Welcome to the Office of Sponsored Programs

The staff of the Office of Sponsored Programs extends a hearty welcome to all ECU faculty and staff, and a cordial invitation to call us, or come in and talk to us, about your plans for obtaining grants and contracts to support your research, creative activity, public service, and instructional projects. OSP is located at 2200 South Charles Boulevard in the Greenville Centre, Suite 2906. You may reach us at 328-9540 or via email.

OSP's Mission

The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) helps faculty obtain external grants and contracts. We can help find funding sources, aid in proposal development, and negotiate contract awards on your behalf. We will also review proposals to assure that all applicable University regulations are followed prior to submission. OSP also tracks and reports on all faculty proposals and awards for the ECU and UNC administration. We encourage faculty to take advantage of our services.

Announcements

NIH UPDATE: IMPORTANT NIH APPLICATION CHANGES

Effective JANUARY 25, 2010 all ECU NIH Applications will be required to follow the "restructured" NIH application instructions.  For more information, please read below.

October 2009

Enhancing Peer Review: Start Planning Now for Shorter Page Limits/Restructured Application due January 25, 2010 and Beyond

NIH is entering into the final phase of the Enhancing Peer Review Initiative, implementing two major changes (1) restructured/shortened applications and (2) new forms and instructions.

These changes affect the majority of competing applications and resubmissions for January 25, 2010 due dates and beyond.  Additional details which applications are affected can be found in a Guide notice NOT-OD-09-149, http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not-od-09-149.html. Between now and implementation of the restructured instructions, be on the lookout for clarification notices to be posted to the Guide.

The new, restructured application format seeks to align the structure and content of the application with newly enhanced review criteria, thereby focusing applicants and reviewers on the same elements.  Similarly, shorter pages limits focus both reviewers and applicants on the essentials of the science, avoiding information overload, and potentially enabling a larger number of reviewers to read each application.

The new application forms contain changes to the Research Plan, Resources, and Biographical Sketch sections:

• Research Plan has new language added to Specific Aims and has a new section titled Research Strategy (which is a combination of 3 current sections - Background and Significance, Preliminary Studies/Progress Report, and Research Design and Methods).

• The Facilities and Other Resources has been updated to better reflect the Environment criterion

• Biographical Sketch has new instructions requiring a Personal Statement and limiting the number of references.

To view a side-by-side comparison of the current instructions and to those that will accompany the restructured applications, see Details of Application Changes.

http://enhancing-peer-review.nih.gov/docs/application_changes.pdf