The Research.gov Proposal Submission System provides the ability to create, submit, track, and update proposals associated with active NSF funding opportunities. This furthers an NSF goal of providing quick access to proposal information and grants management services in one location in Research.gov. NSF goals for the system are to provide a modernized, intuitive environment for proposal preparation and submission; reduce administrative burden via real-time compliance checking; provide online help tips and guidance; and incorporate a proposal wizard that walks users through the proposal setup process.

Research.gov currently supports preparation and submission of research proposals including collaborative proposals. Other proposal types including conference, equipment, travel, fellowships, and other proposal types identified in the Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) are not yet available in Research.gov.

Yes. FastLane continues to be available, and users have the option to use either Research.gov or FastLane to prepare and submit full, research proposals (i.e., the only proposal type currently supported in Research.gov). Note that if you prepare a proposal in Research.gov, you will not be able access or edit it in FastLane and vice versa. In addition, the proposal must be submitted in the system where it was prepared, and a proposal file update/budget revision also must use the same system as the original proposal.

Research.gov is being developed incrementally, and features will expand with the goal of eventually transitioning all proposal preparation and submission functionality from FastLane to Research.gov. NSF strongly encourages the use of Research.gov where possible and wants feedback on your experience, so NSF can continue to prioritize features and offer a better user experience.

A proposal Temporary ID Number is a unique identifier that is generated by the system to keep track of and manage proposals before they are submitted. Once submitted to NSF, proposals are assigned permanent proposal IDs. The Temporary ID Number is also used by lead and non-lead organizations to link separately submitted collaborative proposals from multiple organizations.

The Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide   (PAPPG) is comprised of documents relating to the Foundation's proposal and award process for the assistance programs of NSF. The policy and procedural guidance contained in Part I of the PAPPG pertains to proposals submitted via the NSF FastLane System and Research.gov. On-screen instructions in Research.gov may vary from what is stated in the PAPPG; however, the content requirements of the proposal remain the same.

Checks triggering an error will prohibit proposal submission to NSF, whereas checks triggering a warning will still allow proposal submission. Over 75 compliance rules are checked in Research.gov versus 30 compliance rules that are checked in FastLane.

Submitted proposals cannot be deleted but they can be withdrawn by the submitting organization by contacting the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 (7:00 AM - 9:00 PM ET; Monday - Friday except federal holidays) or via rgov@nsf.gov.

Effective June 1, NSF deployed system changes to support the revised Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 20-1  ), including use of an NSF-approved format in submission of the biographical sketch and current and pending support documents. For additional information, please see the PAPPG (NSF 20-1) Significant Changes and Clarifications to the PAPPG.  

In addition, the system was enhanced to allow users with the Other Authorized User (OAU) role to assist with proposal preparation in Research.gov without being required to also have another organization-approved role (e.g., “View Only” role). The OAU role change happened automatically, and no additional action is required for users who had the OAU role prior to the system enhancement.

Effective March 30, NSF enabled submission of separately submitted collaborative proposals from multiple organizations. The following new items were introduced with this deployment:

• Proposal Preparation: Proposers can select a separately submitted collaborative proposal as an option in the Proposal Creation Wizard and will identify themselves as part of a lead or non-lead organization.
• Linking: The lead organization can initiate a request to link proposals with non-lead organizations. However, all proposals in the collaboration must be prepared and submitted in Research.gov and cannot be a mix of Research.gov and FastLane proposals.
• New "Submission Pending" Status: The Research.gov submission process for separately submitted collaborative proposals is different than the submission process in FastLane.
  • A new Research.gov "Submission Pending" status informs the organization that their proposal submission is pending in a queue until all linked lead and non-lead proposals in the collaboration attain "Submission Pending" status and can be submitted to NSF as a set.
  • Separately submitted collaborative proposals with a "Submission Pending" status can be edited, but the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must resubmit the edited proposal to return it to a "Submission Pending" status.
  • A Proposal File Update (PFU) is not required to edit the proposal at the "Submission Pending" stage. However, a PFU could be utilized after the entire collaborative set is submitted to NSF and a proposal ID number for each separately submitted collaborative proposal is generated.
• Submit Proposal Wizard: The AOR Submission Wizard screen will display the lead and non-lead organization information.

