• Grant: A grant is an assistance mechanism used by sponsors to support research, scholarly endeavors, or activities at another institution. The federal government awards grants to institutions to support activities in line with the institution’s purposes. While technically a type of contract, a grant usually is issued as a unilateral agreement, with all terms being agreed to when funds are first spent. 
• Contract: A contract is an agreement between two or more parties binding each party to specific terms and conditions. In sponsored programs, the federal government awards contracts to procure specific information, research, services, or goods in line with their own priorities. Contracts are always bilateral, requiring authorized signatures from each party. In the university setting, faculty are not considered authorized signatories.
• Principal Investigator: The principal investigator, or PI, is the person responsible for the intellectual, fiscal, and administrative oversight of a grant or contract. In academia, PIs are primarily faculty members. 
• Sponsor: A sponsor is the person or entity providing funding to carry out a sponsored program.
  • Federal, State, and City. Examples of federal sponsors include the twenty-three agencies of the federal government such as the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, or the Department of Defense. Examples of state sponsors are the New York State Board of Education and New York State Office of Child and Family Services. Examples of New York City sponsors include branches of the city government, such as the New York City Board of Education and the New York City Department of Youth and Child Development. Some agencies, like the Department of Education, exist at the city, state, and federal levels. 
  • Non-Federal
    • Profit. For-profit sponsors usually give grants through a non-profit portion of the entity. When for-profit sponsors support research or scholarly activities, they often do so as a gift rather than as a grant or contract in order to assist with their tax burden. At Lehman College, gifts are handled by the Lehman College Foundation. 
    • Non-profit. Non-profit entities such as foundations are often interested in giving grants to support their mission. Funding from non-profits such as the Guggenheim or Ford Foundations can be very prestigious. 
• Proposal: A proposal is a request for financial or other support in order to carry out a specific project. Proposals usually include a description of the project’s activity, a proposed budget, a budget narrative or justification, and materials supporting the qualifications of the PI, the project environment or project personnel.
  • Solicited Proposals. Sponsors often solicit or request proposals in a specific subject, geographic, or cultural area in order to further their own mission or agenda. The solicitation may be called a “Request for Proposals,” “Broad Agency Announcement,” or “Program Announcement,” and contains detailed instructions on who is eligible to apply, who is eligible to be P.I., how much each project may apply for, the purpose of the program, review criteria, and specific application forms and formats.
  • Unsolicited Proposals. Sponsors may also be willing to accept proposals in areas without specific solicitations. When this is the case, there will usually be general information on the sponsor’s Web site about how to apply for support, or who to contact. 
• Facilities and Administrative Costs: Facilities and Administrative costs (F&A) are costs that are incurred for common or joint objectives and, therefore, cannot be identified readily and specifically with a particular sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity. F&A costs are synonymous with the terms indirect costs (IDC) and overhead costs. Consistent with 2 CFR 215 and 2 CFR 220, F&A cost rates are negotiated with the Department of Health and Human Services for Lehman College based on cost accounting pools and calculations from actual expenditures. 
• Cost Sharing: Cost sharing is the total value of resources needed by and/or used for a sponsored program that is not paid for by the sponsor.

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs is responsible for assisting researchers with all parts of sponsored program development and administration. The first step begins with the researcher’s idea: an idea for research or creative works that requires resources of any kind that may be obtained from an entity or person outside of Lehman College. With the idea in mind, the researcher searches for potential funding sources, identifying solicitations for applications that she believes would be a good match intellectually and financially with the content and scope of her research needs. Once potential sponsors and solicitations are identified, the next step is to touch base with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and the department chair (and maybe divisional dean) to get started with the application process. 

In academia, most grants and contracts are awarded to the institution rather than the individual. In addition, many projects require resources committed from the institution such as the researcher’s time and effort, equipment, space, or the infrastructure to hire staff and students. Therefore, the institution must be involved in the development and submission of any research proposal.

In addition to a description of the project, sponsors request information about the institution, researcher(s), requested budget, and other sponsored program support. The format of these items, along with any restrictions in what can be included in the project and in the budget, varies widely from sponsor to sponsor.

