Use this guide to determine which ROMEO form to submit, troubleshoot common submission issues, and understand what happens after submission.
Which form do I use?
Application Level
Original applications or agreements with a defined work plan and their own regulatory, space, or financial requirements. Submitting at this level creates a new ROMEO file.
Use this form when submitting an original application or agreement that may result in new funding awarded to the Principal Investigator.
Examples include:
- Grants
- Contracts and clinical trials
- Incoming sub-awards
- Co-applicant grants (funds may or may not flow to Dalhousie)
- Stand-alone internal awards (e.g., sabbaticals, start-up funds)
- Re-submissions not previously funded
- Tri-Agency renewals
- Canada Research Chair renewals
Need help?
Contact your faculty facilitator.
For technical assistance, contact researcher.portal@dal.ca.
Use this form when submitting an original agreement that supports general research activities and will not result in a new account opening. If the agreement supports the objectives of one specific project, please submit an event form instead.
Examples include:
- Material Transfer Agreement
- Data Transfer Agreement
- Confidential Disclosure Agreement
- Software License Agreement
- Equipment Agreement (e.g. leasing)
- Research & Collaboration Agreements (no funds).
Need help?
Contact legalresearch@dal.ca
For technical assistance, contact researcher.portal@dal.ca.
Event Level
Changes, supplements, or agreements related to an existing Application-level file.
Use this form when submitting a supplemental application or agreement that may result in new funds, but contain their own set of regulatory, space, and financial requirements.
Examples include:
- Funding agreements from new sources, with terms and conditions that differ from the original checklist
- Payment installments that require a renewed funding application
Need help?
Contact your faculty facilitator.
For technical assistance, contact researcher.portal@dal.ca.
Funding agreements that are covered by the same terms and conditions in the original checklist that was submitted through ROMEO.
Examples include:
- Letter of award
- Inbound transfer of funds letter
Need help?
Contact orspost@dal.ca.
For technical assistance, contact researcher.portal@dal.ca.
Agreements with no account opening, that support the activities of a specific project. For instance, the agreement might reference the project title, account number, or be covered by the same REB protocol, etc. Amendments to these agreements can be submitted through this form as well.
Examples include:
- Material Transfer Agreement
- Data Transfer Agreement
- Confidential Disclosure Agreement
- Software License Agreement
- Equipment Agreement (e.g. leasing)
- Research & Collaboration Agreements (no funds).
Need help?
Contact legalresearch@dal.ca
For technical assistance, contact researcher.portal@dal.ca.
The Dalhousie PI is transferring a portion of their funds to a team member at another institution. Follow up amendments can be submitted through this form as well.
Examples include:
- Outbound Transfers of Funds
- Outbound Sub-Awards.
Need help?
Contact orspost@dal.ca.
For technical assistance, contact researcher.portal@dal.ca.
General amendments for an active research project.
Examples include:
- No-cost extension
- Budget changes
- Change to primary administering institution
- Changes to PI or project team
- Terminations and deferrals
- Other miscellaneous changes.
Need help?
Contact orspost@dal.ca.
For technical assistance, contact researcher.portal@dal.ca.
Indigenous community consent to participate in a research project and/or request a partial release of funds. The partial release of funds can support early engagement with Indigenous communities and/or aspects of the project that do not involve Indigenous communities.
Examples include:
- Documents indicating Indigenous community consent
- Partial release of funds form.
Need help?
Contact indres@dal.ca.
For technical assistance, contact researcher.portal@dal.ca.
Having trouble submitting in ROMEO?
If you encounter problems while submitting a form, try the steps below before contacting support.
- Paste formatting issues – If you’re copying and pasting text from other documents into the ROMEO form, invisible formatting from other documents can cause errors. Paste as plain text (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + V or “Paste without formatting”).
- Large file uploads - Files larger than 10 MB may disrupt your session. Reduce file size before uploading (see file compression tips on Adobe Acrobat's website).
- Draft corruption - In rare cases, draft applications may become corrupted. Use the Clone button (the yellow button on the left side of the file) to create a fresh draft and submit that instead.
- Special characters - Avoid unsupported characters (e.g., < > { } | \ ^ ~) in form fields, as they may trigger validation errors.
What happens after submission?
Review process
- Your file is routed for institutional review
- You may receive email requests for clarification
- See the high level flow diagram, which displays the file's journey through the system [SharePoint - login required]
Need to make changes after submission?
Submitted files are read-only by default
Once you submit a ROMEO file, it becomes view-only.
Editing can be re-enabled by your ORS faculty facilitator or department/faculty signing authority if changes are required.
See instructions below.
How to find your submitted file?
You can locate your file from the ROMEO homepage by:
- Searching the Application Reference Number (5 digits) or File Number (7 digits), or
- Navigating to Applications: Under Review or Applications: Post-Review and locating the file number from those sections
Once you've located the file number, the Workflow Status (far-right column) displays the administrative unit where your application currently resides.
Other Signing Authorities cannot directly return ROMEO files to the researcher for editing. Contact researcher.portal@dal.ca or your faculty facilitator from ORS for assistance.
One option you can pursue independently is to withdraw your application, clone it, make the changes and re-submit the copy. The steps on how to do this are outlined below:
- Go to Applications: Under Review and locate the relevant file number.
- Click the orange View button on the left side to open the file.
- Click the orange Withdraw button at the top.
- A pop-up box will appear. Leave any comment in the box, then click Submit.
- Clicking Submit will automatically close the file and take you back to the homepage.
- Go to the Applications: Withdrawn folder.
- Click the orange Clone button on the left side of the relevant file number.
- Checkmark the information/tabs you wish to copy over and click Clone. This will create a new copy in your Applications: Drafts folder.
The Signing Authority can return the application. The signatory is usually a Department Chair, Dean or Associate Dean Research.
ORS facilitators can return a ROMEO file for editing, by the researcher’s request.
Pre-Award can assist with:
- Applications and budgets
- Letters of Support
Post-Award can assist with:
- Notices of Award
- Financial Services Research Account Applications / Journal Entries
- Human Ethics, Animal Ethics, Biosafety protocols, etc. for account opening
Contact Details
Grants & Contracts
Facilitator for your faculty, on the staff contact page.
Institutional & Industry
Listed on the staff contact page.
Post-Award
Email: orspost@dal.ca
