For those of you in the DEB community planning to submit a proposal in 2016, please take note of some important new NSF documents that recently came on-line.

Solicitations:

Division of Environmental Biology Core Programs: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15609/nsf15609.htm

Long Term Research in Environmental Biology: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16500/nsf16500.htm

Dimensions of Biodiversity: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15611/nsf15611.htm

Long Term Ecological Research: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16509/nsf16509.htm

Near the top of each solicitation you can find a section entitled “Important Information and Revision Notes“. These sections briefly highlight any changes in a new program solicitation from an earlier year’s vintage.

 

Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG):

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf16001/

In contrast to program solicitations, which provide specific information for a particular competition, the PAPPG is an NSF wide document that provides high-level guidance on NSF submission and administration policies.

Effective January 25, 2016, all proposals submitted to NSF must adhere to the guidance outlined in this updated PAPPG version, NSF 16-1.

You may have seen our prior blog post that highlighted some of the anticipated PAPPG changes that were coming down the pike, or you may have seen the recent BIO BUZZ blog post on the topic as well. Just to make sure that no one misses this announcement, now that the new PAPPG is live, here are some important updates to be aware of.

• Proposal submission by 5pm local time will now be strictly enforced. Any proposal submitted at 5:01pm will not go through.
• The Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) in your sponsored research office must sign off on the proposal at the time of submission.
• Proposals that fall within the category of Dual Use Research of Concern must be identified as such. This is NSF’s implementation of a US Government wide policy for institutional oversight.
• Biosketches must be submitted individually for each PI and senior personnel and not compiled in one PDF. See our previous post, specifically myth #8, for detailed instructions and screenshots on how to do this. It is worth noting, that adding a non-Co-PI Senior Personnel does not require that person to have a Fast Lane account and international Senior Personnel can upload biosketches in this fashion. (This is particularly relevant for teams submitting proposals under the DEB NERC or DEB BSF Dear Colleague Letters).
• Collaborators & Other Affiliations Information will now be submitted as single copy documents and not as a part of the biosketch nor as supplementary documents

For the complete list of PAPPG revisions and updates see the link below:

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf16001/sigchanges.jsp

 

Dear Colleague Letters (DCL):

Lastly, the two DEB-focused international Dear Colleague Letters that were published in 2014 are still in effect for the 2016 core programs proposal cycle. These DCLs outline agreements with two international funding agencies. They enable US and UK investigators or US and Israeli investigators to submit a single collaborative proposal that will undergo a single review process.

Natural Environment Research Council: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14098/nsf14098.jsp

US-Israel Binational Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14094/nsf14094.jsp