Cayuse Proposals validates each proposal against the published funding opportunity rules, Grants.gov schema requirements, and other agency-specific rules.
The validation messages you see depend on the validation type that is selected. Usually Cayuse Proposals will select the correct validation type for you, but if you need to change it, see Choosing a Validation Type.
The current tally of errors, warnings, and info tips is shown on the Error/Warning/Info button at the bottom of the proposal next to the validation type selection. Click the Error/Warning/Info button to display the list.
The format of the validation issues is follows:
Type of Issue: [Location of Issue][Agency] Issue description.
The location of the issue indicates the form where the issue is. If the issue is agency-specific, the agency name appears in the second set of square brackets. Otherwise, the issue is a Grants.gov validation issue that applies across all agencies. If the description contains a blue link, you can click on the link to be taken directly to the location of the issue.
If [Cayuse] appears in the second set of square brackets, the validation issue represents general best practices in grant creation. Most Cayuse validations are info tips.
Errors
Errors indicate serious issues that may prevent successful submission to Grants.gov or acceptance by the agency, usually involving required questions, fields, or attachments; or they may indicate inconsistencies between different parts of the proposal.
Resolving errors before submission is generally very important since they can prevent successful submission. In particular, errors with no agency name will prevent successful submission of the proposal to Grants.gov, and must be resolved prior to submission.
Warnings
Warnings are recommendations that will not stop submission, but remind you about potentially important items to include or issues to resolve. Warnings highlight situations that may cause problems when your proposal arrives at the agency. In most cases, we suggest that you follow the warnings given by Cayuse Proposals, but if your opportunity has different requirements, follow the instructions provided for your opportunity.
Info
Info tips are reminders that specifically target best practices. Their goal is to make sure your proposal has all the elements desired, such as cover letters and other optional attachments. Disregarding info tips will not usually cause serious issues, but you should always follow your opportunity instructions.
For NIH proposals, Cayuse recommends you review the NIH websites on Preparing and Applying.
Note: If you are submitting a subaward and are seeing Info tips recommending documentation in the prime, see Subaward Validations.
Validations for Multi-Project Proposals
Multi-Project proposals are not just validated on an individual basis, but also on an entire project basis.
When working in a Multi-Project (Complex) Proposal, Cayuse Proposals provides the following validations across all components:
- Human Embryonic Stem Cell lines.
- Check for redundant BioSketches across the entire MP project (1 per eRA Commons credential).
- Check for Human Subjects usage across components. This means that, if any component has checked "Yes" for Human Subjects then OAC must be checked for yes.
- Check for Vertebrate Animal usage across components.
- Check for Foreign Activities across components.
- Check for consistent budget start dates, end dates and number of budget periods.