Each project partner must provide a project partner letter of support, of no more than two sides of A4 or equivalent on headed paper or by email and these must be included as an attachment to the grant on submission through the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system.
The letter or email should be written when the proposal is being prepared and should be targeted specifically to the project, it must therefore be dated within six months of the date of submission of the proposal.
To provide assurance that the project partner has authorised the proposed contribution or commitment the letter or email should be signed by the named contact, stating the capacity in which they are providing the sign off. project partner letters of support that merely indicate that an organisation is interested in the research are not permitted. The individual named as contact for the project partner organisation cannot also be named as staff, for example co-investigator on a grant proposal.
A well written project partner letter of support will confirm the organisation’s commitment to the proposed project by articulating the benefits of the collaboration, its relevance and potential impact. The project partner letter or email should also identify the value, relevance and possible benefits of the proposed work to the partner, the period of support, the full nature of the collaboration or support and how the partner will provide added value.
Where relevant to the project, details should be provided of the projected market size, customers and sales and how the organisation will commercialise the technology beyond the project. project partner contributions, whether in cash or in kind, should be explained in detail in the project partner letter of support. Details of how this support relates to the proposal as a whole should be included in the case for support.
The project partners should not submit any other ordinary letters of support unless in exceptional cases and where this has been agreed with the research council. The research councils reserve the right to remove all other letters of support from the proposal. Applicants should refer to the research council or funding opportunity guidance for additional information regarding acceptable letters of support.
Last updated: 17 August 2021