NSF Spring Grants Conference

The National Science Foundation has sent out a 'Save the Date' for their always popular Spring Grants Conference. It will be held at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center on June 4th and 5th. The registration will open on March 15th at 12pm EST at this link: NSF Spring 2018 Grants Conference.

2017 NSF Fall Grants Conference webcasts available

The NSF Grants Conferences are always popular events that can't accommodate everyone that wants to attend; thankfully they've posted the videos from the conference proceedings so everyone has a chance to learn. Visit the NSF Resource Center to view the videos.

Distinguished Lectures in Mathematical and Physical Sciences

The National Science Foundation announces the 2017-2018 Distinguished Lectures in Mathematical and Physical Sciences, a series of free lectures at the NSF Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. If you are going to be in the area, all you need to do is send an email to arrange for a visitor badge at least 24 hours prior to the lecture you wish to attend. The schedule is:

•Monday, Dec. 11, 2017: Soft Materials Research in the Era of Machine Learning, Juan de Pablo, professor of molecular engineering, University of Chicago.

•Monday, Jan. 22, 2018: Turning Inert Nitrogen from the Atmosphere into Useful Products through Mild Catalytic Chemistry, Nobel laureate Richard Schrock, professor of chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

•Monday, Feb. 12, 2018: Strange Bonds and Odd Angles: Exploring Exotic Chemistry in Space, Michael McCarthy, associate director, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

•Monday, April 23, 2018: Modeling and Simulation of Asteroid-Generated Tsunamis, Marsha Berger, professor of mathematics and computer science, New York University.

•Monday, May 21, 2018: Hairy Hydrodynamics in Biology and Beyond, Anette (Peko) Hosoi, professor of mechanical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

•Monday, June 25, 2018: Atomic Clocks in the Next Quantum Revolution, Marianna Safronova, professor of physics, University of Delaware.

For more information, please see NSF's Media Advisory 17-012.

NSF wants to know what research infrastructure you need

In Dear Colleague Letter 18-013 NSF has issued a request for information about the need for Mid-scale Research Infrastructure. "Mid-scale" is defined as costs falling between the maximum you can request from their popular Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program, which is $4M, and the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act's definition of a 'major multi-user research facility project', which is $100M or greater. This request for information is not a request for funding, nor should the request be interpreted as an intent to publish a new research infrastructure opportunity in the near future, but it will help the NSF identify "promising projects that remain difficult to address within program budgets due to the comparatively large investment needed in a relatively short period of time." A link to the survey can be found at the bottom of the Dear Colleague Letter linked above. It doesn't hurt to let the NSF know what the community needs!

Four NSF BIO divisions do away with pre-proposals (and deadlines!)

NSF announced on October 5th in Dear Colleague Letter 18-011 that after careful consideration of the impact of the pre-proposal pilot on reviewers, institutions and the research community, "BIO will implement a 'no-deadline,' full-proposal mechanism for receiving and reviewing proposals submitted to core programs in the Division of Environmental Biology (DEB), the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS), the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB), and to the programs in the Research Resources Cluster of the Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI)." More information on the changes to proposals can be found in these FAQ's (NSF 18-012) as well as on the division's websites.

NSF moving their headquarters; websites will be down

The National Science Foundation is moving to Alexandria Virginia over a six week period from August 24 to October 1, 2017. To prepare for the physical move, they are taking advantage of the July 4th holiday weekend to move their Data Center in order to reduce the impact to the research community. NSF.gov, FastLane and Research.gov will all be down from 8pm on Friday June 30 to 6pm on July 4th. So you have no choice but to enjoy your barbecue. More information here: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/issuances/in139.jsp.

Upcoming research workshops: NIH and NSF

The NIH is holding a Regional Seminar in Chicago, at the Palmer House, October 26-28. General registration for this seminar ends September 1st.
Visit http://regionalseminars.od.nih.gov/chicago2016/ to view the agenda and register for this seminar, which has three tracks: administrators, new investigators, and all interests (you are not limited to staying within one track).

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The NSF will be holding a Grants Conference in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University November 14 and 15. Visit http://www.nsfgrantsconferences.com/ehome/nsf/fall2016/ to view the conference site. Registration begins on September 8th. This conference is excellent for those who want to know more about the NSF's upcoming programs, the merit review process, and proposal preparation.

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These research workshops are a great opportunity to meet NIH and NSF program officers and staff. In the past, for example, more than 100 NIH employees were available at one of their regional seminars. Don't miss out!

It's the National Science Foundation's birthday!

Read about some of the exciting discoveries and inventions that resulted from NSF funding over the past 66 years in this article on Medium.

Experiment shows eliminating deadlines dramatically reduces submissions

" [Alex Isern, the head of the surface Earth processes section] eliminated the twice-a-year deadlines for four of her grant programs, in geobiology and low-temperature geochemistry, geomorphology and land-use dynamics, hydrological sciences, and sedimentary geology and paleobiology. NSF sent out a notice about the change at the beginning of 2015, and after a 3-month proposal hiatus, the no-deadline approach began in April 2015.

The number of proposals plummeted, from 804 in 2014 to just 327 in the 11 months from April 2015 to March... So far, she says, there have been no effects on the demographics of who is applying, such as the age of the principal investigator or the type of university they are applying from. Because of a lag in decisions, she hasn’t yet measured the expected rise in success rates."

