In July of this year, Academic Staff Members (ASMs) – particularly those in the Faculty of Science – were advised that Wednesday, October 22 will be this Fall’s internal Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) deadline for submission to department heads of NSERC Discovery Grants. In light of this communication, MUNFA wants to remind ASMs of their right to continue working on their grant applications beyond the internal MUN deadline.
On September17, 2013, MUNFA was in receipt of an arbitration award from Arbitrator Martin Teplitsky that resulted from a hearing held on the St. John’s campus on September 13, 2013. It has possible implications for ASMs who pursue Tri-Agency operating grants in the future.
The award has maintained MUN’s right to an internal institutional deadline of no less than three (3) days. Such deadlines will be set by the relevant signing authority; in most cases, this authority will be decentralized to a person (or persons) within an Academic Unit, rather than at the Office of Research Services.
Notwithstanding this internal deadline, at the request of the authoring ASM, MUN will release/return the research application portfolio without delay to the ASM, allowing the ASM to continue to work on his/her proposal in the days prior to the Tri-Agency deadline. If an ASM wishes to avail of this option, it is the advice of MUNFA to request release/return immediately following internal submission; once submitted to the institutional signing authority, MUN begins forwarding applications to the Tri-Agency at once. If submitted to the Tri-Agency, MUN cannot return the application to the author.
Two additional points to note from the award: First, when the edited portfolio is resubmitted to the internal signing authority, the authoring ASM must also supply a record of all changes to the original submission. And second, applications resubmitted within the three day period prior to the Tri-Agency deadline will be reviewed by MUN in the order they are received, and subject to approval; MUN “will use reasonable efforts” to submit to the Tri-Agency before the Tri-Agency deadline.
If you have any further questions or comments on this issue, please contact the MUNFA Office at ext. 8642 or munfa@mun.ca.