Other related changes include:

• Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan: A Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan is only required when funds for postdoctoral scholars are requested on the budget. A proposal compliance error will block proposal submission if there is a mentoring plan but no requested funds.
• Print Concatenate: This functionality is available for lead and non-lead proposals.
• New Automated Compliance Error and Warning Messages and Business Rules for Separately Submitted Collaborative Proposals: Please refer to the updated Research.gov Compliance Checklist   dated March 30, 2020. Compliance checks triggering an error will prohibit proposal submission to NSF, whereas checks triggering a warning will allow proposal submission to NSF.
• Delete In-progress Proposals: Proposers can delete their in-progress separately submitted collaborative proposals.

If you are in Research.gov and have not logged in, select the “Prepare New or Existing Proposals” link under the “Prepare & Submit Proposals” category on the home page. That will direct you to the Research.gov login page. After logging in, you are directed to the proposal preparation landing page. If you have already logged in to Research.gov, select the “New! Prepare Proposals (Limited Proposal Types)” link under the Prepare & Submit Proposals category. This will direct you to the proposal preparation landing page.

Yes, InCommon access login credentials can be used. From the Research.gov Sign In page, select your organization from the organization drop-down menu to be taken to the InCommon Log In page for your organization.

A Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) is able to review and edit proposals, proposal file updates, revised budgets, and post-award requests after the proposal's Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI shares proposal access.

An Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) is authorized to sign on behalf of the proposing organization. The AOR is able to view, edit, and submit proposals after they are shared with the AOR by the proposal's Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI.

Presently, only a PI can initiate a proposal in Research.gov, however, individuals with other roles (i.e., SPO, AOR, and Other Authorized User (OAU)) who are granted access to the proposal by the PI will be able to prepare and edit the proposal.

A PI or co-PI can share a proposal with the SPO/AOR even if required proposal data or sections are not yet completed. On the main page of the proposal, select “Share Proposal with SPO/AOR.” The PI or co-PI can proceed with providing access even when error(s)/warning(s) display. Continue past the error(s)/warning(s) and select the type of access to provide the SPO/AOR: No access, View-only access, Edit access, or Edit access with Allow proposal submission (AOR only).

Effective June 1, 2020, the Research.gov Proposal Submission System was enhanced to allow users with the OAU role to assist with proposal preparation in Research.gov without being required to also have another organization-approved role (e.g., “View Only” role). The OAU role change happened automatically, and no additional action is required for users who had the OAU role prior to the system enhancement. Users with the OAU role can assist with preparing proposals by selecting the “Work on an In Progress Proposal” link in Research.gov.

Users without the OAU role can request this role from their organization by following the instructions in the “Add a New Role” section   of the Account Management Guide.   The organization's Administrator can remove a user role (e.g., “View Only” role) via the Administrator Dashboard. Administrators can refer to the “View My Users – Administrator's Dashboard” section   of the Account Management Guide   for step-by-step instructions and screenshots.

A collaborative proposal is one in which investigators from two or more organizations wish to collaborate on a unified research project. Collaborative proposals may be submitted to NSF in one of two methods: as a single proposal, in which a single award is being requested (with subawards administered by the lead organization); or by simultaneous submission of proposals from different organizations, with each organization requesting a separate award. In either case, the lead organization’s proposal must contain all of the requisite sections as a single package to be provided to reviewers (that will happen automatically when procedures below are followed). All collaborative proposals must clearly describe the roles to be played by the other organizations, specify the managerial arrangements, and explain the advantages of the multi-organizational effort within the Project Description. Please see PAPPG, Chapter II.D.3.   for additional information about collaborative proposals.

Research.gov supports the preparation and submission of collaborative proposals from one organization and separately submitted collaborative proposals from multiple organizations. For separately submitted proposals from multiple organizations, all proposals in the collaboration must be prepared and submitted in Research.gov and cannot be a mix of Research.gov and FastLane proposals. If the lead organization prepares the separately submitted collaborative proposal in Research.gov, then the non-lead organization(s) must also use Research.gov to prepare and submit their non-lead proposal(s). In addition, a proposal file update (PFU) must be prepared and submitted in the system where the proposal was initiated.

In a collaborative proposal from one organization (with subawards) there can be a maximum of five - one PI and up to four co-PIs. In a separately submitted collaborative proposal from multiple organization, each proposal may have a maximum of five - one PI and up to four co-PIs.

