Grant Application Process

In order to try and make the grant application process, the steps below represent a rough idea as to the steps a faculty member should go through in order to write a grant for an external agency.

On thing that is important and should be kept in mind is if you intend to contact a private foundation, please let the Faculty Grants Coordinator know, in case there potentially conflicting proposals being submitted from the College.

If any of these steps are not clear, or you have any general questions, please feel free to contact Nick Richardson for clarification.

1. Create a brief description of your grant idea. This doesn't have to be the first step, but having a rough idea as to what it is you want to do will help when searching for potential funders. Alternatively, you can look at the document that has the current funding opportunities. Your department chair will receive a copy of this each month, or you can download at the entire document yourself.

2. Identify possible sources of funding for this grant. The Faculty Grants Coordinator can help assist you with this, and there are several resources available at the library to help your search for funding.

3. Submit the completed form "Intent to Seek Funding". Ideally this should be a month before the grant is due. You can also submit this form if you haven't identified a source to fund the grant yet.

4. Write a proposal and create a budget. Check the eligibility requirements from the funding agency, and carefully read over the their submission guidelines. This is a good time to get in touch with the program officer at the funding agency as well. If you need a username and password to submit the grant (such as FastLane), then contact the Faculty Grants Coordinator to help set that up.

5. Ensure that the budget meets with College guidelines for such items as indirect costs, fringe benefits and so forth. You may wish to go over this with the Faculty Grants Coordinator, and the Business Office can help with these issues as well. If there are any issues such as matching costs, make sure that the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations is aware of them.

6. Submit a final copy of the proposal and the Final Approval Form for review by the appropriate offices. This should be done at least two weeks before the grant is due, in case any issues crop up.

7. Submit the grant to the funding agency.

8. You should review the section on Managing Your Grant , as it contains important information for when the proposal is funded.

This is a very rough view of the process, but it is hoped that it will act as a general guide to help faculty as they seek funding. A more detail document, put together by the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations, can be downloaded.

If you are working in collaboration with someone at a different institution (and you are not the Primary Investigator), you should complete the External Collaborations form and include the proposal you intend to submit.