Several months before the application deadline, funding agencies may request—or even require—a letter of intent for the project. Such letters are often used to screen projects and identify those for which the agency wants to invite full applications. If required, failure to submit a letter of intent may preclude the project from consideration.
At the University, the Office of Research should be notified of your plans. Other notifications of your intent to pursue a grant application might not be required, but keeping your department chair and the University’s Office of Research, Health Sciences or the Office of Clinical Research, Health Sciences informed of your plans is considered proper protocol.
In addition, you’ll want to notify the appropriate administrative and financial personnel as well as anyone else whose expertise you might need for collecting and organizing data and whose advice you might want as you construct your application.
Seeking letters of support for your project will come later in the application process, but anticipating the sources of those letters might provide a good checklist of people to notify of your intentions in advance.