The lead organization's proposal must contain all of the required sections as a single package that will be provided to proposal reviewers. The non-lead organization will inherit the Proposal Title, Funding Opportunity, Where to Apply, Proposal Type, Submission Type, and Due Date from the lead organization proposal after the lead and non-lead organization proposals are successfully linked. For additional details, see the PAPPG, Chapter II.D.3.b  

The Proposal Title cannot be blank on the non-lead proposal, it is a mandatory field required to complete proposal preparation. The non-lead organization should enter an interim proposal title during preparation and will inherit the lead organization's title upon linking.

No, during proposal preparation an organization cannot change from a lead proposer role to a non-lead proposer role or vice versa. In this scenario, the in-progress collaborative proposal should be deleted and a new proposal can be initiated with the desired role on the project (i.e., lead proposer or non-lead proposer).

Required sections of the proposal differ based on the organization's role. The non-lead organization proposal will only have the following sections available on the main page of the proposal:

• Cover Sheet
• Budget(s)
• Budget Justification(s)
• Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources
• Senior Personnel Documents
• Biographical Sketch(es)
• Current and Pending Support
• Collaborators and Other Affiliations
• Optional: Other Personnel Biographical Information
• Optional: Other Supplementary Documents
• Optional: List of Suggested Reviewers
• Optional: List of Reviewers Not to Include

For additional information about proposal sections required to be submitted by a lead and non-lead organization in a collaborative proposal from multiple organizations, please see PAPPG, Chapter II.D.3.  

Yes, Supplementary Documents and Single Copy Documents are available for both the lead and non-lead organizations to upload.

Yes, both the lead and non-lead organizations have the option for subawards in a separately submitted collaborative proposal.

A linked collaborative proposal results when a lead organization proposal has been linked with one or more non-lead proposals that will be submitted together.

A non-lead organization should work offline with the lead organization to provide its Temporary ID Number. The lead organization can then click the Link/View collaborative proposals button on their in-progress lead proposal form to enter the non-lead proposal's Temporary ID Number to send the link request to the non-lead organization proposal. The request must be accepted by the non-lead organization proposal.

The lead organization should contact the PI for the non-lead organization offline to verify the non-lead proposal Temporary ID Number and to confirm that the non-lead organization did not initiate its proposal in FastLane. Proposals may be prepared in Research.gov or FastLane but cannot be a mix of both systems.

By clicking the Link/View Collaborative Proposals button, the lead organization proposal can view the list and status of all non-lead organizations that have been sent link requests. The lead organization will see the non-lead organizations that have accepted or rejected link requests as well as any pending link requests. The non-lead organization(s) will only be able to view the status of the linked lead proposal on the Link/View Collaborative Proposals page.

Lead organization proposals can unlink a non-lead organization proposal by clicking the Link/View Collaborative Proposals button on the proposal form and clicking “Unlink Proposal” on the non-lead organization proposal they intend to unlink. Non-lead organization proposals cannot unlink from lead organization proposals and must coordinate with the lead organization to unlink proposals.

Only lead organizations have the ability to cancel link requests. A lead organization can cancel a link request by clicking on the Link/View Collaborative button on the lead organization proposal forms page. Click “Cancel Link Request” next to the non-lead proposal(s) that have a pending link request (i.e., the non-lead organization hasn’t accepted or rejected the link request). Once the link request is cancelled, the pending link request will disappear from the Link/View Collaborative Proposal table on both the lead and non-lead organization proposals.

A non-lead organization proposal that has been unlinked from a lead organization proposal will retain the information (i.e., Proposal Title, Funding Opportunity, Where to Apply, Proposal Type, Submission Type, and Due Date) that was inherited from the lead organization proposal, but the non-lead organization proposal cannot be submitted until it is linked with a new lead organization proposal. Upon linking to a new lead organization proposal, the non-lead organization proposal will inherit information (i.e., Proposal Title, Funding Opportunity, Where to Apply, Proposal Type, Submission Type, and Due Date) from the new lead organization proposal.

A non-lead organization proposal can only be linked to one lead organization proposal at a time. In addition, a lead organization cannot send a link request to a non-lead organization that has accepted a link request or has a pending link request from another lead organization proposal.

No, there is no limit on the number of non-lead organizations that can participate in a collaborative proposal.

