The grant lifecycle phase covering activities from identification of a funding opportunity through proposal preparation, submission, and award negotiation, prior to the start of the period of performance.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A PI works with a pre-award officer for six weeks to assemble an ERC Starting Grant proposal.
Is an instance
An institution authorises pre-award costs incurred 60 days before the official NIH start date.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
Activities after the project start date are post-award, not pre-award.
Not an instance
Routine closeout reporting is in the closeout phase.

Editorial commentary

Pre-award includes opportunity scouting, eligibility checks, scientific case preparation, budget construction, internal approvals, institutional sign-off, submission to the sponsor, and (post-decision) negotiation of any award terms. Pre-award costs incurred prior to the official start date are reimbursable in some federal awards under expanded authorities, with a typical 90-day look-back, but require formal authorisation. Pre-award offices are commonly staffed by research administrators specialising in proposal development and budget building.

References

NCURA Pre-Award Administration training materials; US NIH Grants Policy Statement on pre-award costs.

Also known as

Proposal phase · Pre-grant phase

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Pre-award phase"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pre-award-phase" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pre-award-phase",
  "name": "Pre-award phase",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pre-award-phase",
  "description": "The grant lifecycle phase covering activities from identification of a funding opportunity through proposal preparation, submission, and award negotiation, prior to the start of the period of performance.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/funding-finance#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pre-award-phase",
  "sameAs": [
    "Proposal phase",
    "Pre-grant phase"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-05-21T02:22:59",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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