In most cases, institutional involvement will be limited to assisting the researcher in developing a budget, identifying the correct information and forms for the application, and a final review and signature before submission. At Lehman College, each proposal requires approval by the individual researcher leading the project, the researcher’s department chair, dean, and the Director of Research and Sponsored Programs prior to submission to the Office. Approval for department chairs and deans in other departments and divisions should only be included if faculty or resources from those areas will be included in the performance of the project. This series of approvals is required to allow maximum communication on the administrative side of the College so that when the research is funded, all parties are aware of any institutional commitments that are needed to ensure the project’s success.

Once the proposal is approved at Lehman College, it may be submitted to the sponsor by following any sponsor-specific submission requirements identified in the solicitation for applications or sponsor documentation. It is increasingly common for sponsors to require online submission with approval of the appropriate authorized official from Lehman College.

Upon review, the sponsor will decide whether or not to fund the proposal, and will notify Lehman College or the researcher. When the sponsor notifies the researcher, the researcher must bring all information to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs in order for the agreement to be authorized and for an account to be set up. If the project is not funded, the sponsor will often provide feedback to the researcher on why their proposal was rejected, and may or may not suggest that the researcher revise and resubmit the application. If the project is selected for funding, the sponsor will enter into a contractual agreement with the Research Foundation of CUNY on behalf of Lehman College to provide funds to cover the scope of work outlined in the proposal within a specific time period. Generally, these contracts will also include the requirement for Lehman College to report on the financial and academic progress of the project at least annually.

The Research Foundation of CUNY (RF) is a non-profit organization formed specifically to handle the contractual and financial aspects of sponsored program (grant and contract) awards for each of the schools in the City University of New York. Awards are not considered approved or signed without approval of the authorized official at Lehman Colleg, as well as legal and fiscal review by the staff of the Research Foundation.

Once the award documents are approved and signed, the Research Foundation will create a financial account detailing the approved expense categories for the award. This account is similar to a checking account from which the researcher can pay staff and students and purchase materials and supplies as needed within the period of performance awarded by the sponsor. All expenses charged to the sponsored program account must support the specific project funded by the sponsor. In accordance with federal law, each sponsored program is given a separate account. 

As part of their financial oversight responsibility, the Research Foundation checks every expense request to make sure that it is allocable, allowable, and reasonable for the project as required by federal law and CUNY policies. The Research Foundation web site contains a wealth of information about the federal and CUNY policies and practices that affect sponsored program spending.

The Research Foundation also has other fiscal responsibilities for each project. These include assisting the researcher with financial reporting, the required financial auditing of the project, and with all aspects of spending funds on a sponsored project. As the employer of all staff and students that researchers hire, the RF also provides extensive resources for human resource issues.

At the end of the project, the sponsor usually requires some version of a final report that covers the expenditure of funds and the results of the project. For research, results may be the confirmation or denial of expected results to an experiment; the publication of studies, art, or music; or simply the written assurance from the researcher that the project progressed. For sponsored programs that support training, programs, or the availability of resources the reporting may be based on services rendered or tangible deliverables. If the project has been successful and the sponsor feels that the project has been well run, the researcher has a higher chance of receiving additional and increased funding in the future from the same and other sponsors.

Finding funding is the process of matching up a researcher’s idea with the kind of things a sponsor wants to pay for. Most sponsors solicit applications on specific programmatic areas based on their mission, priorities, and budget. These solicitations go by many names, mostly variations on the same theme, such as Request for Applications, Request for Proposals, Program Announcement, Broad Agency Announcement, Program Solicitation, or Program Description.

Outside of CUNY, there are three major types of organizations that fund sponsored programs: government agencies, not-for-profit organizations, and for profit companies. Most for profit companies will try to purchase results or intellectual property for their own purposes and their grants programs are usually small or focused in the pharmaceutical industry. For the vast majority of researchers who are not interested in clinical trials, government agencies and not-for-profit organizations will be the most lucrative and diverse sources of sponsored program funding.

For federal grants, the government established a database of funding opportunities online called grants.gov in 2002. All domestic federal agencies are required to publish their solicitations for applications in this database. Located online at www.grants.gov, this database is free to the public and may be searched in a variety of ways to locate solicitations that are suitable for your academic field and purpose.

