What is the purpose of the Letter of Intent?
Submission of a Letter of Intent is mandatory for all organizations wishing to submit a full proposal. The primary purposes of the Letter of Intent are to assist NSF program staff in gauging the range of proposals that will be submitted and in planning the logistics of the review process. The content of a Letter of Intent is not used to determine whether a project should be funded and is not subjected to merit review. A Letter of Intent should include a synopsis of the project that describes the work in sufficient detail to permit an appropriate selection of reviewers. It should also include enough information about who will be involved in the project, and who will benefit from the project, so that, in selecting reviewers, potential conflicts of interest can be identified and avoided.
