The following policies apply to all UTM faculty who are applying for funding and seeking cash or in-kind contributions, an institutional letter of support, or sign off on a grant or research agreement.
Cash and In-kind Contributions
1. Request contributions: Requests for cash and/or in-kind contributions should be made as early as possible in the grant application process. Please contact the relevant unit or divisional representative. If you plan on requesting cash or in-kind contributions from the Office of the VP Research, please follow the instructions on the OVPR website for the matching program you are interested in, or where no instructions exist, contact OVPR director Payam Zahedi as early as possible at payam.zahedi@utoronto.ca.
2. Obtain letter(s) of support/commitment: Once contributions have been agreed upon with the relevant unit or divisional representative, a formal letter of support or commitment should be obtained.
3. Obtain divisional and institutional approval: Letters of support for all contributions from U of T sources should be attached in the MRA submission for the project. You should also be prepared to provide these letters in cases where a signature from an institutional representative is required for application submission. In cases where the source(s) of the contributions are from UTM, approval is required from the VP Research in addition to approval from the contributing sources. VP Research approval can be obtained via submission through the MRA portal or, if an MRA is not required, by directly contacting the VP Research at vpresearch.utm@utoronto.ca.
Institutional Letters of Support
Some research funding programs require that a letter of institutional support be included with the application. This is separate from letters of support/commitment required for cash and in-kind contributions. However, institutional letters of support usually include the total amount of contributions that have been committed by institutional sources.
Institutional letters of support are normally signed by U of T’s Vice-President, Research & Innovation (VPRI), but require approval from the Office of the VP Research at UTM prior to sign off by VPRI. OVPR’s Strategic Research Development Officers can assist with drafting these letters.
For assistance with drafting institutional letters of support and for approval of institutional letters by the UTM VP Research, please contact grants.ovprutm@utoronto.ca at least 3 weeks prior to the internal grant deadline, or at least 3 weeks prior to the final deadline where no internal deadline exists. As these letters usually outline cash and in-kind contributions, please have all letters of support/commitment of cash and in-kind contributions ready at this time, as well as a draft of your research proposal and final budget.
For more information please see these instructions from the Division of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation. Note that VPRI expects to receive the letters at least 2 weeks before deadline, but OVPR should be contacted at least 3 week before deadline to allow for drafting assistance and VP Research approval.
Signature from Institutional Representative
If an application requires a signature from an institutional representative, please submit an MRA with a final or near-final draft of the research proposal, the final budget pages, and the signature page (unless there is an e-approval process). Make a note in the MRA that a signature is required. The MRA will be routed to the appropriate university approvers.
If you have questions about these processes, please contact grants.ovprutm@utoronto.ca.