Marcy Wallace

NSF Changes

Institute for Research on Teaching and Learning

Portions of today’s presentation have been created by

Lisa Somers from OSP and provided by www.nsf.gov

NSF Updates effective January 14, 2013

• Changes to the Grant Proposal Guide and Merit Review

Criteria • Project Summary

• Biosketches

• Facilities

• Project Descriptions

• References

• Upcoming Automated Compliance Changes in FastLane. • See entire NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) at

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf13001/gpgprint.pdf

Project Summary

• Project Summary will require text boxes in FastLane not

to exceed 4,600 characters and 51 lines. It will include:

• Overview

• Statement on Intellectual Merit

• Statement on Broader Impacts

• Remember to recheck summary if pasting into text boxes

from another document, because some characters are

not accurately pasting.

Project Summary

• Proposals with special characters may upload Project

Summary as a PDF document

• Must have special Characters to upload as PDF

• ä ,ë, ï, ¼, ß, ©, Ā, ã, ë, μ, ¶, §, etc.

• Any mathematical symbols

• Greek letters

• Link to special characters guidelines: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/papp/papp13_1/special_characters.pdf

• Text boxes must be filled out or a project summary must

be uploaded or FastLane will not accept the proposal.

• Collaborative is exception

Project Summary Sample on Fast Lane Website with 3 Text Boxes

Sample Final Copy Project Summary with all information from the three text boxes included at right – Overview, Intellectual Merit, and Broader Impacts. *Some projects have to have title included. *Spaces count as characters. *Check RFP for guidance on overview.

Biographical Sketch

Significant changes include:

• Revision of the instructions to rename the “Publications” section to “Products”

• This change makes clear that products may include, but are not limited to, publications, data sets, software, patents, and copyrights.

Budget

PD/PI can be removed from budget form

• The Budget form has been updated to describe a new functionality in FastLane regarding senior personnel and the budget.

• If no person months and no salary are being requested for senior personnel, they should be removed from Section A of the budget. This change was made for consistency with NSF’s cost sharing policy. • Lead PI can now be removed

Budget

Must include F&A on budget

• Except as noted in the GPG sections on participant support and international travel grants, or as specified in an NSF program solicitation, the applicable indirect cost rate negotiated by the organization with the cognizant negotiating agency must be used in computing indirect costs for a proposal.

• For NSF Proposals - Investigators can no longer request a waiver of indirect from the office of VPRGS.

Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources

Significant changes include:

• Aggregated description of the internal and external resources that are, or will be available to the project (both physical and personnel) should be provided

• The new format will assist proposers in complying with the NSF cost sharing policy.

• Must upload an attachment for Facilities section. • IRTL has boilerplate language available if needed.

Project Description

• Merit Review Criteria

• Must contain a separate section with a discussion of the broader

impacts of the proposed activities

• Results from Prior Support (if any) must address intellectual

merit and broader impacts

• May be returned without review if missing these elements

• Resources

• NSF Merit Review Website

www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/merit_review/

• Resources for the Proposer Community

www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/merit_review/resources.jsp

References:

• Problems MSU has experienced to date: • Your references have to be perfectly formatted - leaving out titles, or

leaving out the second page number, or using "et al." instead of long

author lists - all of these can lead to a proposal being rejected without

review.

• If there are no references cited, a statement to that effect should be

included in this section of the proposal and uploaded into FastLane.

GPG Required Sections of the Proposal

• Project Summary

• Project Description

• References Cited

• Biographical Sketch(es)

• Budget

• Budget Justification

• Current and Pending Support

• Facilities, Equipment & Other Resources

• Supplementary Documentation

• Data Management Plan

• Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan (where applicable)

Auto Compliance Checking

• Biographical Sketches and Current and Pending Support

• FastLane permits biosketches and current and pending support sections to be

uploaded as a single PDF for the PI, co-PI and senior personnel.

• For FastLane to accept the proposal, proposers must insert text or upload a

document that states, “Not Applicable” for any co-PI or senior person

We recommend that a pdf is uploaded for each individual senior

personnel in both sections instead of one pdf for all personnel.

Summary of Changes to the NSF Grant Proposal Guide

The Project Summary no longer requires separate headings to address the two merit criteria. Instead, FastLane has been modified to display three text boxes in which proposers provide an overview and address intellectual merit and broader impacts. The summary is still limited to one page. In the past, the Project Description needed to include a description of broader impacts as an integral part of the narrative. The Project Description must now contain, as a separate section within the narrative, a discussion of the broader impacts of the proposed activities. This section also was updated to indicate that intellectual merit and broader impact activities must be described in two separate sections in the Summary of Results from Prior NSF Support. Biographical Sketches has been revised to rename the “Publications” section to “Products” and make clear that products may include, but are not limited to, publications, data sets, software, patents, and copyrights. Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources, has been supplemented to indicate that an aggregated description of the internal and external resources that are, or will be available to the project (both physical and personnel) should be provided. A new format for submission of the Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources information will be available in FastLane in January 2013. The new format will assist proposers in complying with the NSF cost sharing policy.

