Happy April 18^th! On this day in 1999 Wayne Gretzky played his final game at Madison Square Garden. Pat Summitt retired from coaching women’s basketball at the University of Tennessee. And on this day in 2023, you are now required to submit a plan for Safe and Inclusive Working Environments (SAI Plan) with proposals to the DEB core solicitation that include off-site work.

There are some caveats and more details outlined in the FAQ, but, for the most part, if you are conducting off-site or off-campus research and you are submitting to certain programs within BIO/GEO (see the current list here), you need to have your 2-page supplementary document uploaded with your submission.

As a reminder, this document must address the following four sections:

1. a brief description of the field setting and unique challenges for the team;  
2. the steps the proposing organization will take to nurture an inclusive off-campus or off-site working environment, including processes to establish shared team definitions of roles, responsibilities, and culture, e.g., codes of conduct, trainings, mentor/mentee mechanisms and field support that might include regular check-ins, and/or developmental events;   
3. communication processes within the off-site team and to the organization(s) that minimize singular points within the communication pathway (e.g., there should not be a single person overseeing access to a single satellite phone); and   
4. the organizational mechanisms that will be used for reporting, responding to, and resolving issues of harassment if they arise.   

You can check out some additional resources and past Virtual Office Hour presentations and recordings here and if you still have questions, please feel free to send us a note at debquestions@nsf.gov.