Proposal and Contract Preparation
Who can be a Project Director?
University practice, and the policies of most external sponsors, requires that each grant application have a single Project Director (PD) or Principal Investigator (PI). In order to act as a PD or PI, an individual must hold one of the following academic titles:
• Lecturer, Instructor, Assistant or Associate Professor, or Professor.
These titles may be qualified by the prefix of Research or Clinical. The titles Visiting, Adjunct, and Emeritus are acceptable only if approved by the cognizant Dean(s).
Application Guidelines and Materials
Application guidelines and forms for federal agencies, health research organizations and other sponsors are generally available by calling Peter Saal, at ext. 2-9033. See Research Resource Center.
Matching Support - OVPR Research Support Request Form
The Office of the Vice President for Research has implemented the use of a Research Support Request form to assist Investigator's in orchestrating a fiscal plan for institution-based projects that require identification of matching support. The strategy has been successful in optimizing resources from a variety of diverse sources.
In order to facilitate handling by the Office of the Vice President for Research, PI's should deliver the form at least 4 weeks prior to the submission of any proposal or pre-proposal to external funding sources, and obtain significant matching dollar commitments from both the Division Dean(s) and/or Department Chair(s), along with their signatures and letters of endorsement indicating that each has reviewed the proposal with respect to divisional and/or departmental long-range planning. Copies of the form may be obtained by calling Peter Saal at ext. 2-9033. See Research Resource Center.
Sponsored Programs 4-Page Form
All applications must be accompanied by the Proposal/Award Processing Form (USB 299) bearing signatures of appropriate faculty, chairs and deans. The form is available at: http://www.research.sunysb.edu/research/forms/ors/susb299.html.
There are a number of deadline "types" employed by sponsors. A target date, used primarily by the National Science Foundation, means that proposals received on or shortly after a particular date will be considered for review. An application receipt date means that a proposal must be in the hands of the sponsoring organization by that date (and very often a specific time of day). A postmark deadline means that the proposal package must bear a US Postal Service postmark of the deadline date. Private meter dates are usually not sufficient, and depending on sponsor policy, Federal Express or Express Mail may not be acceptable. Please note that SBUs mailroom does not provide postmarks!
Proposal Review and Endorsement
All applications for external support of research, education, or scholarly activity must be endorsed by the Sponsored Programs Division.
The Sponsored Programs Coordinators are responsible for assisting you in the preparation of your grant application(s) and guiding you through The Research Foundation of SUNYs review of your proposal(s) for external funding. In preparing for this review, the Coordinators need to ensure that SUNY, Research Foundation and sponsor guidelines and policies are being followed. Therefore, should you decide you are going to submit a proposal, contact your Coordinator as soon as possible at ext. 2-4402 or 2-9949.
Those project directors wishing early assistance in the review of their proposal may fax the following information to their appropriate Sponsored Programs Coordinator at 632-6963:
(1) pages 1and 2 of Form USB
299 (the Four Page Form).
(2) the sponsors face page or equivalent pages containing or requiring
insertion of administrative information.
(3) the complete budget and budget justification - a legible handwritten
copy will do; and
(4) documentation regarding any and all proposed subcontracts, cost
sharing and/or matching funds.
The Office of Sponsored Programs is not able to photocopy grant applications. If your department does not have an adequate photo-copier, we recommend Kinko's at 2-1831 in the basement of the Melville Library.
The New York State Ethics Commission and several federal sponsors require the reporting of conflict of interest in conjunction with application for external support. Campus policy extends the requirement to all faculty applying for support to all sponsors. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATOR DISCLOSURE REVIEW AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST TO DETERMINE WHETHER A CONFLICT EXISTS AND WHAT ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN TO MANAGE, REDUCE OR ELIMINATE IT. See CONFLICT OF INTEREST, FORMS, Compliance
THE CAMPUS CONFLICT OF INTEREST
DISCLOSURE FORM AND THE INVESTIGATOR DISCLOSURE FORM SATISFY THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE CAMPUS CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY. In addition
to this Federally-based requirement, the New York State Ethics Commission
requires that academic employees of the SUNY system, who earn in excess
of the "filing rate," (the job rate of Salary Grade 24, which
was $70,851 for statements due in 2003), as well as employees designated
as policymakers, are required to complete the statutorily mandated
financial disclosure statement set forth in Public Officers Law §73-a.
Electronic filing of the financial disclosure statements, currently
available to all State employees, will be made available to all academic
employees of SUNY. Please see-
http://www.dos.state.ny.us/ethc/ethel.html
Any SUNY academic employee who is not engaged in obtaining grants or any other activity as specified in Executive Law §94(9)(k), may seek an exemption from filing the statutory disclosure statement. Conflict of Interest questions may be directed to Judy Matuk. (Please note: the SUNY-1 Disclosure Form and process applies to certain faculty whether or not they engage in sponsored project activities. That process is administered by the Human Resources Office.)
Beginning with the 2002 filing year ending November 15, 2003, academic employees of the SUNY system, who earn in excess of the filing rate, as well as employees designated as policymakers, will be required to complete the statutorily mandated financial disclosure statement set forth in Public Officers Law §73-a. Electronic filing of the financial disclosure statements, currently available to all State employees, will be made available to all academic employees of SUNY. In addition, any SUNY academic employee who is not engaged in obtaining grants or any other activity as specified in Executive Law §94(9)(k), may seek an exemption from filing the statutory disclosure statement. The Commission will no longer require a supplemental financial disclosure filing for grant applicants ("SUNY-2" form).The Research Foundation may endorse a proposal that includes a subcontract as long as it contains the following:
• A statement of the
scope of work to be performed, a budget (with appropriate costs) as
specified by the sponsor, and the subcontracting institution's
endorsement. These documents become part of your application.
• The subcontractors direct costs and indirect costs are combined
and become a direct cost on Stony Brooks budget. These costs are subject
to Facility & Administrative Costs, although limited.
Unless specified otherwise in the sponsors policy, Facility & Administrative
Costs are taken only on the first $25,000 of each subcontract.
Contract Negotiations with Industry
The Contracts and Grants Administrators in the Office of Sponsored Programs are directly responsible for the drafting and negotiation of research agreements, clinical testing agreements, software development agreements and other industrial contracts.
Unlike the grant mechanisms which government agencies and non-profits use, University-Industry collaborations require contracts, which will comment to issues of publication rights, patent ownership, confidentiality, cost recovery, and the like.
For the Contract and Grant Administrators an important consideration in the contract negotiation process with industry is securing publication rights for faculty and students of the results of research studies, regardless of what those results may be or the source of funding. Consistent with Research Foundation and SUNY policy, we do this to protect an essential academic freedom.
Another issue which is an important consideration in negotiations is that of patent ownership. Under SUNY and Research Foundation policy, any invention made using the facilities of the State University of New York and/or the Research Foundation of SUNY must become the property of the Research Foundation of SUNY, with rights to license the invention available to the sponsor of the research. This insures that the invention will be developed if it has commercial value, and both the university and the inventor will benefit from any royalties which flow from its commercialization. See Office of Technology Transfer and Licensing.
Faculty are urged to draw upon the expertise of the Contracts and Grants Administrators and are encouraged to involve them in the early stages of discussion with industry.