Read the full story in Science.

NSF Director France Cordova on Women in STEM

"Despite advances in overall STEM degrees, women are still vastly underrepresented in fields like physics and engineering; the number of women receiving a bachelor's degree in computer science has actually declined since 2002. This spills over into disparities in employment and even salary: In 2013, median salaries were highest for those with doctorates in computer and information sciences and engineering, fields in which men outnumber women substantially. To close these gaps, we must promote gender diversity in STEM education, and support women every step along their path to a science or engineering career. And we must get more girls excited about STEM. Every child has a moment when their imagination is sparked by science and engineering. Watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step onto the Moon was that moment for me -- it was a reminder of my early, innate interest in science and space.

Imagine if we could keep that spark alive and nurture it. We would have a new generation of scientists and engineers, a new STEM-savvy generation."

Read the full post, and more, in Dr. Cordova's blog, NSF Director Field Notes.

Reminder: Changes in NIH and NSF procedures in effect 1/25/16

On the NSF side of things: The new 2016 Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) is now in effect. You can find it here.

Any unsolicited proposals sent in response to the GPG need to reflect this change on the cover sheet -- in the "Program Announcement/Solicitation/Program Description Number" box, make sure to use NSF 16-1. Solicited proposals should of course continue to use the number provided in the program announcement or description.

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On the NIH side of things: Many changes! All are listed in NIH notice number NOT-OD-16-058, here is a summary:
• information about rigor and transparency in research must be included in applications;
• the vertebrate animals section has been simplified;
• the definition of "child" has been changed from a threshold of 21 to 18 years of age;
• Forms Version C application packages have been updated and the new versions should now be used;
• Instructions for Version C packages have been updated and should be followed.

These changes are just phase I for the time period January 25 through May 24. Notices regarding phase II, starting May 25, will be released shortly.

New NSF guidelines effective January 25, 2016

NSF has posted the new proposal preparation and award management guide for those proposals submitted or due on or after January 25, 2016. There are a number of significant changes including the implementation of NSF's Public Access Policy for publications resulting from NSF funding and changes to the Biographical Sketch format. Be sure to review the full Significant Changes and Clarifications page.

NSF Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide

NSF announces public access policy plans

On March 18, 2015, the National Science Foundation announced its plan to provide greater public access to the results of its funded research, "Today's Data, Tomorrow's Discoveries". This will be officially announced in April 2015 and is slated to go into effect in January 2016.

Much of the plan is a re-commitment to data management and the availability of funds to support publication and presentation of data to the public, but the new component is the publications policy: Within a year of publication, either the version of record or the final accepted manuscript in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, and papers in juried conference proceedings, must be deposited into a publicly-accessible database.

This move is not without precedent among Federal sponsors as the NIH has had such a policy in place for years.

NSF by the numbers

From the National Science Foundation's FY 2016 Budget Request to Congress brochure.

Fastlane unavailable 10/10 to 10/14

Because the NSF is transitioning to a new financial system, they are taking Fastlane offline from 8pm on Friday, October 10, to 6am on Tuesday, October 14. Please plan accordingly.

NSF distinguished lectures in mathematical and physical sciences

The National Science Foundation announces the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences distinguished lecture series 2014-2015 beginning on September 30th. All lectures take place at NSF headquarters in Arlington, VA. For a list of speakers/topics, see Media Advisory 14-017.

NSF's Biology Directorate offers tips on "Broadening Participation"

Along with the NSF's very familiar mandate of "Broader Impacts" is the lesser-trumpeted "Broadening Participation" -- but it may be just as important to your Biological Sciences Directorate proposal. See this publication for more information on what they mean by this, and how to incorporate it into your next proposal.

NSF seeks reviewers for their fellowship program

The NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program, now in its 62nd year, needs reviewers. Interested? Please see their 'Dear Colleague' letter on the subject.

Thoughts from a First Time NSF Applicant

Philip Guo is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester, and he applied for his first sole-PI NSF grant this past winter. He doesn't know the results of his submission yet, but has a lot of thoughts about the writing/submission process to share with other first-timers:
http://pgbovine.net/NSF-grant-proposal-first-time.htm

NSF Day at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is Rescheduled!

We had some disappointed faculty when last Fall's NSF day had to be canceled due to sequestration. Fortunately CSHL have rescheduled the workshop for June 4th, 2014. A tentative agenda is here.
From Walter L. Goldschmidts, Ph.D., Executive Director of Sponsored Programs at CSHL:

The workshop is intended to assist new faculty and other research scientists and educators from the New York and the northeast region to learn more about the full scope of NSF supported research and education programs and priorities and to better understand the NSF grant proposal and merit review process. Representatives from seven NSF Directorates and the Office of International and Integrative Activities are anticipated to make presentations on their programs and will be available informally and in breakout sessions for discussions of potential research proposals.
The workshop will be held in the Grace Auditorium on the CSHL campus and support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has been secured by CSHL to help defray participant costs so that registration fees can be held to a minimum. Space is limited, so please register early by visiting: http://meetings.cshl.org/meetingsregistration_nic.asp.