New NSF Policy and Procedure Guide
Changes in Guide Begin on October 4, 2021, and System Transition Starts Now
New Accommodations, Funding, and Submission Requirements
With the release of the NSF’s new Proposal and Awards Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG 22-1), new accommodations and funding will be available. This guide addresses common rules that apply across solicitations. There are four items of note, including new and expanded funding opportunities.
- New Disability Accommodations Available (see PAPPG, Part I, Chapter I.A.2).
- New Planning Proposal—Up to $100K for up to 2 years (Part I, Chapter II.E.1). The NSF reviews these internally—without a panel—for conceptualization, planning, and collaboration activities towards new large-scale project plans.
- Enhanced Life Balance Supplement— Expand coverage, and now for senior personnel, postdocs, and graduate students (Part I, Chapter II.E.8).
- Need for More Foreign Influence Content— When you submit proposals, expect to add more about foreign influence in Bio Sketches, Current & Pending, and facilities documents as well as in reports. For details, see this two-page chart.
System Transition Affects Project Summaries, and all Headers & Footers
The NSF is transitioning from FastLane to the research.gov submission and administration system. The NSF has been using FastLane since 1994, so it was time to update an old system. The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) is now using research.gov instead of FastLane except for particular NSF programs where it’s not yet available. The NSF anticipates completing the transition in full in 2022. As OSP will help coordinate during submission, this affects two proposal components in particular.
- Project Summary Format—You can now make attractive Project Summaries (hooray!). In FastLane you had to submit content for this document as plain text fields. While you remain limited to a single page, you can now apply standard formattings such as bold, italics, and bullets.
- Empty Headers and Footers—You must now remove all content from headers and footers. Research.gov will reject a proposal with any content here. The NSF will add a “Page x of y” footer format across your submission on their end. Alas, the header will be blank (having content there was helpful for reviewers).
Research Development & Grant Writing News
The August 2021 newsletter is now available via the Albertsons Library.
Link to This month’s Featured Articles:
- Humanities, Social Sciences, and Arts Funding Opportunities and News
- Proposal Writing in the Humanities: Theoretical Orientation and Significance
- Does Your Research Narrative Require a Description of Stakeholder Engagement?
- So you’ve submitted your CAREER proposal: What now?
- EPA’s Got Its Mojo Back!
- Organizing Your Response to Reviewers’ Comments on Resubmittals
- Make Your Case for Value-Added Benefits
- Research Grant Writing Web Resources
- Educational Grant Writing Web Resources
- Agency Research News
- Agency Reports, Workshops & Roadmaps
- New Funding Opportunities
- About Academic Research Funding Strategies
The Research Development and Grant Writing Newsletter is available to faculty, staff, students, and affiliates with log-in access to the Albertsons Library. This subscription is sponsored by the Division of Research and Economic Development with support from the Albertsons Library.