Grants and Contracts

MUN Researcher Portal Application Types and Throughput

There will be three research funding application types available to researchers in the MUN Researcher Portal. Two of these are intended for researchers working at St. John’s and Grenfell campuses, while the third is to be used by Marine Institute researchers. The application types and descriptions are detailed below.

  1. General Use Application – Use for most applications, including Grants, Sub-grants (for Memorial co- applicants), Contracts, Material Transfer Agreements, Memoranda of Understanding, Facility Access Agreements, Non-Funded Agreements. Do NOT use this application for CFI and CRC, or any applications processed through the School of Graduate Studies and Undergraduate Student Research Awards. If you are uncertain how your application is classified, contact your academic unit.
  2. Cedarlane, Addgene, and Non-Disclosure Agreements – This option is used only for (1) template Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) from Cedarlane and Addgene or (2) when sharing confidential information under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). For all other Agreements, please complete the “General Use Application” above.
  3. Marine Institute Application for Research Funding – This application should be used for Marine Institute proposals being submitted to clients, funding agencies, and external organizations. This application includes provincial and federal funding bodies, industry associations, not-for-profit entities and foundations. This application EXCLUDES applications to CRC and CFI, as well as any applications processed through the School of Graduate Studies. This application EXCLUDES applications to Tri-Council (CIHR, SSHRC, NSERC) and Mitacs, which must be submitted through the RIS application. Applicants are encouraged to consult with the Office of Research and Development (MI) if there is uncertainty around choosing this option.

Additional Notes

  • All applications to Tri-council, including those which Units approve (e.g., Insight, Insight Development, NSERC Discovery), still require a corresponding MUN Researcher Portal application. The MUN Researcher Portal application should contain a PDF copy of the final version of the Tri-council application. Thus, the Tri-council application needs to be submitted prior to completing the MUN Researcher Portal application.
  • Researchers applying to internally adjudicated Faculty/Unit competitions continue as they do now. The successful applicants to these competitions, however, will be required to submit a MUN Researcher Portal application (See General Use Application above).
  • All applicants to RIS internal competitions (SEED, Bridge, Multi-disciplinary fund, etc.) must use the MUN Researcher Portal (See General Use Application above).


Regarding Letters of Intent (LOIs)

LOIs will only need to be submitted through the portal if:

  1. The Sponsor requires institutional signature or other form of formal endorsement; or
  2. The opportunity is based upon an institutional quota and/or requires internal adjudication; or
  3. There is a requirement of a letter of support from the VPR portfolio.

All other Letters of Intent can be submitted through the unit and will follow the normal submission processes (which will be processed outside of the MUN Researcher Portal) of the academic unit. If these LOIs later become full applications, we ask that you upload the LOI as an attachment in the MUN Researcher Portal as part of the full application process.

For LOIs that are required to be submitted through the MUN Researcher Portal and are later invited back for submission as full applications, a new full application will need to be launched in the Portal because the application will require a new institutional signature. Please reference the associated LOI in Question 2.1 under the “General Use Application” application.

MUN Researcher Portal Approval Process

  1. MUN Researcher Portal Applications typically route through two levels of approval: the Principal Investigator’s department and faculty.
  2. Departmental and Faculty approvers are notified by email and on their MUN Researcher Portal dashboard when they have an application to approve.
  3. When an application is submitted, it first routes to the Principal Investigator’s department for approval. If the application is approved, it then travels to the Faculty approval level. For Marine Institute researchers, their application will route to their respective Centre for approval.
  4. An approver can electronically push the application back to the researcher if revisions are necessary.
  5. Re-submitted applications travel back to the approval level that initially rejected it. For example, if the faculty approver pushed the application back to the researcher and the researcher subsequently re-submitted it, the application would bypass the departmental approval and travel directly back to the Faculty level for approval.
  6. An approver cannot approve an application on which they are a team member. It would not route to him/her for approval but instead route to another approver at that approval level