Proposal (Pre-Award) Submission Requirements
To apply for an external grant, please follow these steps:
Create an application in the system through Pure (AMM). Once the application has been created and all the required information has been entered in the system, the Principal Investigators (PIs)/Grant Administrators (GAs)/ should notify the Research Office (RO) for validation via history and comment section within Pure AMM. The lists of authorised Grant Administrators registered in Pure AMM are as follows: Pakistan | East Africa | United Kingdom.
After receiving the online proposal (pre-award) application, the RO initiates a review process and validates the application. The review and approval from all the relevant departments will be recorded online on Pure AMM. The stakeholders of the proposal i.e. PIs, Co-Investigators (Co-Is), and GAs will receive notifications in case there are any queries to be addressed. The applications are initiated by the GAs on behalf of the PIs in the Pure AMM at least 10 working days before the proposal submission deadline to allow for a thorough review and validation by all authorized institutional approvers, including the RO. The final RO review, resolution of further queries after review, and sign-off require 48 hours altogether (included in the 10-working day window) after all approvals have been obtained from the authorized institutional approvers.
| Description | Responsible Person(s) | Timeline (Working days) |
| Proposal (Pre-Award) Application Initiation | Principal Investigator (PI) or Grant Administrator (GA) on behalf of PI | At least 10 days before the sponsor deadline |
| The Research Office (RO) reviews and validates the application | RO | Immediately after being notified by PI or GA in Pure AMM (RO validates within a day) |
| Department/Entity Head and Stakeholder Approvals | All relevant departments | Within a 07 days window |
| RO Final Check (after all departmental approvals received) | RO | Within 2 days |
The PI is required to complete the section on collaborators entitled ‘Multicentre /Collaborative Grants’ in the application to ensure that the relationship between AKU and the sub-recipient is clear, and the selection of the sub-recipient can be justified. For all subcontracts/collaborative sub-awards (national/international). AKU will ensure that due diligence of new sub-recipients is undertaken. This would require the sub-recipient to fill out the relevant forms detailed below:
- Form A is for reputable collaborators and only seeks basic information e.g. reputable universities in the West.
- Form B is for new sub-awardees and more detailed information is asked to enable internal AKU departments like Finance, Legal, and others to review the organization.
- Form C has especially been prepared for government entities.
The relevant forms are to be provided along with the supporting documents. The RO, Finance, and Legal will review the documents relevant to the scope of their risk review (e.g. Legal office will review the constitution documents of the potential sub-recipient to confirm the legal status while Finance may opine on the financials). Refer to
Annexure III: Process for Research Reputational Risk Assessment of Sponsors/Sub-awardees for Extramural Grant Applications.
Review the list of AKU pre-approved sponsors: Pakistan | East Africa. If the sponsor is not on the list, initiate the new sponsor due diligence process. Once approvals are obtained from all relevant authorised institutional approvers, the Department Head/Entity Head, and the RO, the grant proposal can be submitted to the funding agency.
For queries related to the technical aspects of the Pure AMM, contact pure.support@aku.edu or refer to the Pure AMM User Guide.
