Tag: NSF

Beginning April, 24, 2015, proposals submitted in response to Program Solicitations in FastLane will undergo a series of  automated proposal compliance validation checks to ensure they comply with requirements outlined in the Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (Chapter II.C.2. of the Grants Proposal Guide (GPG)).

These checks will automatically validate a proposal for compliance against proposal sections per type of funding mechanism. For example, an error message will appear if a project description or budget are not provided in proposals submitted in response to a Program Solicitation.

Checks will be triggered when proposers select the “Check Proposal,” “Forward to SPO,” or “Submit Proposal” functions. Depending on the rule being checked, a warning or error message will display when a proposal is found to be non-compliant. If an error message appears, the proposal cannot be submitted until it is compliant.

Please note that these automated compliance checks will not be conducted on proposals submitted to NSF via Grants.gov.

To view a detailed list of all compliance checks, click here

Please direct any questions to the Policy Office in the Division of Institution & Award Support at policy@nsf.gov, or (703) 292-8243.

Pending legislation to alter the grantmaking process at the National Science Foundation (NSF) “would have an extraordinarily unfortunate effect” on the $7 billion research agency, presidential science adviser John Holdren said.

The Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science, and Technology (FIRST) Act,  a two-year reauthorization of NSF programs, is expected to be approved this month by the science committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Read more.

During FY13, more than 400 additional proposals were competitively reviewed by NSF.  Unfortunately, the number of new awards decreased by 6%.

The FY13 funding rate of 22% is down two percentage points from the previous year, and far below the 32% rate achieved in FY09, at the start of the economic downturn. A full 81% of NSF’s 1,922 awards went to academic institutions, accounting for 24% of all federally funded basic research performed at U.S. colleges and universities.

Additional statistics can be found in NSF’s recent annual report, FY 2013 Performance and Financial Highlights: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14003/nsf14003.pdf

As part of the release of the 2014 Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 14-1), all awardee organizations will be required to submit a Program Income Reporting Worksheet in Research.gov beginning March 1, 2014 in order to report the amount of program income earned and expended between October 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013. This first report will be due to NSF no later than March 31, 2014. Awardee organizations will subsequently be required to submit the Program Income Reporting Worksheet by October 31^st each year to report the amount of program income earned and expended during the previous Federal fiscal year (October 1 – September 30). NSF policies related to program income can be found in Chapter III.D.4 of the Award and Administration Guide (AAG).

Program income is defined as gross income earned by the awardee organization that is directly generated by a supported activity or earned as a result of NSF-funding.  This includes but is not limited to fees for services performed, the use or rental of real or personal property acquired under the grant, the sale of commodities or items fabricated under the grant, and license fees. Interest earned on advances of Federal funds is not program income.

Research.gov is updated with a Program Income page, which contains additional information and the Program Income Reporting Worksheet. For assistance on completing the worksheet, please reference the Program Income Quick Reference Guide.

If you have any questions about this new reporting requirement, please contact your Grantee Cash Management Section (GCMS) accountant as listed at https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dfm/cmeab.jsp.

An investigative scientist for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Office of the Inspector General reported at a recent workshop that the predominant type of research misconduct seen by the NSF is plagiarism.

The scientist, Scott Moore, went on to say that “inexperienced” researchers, in particular, are more likely to submit proposals that contain plagiarized material.   For example, approximately 2-3% of NSF proposals in a given year contain actionable plagiarized sections, yet 10-15% of these are submitted by individuals within 5 years of starting their academic career.

CAREER proposals were singled out by Moore during the workshop as having the highest levels of actionable plagiarism.  Oftentimes, expert reviewers for NSF discover that CAREER applicants submit proposals plagiarizing the reviewers’ work!  NSF also uses plagiarism-detection software to randomly check proposal submissions.  All researchers are reminded to take a few minutes and ensure that proposals to any sponsor contain proper citations and attributions, as required. Source: Report on Research Compliance (Vol. 10, No.8, August, 2013)

The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 (P.L. 113-6, enacted on March 26, 2013) contains a provision that places restrictions on the types of research projects that can be funded through the Political Science Program. Read more from NSF.