Research Highlights
Writing a Letter of Intent or Interest
The Letter of Intent or Interest (LOI) is a one-page (occasionally 1-3 pages though brevity is always preferred) comprehensive sketch of your proposed project’s purpose, the need/problem being addressed, a description of the project plan, and its intended outcome/impact. The LOI can help the investigator explore appropriate funding that aligns with the research as well as provide the sponsor’s program officer/gatekeeper with a description of the project plan to determine whether the research aligns with the agency’s mission/goals.
Some funding agencies will require an LOI to ascertain its interest in the proposed research. Based on the LOI, researchers may or may not be invited to submit a full proposal. Note: researchers should follow the specific agency’s LOI guidelines.
Typically, the one-page LOI narrative should respond to the following:
- What is the current state of the problem and how will your proposed research explore it in a novel way or provide forward-moving steps toward reducing the problem?
- Perhaps a very brief overview of the problem and why there is a gap or a need to know more specifics. What implications will your research have for your field and for others?
- What is your plan, your methodology, your hypotheses (if you’ve framed these), your aims (at this early stage)?
- What preliminary studies have you completed? Why are you the expert to perform this research? (This content lends itself to the proposed project’s feasibility and your credibility as an investigator).
- What are the broader applications of your study?
- How will you disseminate this study’s results?