Michigan State University Congressionally Directed Funding Policy

Michigan State University supports competitive peer review as the primary and best means to distribute federal research funds. As such, MSU will only seek Congressionally Directed funding if the following criteria are met.

1. In order to be considered for Congressionally Directed Funding, a proposal must be in the strategic interest of the college or department, the university, the region, the State of Michigan and/or the nation. The purpose of the funding should be to grow the research enterprise, or to expand the university’s outreach to the community, or to meet a specific identified need of the university, region, state or nation.
2. All proposals must be reviewed and approved by the relevant academic dean to determine whether the proposal has sufficient academic and/or scientific merit and whether it meets the criteria laid out in section 1.
3. In the case of research proposals, the dean must determine that there are no competitive federal funds available to support the research. It is the policy of MSU not to supplant competitive funding with congressionally directed funding. Therefore, a congressionally directed project will require a finding of an extraordinary need to overcome the presumption that the research proposal should be submitted to the peer-review process.
4. Once approved by the dean, the proposal must then be approved by the provost, senior vice president for Research and Innovation, and the vice president for Governmental Affairs. The decision to proceed will be determined by a balancing of the merits of the proposal submitted, the strategic importance of the proposal, the relative merit of all other proposals submitted for that funding year, and a determination of the political opportunities as they exist at that moment.
5. The final slate of proposals will then be submitted to the president of MSU for final approval.
6. Once approved by the president, the slate of proposals will be submitted to the congressional delegation by the Office of the Vice President for Governmental Affairs.