News
NSF Bio Sketch and C&P Support Disclosures Update
In an effort to provide the community with helpful reference information regarding pre-award and post-award disclosure information in the biographical sketch and current and pending support proposal sections, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has developed a disclosure table entitled, NSF Pre-award and Post-award Disclosures Relating to the Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending Support, to identify where these disclosures must be provided in proposals as well as in project reports. Proposers and awardees may begin using this resource immediately to assist with completing the relevant proposal and project report sections.
As a reminder, current and pending support information is used to assess the capacity of the individual to carry out the research as proposed, as well as to help assess any potential overlap/duplication with the project being proposed.
A revised Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) will be released next week with an effective date of October 4, 2021, and the disclosures table will be included in this revised version. As noted above, however, proposers and awardees may begin using this table immediately.
Major Funding Opportunity Announced
The Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) will implement a series of programs, collectively called Investing in America’s Communities, to equitably invest the $3 billion it received from the American Rescue Plan Act to help communities across the country build back better.
Investing in America’s Communities was launched with six Notices of Funding Opportunity:
- Build Back Better Regional Challenge ($1 billion)
- A transformational investment to 20-30 regions across the country that want to revitalize their economies
- Good Jobs Challenge ($500 million)
- Collaborative skills training systems and programs
- Economic Adjustment Assistance Challenge ($500 million)
- A wide range of technical, planning, workforce development, entrepreneurship, and public works and infrastructure projects are eligible for funding under this program.
- Indigenous Communities Challenge ($100 million)
- Supports the needs of Tribal Governments and Indigenous communities to develop and execute economic development projects that they need to recover from the pandemic and build economies for the future.
- Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Grants ($750 million)
- Focused on accelerating the recovery of communities that rely on the travel, tourism and outdoor recreation sectors.
- Statewide Planning, Research, and Networks Grants ($90 million)
- Supporting states in planning efforts to promote equity and develop local economies that will be resilient to future economic shocks and climate change
A detailed fact sheet outlines the Investing in America’s Communities funding opportunities.
Under the American Rescue Plan, EDA will make grants to state and local governmental entities, institutions of higher education, not-for-profit entities, unions, and Tribes. EDA is not authorized to provide grants to individuals or for-profit entities.
The Competitive Grant Process
Through its competitive grant process, EDA evaluates all project applications to determine the extent to which they:
- Align with EDA’s investment priorities,
- Effectively address the creation and/or retention of high-quality jobs, and
- Document that the applicant can or will leverage other resources, both public and private, and demonstrate the applicant’s capacity to commence the proposed project promptly, to use funds quickly and effectively, and provide a clear scope of work that includes a description of specific, measurable project outputs.
Investment Priorities
EDA’s investment priorities provide an overarching framework to ensure its grant investment portfolio – ranging from planning to infrastructure construction — contributes to local efforts to build, improve, or better leverage economic assets that allow businesses to succeed and regional economies to prosper and become more resilient. Competitive grant applications will be responsive to the evaluation criteria listed under each individual funding announcement, including at least one of the below investment priorities. For more information on the investment priorities, please read the Investment Priorities Definitions (PDF) which defines a number of the key concepts introduced below:
- Equity: Economic development planning or implementation projects that advance equity across America through investments that directly benefit 1) one or more traditionally underserved populations (PDF), including but not limited to women, Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders or 2) underserved communities within geographies that have been systemically and/or systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic prosperity such as Tribal Lands, Persistent Poverty Counties (XLSX), and rural areas with demonstrated, historical underservice. For more information on these populations and geographies see: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/.
- Recovery & Resilience: Economic development planning or implementation projects that build economic resilience to and long-term recovery from economic shocks, like those experienced by coal and power plant communities, or other communities impacted by the decline of an important industry or a natural disaster, that may benefit from economic diversification-focused resilience.
- Workforce Development: Economic development planning or implementation projects that support workforce education and skills training activities directly connected to the hiring and skills needs of the business community and that result in well-paying, quality jobs(PDF).
- Manufacturing: Economic development planning or implementation projects that encourage job creation, business expansion, technology and capital upgrades, and productivity growth in manufacturing, including efforts that contribute to the competitiveness and growth of domestic suppliers or to the domestic production of innovative, high-value products and production technologies.
- Technology-Based Economic Development: Economic development planning or implementation projects that foster regional knowledge ecosystems that support entrepreneurs and startups, including the commercialization of new technologies, that are creating technology-driven businesses and high-skilled, well-paying jobs of the future.
- Environmentally-Sustainable Development: Economic development planning or implementation projects that help address the climate crisis including through the development and implementation of green products (PDF), green processes (PDF) (including green infrastructure), green places (PDF), and green buildings (PDF).
- Exports & FDI: Economic development planning or implementation projects that enhance or build community assets to support growth in US exports or increased foreign direct investment.
Revised NSF PAPPG issued
National Science Foundation (NSF) Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 22-1) has been issued.
