[Flex] [Fwd: NSF Division of Ocean Sciences Update]

[Claire Reid]

If have not already received this,  please share it with all interested
parties in your department.

Cheers,
Claire

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: NSF Division of Ocean Sciences Update
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 15:31:05 -0400
From: "Binkley, Kandace S." <kbinkley@nsf.gov>
To: "Binkley, Kandace S." <kbinkley@nsf.gov>

Dear Colleagues:

It is that time of year again and many of you are preparing proposals to
be
submitted for the Division of Ocean Sciences 15 August 2002 target date.
Most of you are now very familiar with the process now and are doing a
great
job. There are just a few issues that you should pay close attention to
when
submitting your proposal.

Merit Review Criteria

We noted in an email before the 15 February target date that the Grant
Proposal Guide (NSF 02-2) <http://www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?gpg>
was
revised requiring that the intellectual merit of the proposed activity
and
the broader impacts resulting from the proposed activity must be
addressed
explicitly in both the project summary and project description.  While
Investigators routinely address the Intellectual Merit criterion,
treatment
of Broader Impacts has been inconsistent.   Both criteria must be
addressed.
NSF policy states that proposals not consistent with these instructions
may
not be considered by NSF.  

Effective 1 October 2002, NSF will return without review proposals that
do
not separately address both merit review criteria within the Project
Summary. Please make it obvious that both criteria have been addressed.
This
will help us avoid having to take drastic action. 

Font Size

The Grant Proposal Guide provides very specific font size and character
spacing guideline for proposal submission as stated below. 

"The type size must be clear and readily legible, and conform to the
following three requirements: 1) the height of the letters must not be
smaller than 10 point; 2) type density must be no more than 15
characters
per 2.5 cm; (for proportional spacing, the average for any
representative
section of text must not exceed 15 characters per 2.5 cm); and 3) no
more
than 6 lines must be within a vertical space of 2.5 cm. The type size
used
throughout the proposal must conform to all three requirements."

Although a 10 point font size is specified, 10 point Time New Roman does
not
meet the type density of no more than 15 characters per 2.5 cm. We are
getting more and more complaints from reviewers about having to review
proposals with small fonts. It is in your best interest to not anger
reviewers.

Collaborative Proposals

Although we have told you in the past that the order in which
collaborative
proposals are submitted does not matter, that is only true once the
Temporary Proposal ID and Proposal PIN for each of the non-lead
proposals
has been entered in FastLane by the Lead PI. Recently we have had a
number
of PI's from non-lead institutions submit their proposals before the
lead
has added the links. We then have to have the programmers go in and link
the
proposals. If you are the PI on a non-lead proposal, please check with
the
PI on the lead proposal before you submit. 

Creating PDF files

Now that FastLane can upload a number of file format, not just PDF
files, in
most instances you are better off uploading your word processing file
directly and letting FastLane create the PDF file. You can still upload
PDF
files you have created but the PDF creation files are optimized for
FastLane
and we are less likely to have print problems on our end.

TeX and LaTeX users
 
NSF has very specific instructions for submitting file from TeX and
LaTeX
which can be found at:
<https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/jsp/homepage/advisory_copy.jsp?id=22> 
PI Information

Now that NSF is close to full electronic submission, review and
processing,
having up to date PI information is more important than ever. Please
make
sure you check you PI information, especially your email address to make
sure it is current.

Biographical Sketches

The Grant Proposal Guide gives very specific guidelines on what
information
must be included in biographical sketches. Biographical sketches are
limited
to a maximum of 2 pages per PI/CoPI and PI's must follow the format
specified in Chapter II C 5 of the GPG. 

If you have any program related questions please contact the applicable
Program Officer. For FastLane questions, please send an email to
ocefl@nsf.gov <mailto:ocefl@nsf.gov> or contact Holly Smith or Brian
Midson
by phone at (703) 292-8580. In addition, the FastLane Helpdesk can be
reached by calling (800) 673-6188 or by sending an email to
fastlane@nsf.gov
<mailto:fastlane@nsf.gov>.

Thank you.

Kandace Binkley