There is no maximum number of subawards for lead and non-lead organization proposals.

Once the proposals are linked, a PDF of all proposal pages within the collaboration will be displayed when a PI, co-PI, SPO, AOR, or OAU of either the lead or non-lead organization clicks “Print Proposal”.

There is only one difference between a submitted collaborative proposal and an in-progress collaborative proposal when printed. When submitted, the header of each lead and non-lead organization proposal page will display the name of the respective PI, and the assigned Proposal Number. The formatting of this display is: Submitted/PI: [PI First Name Last Name] /Proposal No: [Proposal Number].

No, proposals cannot be linked or unlinked once the entire collaboration (i.e., all lead and non-lead organization proposals in the collaboration) has been fully submitted and have a “Submitted to NSF” status. In addition, proposals cannot be linked or unlinked during an in-progress Proposal File Update (PFU) or Budget Revision (BR).

An in-progress separately submitted proposal can only be deleted by the organization if it is not linked and does not have any pending link requests with another proposal in a collaborative set. Proposers who want to delete the in-progress linked proposals must first un-link from all other proposals. There is a “Delete Proposal” button in the left navigation pane in the Proposal Actions Section available to the PI and co-PI to delete in-progress collaborative proposals.

The Research.gov system checks PAPPG format compliance after you upload a PDF document. If non-compliance is detected, you will see a warning or error message that identifies the issue. Some issues prevent upload (errors), such as a violation of page length, while others allow upload to complete (warnings), such as violations of font size and type. For complete information, see the PAPPG, Chapter II proposal preparation instructions. If unexpected errors occur when uploading a PDF document, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 for assistance. The PDF can be analyzed, and a solution can be identified. The NSF Help Desk is available by phone from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM ET Monday - Friday except federal holidays or via email to rgov@nsf.gov.

The proposal must conform to the following requirements. These requirements apply to all uploaded sections of a proposal, including supplementary documentation.

• Font Size
• Arial (not Arial Narrow), Courier New, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, or Helvetica at a font size of 10 points or larger;
• Times New Roman at a font size of 10 points or larger; or
• Computer Modern family of fonts at a font size of 10 points or larger.
• A font size of less than 10 points may be used for mathematical formulas or equations, figures, tables or diagram captions and when using a Symbol font to insert Greek letters or special characters. Other fonts not specified above, such as Cambria Math, may be used for mathematical formulas, equations, or when inserting Greek letters or special characters. If the system detects that your PDF upload file for a section contains font size(s) less than 10 points, a warning will display on upload, but your proposal will still be able to be submitted and would not be returned without review if the less than 10 point font size is due to the aforementioned criteria. PIs are cautioned, however, that the text must still be readable.
• Lines and Margins
• No more than six lines of text within a vertical space of one inch.
• Margins, in all directions, must be at least an inch. No proposer-supplied information may appear in the margins.
• Paper size must be no larger than standard letter paper size (8½ by 11").

Some potential root causes may be:

• Page numbers: Be sure that the document has no text in the header or footer including page numbers. The system will automatically paginate and add page numbers for you when the proposal PDF is generated, so page numbers should be removed.
• Inserted images or shapes: Margins can be set to one inch, but a stray image or shape can violate the margin rule. Setting the margin rule to one inch would not automatically correct the images or shapes back within margins. Be sure to review all inserted images or shapes.

Much depends on the particular word processor used because of how word processors export files to PDF.

• For Microsoft Office, “Select All” will not include inserted images, shapes, and numbered lists or bullets. Each object will have its own font and those would have to be updated to accepted fonts and sizes. Be mindful of images inserted into shapes, as each image and shape can have its own font type.
• In Microsoft Office Word, double-click an image to ensure it was not inserted as an object (e.g., PowerPoint slide). If another application opens, this means a non-graphical image was inserted and the object contains invalid metadata that will make the PDF upload fail. Re-insert an object by pasting it as an image.

A section heading must be on its own line without any other text.

The following are some examples of known issues:

• OpenOffice inserts an unallowable font for superscript and subscript.
• Google Docs may not properly export bulleted text.
• Certain LaTeX-generated PDF elements are not yet supported.
• Microsoft Office for Macs “Save as PDF” functionality “Best for Printing” may not be supported. Instead, select the “Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft online service)” option.
• Older versions of Microsoft Word (2007 or earlier) may produce font warnings.
• For Microsoft Office, do not use “Print as PDF” to create a PDF. Instead, use “Export” and “Create PDF.”