The type of not-for-profit organization most likely to provide sponsored program funding is a private foundation. Foundations are usually created as ways for people to give away money for tax benefit. As such, the foundations usually have a mission statement and restrictions on the kinds of support that they will give. One way to understand the ramifications of these origins is to imagine what restrictions and preferences you might put in place if you had $200 million dollars to give away very quickly. Because foundations are usually limited in resources and generous in philanthropy, a separate non-profit foundation called the Foundation Center was formed to help network and find each other.

The Foundation Center not only serves this purpose for foundations that buy a membership for themselves, but also sells memberships to institutions such as Lehman College to allow us to search their database. The Foundation Directory Online is a database of not-for-profit foundations that allows researchers to search for foundations whose missions are relevant to their research ideas. To learn how to log into the database, contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

Finally, the model of a subscription database has become popular since the formation of the Foundation Directory Online, and has been applied to many areas. Pivot-RP is such a database and it offers a very useful mix of public, private, and non-profit sources. The Research Foundation of CUNY has purchased a subscription to this database—a link to it is available on Research Foundation site. Lehman faculty may also access Pivot without a subscription, but the database allows more search options, such as saving your searches, and update e-mails, if you register with your Lehman email.

• Before beginning a search for funding opportunities, it is a good idea to have written down two or three sentences about what project you would like to have funded.
• Identify the first database you would like to search from the Funding Databases page.
• Log in, if necessary, and navigate to the appropriate search screen.
• Begin with a keyword search that you believe is descriptive of the subject of your research.
• Browse the search results (if any) to see if the database’s results match the project ideas. If the search resulted in zero or very few results, think of different ways to describe the idea or project discipline. Some databases such as COS and The Foundation Directory provide the titles of the categories to help search more effectively.
• Narrow the search until there is a reasonable number of solicitations to look through. Generally 25-100 results is a reasonable start in the first stages of searching.
• For each solicitation ask the following questions:
  • Am I eligible through Lehman College, the Research Foundation, or by myself to apply to this sponsor?
  • Does the project further the sponsor’s mission, purpose, or priorities as described on their website or in their materials?
  • Does this sponsor fund work in the discipline the project represents?
  • Does this sponsor fund this kind of project activity?
  • Has this sponsor funded similar projects in the past?
  • When is the due date for applications, and is it far enough away to allow time to write and edit a good proposal?
  • Does this sponsor offer enough funding to cover the costs of the project?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no," keep looking by changing the keywords or consider ways in which the scope or context of the project can change. If the solicitations are close, but not enthusiastic, save copies of them for future ideas. When solicitations where all of the questions result in enthusiastic “yes” answers, these are the sponsors to develop proposal applications for. At this point, it is a good idea to bring the results of the search to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs to discuss how to get started and to make sure you haven’t overlooked any of the sponsor interests or requirements that may be detrimental to your application.

In order to build a budget for the project in mind, it is necessary to translate all the steps of the research into action items. Each action item identified will need resources in the form of effort, equipment, and materials and supplies. The project budget is formed by quantifying each resource needed for each action item and adding in costs that are statutory, such as fringe benefits, taxes, fees, and facilities and indirect costs. The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs offers individual meetings to help PIs develop project budgets.

Release/Reassigned Time

Sponsored Projects may include a commitment to “buy out” some of a faculty member’s teaching commitment with the approval of the department chair and divisional dean.

Summer Salary

CUNY faculty may budget up to three months of time over the summer months on a sponsored program at the same rate of pay that they would receive over the academic year if they are not teaching during the summer months.

Export Control

Projects involving sensitive equipment or hiring foreign nationals must be cleared through the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs before spending begins. In some cases, these projects may require a license to export materials or information.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Projects involving the use of human subjects must receive approval from the Lehman College Institutional Review Board before any work is begun. The use of human subjects may include such activities interviews and surveys. The Office of Responsible Research Practices is available to answer any questions about the use of human subjects in sponsored programs.

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

Projects involving the use of animals must receive approval from the Lehman College Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee before any work is begun. The Office of Responsible Research Practices is available to answer any questions about the use of animals in sponsored programs.

Institutional Biosafety Committee

Projects involving hazardous materials must receive approval from the Institutional Biosafety Committee before materials are ordered or used. The Office of Responsible Research Practices is available to answer any questions about the use of hazardous materials in sponsored programs.

Stem Cells

Projects involving stem cells must receive approval from the Escrow Committee before any work is begun. The Office of Responsible Research Practices is available to answer any questions about the use of stem cells in sponsored programs.

