Institutional Letter of Support

Institutional Letter of Support Request

The vice president for research (VPR) serves as the University’s Institutional Official (IO) and is pleased to provide an Institutional Letter of Support when required by the proposal solicitation or when allowed by the sponsor and deemed to make the application more competitive.

Most federal funding agencies do not allow institutional letters of support but instead require letters of commitment and/or collaboration that explicitly document commitments and/or collaborations of individuals or organizations. These letters are often provided by deans, department heads, other institutions, or individuals.

Requests for Institutional Letters of Support should be submitted to .    

When requesting an Institutional Letter of Support, please provide the following information to expedite the process:

1)    contact information for person(s) requesting the letter of support;

2)    sponsor’s name, program title or RFP/Solicitation number;

3)    name and address of recipient; and

4)    brief description of project and any other information that will help make the proposal more competitive (approved committed cost-sharing, other resources that can be contributed, history with sponsor, PI achievements, University strengths in specific area, impact of research). 

As a courtesy and to ensure the availability of the signatory, principal investigators should allow 10 business days lead time for processing the letter. Please note that while we will accommodate your request to the best of our ability, the vice president for research will need sufficient time and information to prepare the letter and obtain signatures. 

In the rare cases where the University president’s signature must be obtained, the VPR will require 20 business days lead time to allow for the timely submission of the letter to the president.