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Government Relations

Resources for Employees

Process for Soliciting Congressional Letters of Support

For some federal grants, it is common practice to have congressional letters of support from Members of Congress who represent Stony Brook. Letters of support can be submitted either before or after the federal grant proposal has been submitted to the selecting agency. To provide guidance for faculty and staff who would like to obtain congressional letters of support for competitive federal proposals that are being submitted to federal agencies, Stony Brook’s Office of Federal Relations requires the following:

1. Faculty and staff who believe that a congressional letter of support would be advantageous should contact the Office of Federal Relations at least one month before the letter is needed.

  • All requests for letters in support of federal grant applications within the health and/or medicine (mainly HHS and CDMRP) space should be directed to michelle.greenhalgh@stonybrookmedicine.edu.
  • All other non-health/medicine-related requests for letters in support of federal grant applications (i.e. DOE, DOD, ED, HUD, DOT, VA,  etc.) should be directed to kristen.adams@stonybrook.edu.

2. While SBU/SBM and the federal government do not have any fixed criteria for determining whether the type of proposal or grant application merits a letter of support, below are a few examples of proposals for which congressional letters of support may be helpful:

  • Multi-institution proposals where SUNY Stony Brook is the lead institution or the lead PI serves as faculty at Stony Brook.
  • Proposals that support creation or continuation of a National Center of Excellence (or similarly named entities), particularly in areas that align with Stony Brook’s Strategic Plan ASPIRE, as detailed by President Goldsmith during her investiture.
  • Proposals that would lead to strengthening the economic, educational, cultural, and health outcomes in the Long Island region, particularly ones that enjoy intergovernmental support.
  • Proposals that are designated a priority of SUNY and/or the Stony Brook Board of Trustees.

3. Proposals that will be submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the National Science Foundation (NSF) are not always helpful and in fact, may be counterproductive. However, in select instances, a letter of support would be appropriate. If you are working on a grant submission for NIH or NSF, please contact the correct staff from the Office of Federal Relations to discuss whether letters would be appropriate to accompany a specific grant application.


Format for Request of Congressional Letters of Support

To begin the process for working with the Office of Federal Relations in requesting a letter of congressional support, please provide federal relations staff with the following information:

  1. A brief Executive Summary of the proposal [including amount being requested; partners (if any); benefit to Stony Brook, Long Island and/or the state of New York if the grant is approved.
  2. Name and address of the federal official at the agency for which the letter should be directed to. This is typically the program director or administrator for the Center, Institute or Office within the agency from which you are applying for federal funding.
  3. Date that the proposal needs to be submitted (remember to allot sufficient time that is needed by the Office of Federal Relations to process the proposal before submission)
  4. Name and contact information for the Principal Investigator.
  5. History of relevant federal funding (any agency) related to the proposal.
  6. History of prior grant submissions for this award (if any).

 

Letter of Support Request Information Template

Timeline:

  1. Date of Request –
  2. Due Date for Requested Letter – 

Requester Information:

  1. Requesting Principal Investigator (PI) Name – 
  2. PI Contact Info – Email/phone
  3. PI Institution/Department/Group Affiliation – 

Grant Opportunity Information:

  1. NOFO Name and # –
  2. NOFO Link – 
  3. Official Stony Brook Grant Application Title – 

Grant Administrator Information:

  1. Department or Agency Staff Name that Letter should be addressed to –
  2. Department/Agency Staff Title – 
  3. Department/Agency – 
  4. Institute, Center or Office name – 
  5. Building Name and Room Number if Available – 
  6. Building street address including city, state and zip code – 

Project Information Narrative:

Please provide a few sentences elaborating on the following:

  1. How this grant application impacts the nation, state and/or region. (i.e. why would a Member of the House or Senate care to support your project?)
  2. Please provide one brief paragraph explaining the project proposal at a very high level.  (i.e. provide a layman’s explanation of the proposed project.)
  3. Please include the study hypothesis, what issue you are trying to solve or problem you are trying to understand by conducting this research, and any relevant data.
  4. Explain how this project will advance American scientific, technological, medical or other capabilities.
  5. Include any relevant information on agency or department priorities and how the project application ties into agency/department/Administration priorities and interests if applicable.
  6. Please provide one concluding, high level sentence about the significance of the project.