Responsible Conduct of Research

Lehman College participates in and is subject to the CUNY policies on the Responsible Conduct of Research. According to the federal government and the 2007 Research Misconduct Policy of CUNY, research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism.

Fabrication is making up data or results and recording or reporting them. Falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record. Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit in proposing, performing or reviewing research, or in reporting research results. Research misconduct does not include honest error or differences of opinion.

Responsible Conduct of Research, however, is much broader than simple research misconduct. Responsible Conduct of Research also includes many areas such as data acquisition, management, sharing, and ownership; conflict of interest whether financial, commitment, or institutional, human subject protection, animal welfare, publication practices and responsibilities, mentor/trainee responsibilities, peer review, and collaborative research.

In response to increasing federal regulation in the area of Responsible Conduct of Research in 2010, CUNY has put in place a plan for the training and oversight of Responsible Conduct of Research. This plan includes a requirement that all students that are supported by sponsored programs, whether graduate or undergraduate, must receive and participate in training in the Responsible Conduct of Research. The plan as instituted requires Project Directors and Principal Investigators to provide ongoing education in RCR topics to students and postdoctoral researchers participating in the project. The PD/PI must also maintain records of the training, including documentation that the students have successfully completed online training modules appropriate to the research field from CITI and shared the completion certificates with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs within six weeks of the beginning of the project, or the time when the student or postdoctoral researcher is hired to work on the project.

• More information is available on the CUNY website

Conflict of Interest

The City University of New York has developed guidelines for colleges to use to identify potential conflicts of interest for principal investigators based on the nature of the work and funding source. Lehman College adheres to the CUNY policies and to the sponsor policies as applicable to sponsored programs. The primary conflict of interest concern is the potential for a significant financial interest in the outcome of the research project. Definition of significant financial interest as defined by CUNY policy is as follows:

Anything of monetary value, including, but not limited to, salary or other payments for services (e.g. consulting fees or honoraria); equity interests (e.g. stocks, stock options, or other ownership interests); and intellectual property rights (e.g. patents, copyrights, and royalties from such rights).

The term does not include:

• salary, royalties, or other remuneration from the University;
• income from seminars, lectures, or teaching engagements sponsored by public or nonprofit entities;
• income from service on advisory committees or review panels for public or nonprofit entities;
• An equity interest that, when aggregated for the covered individual and the covered individual’s spouse and dependent children, meets both of the following tests: (i) does not exceed $10,000 in value, as determined through the reference to public prices or other reasonable measures of fair market value; and (ii) does not represent more than a five percent (5%) ownership interest in any single entity; or
• Salary, royalties, or other payments that when aggregated for the Covered Individual and the Covered Individual’s spouse and dependent children over the next twelve months, are not expected to exceed $10,000.
• (See: http://www.cuny.edu/research/index.html and follow the link on Research Compliance for a detailed explanation of the current CUNY policy and procedures used by the University in matters of conflict of interest.)

The Policy as it Applies to Lehman College

Lehman College has a College Conflicts Officer (Dr. Robert Troy, Associate Provost, ext. 7825, robert.troy@lehman.cuny.edu ) who reviews conflicts of interest submissions on all grant proposals. All proposals must be accompanied by the Disclosure Statement for Certain Academic Employees Upon Application for an External Grant or Contrat— City University of New York form. Each Principal Investigator on a proposal must fill out this form completely and is responsible for disclosing any potential conflict of interest. All sections should be filled out with no section left blank. Note that if a potential conflict of interest is identified, it may still be possible to conduct the research project with some modifications. Once a potential conflict of interest is identified, then the College Conflicts Officer reviews the disclosure statement and makes a determination. The PI and Conflicts Officer then discuss the conflict and it is hoped that a solution can be attained at that time. A review process has been defined by the University if there is disagreement between the PI and the Conflicts Officer.

In addition to financial conflicts of interest, Lehman College is also required to manage apparent conflicts of interest with regard to the individual or the institution. Some sponsors (such as the National Institutes of Health), define investigators very broadly. When this is the case, the conflict of interest disclosure should cover not only the project Principal Investigator, but also her or his immediate family.

All possible care will be taken to protect the information pertaining to conflict of interest disclosures both in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and in the Conflict of Interest Officer’s files.

