The author knew of no formalized system for appraising grant capacity and readiness so, in an effort to understand the current state of knowledge regarding assessment of these institutional factors, conducted a systematic review of the research administration literature. Every article published from 1982 through 2013 by five major journals in the field of research administration was considered as a source. The results showed that across 32 years, few articles have been published on the assessment of institutional grant capacity and preparedness and little evidence-based content is present related to this topic. Since discussion of every grant proposal includes some interaction about institutional capacity to complete the project and preparedness to undertake it, this is an important gap in the literature. Gauging an organization's capacity for grant activity or its readiness to propose projects to external funders is practiced, at present, locally and in an often idiosyncratic manner. This circumstance does not allow for quantification of institutional capacity, benchmarking against past capacity or that of peer institutions, or strategic planning of grant activity based on measured levels of capacity and readiness. Moving practice in this area from being subjective and context dependent toward including evidence-based and context-independent factors is necessary to allow measurement, benchmarking, and comparison. Research administrators' strong focus on process comprehension, management, and improvement would appear to support consideration and development of solutions in assessing grant capacity and readiness. Existing and future studies that demonstrate constructs which influence activity related to sponsored projects could serve a foundational role in the development of such assessments.