Articles of interest Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Dont-Underestimate-NSFs-New/136521/

Science Journal: http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2013_01_18/caredit.a1300004

For a list of FAQs regarding Automated Compliance Checking, visit: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/autocheck/faqs_march13.pdf

Questions?

Institute for Research on Teaching and Learning:

www.educ.msu.edu/irtl/

NSF at OSP:

NSF@osp.msu.edu

or OSP website at:

www.osp.msu.edu

NSF

www.nsf.gov

Jeff Cole

Writing Data Management Plans

The National Science Foundation now requires that all proposals for funding include a data management plan “…to stimulate new advances as quickly as possible and to allow prompt evaluation of the results.” NSF expects investigators to share with other researchers the primary data created or gathered in the course of work under NSF grants. The data management plan must show how data will be made available within a reasonable amount of time and at no more than incremental cost.

What is a Data Management Plan?

Data management plans must address the following issues:

What data are produced?

What standards will be used for data and metadata format?

What policies exist for access to and sharing data?

What are the plans for archiving data, samples and other research products and preserving access to them?

What constitutes “data”?

According to the federal government, data is defined as:

“…the recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as necessary to validate research findings, but not any of the following: preliminary analyses, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer reviews, or communications with colleges. This recorded material excludes physical objects (e.g. laboratory samples). Research data also do not include:

A. Trade secrets, commercial information, materials necessary to be held confidential by a researcher until they are published, or similar information which is protected under law; and

B. Personnel and medical information and similar information the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, such as information that could be used to identify a particular person in a research study.”

Guidance from the National Science Foundation

a. Investigators are expected to promptly prepare and submit for

publication, with authorship that accurately reflects the contributions of

those involved, all significant findings from work conducted under NSF

grants.

b. Investigators are expected to share with other researchers, at no more

than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the primary data,

samples, physical collections and other supporting materials created

or gathered in the course of work under NSF grants.

c. Investigators and grantees are encouraged to share software and

inventions created under the grant or otherwise make them or their

products widely available and usable.

d. NSF normally allows grantees to retain principal legal rights to

intellectual property developed under NSF grants

Guidance from the Education and Human

Resources Directorate

“The DMP should reflect best practices in the PI’s area of research and should be appropriate to the data generated. For proposals submitted to EHR, the plan should address two main questions:

What data are generated by your project?

What is your plan for managing the data?”

MSU Resources

The MSU Libraries and University Archives have joined

forces to create the Research Data Management

Guidance service. The service is available to provide

guidance to faculty in the development and execution of

research data management plans.

Elements of a Data Management Plan

Types of Data Produced

Beta and metadata standards

Policies for access and sharing

Policies for re-use, redistribution

Plans for archiving & preservation

Additional Resources

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/dmp/index.jsp

MIT Data Management Website http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/subjects/data-management/

California Digital Library (CDL) http://www.cdlib.org/services/uc3/datamanagement/

University of Virginia Library, Scientific Data Consulting Group

http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/brown/data/NSFDMP_EHR_Template_with_Guidance.doc

DataONE DMPTool

https://dmp.cdlib.org/.

Teresa Thomas

Reporting in Research.gov

Institute for Research on Teaching and Learning Portions of today’s presentation have been created by Stacy

Salisbury and Stephanie Hay from CGA and provided by

www.research.gov

NSF Project Reporting has moved to Research.gov

• NSF will require project reporting on Research.gov, replacing

NSF’s annual, final, and interim project reporting capabilities

in the FastLane System

• This does not affect proposal submissions in FastLane

Key Differences of the New Project Report System

• Project reporting dashboard

• Structured collection of data

• Rich text editor

• PDF upload to support images, charts, and other complex

graphics

• Improved citation search through Thomson Web of Science

• Special reporting requirements are controlled by solicitation

• PI no longer provides demographic information on significant

participants

NSF Project Report Components

• Accomplishments: What was done? What was learned?

• Products: What has the project produced?

• Participants & Other Collaborating Organizations: Who has been

involved?

• Impact: What is the impact of the project? How has it contributed?

• Changes/Problems

• Special Reporting Requirements (where applicable as noted in the

RFP)

• Appendix 1: Demographic Information for Significant Contributors

• E-mail automatically sent to significant contributors

Screen Shots and Instructions

Screen Shots and Instructions

Research.gov Webinar Series

• NSF is hosting a series of Research.gov webinars for

NSF grantees interested in learning more about

Research.gov

• Research.gov Help Desk

• Rgov@nsf.gov or 1-800-381-1532

Questions?

Institute for Research on Teaching and Learning:

www.educ.msu.edu/irtl/

Awards at OSP:

awards@cga.msu.edu

or CGA website at:

www.cga.msu.edu