The National Science Foundation (NSF) is pleased to announce that beginning on April 30, 2018, proposers will be able to prepare and submit full, research non-collaborative proposals in Research.gov. The initial release of this new Research.gov capability will run in parallel with existing FastLane proposal preparation and submission capabilities, so proposers can choose to prepare and submit full, research non-collaborative proposals in Research.gov or in FastLane starting on April 30, 2018.

Research.gov Proposal Preparation Site Preview

Starting on February 26, 2018, NSF is previewing the new Research.gov proposal preparation functionality to the research community to collect preliminary feedback and to provide the community an opportunity to acclimate to the new technology. The preview can be accessed by selecting the “Prepare & Submit Proposals” tab on the top navigation bar after signing in to Research.gov and then choosing “Prepare Proposal.” This preview will continue until 8:00PM EDT on April 27, 2018, and will allow any research community user with a FastLane or Research.gov account to sample the following proposal preparation features prior to the initial release on April 30, 2018:

• Initiate full, research non-collaborative proposals (other proposal types are planned for future releases);
• Add Principal Investigators (PIs), Co-PIs, Senior Personnel, and Other Authorized Users;
• Upload required proposal documents;
• Create budgets;
• Check compliance; and
• Enable Sponsored Project Officer (SPO)/Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) access for review.

Please be aware of the following important items as you test the new functionality during the preview period:

• All test data entered on the Research.gov proposal preparation site from February 26, 2018, until the preview concludes at 8:00PM EDT on April 27, 2018, will be deleted at the end of the preview period.
• NSF will not be able to recover any proposal test data entered during the preview period and deleted by NSF after the preview period concludes.
• Information entered on the Research.gov proposal preparation site during the preview period will not be submitted to NSF.
• Test data can be entered on the Research.gov proposal preparation site but actual proposals cannot be submitted to NSF via Research.gov during the preview period.
• Additional information will be available on a Research.gov “About Proposal Preparation & Submission Site” page accessible on the Research.gov homepage.

Feedback on the New Research.gov Proposal Preparation and Submission Site

Your feedback on the new Research.gov proposal preparation functionality during the preview period (February 26, 2018 through April 27, 2018) and on the full Research.gov proposal preparation and submission functionality after the initial release on April 30, 2018, is vital to NSF. The survey link will soon be available on the Research.gov “About Proposal Preparation & Submission Site” page. Feedback from the community and NSF staff will be used to implement enhancements and expand functionality incrementally, with the goal of eventually transitioning all proposal preparation and submission functionality from FastLane to Research.gov.

NSF’s goals for the new Research.gov proposal preparation and submission functionality are to:

• Modernize the applications supporting the proposal submission and merit review processes and improve the user experience via the development of a new application;
• Reduce the administrative burden to the research community and NSF staff associated with preparation, submission, and management of proposals;
• Increase efficiencies in proposal preparation, submission, and management;
• Improve data quality and capture proposal content in a way that supports data analytics; and
• Improve availability, security, and flexibility of proposal preparation and submission IT systems.

We invite you to keep these goals in mind as you prepare and submit your feedback on the new functionality, so that we may improve the new Research.gov interface and develop additional available features.

For IT system-related questions, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 or rgov@nsf.gov. Policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov.

If you would like to stay up-to-date on upcoming events or future enhancements to Research.gov and FastLane, subscribe to our System Updates NSF listserv. This listserv is available to both the research community and to NSF staff. To subscribe, simply send an email to system_updates-subscribe-request@listserv.nsf.gov and you will be automatically enrolled.