How to Apply for an External Grant

The Office of Sponsored Research is here to help faculty with applying for external grants. OSR assists faculty with fastlane, grants.gov and NEH administration, internal approvals, and online submissions when needed. The steps listed below outline the process.

1. Identify a good project.
2. Identify the appropriate funding source/program. You may use the Community of Science or Grant Advisor databases, which are available on-campus only.
3. Email the Office of Sponsored Research as soon as possible, especially where college matching, cost-sharing, or in-kind contribution is involved. Please review Pre-Award Procedures for more details.
4. Write a proposal according to the guidelines spelled out in the program announcement. For MHC data on student population, class size, degrees confirred, faculty, etc., please see MHC's Common Data Set on the Institutional Research Web site.
5. Construct a budget and get approval by Grant Accountant Linda Niemczura of Financial Services. You may wish to use this Financial Services Budget Template (XLS). All budgets require approval from the Grant Accountant, even proposals where the PI is a subcontractor.
6. You will get an official Grant and Contract Proposal Sign-off Worksheet (PDF) from her that is needed to complete the rest of the approval process.
7. Give the entire proposal to the Office of Sponsored Research for signature by the Associate Dean of Science. Please allow at least two days for this step.
8. Submit the proposal. Consult with the Office of Sponsored Research for assitance with online submissions. If your proposal will be submitted using Grants.gov, please review our Grants.gov Guide. If your proposal is funded, please review Post-Award Procedures.