Sample Funding Request

Date
Grant Smith
Chancellor
Your University
1000 College Street
College Town, ZZ 00000

Dear Chancellor Smith:

Please accept this letter as an official request for support of an important lecture series on "Science, Technology, and Social Responsibility." Given your own expertise in this field, we are contacting you in the initial phases of our preparations, both to see whether we may meet with you to discuss our plans, and to see if your office may be able to co-sponsor this series. Our goals in initiating this lecture series are to provide a supplement to classroom dialogue on issues pertaining to science, technology, and society, to help educate students from varied disciplines on the relationship of the fields, and to emphasize the importance of student leadership in this area.

Background
Our group is the local chapter of Student Pugwash USA (SPUSA), the US student affiliate of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, recipients of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize. The mission of SPUSA is to promote the socially responsible application of science and technology in the 21st century. SPUSA encourages young people to examine the ethical, social, and global implications of science and technology, and to make these concerns a guiding focus of their academic and professional endeavors. Our goals are to stimulate dialogue and draw attention to cutting-edge issues.

Our chapter has been quite successful in the past, as Dr. Hudson, our faculty advisor, can attest. Last year, we held regular roundtable discussions that involved students and faculty from the biology, physics, political science, and computer science departments. We co-sponsored events with several other campus organizations and have been featured in campus newspaper articles. This event is the most ambitious we have yet undertaken, but with your support, we believe it will contribute greatly to the campus dialogue on crucial issues.

The Event
We hope to hold a lectures series in the spring term, each lecture will highlight different aspects of science and social responsibility. We envision the following sessions:

• Energy, International Security, and Nuclear Proliferation
  This session will explore the ways in which energy choices impact peace, security, the environment, and nuclear proliferation. We will have one expert on energy, another on proliferation, and a student moderator. [Name the experts, if you know them or state that you will work with the SPUSA national office to locate speakers.]

• Computers, Biotechnology, and the Individual
  This session will highlight the new capabilities made possible in the field of genetics and biotechnology as a result of advanced computer technologies. We will have a computer scientist who specializes in genetic applications, as well as a legal or policy specialist who can comment on society's ability to keep laws and regulations current in this field. Again, we will have a student moderator.

• Young Scientists and Ethics in an Increasingly Privatized Research Environment
  This panel will explore the pressures on young people launching scientific careers. Moderated by a senior scientist, it will feature Ph.D. candidates from various departments from our university.

Funding Sources
In the past, our programs have been funded by the graduate division, the department of environmental studies, Harry’s Subs, and our own t-shirt sales. We will appeal to these sources again to help us fund this event. We also have received prior support from the alumni association for a variety of events, including travel to SPUSA’s national conferences in Washington, DC.

Goals of the Series
We hope that through our publicity and attendance at the open sessions, many individuals on campus will be inspired to think about the connection between science, technology, and society. Furthermore, this event will attract new students to help organize future local SPUSA events, and in this way will continue to have an impact on campus.

A Word of Thanks
We know that these are issues to which you have personally devoted many years of your own research and thought. It would be our honor if you would join us at this event. Under separate cover, we plan to invite you to give your greetings to the opening talk, should your schedule allow. Please do not hesitate to contact us so that we might arrange a time to meet with you to discuss the above. We also appreciate any suggestions you might give us as to other places on campus where we might seek additional funds.

Thank you for your time and we look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Sincerely,

Jane Doe
Coordinator
Your University Student Pugwash
(o) 555-9999
(h) 555-5555

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