Further Reading — Chapter 15: Assembling and Submitting

Systems and rules change frequently; always verify current requirements at the source before submitting.

Submission Systems (Official, Primary)

  • Grants.gov "Applicant Resources" and Workspace help (grants.gov). The official guidance for preparing and submitting federal applications, including the compliance checks and the errors-vs-warnings distinction. Do a practice run in Workspace before your real deadline.
  • SAM.gov "Entity Registration" help (sam.gov). How to register and annually renew your organization's federal registration and Unique Entity ID — the multi-week trap. Read this the day you decide to pursue federal funding.
  • NIH "Submission Process" and eRA Commons resources (grants.nih.gov). NIH-specific submission guidance, formatting/page-limit rules, and the eRA Commons system. The NIH "Format Attachments" and "Page Limits" pages are essential reading for NIH applicants.
  • NSF Research.gov and PAPPG submission requirements. NSF's system and rules.

Formatting and Compliance

  • NIH "Format Attachments" page (grants.nih.gov). The precise, current rules for fonts, margins, page limits, and file formats — the kind of specification that, violated, causes desk rejection. The model for taking formatting literally.
  • Your funder's specific announcement (FOA/NOFO/RFP) and forms package. The single most important "reading" for any submission: the actual rules you must follow, which vary by program and change over time.
  • Your institution's sponsored-programs submission and routing procedures. Your grants office's internal deadlines, required forms, and routing steps — read them before your first proposal.

On Checklists and High-Stakes Process

  • Gawande, Atul. The Checklist Manifesto. The definitive argument for checklists in complex, high-stakes work — why even experts miss items under load, and how a simple checklist prevents catastrophic omissions. Directly applicable to the pre-submission checklist (Section 15.5).

On the Process Behind the Final Mile

  • Chapter 4 of this book (The Proposal Development Process). The most important "further reading" for this chapter: the final mile is won or lost by the early start, the backward timeline, the internal deadline, and the early registration check that Chapter 4 establishes. Re-read it before your next submission.