Faculty members are encouraged to disclose early and often. In the vast majority of cases, conflicts may be managed within Lehman College and research will be able to continue. Penalties at the federal level usually only arise when conflicts are not disclosed.

NIH Policy

In addition to their published policies, for the purposes of Conflict of Interest, NIH has clarified:

The term ‘Investigator’ means the Principal Investigator (PI) and any other person who is responsible for the design, conduct, or reporting of research funded by PHS, or proposed for such funding. The term “Investigator” includes the Investigator’s spouse and dependent children.

• An Investigator is not just the Principal Investigator or Senior/Key Personnel conducting the PHS-sponsored research.
• Recipient institutions are encouraged to broadly consider an individual’s role, rather than title, and their degree of independence when applying the definition.

NSF Policy

Sexual Harassment

All sponsored programs are subject to the Research Foundation of CUNY’s sexual harassment policy, which includes mandatory training for all project personnel (including faculty). Faculty may meet the training requirement by providing the Research Foundation of CUNY with a copy of their CUNY sexual harassment training certificate. All other project personnel must pass the sexual harassment training course which is available on the Research Foundation web site.

Equipment

The CUNY definition of equipment is any item over $1000 in value. These items, regardless of how they were purchased, must be logged, tagged, and tracked annually through Lehman College’s equipment office. For sponsored program budgeting purposes, equipment follows the federal definition, and is defined as any item with a value of over $5,000 and a usable life span of over one year. Consult with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs before budgeting equipment into a proposal as additional regulations may apply.

Intellectual Property

CUNY has a robust intellectual property policy that applies to all faculty. If you believe your research may result in patentable intellectual property or will involve copyrightable materials, please disclose this to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at the time of the proposal.

Technology Transfer

Technology transfer (disclosure agreements, data use agreements, patenting, and copyright issues) for sponsored programs is handled by the Research Foundation in concert with the appropriate CUNY offices.

Cost Sharing

Cost sharing should only be included on a sponsored project if it is required by the sponsor. Projects requiring cost sharing must include letters of commitment for all costs and resources not provided by the sponsor. Cost sharing arrangements must be approved by the department chair, divisional dean, and Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

The successful development, approval, and submission of an application for sponsored program funding involves many more people than the researcher alone. It is important to understand each participant’s role and responsibilities in the process to help ensure the proposal’s success even before it leaves campus.

Principal Investigator

Because the project will be built around the PI’s idea, he or she will have the central role in all aspects of sponsored programs. The PI will be responsible to the institution and the sponsor for the fiscal and intellectual management of the project.

• Finding Funding: It is the responsibility of the PI to find, review, and evaluate opportunities for proposal submission to make sure that the goals and mission of the sponsor are in alignment with the ideas and needs of the PI and the project in mind.
• Understanding Sponsor Requirements and Guidelines: The PI must understand all sponsor requirements and guidelines to ensure that their application will be successful.
• Proposal Development: The PI is responsible for writing the application, filling out all required forms, and ensuring that all parts and pieces are complete before submission.
• Proposal Routing: The PI is responsible for discussing the proposal with their Department Chair and Divisional Dean and securing their approval before submission. The PI is also responsible for securing written documentation of any commitments being made to the project from Lehman College or other entities.
• Proposal Approval: The PI is not legally able to commit the institution to an application for sponsored program funding. The PI is responsible for ensuring that the proposal has appropriate institutional approval from the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs before submission.
• Proposal Submission: The PI is not usually responsible for the actual submission of the proposal, but requirements and processes vary from sponsor to sponsor. The PI is responsible for understanding the sponsor’s requirements for submission and communicating with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs has at its core several varied responsibilities. Among these are to serve as a resource to the faculty in all areas of sponsored programs, to protect the institution from undue risk in sponsored programs, and to serve as liaison to the Research Foundation.

