Logistics of NSF Projects - earthlab/earth-lab-operations GitHub Wiki

Submitting NSF Proposals

An NSF proposal requires four documents for each person:

  1. Biosketch
  2. Current & Pending
  3. Conflict of Interest
  4. Synergistic Activities

You must use SciENcv for 1 & 2. Download excel template from NSF for 3 and submit as excel doc. Download Word template for 4 and save/submit as PDF. See the NSF website for more information.

Navigate to SciENcv and log in with NSF ID. Each person submitting needs an NSF ID!

Biosketch

  • Create new document, choose "NSF Biographical Sketch"
  • Note: As of May 2024, there is no longer a page limit for biosketches
  • Professional preparation: List degrees & postdoc positions in reverse chronological order (newest to oldest)
  • Appointments: list jobs from newest to oldest
  • Products: Add citations for bibliography. Link ORCID account to easily link & import publications. Choose which ones to include from the imported list.
  • [New version (May 2024) of biosketch no longer includes "synergistic activities". It's included as a separate document instead (see below).]
  • Click "Download PDF" (bottom right). Will throw an error if it's too long.

Current & Pending

  • Create new document, choose "NSF Current and Pending (Other) Support"
  • Goal: List current & future projects to show how your time will be allocated (to show you have the capacity for the proposed project).
  • Place of performance: Boulder (or location of your home institution)
  • List exact title for each current or pending grant/proposal
  • List start & end dates for each
  • List exact award amount for each
  • For each entry, list person-months for each year that you'll receive salary for each grant (based on budget). Make sure that you are not over 100% committed for each year across your current grants (doesn't matter for pending grants). Be sure to include the proposed grant as pending. Do NOT include past years- only include the current year and all future years of funding.
  • Overall objectives: Provide short description. Be sure to clarify how projects are different from one another.
  • Potential Overlap: Make it clear that there is no potential overlap between projects.
  • In-Kind Contributions: You do not need to fill out this section unless you have unfunded or donated time to report. Office space will be included in the facilities document submitted with the grant.
  • Click "Download PDF" (bottom right)

Collaborations and Other Affiliations (COA) Template

  • Link here.
  • Make sure all names are listed as last name first (Last name, First name, Middle Initial)!
  • Table 1: List your current organizational affiliation and other affiliations you've had in the past 12 months.
  • Table 2: List any family or business connections that would prevent someone from being a reviewer for you. Use the drop-down option in the first column to select "R".
  • Table 3: List your PhD advisors and PhD thesis advisees. Be sure to use the drop-down option in the first column to specify advisor (G) or advisee (T).
  • Table 4: This is usually the longest table. List all co-authors (book, manuscripts, abstracts) and collaborators (on funded awards, graduate research, projects) that you've had over the past 48 months. Be sure to use the drop-down option in the first column to specify co-author (A) or collaborator (C) for every row.
  • Table 5: List editorial board, editor-in chief, and co-editors with whom you've interacted in the last 24 months. Use the drop-down option in the first column to select "E".
  • Submit this document as filled-in Excel file

Synergistic Acvtivities

  • Complete this template in Word (click "view raw" to download) and then save it as a PDF.
  • No longer that 1 page with 5 activities
  • Directions from NSF: "Each individual identified as a senior/key person must provide a document of up to one-page that includes a list of up to five distinct examples that demonstrates the broader impact of the individual's professional and scholarly activities that focus on the integration and transfer of knowledge as well as its creation... Examples may include, among others: innovations in teaching and training; contributions to the science of learning; development and/or refinement of research tools; computation methodologies and algorithms for problem-solving; development of databases to support research and education; broadening the participation of groups underrepresented in STEM; participation in international research collaborations; participation in national and/or international standards development efforts; and service to the scientific and engineering community outside of the individual's immediate organization."

NSF Reporting

An NSF annual report GDoc template is here [ADD]. When it's ready to go, move on to the below steps:

Monthly and annual reporting for NSF grants is now done through the Research.gov website.

Under "Awards and reporting," select "Project Reports." Upcoming due dates will be shown. Select 'Create/Edit.' Below you can find additional information on each section to fill out.

Accomplishments

This section is straightforward. Copy-paste in. Note that NSF likes to see progression from activities -> outcomes/achievements over the course of an award.

Products

Note that all published journals need to be deposited in the NSF Public Access Repository (NSF-PAR). Once they have been deposited in NSF-PAR you may need to wait up to 6 hours for them to be recognized by the system.

Here are instructions on depositing publications to NSF-PAR via Research.gov.

Participants/Organizations

It is possible to add information for multiple participants at once! Click "Add/edit multiple participants" and you will be brought to a page to download and re-upload an excel file. Make sure to put the nearest person month worked as an integer (i.e. "7" instead of "7.1").

Person-months allocated to the project can be found by contacting your financial officer.

Note that this file upload will NOT work for the PI, whose information must be added MANUALLY.

For anyone who worked on a project at one point but is no longer involved, leave the individual on the list. Put their nearest person month at 0, and for contribution put something like "no longer at CU associated with project."

Impact & Changes/Problems

These sections are straightforward. Copy-paste in from GDoc.