angela Clifton at maclifton@uh.edu);
   3. Determine whether additional information is required for the “preproposal” evaluation process.
3. In the event that the total number of dean-recommended candidates exceeds the number of allowable proposals, the appropriate deans in conjunction with the Vice President for Research will make the final decision on which proposal(s) will be allowed to go forward. This decision will be made during the week following the internal due date.
4. Once the final decision is determined, a notification will be sent to all nominees indicating whether or not he/she has been selected to proceed with the preparation of a full proposal.
5. In the event that the Division of Research receives fewer nominations than available slots by the Internal Due Date:
   1. Individuals who have submitted abstracts will be notified to proceed with the full proposal process.
   2. The Internal Due Date for the remaining slot(s) will be reset to one-fifth (1/5th) of the time remaining before the Agency Due Date.
   3. The program will be re-announced to the UH research community via the Division of Research listserv.

Reminders:

Every effort is made to be proactive with limited submission proposals, but because they are becoming more frequent, it's very important that researchers notify our offices quickly when this situation arises.

Once a PI has been selected for three consecutive rounds for the same limited submission program, he/she will not be considered for a fourth consecutive round unless the Division of Research receives fewer nominations than allowable slots by the first Internal Due Date. In this case, the Internal Due Date for the remaining slot(s) will be reset to one-fifth (1/5th) of the time remaining before the Agency Due Date, and the individual may submit an abstract to be considered for the second Internal Due Date.

We encourage researchers to collaborate with other groups on the UH campus when possible. This gives breadth to the proposal and demonstrates more of the interdisciplinary approach becoming more popular with sponsoring agencies.

For a list of known limited-submission proposals, click here. If the one in which you're interested doesn't appear, please email Angela Clifton at maclifton@uh.edu, providing all pertinent information, and steps will be taken to get the above process started.

Remember, if a university submits more than the allowable number of proposals in a limited submission program, all proposals will most likely be disqualified!