RAPSS Funding Proposal FAQs

Research Administration and Proposal Submission System

Funding Proposal (Smart Forms) Frequently Asked Questions

  • The information in RAPSS pertaining to the people and their assigned units is pulled from both Rutgers’ and RBHS’ HR feeds. The unit names however are not the same as what appears in HR as some data clean-up was done for the purpose of the system. If the unit name is not appearing as you would expect it to, please try using one of the following search aids:

    Try using the “%” as a wild card either before and/or after your keyword search

    Try searching using one of the following: HR Org ID (Rutgers) or Z-Org ID (RBHS)

    Make sure your department administrator has completed and returned the Approver form, with all listed units, to rapss_help@orsp.rutgers.edu. One of the RAPSS administrators will process the request. Only units indicated on this form will appear as a submitting department in RAPSS.

  • Make sure your department administrator has completed and returned the Approver form, with all listed Units, to rapss_help@orsp.rutgers.edu. One of the RAPSS administrators will process the request.

  • High level institutions can not be chosen as a submitting department. (ie: Rutgers, The State of New Jersey - Newark/Camden/RBHS, etc.), The corresponding units listed under these institutions (ie: Biochemistry, Physics, PHRI, CAIT, etc.) should be used

  • Rutgers is in the process of rolling out eCOI (electronic Conflict of Interest) University-wide. If you are currently using this system to submit your disclosures, then there is no need to do anything else. Until you begin using eCOI, the process for submitting financial disclosure forms is unchanged.

    The long-term goal is to phase out both of the current processes as eCOI is implemented.

  • Once you have completed a particular form, you would click “Continue”. If there are any errors on the page they would be indicated at the top of the page in red. You will not be able to resume until all errors have been corrected.

    You can also click on the Hide/Show Errors tab which would display all error/warnings at the bottom of the page.

  • Whenever you have completed a form, you must click either the “Save” or “Continue” tab for the information to remain. Clicking the “Back” button prior to the above will delete all recent entries.

  • The information entered in this field is restricted. If you answered “Yes” to question 4.0.6 for outgoing sub-awards, additional information about the subawardee will be requested in Section 15: Sub-awards (Outgoing).

    If you cannot locate the name of the subawardee in this list, select one of the TBD entries from the list below:

    • TBD (Government Sponsor): Federal Government
    • TBD (State Government): NJ State Government
    • TBD (Local Government): NJ Local Government
    • TBD (Government Agency): Foreign Government
    • TBD (Subcontractor): Other Universities

    In the corresponding field below, enter the name of the subawardee that you need to have added to the system.

    You can also try using the “%” as a wild card either before and/or after your keyword search.

  • The information in RAPSS pertaining to the people and their assigned units is pulled from both Rutgers’ and RBHS’ HR feeds. The unit names however are not the same as what appears in HR as some data clean-up was done for the purpose of the system. If the unit name is not appearing as you would expect it to, please try using one of the following search aids:

    Try using the “%” as a wild card either before and/or after your keyword search

    Try searching using one of the following: HR Org ID (Rutgers) or Z-Org ID (RBHS)

    Ultimately, those changes should be done in the HR system.

    Please note that if changes are made to the profile information that was populated from the HR data feed, the next time the feed updates the manual changes will be overwritten.

  • There really aren’t multiple copies being created. To allow for transparency in the system, any changes/additions/modifications, etc., made to the existing Funding Proposal will be recorded in the “History” tab in the Funding Proposal workspace.

    The history log will reflect that the proposal was copied and will show a link to the new version of the proposal.

  • These choices are preset and are used in the Higher Education Research Development (HERD) survey.

  • Make sure you’re typing the sponsor’s name/acronym into the search bar directly below “Select Sponsor”. The system should then begin to auto populate your desired information.

    If you still cannot locate the name of the sponsor in this list, select one of the TBD entries from the list below:

    • TBD (Government Sponsor): Federal Government
    • TBD (State Government): NJ State Government
    • TBD (Local Government): NJ Local Government
    • TBD (Government Agency): Foreign Government
    • TBD (Subcontractor): Other Universities

    You can also try using the “%” as a wild card either before and/or after your keyword search.

    In the corresponding field below, enter the name of the sponsor that you need to have added to the system.

  • RAPPS allows for Rutgers units to be chosen as a sponsor to accommodate for internal projects.

  • This is not a built in feature within RAPSS. However, every modern browser has the capability to open multiple tabs which should ultimately allow you to initiate a new proposal.

  • Please follow the steps below to copy a proposal/establish a template:

    • Open the proposal you wish to copy.
    • On the left side of the screen under “My Current Actions” click on the link that says “Copy Proposal”.
    • A sub-screen will appear prompting you to type in your new proposal name followed by the option to copy to your template.

    There will be two ways in which to copy a proposal:

    • Choosing “Yes” will allow this proposal to be used as a starting point for other proposals. It will appear under the “My Templates” tab in your Inbox.
    • Choose “No” if you are attempting to use the copied proposal from your templates as a basis to initiate a new proposal. This activity will generate a new proposal which will be located under the “Grants” tab and will allow you access to all of the “current actions” within that proposal, to include submitting for review.
  • This is extremely helpful since approvers are usually high level members and generally rely on the support staff (department admin) to review prior to signing off. This can be done one of two ways:

    • Click the “Add Comment” link under Current Actions and entering the information there. The comment will populate under the “History” tab. This can be used for general comments.
    • If the application is in the “Department Review” state, Reviewer notes can be used to leave comments on a specific page prior to returning the application for correction. Reviewer notes will be located under the “Review Notes” tab. These notes are updated anytime the reviewer’s role changes and further action is required.