Guidelines for FY 2009 Appropriations Requests

The following guidelines are provided for your consideration in developing your FY 2009 appropriations requests.

Congressional earmark requests for non-defense related projects should be for an amount less than $1 million. Defense requests should be less than $5 million.
Projects must reflect your campus' mission and area of expertise.
Develop short, concise "plain English" proposals that will be understood by those without a scientific background.
All proposals should include a one page executive summary listing the campus, contact information, description of project, relevance to federal priorities and amount requested.
Emphasize collaborations, if they exist, between both SUNY and the Private Sector, SUNY and other private higher education partnerships - multi-campus initiatives or partnerships with colleges and universities in other states.
Projects with existing startup funding will receive priority consideration.
If requests are part of a large consortium, focus on the elements important to the SUNY entity and the amount of money that will be directed to the SUNY campus.
Focus on one area of expertise to be developed over the long term (Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology, Small Scale Systems).
Make sure to include any campus support (both financial and in-kind commitments).
Emphasize previous, current and future New York State or federal agency support.
Indicate economic impact, community benefit/support for your project (i.e., Chamber of Commerce, Mayors, Council Members, local political figures).
Business and industry partnerships are critical (Congress is looking for many levels of participation and cooperation).
If your request can build on an existing Center of Excellence, CAT, STAR Center or other established entity, please emphasize this relationship.
If your request is for a construction project, please indicate clearly whether this or a similar proposal has been approved or requested from the Construction Fund, Dormitory Authority or other campus foundation and, if approved, the amount secured (construction dollars are increasingly difficult to secure in DC).
If your request is for multiple millions of dollars, be prepared to break your request in multiple year funding.
Do not request funding from the Department of Defense if you do not have American citizens to carry out the work. Foreign nationals will not be able to participate on most defense/national security related research.
The project must be executable (able to begin before the end of the fiscal year requested).
If a request does receive funding, it will take many months before the money will be obligated.
Projects that already have a "home" (a willing program manager within the government) will be executed quicker and will attract congressional support.