Effective November 23, 2020, the National Science Foundation (NSF) enabled three new proposal types in the Research.gov Proposal Submission System and in the recently launched Research.gov demo site. These are the Rapid Response Research (RAPID), EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), and Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) proposal types. New automated compliance checks and associated error and warning messages were also implemented.

In addition, based on feedback from the research community, NSF has removed the font type and font size automated compliance checks and compliance warning messages for Research.gov proposals to align with FastLane and NSF policy.

New and updated system-related Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are available on the Research.gov About Proposal Preparation and Submission page via the left navigation menu.

RAPID, EAGER, and RAISE Proposals

• Proposers can now select a RAPID, EAGER, or RAISE proposal in the Research.gov proposal creation wizard, in addition to the existing Research proposal option. These proposal types are also available in the Research.gov proposal preparation demo site.
• New automated compliance checks for RAPID, EAGER, and RAISE proposals have been added to Research.gov and are listed on the updated Research.gov Compliance Checklist dated November 23, 2020 on the Automated Compliance Checking of NSF Proposals page. Error messages prohibit proposal submission to NSF, whereas warning messages still permit proposal submission.  
• Refer to the Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 20-1) for RAPID, EAGER, and RAISE proposal requirements.

Removal of Font Type and Font Size Compliance Checks

• Although the automated compliance checks and associated compliance warnings for font type and font size have been removed, proposals may still be returned without review if the font type or font size is not compliant with the PAPPG Chapter II.B.2.a.
• Refer to the updated Research.gov Compliance Checklist dated November 23, 2020 on the Automated Compliance Checking of NSF Proposals page for a complete listing of the current automated proposal compliance checks for Research.gov proposals.

What's Ahead?

Research.gov is being developed incrementally, and features are expanding to support the transition of all proposal preparation and submission functionality from FastLane to Research.gov in accordance with NSF Important Notice 147: Research.gov Implementation Update issued September 22, 2020. Please refer to the new Proposal Submission Capabilities list on the Research.gov About Proposal Preparation and Submission page left navigation menu to see what is in development.

Questions? If you have IT system-related questions, please contact 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. Policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov.

If you would like to stay up to date on future enhancements to Research.gov and important information about FastLane, please subscribe to our NSF System Updates listserv. To subscribe, simply send a blank email to system_updates-subscribe-request@listserv.nsf.gov and you will be automatically enrolled.