The Board of Allocators accepts proposals from all undergraduate engineering students and faculty members. All proposals are considered, provided they benefit undergraduate engineering education at Carleton University. This does not mean that all proposals will be funded. Funding is allocated once during the Fall and Winter academic terms. All proposals should be created and submitted using the proposal guide below. Once submitted online, the proposal will be reviewed by the CUESEF board, approved and may be posted on the website as an example. You will receive a confirmation email once your proposal has been submitted. A new draft and consultation period has been formalized. Until the closing date the board will provide feedback on proposals within 48hrs of submission through email. Meetings can also be scheduled by emailing the chair directly.
If you have any feedback please fill out the following form.
Funding Feedback Form
Important Dates
- Fall Semester
- Proposal Submission Opening Date: Open Now!
- NEW! Draft Submissions Close: Wednesday, November 12th, 2025
- Proposal Submission Due Date: Wednesday, November 19th, 2025
- Funding Allocation Decisions: Monday, December 1st, 2025
- Refund Deadline: Friday Febuary 27th, 2026
- Winter Semester
- Proposal Submission Opening Date: Monday, January 12th, 2026
- NEW! Draft Consultation Close: Monday, February 24th, 2025
- Proposal Submission Due Date: Monday, March 4th, 2025
- Funding Allocation Decisions: Before April
- Refund Deadline: End of June
Proposal Guide
When making a proposal it is important to provide detail of what you are requesting and the purpose. Specifics are required over a general blanket proposal where a single sum of money is requested for multiple items with little description. In general, if there is a need, it’s worth a proposal. But remember, it’s up to you to convince the Board of Allocators of the worthiness of your proposal. The CUESEF Board wants to make educated decisions, this necessitates comprehensive and informative applications. Some questions to make clear are as follows:
- What is the problem your proposal attempting to fix;
- Why is this proposed upgrade/equipment important;
- Why is this the right tool for the job;
- Why are other alternative or currently existing equipment/labs unsuited to fill this role or fix this problem;
- What other sources of funding are you pursuing or why is CUESEF funding needed to complement other sources of funding;
- How will this upgrade be integrated into existing or new classes;
- How will it benefit the undergraduate engineering population at Carleton?
Each proposal should seek to upgrade 1 lab room, but can (should) be an upgrade to as many courses as possible. Multiple applications may be submitted per person in order to request funding for multiple rooms per funding period. The order of submitting multiple applications will have no effect on the board’s decision of which is most meritorious. Larger, more expensive items can also be allocated funds over multiple terms in order to be purchased, however you will have to re-apply each term, reusing the older proposal with any necessary updates each subsequent time.
Each tier is treated like its own application and should include everything you’d need to operate the lab and whatever is applicable from the levels below (e.g. you need 3 oscilloscopes to run the lab but would like a function generator. In the application you’d have the 3 oscilloscopes under required for the lab to run and then the 3 oscilloscopes along with the function generator under better lab upgrade). A proposal featuring multiple tiers of partial funding demonstrates the work and intention of your request and considered more favourable to the board. This does not lessen your chances of obtaining full funding.
Requests for Payment must be submitted (including original receipts) within 4 months of the date of purchase. All proposals must follow Carleton’s Procurement Policy; including BOBIA, competitive bidding, and any other processes they have mandated.
When submitting a proposal, the following information should be prepared:
- A creative name for your project to aid in communication
- Support from the department chair and/or lab supervisor for the lab
- Number of students expected to benefit from this upgrade per year
- The expected lifespan of this lab upgrade before it will need another revamp
- A cost breakdown spreadsheet using the provided template featuring
- Item names
- Links
- Quantities
- Costs
- Expected Lifespans
- Purposes in each lab
- An essay answering the following questions
- Why should this lab be upgraded and is accreditation related to this mandate?
- A description of the issues with the current lab and how your proposal will fix this or why current solutions/spaces/equipment are inadequate.
- What is the history of this lab and these courses at Carleton?
- What are the highlights and bragging points if this upgrade were to be done?
- What is the impact on current students and recruitment?
- How this lab equipment will be integrated into current or new classes. This includes rough descriptions of new lab experiments alongside referring to the class it will be used in.
- What is the timeline for this upgrade?
- A comparison of critical or big ticket items and why yours was selected. This should also help with fulfilling Carleton’s procurement process where competitive bidding is required. (CUESEF does not require or enforce the procurement policy)
- Will this lab be only for undergraduates? Or will there also be benefits for graduate students? If so, please elaborate and explain how funding will be balanced between CUESEF’s undergraduate funding and graduate funds.
- What other sources of funding have been explored to complement CUESEF? This can include but is not limited to FED funding, departmental funding, or outside sponsors.
Templates and Examples
The two templates to use and populate for each application can be found here. Both should be downloaded and used for submitting your application without modifying the template or straying from the name guidelines. Be sure to complete ALL TABS in the Microsoft Excel document: Request Summary and Item Breakdown.
Example applications can be found here.
Past successful applications that the board found meritorious can be found here.
Submission Form
Please fill out all fields in the form below. Take special care to read the form before you begin, as some fields have changed from previous terms. A new draft period has been implemented so that the CUESEF board can provide feedback prior to official submission. We highly encourage that drafts be submitted to the CUESEF chair at chair@cuesef.ca. We will provide feedback within 48 hours. Feedback can also be given through in person or online meetings with members of the board. Please email the chair to schedule a meeting.
CUESEF applications have closed for this term. Take this time to jumpstart on an application for the next period instead and submit it for feedback in advance!