AI4RA Tip of the Week #6

What is the RFA checklist workflow?  

The RFA (Request for Applications) Checklist Extraction workflow is a two-step, AI-enhanced process that turns an agency RFA, FOA, or NOFO into a structured pre-award checklist for the proposal team. It runs six parallel extraction tasks against the document — dates and deadlines, eligible institutions, eligible individuals, award information, application components, and budget requirements and policies — then a consolidation step assembles the results into a single Markdown checklist organized in eight sections. Missing information is explicitly marked “Not specified in the document” rather than guessed, and strict de-duplication rules keep each fact in exactly one section. 

Why this matters for Research Administrators  

Speed & Accuracy – Automated extraction reduces the time you spend manually copying information from an RFA into a checklist. Missing information is explicitly marked “Not specified in the document” so gaps are visible at a glance rather than hidden in the output.  

Consistent Structure – Every RFA produces the same eight sections (Dates & Deadlines, Eligibility, Award Information, Application Components, Budget Requirements & Policies, Submission Details, Special Requirements, and Important Notes), so opportunities can be compared side by side.  

De-Duplication by Design – Award amount appears only in Award Information; detailed financial rules only in Budget Requirements & Policies; per-component formatting (page limits, font, naming conventions) only on the individual component. You don’t have to hunt across sections to reconcile the same fact appearing twice.  

Faithful to the Document – The workflow is held to 100% accuracy on dates, monetary amounts, eligibility criteria, and page limits. You can trust the extracted values without re-transcribing from the source PDF. 

How to use this resource  

Open Vandalizer and log in.  

Upload your RFA (PDF, DOCX) via Files → Upload → Save.  

Go to Library → Explore and locate the “RFA Checklist Extractor” workflow (search bar or scroll).  

Click the workflow tile, then Select File and choose the RFA you just uploaded.  

Run Workflow. The extractor will:  

Parse the document and pull out all required data fields.  

Generate a draft checklist organized into the eight standard sections.  

Mark any field the document does not specify with the literal string “Not specified in the document” rather than guessing.  

Review & Verify  

• Open the workflow’s output panel.  
• Review each of the eight sections and edit any value that needs correction against the source RFA.  

Download or copy the Markdown checklist from the output panel and route it to your proposal team (Compliance, Finance, IRB, etc.) using your existing review process. 

Quick tip: After the first run, you can save the verified checklist as a template for future requests that follow the same sponsor or award type, further cutting processing time.  

How can I learn more about this topic?  

AI4RA Office Hours – Occurs every fourth Tuesday at 11 AM PST and includes live Q&A and demos (https://ai4ra.uidaho.edu/#events).  

Workflow Architect Certification – Vandalizer internal course which teaches you to become a certified workflow builder. Click on the bubble in the lower right corner. 

Support – Click the Support button in the top‑right corner of Vandalizer or submit a request via the AI4RA contact page (https://ai4ra.uidaho.edu/contact/). 

Share your questions or success stories  

Post them to the AI4RA community forum (https://groups.ai4ra.uidaho.edu/g/main/topics). Your tips help the whole research‑admin community thrive.