School of Arts and Sciences

Letter of Intent – A brief preliminary proposal that allows a foundation to quickly assess if there is match between the foundation’s mission and your project. If it does, and, if they are interested, they will request a full proposal. The LOI must be concise and engaging. It is a condensed version of the complete proposal to follow.

Abstract/Summary – No longer than ½ page to 1 page maximum. Includes responses to: What will be done? By whom? How? Length of time? What is the problem/need? Who will the outcomes benefit?

Project Narrative – The meat of your proposal. It describes the project work to be performed.

Personnel – Staffing requirements (make sure that they make sense and provide details about the skill set of each person listed).

Budget – Spells out the project costs. Generally a spreadsheet is used.

Budget Justification – A budget justification explains the various expenses. Make sure that all budget items meet the funding agency’s requirements.

Every proposal includes and requires a budget. Work with your Grant Administrator to prepare the budget. This will ensure that rates and salaries are correct and that everything you need to purchase or pay for is included in the budget.

The budget provides the sponsor with a very detailed breakdown of the finances you are requesting. The budget reflects the costs (a best estimate) required to perform the work outlined in your proposal. Remember, that when you apply for an award, you are doing so 6-9 months ahead of receiving the award. This means you need to factor in future costs such as salary, fringe, facilities and administrative costs.

Sponsors may have their own set of budgetary requirements. You will need to adhere to their guidelines. You may also need to use their template. Be aware that the sponsor may restrict what can be charged to the grant.  For example, you may not be able to charge for your salary.

There are generally two types of cost categories: Direct and Indirect Costs.

Direct costs – are expenses. For example: salary, fringe benefits, tuition, consultant costs, equipment, supplies, travel, etc. 

Direct costs must be considered reasonable, allowable and allocable. This simply means that the expense has to be grant related and listed in the budget. You should not include any of these in a budget. All you need to be concerned with is the Facilities and Administrative Costs (F&A) rate.

Direct and Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs – are commonly known as Indirect Costs. They are also called Overhead.

The full cost to a university of doing research includes other costs such as:

• Utilities such as electricity, heating and lighting
• Information technology infrastructure, libraries
• Operating and maintain the building, campus security, ground care and custodial services
• Departmental administration of grant (including grant preparation and tracking expenses)
• Central administrative granting (ORA and SPA)

These costs are impossible to calculate for each research project, but these are the real costs that the university has to pay to support your research.

Sponsors know that their award only covers what is in your budget. They understand that the full cost of doing research includes these other costs. They actually have built into their grant making system F&A costs to help the university recover a small percentage of what they outlay to do research.

Most sponsors indicates what their specific F&A is. For Federal sponsors, the F&A rates are negotiated by the university with US Dep of Human Services.

Personnel/Salaries and Wages – for each member of your research team provide a name (TBD if not known), the project role, effort, base salary, total salary requested, and cost of living increases.

Fringe Benefits – There are different fringe benefit rates based on whether the personnel is faculty, staff, or student (as well as year as the rates do change).

Consultant Costs – consultant charges can only be paid to non-Brandeis employees. Consultants provide special knowledge or skill for the project. Include the daily rate of pay, the number of days the consultant will work and other costs such as travel or per diem. 

Equipment – Equipment is defined as costing $5000 or above.

Supplies – Items under $5000. List each item and provide an estimated cost.

Travel – Provide the following details — purpose and destination of each trip. Cost of meals, lodging, ground and air transportation

Other costs – Publication, equipment maintenance, rental costs, tuition costs, meeting costs.

If you haven’t written a proposal before there are some great resources online:

• Candid Learning (Foundation Center) – Self paced learning course
• Write Your Application - NIH
• Grant Writing Tip Sheet – NIH
• Introduction to Project Budgets – Candid
• On the Art of Writing Proposals – Social Science Research Council
  • PDF version
• Guide for Writing a Funding Proposal – Dr S. Joseph Levine
• Art of Grantsmanship – Human Frontier Science Program
• The Proposal Writer’s Guide – Univ of Michigan