NSF Issues Important Notices for Award Proposals
We’ve made note of this in past news articles and even in a recent video on the Video Corner section of the GrantViews site, and we discuss it even further in our Federal Grants Development Handbook — grant applicants should plan ahead and avoid waiting until the last minute to submit their grant proposals for an award. In addition, it’s also helpful to be aware of the time it will take for the awarding agency to review the proposal.
The National Science Foundation recently issued an “Important Notice” to its grant applicants and recipients referencing a provision in the 2019 NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) stating that proposers for NSF awards should allow up to six months for programmatic review and processing following the award deadline. In addition, proposers should be aware that the NSF Division of Grants and Agreements generally makes awards within 30 days after the program division/office makes its recommendation. Although the “Important Notice” did not reference this statement, the PAPPG also notes that grants being made to organizations that have not received an NSF award within the preceding five years, or involving special situations (such as coordination with another federal agency or a private funding source), cooperative agreements, and other unusual arrangements may require additional review and processing time.
The “Important Notice” continued to state that Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (SPRF) proposers must first register for an NSF account and add an investigator role in Research.gov to work on proposals in NSF systems. It urged applicants to refer to the “Add a New Role — Unaffiliated/Postdoctoral Fellowship Principal Investigator” section (pp. 21-23) in NSF’s Account Management Guide for step-by-step instructions. Also, the Research.gov Account Management webpage has additional information, including FAQs and video tutorials.
Proposals in response to Program Solicitation NSF 18-584 from Unaffiliated/Postdoctoral Fellowship Investigators must be prepared and submitted in FastLane and cannot be submitted in Research.gov.
Also, NSF earlier released another “Important Notice” stating that the Political Science (PS) program is in a transitional period. Research areas formerly funded by PS are covered by the Accountable Institutions and Behavior (AIB) or the Security and Preparedness (SAP) programs. NSF strongly encouraged researchers to read the AIB and SAP program description and send proposals to these programs. It went on to say that researchers who are uncertain about which programs offer the best fit for their proposals should contact the program officers of the AIB or SAP programs.
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