Proposal Management: Unit Review and Approve

Overview

When a Proposal Approval Form (PAF) moves from Proposal Preparation to the state of Unit Review, each Reviewer can access that PAF from their Home Workspace.

You will receive an email with a link to the PAF if you have elected to receive notifications. Contact your Unit Liaison regarding your email notification status.

This procedure assumes that you are already logged in to eResearch Proposal Management (eRPM). If you are not familiar with the login procedure, refer to the Log in to eResearch Proposal Management.

Who Can Approve the PAF: In order to approve a PAF for a department, you must have Reviewer Who Can Sign access. If you have Reviewer access you can see a PAF that needs to be reviewed, but you cannot approve it.

For more information about how your department is set-up, see the Manage Departments tab or contact your Research Unit Liaison.

Navigation

Role: Reviewer > Home Workspace

Step-by-Step Process

  1. Click the applicable PAF Name to open the PAF's Workspace.
    Tips
    • Verify you are viewing the correct workspace by looking for the bolded Reviewer role under My Roles.
    • Click the Upcoming tab. Any PAFs that will require your review but have not yet moved to your Inbox are located under this tab.
    • Click All PAFs and find the PAF. Refer to the Find PAFs/Proposals/Projects for more information on how to use the Filter function.
    Reviewer My Home Workspace in eRPM PAFs inbox tab step 1
  2. Click Display PAF Summary.
    Note You can submit your unit approval or request that the project team make changes either: PAF Workspace PAF Summary Link step 2

If you have completed your review and are ready to submit your approval:

  1. Click Unit Approve.
    Important If the Unit Approve button does not display, the following reasons may be the cause:
    • The state of the PAF is Unit Review-Project Team Making Changes. When the project team submits their changes, the state returns to Unit Review and the Unit Approve button is available.
    • You may not have the appropriate permissions as a signer. Contact your Unit Liaison regarding your account.
  2. Check the department(s) for which you are granting approval box(es).
    Unit Approve activity step 4-6
  3. If applicable, enter Comments.
  4. Click OK.

If you identify changes that you would like the project team to make:

  1. Click Request Changes.
  2. Select the department(s) on whose behalf you are requesting changes from the project team radio button.
    Reviewer Request Changes window steps 8-11
  3. Enter Comments.
    Note Comments entered on this activity are included in the email notification sent to the PI and Primary Research Administrator.
  4. If applicable, click Add to upload documents. Refer to Working with Documents for more information.
  5. Click OK.

Request ORSP Action

The Project Team Request ORSP Action activity is available to Unit Approvers, Primary Research Administrators and the Primary Post-Award Contact.

  1. Note the Current State of the PAF. It could be:
    • ORSP Review – PAF has been approved by all units and is being reviewed by ORSP.
    • Submitted to Sponsor – Proposal has been reviewed by ORSP & Submitted Sponsor. Sponsor may contact PI to make changes.
    • Negotiation – Proposal is in negotiation. Sponsor may contact PI to make changes.
    PAF Workspace showing steps 1-3
  2. Note that the PAF cannot be edited. View PAF Worksheet displays.
  3. Click Project Team Request ORSP Action from the Activities menu.
  4. Enter Comments explaining you want to:
    • request ORSP edit the PAF;
    • enable the project team to edit the PAF; or
    • have ORSP cancel the PAF.
    Notes Comments entered on this activity are included in the email notification sent to ORSP.
    Important Do not use this activity to indicate finalization of the proposal document or communicate submission instructions to ORSP.
    Request ORSP Action window steps 4-7
  5. If applicable, click Add to upload documents.
  6. Check the Email Recipients box(es) (e.g., UM Investigators, Administrative Personnel, Routing Unit Contacts) next to the individuals who should receive an email notification regarding the status of the PAF.
  7. Click OK.
    Note Requesting to make a change does not automatically allow a project team to make changes (i.e., does not put the PAF into an editable state). The request must be approved by ORSP. If ORSP approves, then you will then be able to make changes to the PAF.
Last Updated: 
Wednesday, February 21, 2024