Salary Limitations
Summer salary for faculty members at colleges and universities on academic-year appointments is limited to no more than two ninths of their regular academic-year salary. This limit includes summer salary received from all NSF-funded grants. October 1, 2007 – New Policies and Procedures Guide.
For proposals submitted after January 5, 2009, unless there is a stipulation in the NSF solicitation, salary compensation for senior project personnel at colleges and universities is now limited to no more than two (2) months of their regular salary in any one year. This limit includes salary compensation received from all NSF-funded grants. This revision alters the long standing NSF policy on summer salary and allows for the reimbursement of two (2) months salary per year whenever appropriate during the year.
January 5, 2009 – New Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide
NSF has published a revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), NSF 09-1, effective for proposals received on or after January 5, 2009. It should be noted that revisions were made only to the Grant Proposal Guide (GPG); all other parts of the PAPPG, such as the Award & Administration Guide, remain unchanged.
In addition to the salary reimbursement revision, other significant changes made to the GPG include:
- Updated guidance on Letters of Intent to indicate these are not binding on the proposer;
- New guidance on the addition of mentoring activities to the Project Description section;
- Addition of two new grant mechanisms, Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) and EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), both replacing the Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER);
- Updated guidance on the use of Human Subjects in projects performed outside the U.S.;
- For projects requiring access to large amounts of computational, data storage or visualization resources, NSF proposes the TeraGrid; and
- Clarification of the definition of a Co-Principal Investigator.
January 24, 2003, entitled Revision of the NSF Cost Sharing Policy.
This Important Notice reinforces the concept that, for unsolicited proposals, proposers should not include cost sharing amounts on Line M of the proposal budget. In cases where a program solicitation specifically requires cost sharing, proposers should not exceed the cost sharing level or amount identified in the solicitation;
Addition of a Proposal Preparation Checklist to aid in the conduct of an administrative review of proposals prior to submission for compliance with NSF proposal preparation guidelines. The appendices section has been rearranged and re-lettered to accommodate the addition of new documents;
Reminder to proposers that if both merit review criteria are not addressed separately within the one page Project Summary, the proposal will be returned without review; and Modification of the NSF policy on Group proposals to state that, unless stipulated in a specific program solicitation, PIs who wish to exceed the 15 page Project Description limitation must request and receive a deviation in advance of proposal submission.
Other sections have been revised, as appropriate, to update the GPG to ensure consistency with current NSF policies, practices or procedures. A summary of significant changes is provided to assist the user in navigating through these changes
Important Notice: Emphasis on Describing Broader Impacts of Research (Merit Review Criteria)
The National Science Foundation emphasizes the importance of addressing both review criteria – intellectual merit and the broader impact – in the proposal. A description of the broader impact – e.g., how well the activity advances discovery while promoting teaching, training, and learning; how well activity broadens the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.) as well as how the proposed activity suggests and explores creative, original or potentially transformative concepts- must be in each proposal. NSF promises to post examples illustrating activities likely to demonstrate broader impacts on the NSF website. The absence of a discussion of the broader impact may become a reason for not reviewing a proposal.
Example of Broader Impacts Statements
FastLane
FastLane is the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) interactive electronic interface for proposal submission and tracking. FastLane uses the Internet to facilitate the exchange of information between the Foundation and the research and education community. NSF now requires the use of FastLane submission for most proposals and for all research reports.
Georgia Institute of Technology is a registered FastLane institution. For access, technical support or training contact the eCommerce office (or 4-3603). For proposal submission and contract administration for the College of Engineering or for all other colleges please refer to the staff directory & assignments page to locate the appropriate Contracting Officer.
FastLane Proposal Preparation Guides
FastLane Proposal Preparation Workbook
Forgotten Your FastLane Password? The National Science Foundation’s FastLane helpdesk offers an automated password reset function for registered FastLane users. To use this service, simply go to the FastLane URL and click on Proposals, Awards & Status (top yellow link) then click on Change Password (last blue link on the left side of screen).
The password reset function is available all the time, so users no longer need to wait to contact the FastLane Help Desk or their campus Office of Sponsored Programs
(Note: This service is only available to those who have previously established a FastLane account
through their campus Office of Sponsored Programs).
NSF & Grants.gov
NSF created a guide to use the Grants.gov system. Please note that every division in NSF this FY-06 is required to submit one proposal via Grants.gov. It is important to verify that you have the latest version of the PureEdge Viewer. If submitting a proposal with subawards or as a simultaneous collaborative submission you cannot use the system and will need to use Fastlane.
NSF suggests that you use their NSF Application Checklist (starts on page 46 of the guide) in order to verify compliance with their guidelines since the Grants.gov system simply verifies the DUNS number and name of person submitting when accepting the proposal for processing. It may take a significant amount of time before the proposal is forwarded to the FastLane system. If any updates need to take place and the proposal isn’t submitted early than only updates that are approved by the program officer will be allowed. Use FastLane for the Proposal File Update even if submission was through Grants.gov. (If updates need to take place prior to the submission deadline than simply go into the Proposal File Update section of FastLane and make the changes).
Top 5 items to check via a Grants.gov submission to NSF
5. Allow Time for Editing after Submission (see above)
4. Check for duplicate key persons on the R&R Senior/Key Person form
3. Review the Checklist Page (see above)
2. Use the Organization’s Legal Name
- NSF is auto registering folks if the Performance Name isn’t in their database — problem if folks use Georgia Tech versus Georgia Institute of Technology
1. Attachments MUST be in PDF 5.0 Format (can use FastLane to convert files). If using Adobe 6.0 or 7.0 you must use the FastLane Job Options File