High Meadows Sustainability Fund
Application Tips
- Your Role In the Review Process (NEW): All applicants successful in being selected for review by the panels will be required to present a VERY brief (5 min) proposal summary to the appropriate review panel and be available to answer clarifying questions. This will assist in streamlining the review process.
- Proposal length: Please be concise. As a general guideline, 2-3 pages is likely sufficient for most student and staff initiatives (not including the budget); 3-5 pages is likely sufficient for academic initiatives (not including the budget).
- Format: see the appropriate application document and associated checklist for guidance.
- Budget: should be sufficiently detailed to track any programmatic changes that occur mid-project, and so that the final budget can be easily reconciled with the proposed budget. Be sure all major budget items are explained in the text.
- Award limits: proposals in excess of $50k for any given year will likely be beyond the scope of the Fund. If your project exceeds this amount, please check in with fund administrator Shana Weber (shanaw@princeton.edu) prior to developing the proposal.
- Multi-year proposals: are currently NOT accepted. This fund is intended primarily as start-up support. There are cases, however, where student initiatives with long start-up time horizons have been funded for consecutive years on re-application.
- Long-term funding: the High Meadows Fund is not a source for long-term funding, but rather for start-up seed funds. Projects should make very clear how the initiative will live on after seed funds are exhausted.
- Multiplier effect: projects that build on results of previously-funded initiatives are encouraged.
- Assessment of results: assessment of the impact or results of the initiative is required.
- Other funding sources: projects with other funding sources are eligible, but those funding sources should be fully disclosed. Applicants should also disclose any other pending funding sources.
- Student-initiated courses: requiring supplemental funds are eligible to apply for both the fall and spring Civic Engagement RFP (rather than the Academic RFP), as long as the course is sponsored by an academic department and has been approved by the Dean of the College (standard procedure for all student-initiated courses).
- Academic courses: for successful proposals, HM funds are contingent upon approval of the course by the Office of the Dean of the College. If not approved by the Dean of the College, the award will revert back to the High Meadows fund. The proposal need not be submitted by the faculty-member or members who would be teaching the course. However, a successful proposal will invariably be one in which faculty members have been identified to teach the course.
- Proposals of $2000 or less: do not require full panel review. Please submit a letter of justification, brief statements of support from campus partners, the date funds are needed by, and a budget to Shana Weber. Proposals of this type will be accepted on an ongoing basis.
- Submission: please submit all materials electronically to minimize paper usage.
- Endorsements/Letters of Support: Letters of support for proposals are required. For students with no prior contact with the Office of Sustainability letters of support from faculty, staff and/or departments (depending on the nature of the proposal) are needed for the Office to form an endorsement position. Please have authors of those letters email their endorsements directly to Shana Weber. Academic submissions require departmental letters of support.
- International students on F-1 and J-1 visas are limited to no more than 20 hours per week of work on campus while school is in session, full-time during vacations and summer. Any off-campus work has to be authorized by either the international student advisor (Mladenka Tomasevic for grad students, Rachel Baldwin for undergrads) or immigration.
- Acknowledgment of award: Please us the following text for acknowledgment in any publications or reports, choosing the appropriate descriptor. A logo is available for download.
- This (project/initiative/research) "is made possible by the High Meadows Fund for Sustainability in Academics, Research and Civic Engagement at Princeton University."
- This (project/initiative/research) "is made possible by the High Meadows Fund for Sustainability in Academics, Research and Civic Engagement at Princeton University."
- Questions? Please contact Shana Weber (shanaw@princeton.edu, 609-258-1518).