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Grant Writing

Writing grants within the College

Research is an important part of the life of CAST. As with every organization, department or entity, the College has a common set of processes that it uses to get things done. Here are just a few friendly reminders on how to most-efficiently get grants done within the College of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology.

  • Send first notification to the CAST Dean & Department Chair of intent to prepare grant, and whether institutional support is desired. If the program limits the number of submissions per institution, please follow the procedure for Limited Submissions below.
  • Complete on-line notification regarding intention to submit grant at Office of Sponsored Programs. 
  • If applicable, secure persons to write support letters (i.e., Dept Chairperson, Dean, Provost, President, Collaborators, external stakeholders, anyone who must deliver on a commitment for the project to succeed). Make sure to provide project information and/or draft letters to support letter-writers. Include a due date for letter receipt.
  • Follow up on support-letters. 
  • Submit proposed budget for review to Chairperson, Dean’s Office, and OSP. (Note: Any requests for commitment of release time, space, or other resources requires prior coordination with Dean at the start of budget development. Submit these proposals to Ms. Vanessa Nesbit for Letters of Commitment by the Dean.)
  • Finalize budget—agreed upon by PI, OSP, Chairperson, and Dean.
  • Submit final drafts of proposal, budget, & internal processing form to Dean’s Office for Dean’s signature and forward to the Office of Sponsored Programs 2-5 business days prior to agency deadline. 

Also refer regularly to the Office of Sponsored Programs page links for specifics on institutional grant-writing protocols and important forms to be used pre-, post-grant award. 

Limited submission RFPs:

If you plan to submit a proposal to an agency with limitations on the number of applications that may be submitted per institution, use the procedure listed here:

CMNST Proposal Writing Priority Procedure

The purpose of this procedure is to streamline proposal applications for solicitations where the number of proposals per institution is limited by a funding agency.

  • Investigators interested in applying for a grant for which the funding agency limits the number of applications that can be submitted by each institution must submit the Proposal Writing Priority form (PWP) by email to the interim assistant VP for research, Melissa Harrington, mharrington [at] desu.edu  at least 60 days before the agency deadline for the full proposal or 30 days before the deadline for a letter of intent or pre-proposal.
  • If more PWP forms are received by the internal deadline than the number of applications that are allowed, the interim assistant VP for research, will convene an ad-hoc committee of two to four faculty members with related disciplinary expertise to read the PWPs and make recommendations for which application(s) should move forward based on the priorities of the College of Mathematics, Natural Science & Technology and the likelihood of the application being successful.
  • The ad-hoc limited submission committee and interim assistant VP for research will make recommendations to the Dean of CMNST and prospective PIs will be notified whether they will be able to submit the application no later than 45 days before the agency deadline for a full proposal, 20 days for letters of intent/pre-proposals.
  • Once PIs have been notified that they are approved for submission of the proposal, they must also complete the Faculty Proposal Response form at the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP).  Submitting the OSP form by itself will not establish priority for submission without completing the CMNST Proposal Writing Priority form as well.
  • If no PWP forms are received by the internal cut-off date of 60 days before the deadline for a full proposal or 30 days before the deadline of a pre-proposal/letter of intent, then priority for submission will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis.  Investigators interested in applying for a limited submission grant for which the internal deadline has already passed should contact the associate dean for research and/ OSP to find out if the submission slots are still open.  Priority for submission is not established by the Faculty Proposal Response form at OSP, but by submitting a request/inquiry to the interim assistant VP for research.