Revised July 24, 2012 to go into effect October 1, 2014. Further revised February and July 2021.
- No person will participate in review of a proposal in which funding is requested for a person who is from the reviewer’s institution or organization, or who is from an institution or organization with which the reviewer has a formal relationship (whether or not paid by that institution).
- No person will participate in the review of a proposal in which their major professor (or their student) or post-doctoral advisor (or advisee) is a participant. This restriction shall remain in effect no matter how many years have passed since the professor-student relationship finished.
- No person will participate in the review of a proposal in which collaborators on research projects or co-authors on peer-reviewed publications (including pending publications and submissions) serve as project leaders. This restriction shall remain in effect until three years have passed since the research project ended or the final draft of the publication was submitted for review.
- No person will participate in the review of a proposal in which a close personal friend or family member is serving as a project leader or for whom funding is requested.
- No member of the Administrative Council, state coordinators, and regional or state program staff will be named in or request funding for their time in a proposal submitted for consideration during the time they serve on the committees or in their SARE positions. (The exception is that state coordinators and state staff may be named in proposals for state program plans, since this directly fits and supports their SARE roles). No member of the Technical Committee will submit proposals for review while serving on the committee, nor participate as reviewer in a grant program in which a proposal is pending that has that member’s name listed as a participant, advisor, or collaborator.
- Members of the Technical Committee, Administrative Council, state coordinators, and regional or state program staff may provide general advice to potential SARE applicants about the characteristics of a strong proposal and whether an idea seems to be eligible for SARE funding, but drafts of proposals or specific ideas for proposals may not be reviewed. It is acceptable and encouraged to provide assistance to potential applicants with finding outside reviewers for their draft proposals, which includes technical advisors for Farmer grants.
- If a member of the Technical Committee, Administrative Council, state coordinators, or state program staff provide assistance to a potential applicant with finding outside reviewers, as allowed in 6 above, then that member cannot participate in review of the project.
- When any discussion is held about a proposed project with which a person has a conflict of interest (as defined in 1-7 above), the person will leave the meeting room. In addition, a person with a conflict of interest regarding a particular project will not discuss the project with other members of a review panel or Administrative Council until after the respective group has made a final decision regarding disposition of the project. When a large slate of projects is being voted upon as a group, and individual projects are not being discussed, members with a conflict of interest with some subset of the proposal slate do not need to leave the room.
- Regional staff that leave the employment of Northeast SARE shall not apply for or be included in SARE competitive proposals as Principal Investigators or Key Personnel for three years after the date of their departure.
- Members of the Technical Committee, Administrative Council, state coordinators, and regional or state program staff with agricultural service provider responsibilities in addition to their SARE role may serve as unpaid participants in a project after it has been approved for funding, so long as they receive no monetary benefits to themselves or their program (benefits do not mean compensation for travel or per diem expenses). (The exception is that state coordinators and state staff may be named in proposals for state program plans, since this directly fits and supports their SARE roles).