Limited Submissions

Calendar page.

Institutionally-limited opportunities

Limited submission opportunities are funding opportunities where the sponsor restricts the number of applications institutions can submit. The Office of Research Development manages the process for determining which proposing investigator(s) will be authorized to submit an application to the sponsor.

 

How to Apply for a Limited Submission Heading link

Identify an opportunity

  • The Office of Research Development publishes a weekly newsletter promoting newly announced limited submissions, including an internal deadline to indicate your interest in the opportunity. Subscribe to our Limited Submissions newsletter here.
  • A full list of open limited submission internal solicitations is given on our Funding Opportunity Portal Application Page.
  • We also post limited submission announcements on our Funding Portal.
  • Pivot uses a “Limited Submission” tag to highlight relevant opportunities. As of February 2023, opportunities for which an internal solicitation (see below) is already established will have an internal deadline noted in the “Upcoming Deadlines” section of the Pivot entry.

Submit a letter of intent or concept paper

  • If you are interested in an opportunity, submit an internal application via our Funding Opportunity Portal Application Page. The internal application package may be a letter of intent (LOI), a concept paper or an LOI followed by a concept paper. Please see an opportunity’s individual page for detailed requirements for the contents of the internal application. 
  • An internal LOI is generally a brief web form. This only needs to include a working title, team members and a few sentences about your project idea so that Research Development can confirm it is appropriate for the opportunity. This document is for administrative use and will not be peer reviewed.
  • If more LOIs are submitted than the sponsor allows, Research Development will follow up with a request for a 2-3 page concept paper that will be peer reviewed by UIC investigators. Specific instructions will be provided for each competition.
  • Sometimes, the sponsor’s timeline is too short to allow for a multi-stage process. In these cases, we implement an expedited review process where we request concept papers for the initial application rather than a letter of intent.

Peer review

  • Peer review is triggered when more concept papers are submitted than the sponsor allows.
  • Reviewers are drawn from the roster of the Campus Research Board unless additional expertise is necessary to conduct a thorough review.
  • Reviewers are usually asked to score concept papers against specific criteria articulated in the sponsor’s solicitation and give an overall ranking that reflects their opinion of the concept paper’s likelihood of wining funding by the sponsor.
  • Review comments are supplied to the investigator by request. Given the limited pool of reviewers, we make every effort to protect their identities. That might include paraphrasing reviews.
  • If you are asked to peer review for limited submissions, we passionately request that you accept the invitation and return your reviews as quickly as possible. These reviews are essential to advancing UIC’s research enterprise. You are doing a critical service to your colleagues by reviewing!

Selection

  • Concept papers are selected based on reviewers’ ranking, scores, and comments.
  • In some cases, other factors are also considered, e.g., projects that have strategic importance to campus, require significant institutional commitment or cost share, or align with other major investments on campus.
  • The contact investigator for the selected concept paper will be notified by email and the Office of Sponsored Programs will be copied. This authorization must be included for review by the Office of Sponsored Programs with your other proposal materials when you are ready to submit to the sponsor.