NSF Announces Major Changes to Grant Solicitation Process

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will no longer require pre-proposals for certain biology research programs. Instead, the Directorate for Biological Sciences is implementing a no deadline, full-proposal review process for four of its five divisions. The new process starts in January 2018, but does not include the Division of Emerging Frontiers, which runs the MacroSystems Biology and Early NEON Science program and the Origin of Life program. All other biology research programs will be impacted. Consequently, the Division of Environmental Biology and the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems will discontinue their preliminary proposal mechanisms. According to the agency, “By accepting proposals at any time, investigators will have greater opportunities to prepare their proposals, build strong collaborations, and think more creatively, thereby resulting in more complex, interdisciplinary projects that have the potential to dramatically advance biological science. We anticipate that the elimination of deadlines will reduce the burden on institutions and the community by expanding the submission period over the course of the year, in contrast to the previous fixed yearly deadlines.” The next several months will be a period of transition, during which some grant solicitations will continue under the old guidelines. For instance, the deadline for the Molecular and Cellular Biosciences solicitation is still 20 November 2017 for fiscal year 2018 grants. The n...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news