Internal Approval Forms
The Internal Approval Form (IAF) is Penn State’s online form for collecting pertinent administrative and fiscal information. The IAF is an online, Internal Approval Form for grant proposals and awards. Electronic approval of the form replaced pen and ink signatures.
Proposal Internal Approval Form
Proposal Internal Approval Forms (IAFs) must be completed prior to proposal submission.
The PIAF is not the proposal itself and completion does not constitute proposal submission as this as a Penn State internal form only. Principal Investigators do not have the authority to submit proposals on their own. Investigators should contact their college/unit Research Administrator as soon as they learn of a funding opportunity.
Approval to submit a proposal is evidenced by electronic approvals on the Proposal Internal Approval Form (IAF). After the Principal Investigator (PI) and any co-investigators have electronically approved the IAF, the IAF must be electronically approved by all designated approvers, which may include the investigators' Department Heads, Associate Deans, Campus Chancellors, and/or Campus Directors of Academic Affairs. The Associate Vice President for Research/Director of Sponsored Programs and his or her authorized delegates serve as the final approver.
NOTE: To help facilitate the reporting of Other / Pending Support, Authorized Organizational Representatives (AORs) will see a general summary SFI report (no dollar amounts included) when providing the final approval signature on an IAF. The purpose of this SFI report is to facilitate a conversation between the AOR and the Principal Investigator regarding any items that may have been omitted from Other/Current and Pending Support, as it is the PI's responsibility for ensuring Other Support/Current Pending Support Forms are accurate and complete. Read more about this summary SFI report in this Knowledge Base article.
Award Internal Approval Form
A Principal Investigator (PI) will sometimes receive an award without having submitted an official proposal. This generally results from informal conversation with a sponsor (such as the submission of a ‘white paper’). In such cases, the PI should work with his or her Research Administrator to complete an Award Internal Approval Form (AIAF) which will be submitted to OSP along with a copy of any prior correspondence with the sponsor that resulted in the award. At a minimum, a Statement of Work, Budget, and Budget Justification are required to be submitted with the award documents.
IAF Revisions
OSP will request a revised IAF if the award is less than 75% or greater than 105% of the proposed amount.
Additional information is available at links below: