Government Sponsors

Institutional grants provide extensive amounts of money for multi-year and multi-person projects with many and varied activities including travel and equipment and they are usually sponsored by governmental agencies. Governmental agencies have their own ideas of what they wish to fund and send out calls for proposals (RFPs or RFAs) for projects matching those ideas. Budgets are divided between direct and F&A costs (what used to be called indirect costs). For those who are unfamiliar with grants, F&A costs are reimbursements for college costs that are increased due to administering and performing the project. Examples of F&A costs are electricity, heat, air conditioning, space, local telephone service and cleaning services. These costs are determined and collected at rates negotiated between the Research Foundation of SUNY and a federal agency and established through contract. There are different rates for federal and non-federal projects and different rates among the various branches of SUNY. Governmental agencies such as NIH, NSF, DOE and EPA usually award both direct and facilities and administration (F&A) costs. Agencies such as NEH, NEA and NARA are loathe to award F&A costs and are frugal with their direct costs. For specific rates, it is best to check with the Office of Sponsored Programs.

The most important thing to remember when submitting proposals in answer to RFAs or RFPs is to cover every required point enumerated in the guidelines. Usually each section and item carries with it a certain number of points and reviewers will subtract those points if that element is not addressed in the project design narrative. Never assume that the reviewer will infer what you are saying; the idea has to be stated in the most obvious, simplistic, easy to comprehend language. Somehow demonstrate that there are preliminary research results that substantiate further investigation of this topic. Results from a seed grant, a thorough literature search or institutionally funded lab research are good springboards for launching your larger research project. Fill out all the certification forms, complete the checklists and get the required institutional signatures. Lastly, have a friend (or better yet, an enemy) go over the proposal and severely critique it. This gives the writer a chance to plug all the holes before submission.

Be realistic in the budget. If guidelines state that there will be "x" number of awards and "y" amount of money available, and that the average award is anticipated to be "z", take that "z" amount as a clue to the total amount that the agency is really going to fund for each award. Occasionally, a grant submission is so outstanding that it will get funded at an extraordinary amount of money, but the key word here is "occasionally". A typical budget page has at the minimum spaces for salaries, fringe benefits, consultants, equipment, travel, supplies, and other, a catch-all phrase for items that fit nowhere else. Training grants usually have spaces for participants' costs and participants' travel.

SPONSOR WEBSITES

Extensive information about a particular sponsor and its funding opportunities can be obtained from consulting its website. This is particularly true of Federal Governmental Sponsors. These websites also list contacts for funding agencies and often for individual grant programs. The contacts are program officers who are there to offer guidance in both subject matter of the proposal and hints in the actual submission.

FEDERAL

STATE

FEDERAL REGULATIONS

SUNY College of Old Westbury