The new PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted or due on or after October 4, 2021. Significant changes include:
- A new section covering requests for reasonable and accessibility accommodations regarding the proposal process or requests for accessibility accommodations to access NSF’s electronic systems, websites and other digital content;
- A table entitled, NSF Pre-award and Post-award Disclosures Relating to the Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending Support. This table identifies where pre- and post-award current and pending support disclosure information must be provided. Proposers and awardees may begin using this table immediately;
- Increasing the page limit for the biographical sketch from two to three pages;
- Updates to the current and pending support section of NSF proposals to require that information on objectives and overlap with other projects is provided to help NSF and reviewers assess overlap/duplication;
- Adding planning proposals and Career-Life Balance supplemental funding requests as new proposal types;
- Updates to travel proposals will require that AORs certify that prior to the proposer’s participation in the meeting for which NSF travel support is being requested, the proposer will assure that the meeting organizer has a written policy or code-of-conduct addressing harassment.
You are encouraged to review the by-chapter summary of changes provided in the Introduction section of the PAPPG. NSF plans to conduct a webinar covering these changes. Visit the NSF policy outreach website to sign up for notifications about this and other outreach events.
While this version of the PAPPG becomes effective on October 4, 2021, in the interim, the guidelines contained in the current PAPPG (NSF 20-1) continue to apply. If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact the DIAS/Policy Office at: policy@nsf.gov
New NIH Requirements May 2021
Effective May 25, 2021, NIH requires the following:
- Supporting documentation, which includes copies of contracts, grants or any other agreement specific to senior/key personnel foreign appointments and/or employment with a foreign institution for all foreign activities and resources that are reported in Other Support. If the contracts, grants or other agreements are not in English, recipients must provide translated copies.
- Immediate notification of undisclosed Other Support. When a recipient organization discovers that a PI or other Senior/Key personnel on an active NIH grant failed to disclose Other Support information outside of Just-in-Time or the RPPR, as applicable, the recipient must submit updated Other Support to the Grants Management Specialist named in the Notice of Award as soon as it becomes known.
Specific Changes to Biosketch Instructions – Updates
Specific changes are below. As a normal matter of business, NIH will incorporate the changes into the NIH Application Form Instructions within the next forms update by FY 2022.
1. Personal Statement updated to read:
Briefly describe why you are well-suited for your role(s) in this project. Relevant factors may include: aspects of your training; your previous experimental work on this specific topic or related topics; your technical expertise; your collaborators or scientific environment; and/or your past performance in this or related fields, including ongoing and completed research projects from the past three years that you want to draw attention to (previously known as research support).
2. Positions, Scientific Appointments, and Honors updated to read:
List in reverse chronological order all positions and scientific appointments both domestic and foreign, including affiliations with foreign entities or governments. This includes titled academic, professional, or institutional appointments whether or not remuneration is received, and whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, or honorary). High school students and undergraduates may include any previous positions. For individuals who are not currently located at the applicant organization, include the expected position at the applicant organization and the expected start date.
For more information, click here for more information.
Now Available in Research.gov: Three New Proposal Types and Proposal Withdrawal Functionality
Effective March 22, the National Science Foundation (NSF) enabled three new proposal types in the Research.gov Proposal Submission System and in the recently launched Research.gov Proposal Preparation Demo Site. These are the Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities (FASED), Equipment, and Travel proposal types.
New automated compliance checks and associated error and warning messages for these proposal types were also implemented. In addition, proposal withdrawal functionality was added for both single submission (with or without sub-awards) and separately submitted collaborative proposals from multiple organizations. New training resources have also been added to the Research.gov About Proposal Preparation and Submission page.
FASED, Equipment, and Travel Proposals
- Proposers can now select a FASED, Equipment, or Travel proposal type in the Research.gov Proposal Submission System proposal setup wizard, in addition to the existing Research.gov proposal type options:
- Research
- Rapid Response Research (RAPID)
- Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER)
- Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE)
- All supported proposal types are available in the Research.gov Proposal Preparation Demo Site.
- New automated compliance checks for FASED, Equipment, and Travel proposal types have been added to Research.gov and are listed on the Research.gov Automated Proposal Compliance Checks for Proposals dated March 22, 2021 on the Automated Compliance Checking of NSF Proposals page.
- A reminder: Error messages prohibit proposal submission to NSF, whereas warning messages still permit proposal submission.
- Refer to the Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 20-1) for FASED, Equipment, and Travel proposal requirements.
Proposal Withdrawal Functionality
- Proposing organizations can now withdraw both single submission (with or without sub-awards) and separately submitted collaborative proposals from multiple organizations in Research.gov.
- Organizations no longer need to contact the NSF Help Desk to initiate Research.gov proposal withdrawal actions.
- A new Proposal Withdrawal section has been added to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the Research.gov About Proposal Preparation and Submission page left navigation menu.
- Refer to PAPPG Chapter IV.A. for proposal withdrawal requirements.
Training Resources
- New and updated system-related FAQs by topic are available on the Research.gov About Proposal Preparation and Submission page left navigation menu.
- A new 16-minute Research.gov proposal demo video has been added to the Research.gov About Proposal Preparation and Submission page Video Tutorials section.
- The video highlights key proposal preparation steps including:
- Setting up a proposal
- Uploading a document and compliance messaging
- Preparing Proposal File Update/Budget Revisions
- The video highlights key proposal preparation steps including:
- A new How-to Guides section has been added to the Research.gov About Proposal Preparation and Submission page left navigation menu. The initial topic-specific guide is posted, and new guides will be added to this section going forward.