• Finding Funding: The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs produces a monthly newsletter summarizing funding opportunities with approaching due dates and offers a workshop in the Fall and Spring semesters that enables faculty and staff to learn how to identify funding sources and search for opportunities. ORSP also forwards specific announcements to faculty that may be interested.
• Understanding Sponsor Requirements & Guidelines: ORSP serves as advisor to faculty who may not have had much interaction with sponsors or understand the guidelines as presented. When questions arise about the administrative portion of a proposal, ORSP is available to answer the question from experience or assist in contacting the sponsor to understand the requirements.
• Proposal Development: The development of the proposal is the responsibility of the PI. However, many parts of the proposals may be unfamiliar or complex. ORSP offers workshops each semester to aid faculty members in developing their proposals. Topics currently include “Building a Budget,” “Introduction to NIH,” “Introduction to NSF,” “Introduction to NEH,” “Introduction to NIH Research Plans,” and “Introduction to NSF Project Narratives." ORSP is available to develop additional workshops as needed. ORSP maintains PI access to sponsor electronic systems such as eRA Commons for NIH and FastLane for NSF. Workload permitting, ORSP staff will also work with individual faculty members to assist in developing the administrative parts of proposals or to give feedback on any part of the proposal. Time preference is given to new or inexperienced faculty over seasoned or funded faculty, and proposals are prioritized by due date. Regardless of any assistance given by ORSP, the responsibility for filling out all forms ultimately rests with the PI.

Proposal Routing and Approval

• Paper Proposals: All proposals should be scanned and uploaded to Cayuse and routed for approval by the PI, the Department Chair, and the Divisional Dean, before being routed to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for review and signature. All proposals that include commitments of resources from the College must include letters outlining the commitment and be signed by the owner of the resources.
• Electronic Proposals: All proposals must be routed by the PI to the Department Chair, and the Divisional Dean before sending to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for review and submission. All proposals that include commitments of resources from the College must include letters outlining the commitment and be signed by the owner of the resources. The routing chain in Cayuse must also include owners of all resources committed to the project.
• Proposal Review: ORSP is responsible for reviewing all proposals to ensure that they are compliant with all Lehman College, Research Foundation of CUNY, City, State, and Federal policies and regulations. ORSP encourages researchers to discuss the project with them early to ensure that all necessary supporting documentation and explanations will be included in the proposal or routing along with the proposal.
• Proposal Submission: Unless required by the sponsor or necessary for other reasons, ORSP prefers to submit all applications directly.

Research Foundation

• Finding Funding: The Research Foundation of CUNY maintains a paid subscription to the database COS that is accessible to all researchers and manages the internal PSC-CUNY proposal and award process. The RF does not have any formal role in finding funding.
• Proposal Development: The Research Foundation does not have any role in proposal development, but may be consulted if you have unusual or extremely large items in your budget.
• Proposal Routing: The Research Foundation does not have any role in proposal routing.
• Proposal Approval: The Research Foundation does not have any role in Proposal Approval.
• Proposal Submission: The Research Foundation does not have any role in Proposal Submission.

Department Chair. The Department Chair is responsible for understanding the researcher’s request, including any needs for space, reassigned time, equipment usage,and staff support. In signing the paper routing form or approving an electronic proposal, the Chair agrees to fulfill any and all Department-level commitments included in the proposal. Researchers are encouraged to discuss any commitments needed with the Chair at the beginning of proposal development and to consider including a letter of commitment from the Department Chair in the application as appropriate.

Divisional Dean. The Divisional Dean is responsible for understanding the impact of the proposal on the division, including any requests for space, facilities, staff, or regulated resources (such as but not limited to animals, human subjects, stem cells, or hazardous materials). In signing the paper routing form or approving an electronic proposal, the Dean agrees to support and fulfill all commitments of Dean-level resources included in the proposal. Researchers are encouraged to discuss the proposal and any commitments needed with the Dean at the beginning of proposal development and to consider including a letter of commitment from the Divisional Dean in the application as appropriate.

Other Institutional Officials. Research Projects occasionally require the commitment of resources not controlled by the Department Chair or Divisional Dean such as renovation of facilities, use of regulated resources such as human or animal subjects, STEM cells, hazardous materials, or tuition waivers. The proposal should be routed to the appropriate institutional officials responsible for the needed for the resources before being routed to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Researchers are encouraged to discuss the proposal and the commitments needed with the appropriate officials at the beginning of proposal development and must always include a letter of commitment from the appropriate institutional official(s) as part of the application.

Sponsor. The sponsor is responsible for clearly communicating the program goals, guidelines, and submission deadline to the public. The sponsor is NOT responsible for any special consideration or communication with Lehman College, its faculty or its staff. Requests for extensions or exclusions from parts of the requirements are granted solely at the discretion of the sponsor and my harm the researcher’s chances of being funded.