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SPARC - Sponsored Projects Assistance, Resources, & Concierge

SPARC is USA's pre-award concierge service, built to give you a single, dedicated point of contact to create your proposal package and guide it through submission. Instead of navigating pre-award processes on your own, you'll work directly with a SPARC specialist assigned to your college. Your SPARC specialist is someone who understands both sponsor requirements and university policy, who can walk you through budget development, compliance checks, and routing and approvals.

SPARC launched as a pilot with the College of Engineering and the School of Marine and Environmental Sciences and is expanding college-by-college through the end of the year. As it grows, SPARC's role is also expanding beyond pre-award - offering guidance on the post-award administrative bottlenecks that can slow your research down.

At its core, SPARC exists to make working with Sponsored Programs Administration simpler: less time spent figuring out process, more time spent on your research.

Check below to see when SPARC will roll out to your College.

Rollout Schedule

College/School Start Date
College of Engineering Pilot (current)
Stokes School of Marine & Environmental Sciences Pilot (current)
College of Allied Health Professions October 1, 2026
Mitchell College of Business October 1, 2026
School of Computing October 1, 2026
College of Education & Professional Studies November 1, 2026
College of Nursing November 1, 2026
College of Arts & Sciences November 1, 2026
  • Proposal Initiation: Setting up and managing new grant applications within the Cayuse system.  Creating the Cayuse record and routing once ready for approvals.
  • Budget Development: Creating, calculating, and revising detailed proposal budgets and justifications to meet sponsor guidelines.
  • Document Review: Thoroughly reviewing funding proposals, required attachments, and administrative forms for compliance prior to final submission.
  • Compliance & Inter-Departmental Coordination: Connecting researchers with IRB, IACUC, Compliance & Integrity, Research Security, Export Control, Commercialization, and Research Development.
  • Sponsor Compliance: Interpreting FOAs (Funding Opportunity Announcements) and ensuring all sponsor and institutional guidelines are met.
  • Subaward & Institutional Collaboration: Coordinating subaward documentation and communicating with collaborating institutions to ensure seamless mutli-site proposal submissions.

Getting started is simple: submit a Proposal Intake Form. This is how you initiate engagement with SPARC. To get started, you'll need your Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) and basic project information (sponsor, deadline, collaborators).

Once submitted, your proposal will be assigned to a SPARC concierge, who will reach out to begin working with you directly.

What you receive depends on when you engage. To receive the full range of SPARC's services, submit your Proposal Intake Form no later than 15 business days before your proposal due date. (Note that 15 business days is equivalent to three full weeks.)

  • 15+ business days out: Full SPARC support - budget development, Cayuse buildout compliance review, and hands-on assistance through submission.
  • Less than 15 business days out: SPARC will work with you to identify what's still outstanding and provide assistance based on availability. Support may be more limited depending on timing.
  • 3 business days or less: At-Risk Proposals - SPARC will not prepare the Cayuse SP record or assist with preparation of submission materials for these proposals.

To remain in the standard review and submission queue, your proposal must meet two minimum internal deadlines:

  1. A minimum of three (3) full business days to SPA for review - fully routed and approved, certified, and with all documents other than technical documents in final form.
  2. A minimum of twenty-four (24) hours prior to the sponsor’s deadline for all technical documents.

A proposal that does not meet BOTH deadlines will be designated At-Risk, and will not receive priority over proposals that did meet these minimum internal deadlines.

  • SPARC will make every effort to submit At-Risk proposals; however, submission by the sponsor deadline is not guaranteed.
  • At-Risk proposals that are submitted will be subject to post-submission review.
  • Any material defects identified in the Cayuse routing data and information during post-submission review must be corrected in order to ensure data in Cayuse is accurate for reporting and compliance purposes.
  • If post-submission review identifies institutional deficiencies, or deviations from or an absence of institutional compliance requirements and standards (based on sponsor and federal requirements), the deficiency will be documented. If the proposal results in an award, SPA will review and work with you and any other relevant institutional office (e.g., General Counsel, Compliance, Research Security) to determine associated risks and whether the award can be accepted, based on the rules and regulations in effect at that time. Depending on the nature of the deficiency, involvement of specific institutional offices may be required.