Procedure for PACUR Subcommittee on Proposal Review

The following procedures are designed to support the PACUR review process: 

1. UCAR provides the PACUR proposal review subcommittee chair with a list of UCAR non-core proposals over $100K that were submitted since the last review.  The list of proposals will be put into two categories: (a) proposals for which a university scientist was PI or proposals for which an UCAR researcher was PI, with university scientists as Co-Is or collaborators; and (b) proposals involving no direct university involvement.  This list should include the proposal number, name of the laboratory or program, date submitted, sponsor, requested amount, co-sponsorship amount, title and leveraging ratio (where there is NSF base-funding). 
2. The subcommittee chair has the discretion of reviewing all proposals or may select a representative sample of proposals from the various UCAR programs and category 1.b. 
3. The subcommittee chair notifies UCAR of the selected proposal numbers. The Advance Notice forms, cover pages, letters of collaboration, and budgets for each of the selected proposals are sent to the subcommittee members.  A copy of the proposal review criteria is also sent to the subcommittee members.
4. The subcommittee reviews the material listed above with regard to the criteria and discusses their reviews via a conference call or e-mail. At this time, if more information is required on a specific proposal, the subcommittee may request that the complete proposal be provided to them. The subcommittee should contact the relevant UCAR entity representative (NCAR, UOP, E&O, etc) to address specific questions or general concerns that arise during their review.
5. Based on the subcommittee members input, the subcommittee chair writes a draft report.  That draft is circulated to subcommittee members and UCAR entities for comment and clarifications. The report should contain a summary of:

   a.	the compliance of the proposals with proposal review criteria and the resulting conversations with UCAR management.
   b.	the representativeness of the sample proposals selected vs. the total number of proposals in each UCAR entity and in terms of the dollar value of the proposals.
   c.	any subcommittee conclusions or recommendations.

6. Four weeks prior to the PACUR meeting, the report is submitted by the subcommittee chair to UCAR Governance office for distribution to UCAR entities for their review and any final response to questions that the subcommittee may have had on the proposals.  It is expected that any issues will have been addressed by interactions mentioned in step four and five.
7. UCAR’s response is sent to the subcommittee chair no later than two weeks before the PACUR meeting, and then is distributed by the chair to the subcommittee members. The subcommittee reviews these comments and engages UCAR as needed. A goal is to resolve any issues prior to the subsequent PACUR meeting.
8. Subcommittee chair presents the final report at the PACUR meeting along with UCAR’s responses and any further subcommittee comments or needed actions identified.
9. The PACUR Chair presents a PACUR report at the UCAR Annual Meeting that summarizes the proposal review process and outcome for the prior year and any other relevant matters. 

Revised and approved by the PACUR in April 2007