Limited Submissions

Several platforms maintained by Research Development – including our internal application portal and resource library – are integrated with UC San Diego’s single sign-on system. Campus applicants can log in using Active Directory credentials with the @ucsd.edu form of your email address. No additional account creation is needed, and other forms of your address, such as @health.ucsd.edu, @eng.ucsd.edu, or @physics.ucsd.edu, will not work. For questions about your campus credentials, please contact your department business office and/or IT.   

While the Office of Research Affairs (ORA) makes every effort to list all limited-submission opportunities on this website, there may be some opportunities that are not on our list. If you become aware of a limited-submission funding opportunity that is not posted on our site, please notify us immediately by contacting limitedsub@ucsd.edu with the name of the sponsor and funding opportunity. Please include or provide a link to the call-for-proposals, if possible.

Alignment with sponsor eligibility criteria is among the factors pertinent to assessing an application’s responsiveness to and competitiveness for a given opportunity. While faculty review committees recognize that multiple members of a research team contribute to program development, the InfoReady applicant should be the lead PI, who, if selected, will take responsibility for developing a proposal pursuant to sponsor guidelines. If needed, the InfoReady platform allows proxy submissions on behalf of a team lead.

Four standing committees composed of Academic Senate-appointed senior faculty members review internal pre-applications and make recommendations to the Vice Chancellor for Research regarding which applications should go forward as proposals to external sponsors. Each standing committee includes faculty representation across a broad range of disciplinary expertise. For a small subset of limited-submission programs for which the relevant standing committee benefits from additional expertise in the pre-application review process, supplemental ad-hoc reviewers are recruited.

The review committees’ overarching goal is to maximize the number of limited-submission awards that come to UCSD. The process begins with the careful reading and evaluation of each internal application by each member. Reviewers consider each application's responsiveness to the program's goals and guidelines, including merit review criteria, if stated, as well as adherence to the campus application instructions. The committee's determinations are made following extensive discussion in face-to-face meetings or teleconferences. While committee members are chosen to provide diverse disciplinary expertise, they are not intended to serve as advocates or representatives for applicants in their respective areas.

Yes. Each campus applicant, whether or not their proposal is chosen to move forward, is provided with written feedback from the committee. However, the committee cannot provide a detailed review due to the volume of submissions received.

Yes. Each pre-application is evaluated without prejudice based on the outcome of prior reviews.

No. Reviews for each limited-submission opportunity, and each cycle of each opportunity, are independent. All applicants, whether selected to move forward or not, compete on a level playing field in subsequent competitions. Resubmitted pre-applications are treated as new applications – neither accorded preferential consideration in the evaluation process, nor disadvantaged in any way. Each pre-application, whether or not it is a resubmission, is given full consideration by the faculty review committee. The committee selects the pre-application(s) judged to be most competitive among those under consideration at the time of review. 

Slots for many limited-submission programs experience high demand. Selected PIs should plan to move forward immediately with developing a full application pursuant to the sponsor’s guidelines. Applicants who are unable to do so should notify limitedsub@ucsd.edu as soon as possible to afford another investigator time to prepare a competitive application. Failure to submit without timely notification risks underuse of campus slots, and may be taken into consideration in future limited-submission cycles.

By policy, information about the selected applicants/applications to limited-submission programs is not divulged, in order to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of the review process. A PI whose application was not selected to move forward may be offered a possibility, if interested, to send materials to us to be forwarded to the selected PI(s), along with an expression of interest in exploring potential collaboration. Encouraging strategic collaborations to position UC San Diego teams for success is always of interest. In such cases, the selected applicant may initiate collaboration, but is under no obligation to do so.