The following are some examples of possible causes:

• Cell contents cannot exceed 255 characters including spaces.
• Ensure all data is entered especially column A for tables 2-5.
• Ensure “Last Active” column is entered as a valid date format (MM/DD/YYYY).
• Cutting and pasting from other programs or files with formatting may produce errors or bring in invalid fonts and borders and would display warning(s) on upload.

NSF continues to invest in expanding auto-compliance checking capabilities to reduce administrative burden on both NSF programs and the research community. Find additional information at Automated Compliance Checking of NSF Proposals.  

Only the AOR can submit a proposal to NSF. The PI must first provide the AOR with submit access, at which point the AOR will see an "Initiate proposal submission" button on the left navigation pane under Proposal Actions. Clicking "Initiate proposal submission" will trigger the proposal submission wizard to start.

All lead and non-lead organization proposals are held in a queue with a “Submission Pending” status upon submission by the respective AOR. Once all proposals in the collaboration have a “Submission Pending” status, the collaborative set will be submitted to NSF and each proposal will be assigned a proposal number.

Proposals with pending link requests must either accept the link request (non-lead organization action), reject the link request (non-lead organization action), or cancel the link request (lead organization action) before submitting the proposal. If the lead organization chooses to continue with submitting the proposal, all pending link requests to non-lead proposals will automatically be cancelled.

In this scenario, the lead organization could unlink its proposal from the non-lead organization proposal not able to submit by its deadline. The lead organization proposal and the remaining linked non-lead proposals could then be submitted to NSF by the deadline. If a special exception to NSF's deadline date policy is required (e.g., in the case of a natural or anthropogenic event), the collaborative proposal must be prepared and submitted in FastLane, since special exceptions to NSF's deadline date policy are not yet supported in Research.gov. All proposals in the collaboration must be prepared and submitted in either FastLane or Research..gov and cannot be a mix of both systems.

Proposals must be received by 5 p.m. submitter's local time on the established deadline date. In this example, the lead organization on the East Coast must submit by 5 p.m. Eastern Time, and the non-lead organization on the West Coast must submit by 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

How you edit your proposal will depend on the status of your proposal and whether it is a single submit or separately submitted collaborative proposal.

• For separately submitted collaborative proposals after a lead or non-lead organization proposal is submitted, it will receive a status of “Submission Pending” if there are other proposals in the collaboration that have yet to submit. When a lead/non-lead organization proposal has a status of “Submission Pending,” there will be an “Edit Proposal” button visible to the PI/co-PIs, SPO, AOR, and OAU of the proposal. Clicking the “Edit Proposal” button removes the proposal from the “Submission Pending” status and returns it to an “In-progress” state. Proposals that are removed from the submission pending status will require a new submission by the AOR.
• For separately submitted collaborative proposals, if all proposals in the collaborative set have been submitted, then the proposal can be edited via the “Initiate PFU/ Budget Revision” button on the submitted proposal form.
• For single submission or single submission with subawards (collaborative) proposals, all edits must be done via the “Initiate PFU/Budget Revision” button on the submitted proposal form.
• See PAPPG, Chapter III.C   for additional information on Proposal File Updates.

When a PFU/BR is initiated, the original submitted version remains intact until it is replaced by the PFU/BR. If it is not submitted, the original submission will remain, and the collaborative set is not impacted.

Academic and summer months do not need to be reported in Research.gov. Only person months need to be specified in the budget for the Senior Personnel and Other Personnel sections in Research.gov. Currently, when a printable PDF of the proposal is displayed in Research.gov, the academic and summer month labels will still display as blank fields. In the future, these fields will also be removed from Research.gov’s print view

A Postdoctoral Mentoring plan is required as part of a lead organization proposal when funds are requested for postdoctoral scholars in the lead organization proposal budget or in a linked non-lead organization proposal budget. The lead organization's PI, co-PI, and OAU will receive an email notifying them when requested funding for postdoctoral scholars is added for the first time or is removed entirely from their collaborative proposal set. For single submission collaborative proposals, a Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan is required when funds are requested in the proposal's budget for postdoctoral scholars.