Changes to the NSF
Proposal & Award Policies
& Procedures Guide
(PAPPG)
All NSF projects should be of the highest
quality and have the potential to advance, if
not transform, the frontiers of knowledge.
NSF projects, in the aggregate, should
contribute more broadly to achieving societal
goals.
Meaningful assessment and evaluation of NSF
funded projects should be based on
appropriate metrics, keeping in mind the likely
correlation between the effect of broader
impacts and the resources provided to
implement projects.
PAPPG Significant Changes
Implementation of revised Merit Review Criteria
Revised Biographical Sketch requirements
Indirect Costs
Proposals Not Accepted – increased clarity on
submission of required sections of the proposal
Project Summary
Will have text boxes in FastLane for:
Overview
Statement on Intellectual Merit
Statement on Broader Impacts
Only 4,600 characters allowed
Proposals with special characters may upload Project
Summary as a PDF document – Only if they have
special characters. Do Not use this method to
circumvent completing the text boxes.
Text boxes must be filled out or a project summary
must be uploaded or FastLane will not accept the
proposal
Proposal Description
Must contain a separate section with a discussion of
broader impacts of the proposed activities; Results from
Prior Support (if any) must address intellectual merit and
broader impacts.
Annual and Final Project Reports
Must address activities intended to address the Broader
Impacts criterion that are not intrinsic to the research
Biographical Sketch
The “Publications” section of the biosketch has been
renamed “Products”
This change makes clear that products may include,
but are not limited to, publications, data sets, software,
patents, and copyrights.
Proposals Not Accepted
This is a formally recognized new category of nonaward decisions and transactions
Defined as: FastLane will not permit submission of
the proposal if these components are not included
Data Management Plan
Postdoctoral Mentoring Plans
Project Summaries
Removal of PI from Budget
If no person months are requested for senior
personnel, they should be removed from the budget
Their names will remain on the coversheet
Role should be described in Facilities, Equipment
and Other Resources, NOT the Budget Justification
Facilities, Equipment & Other Resources
New format will assist proposers in complying with
NSF cost sharing policy and is a required component
of the proposal
Provides an aggregated description of the internal
and external resources (both Physical and Personnel)
that the organization and its collaborators will provide
to the project
No reference to cost, date of acquisition, and whether
the resources are currently available or would be
provided upon receipt of award
If there are no resources to describe, a statement to
that effect should be included in this section of the
proposal and uploaded into FastLane
Current and Pending
Must include currently proposed proposal – this is not
an update, but a reminder as many Current and
Pending proposals do not include it.
Your Project Administrator is aware of these
changes and will let you know if you are not
compliant with the new guidelines. You will
then need to make the appropriate changes
to FastLane or to the documents to be
uploaded before the proposal will be
submitted.
Questions:
 When do these updates and changes go into effect?
 January 14, 2013
 So what do I do if I have a proposal to submit before then?
 Complete your proposal as you have been to this point
 What if I complete the proposal before January 14, but don’t submit until
after January 14?
 You can take your one page summary and break it into the
Overview, Broader Impacts and Intellectual Merit components and
input into the designated text boxes, or:
 You can let your one page Project Summary be uploaded into the
Overview text box. However, you will need to put information in the
Broader Impacts and Intellectual merit boxes or the proposal will
not be permitted to be submitted.
 What if I don’t make the changes to my Current and Pending and
Biographical sketch?
 We don’t believe the proposal will be rejected, but there is nothing
to tell us it won’t be so best to do it correctly upon submission
Questions continued
 What do the text boxes look like in FastLane?
 We don’t know as they won’t be revealed until January 14
 So what are the current Merit Review Criteria?
 See Chapter III of the PAPPG
 Where can I get a copy of the revised PAPPG?
 You can find it here:
http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf13001
 Additional questions? Contact your Project Administrator.