NSF 08-506: General Social Survey (GSS) Competition

Program Solicitation NSF 08-506

 

National Science Foundation Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences      Division of Social and Economic Sciences

 

Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required):

December 06, 2007

Full Proposal Target Date(s):

February 18, 2008

Revision Notes

In furtherance of the President's Management Agenda, NSF has identified programs that will offer proposers the option to utilize Grants.gov to prepare and submit proposals, or will require that proposers utilize Grants.gov to prepare and submit proposals. Grants.gov provides a single Government-wide portal for finding and applying for Federal grants online.

In response to this program solicitation, proposers may opt to submit proposals via Grants.gov or via the NSF FastLane system. In determining which method to utilize in the electronic preparation and submission of the proposal, please note the following:

Collaborative Proposals. All collaborative proposals submitted as separate submissions from multiple organizations must be submitted via the NSF FastLane system. Chapter II, Section D.3 of the Grant Proposal Guide provides additional information on collaborative proposals.

For further background on the General Social Survey see:
http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5369&org=SES&from=home

Summary Of Program Requirements

General Information

Program Title: 

General Social Survey (GSS) Competition

Synopsis of Program:

The General Social Survey (GSS) is a nationally representative personal interview survey of the United States adult population that collects data on a wide range of topics: behavioral items such as group membership and participation; personal psychological evaluations including measures of well-being, misanthropy, and life satisfaction; attitudinal questions on such public issues as crime and punishment, race relations, gender roles, and spending priorities; and  demographic characteristics of respondents and their parents.  The GSS has provided data on contemporary American society since 1972, serving as a barometer of social change and trends in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes of the United States adult population.  In 1984, the GSS stimulated cross-national research by collaborating with Australia, Britain, and Germany to develop data collection programs modeled on the GSS.  This program of comparative cross-national research, called the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), now includes 43 nations and enables researchers and analysts to place findings and trends from the United States within a comparative perspective. 

Since its inception, the GSS has completed 26 in-person, cross-sectional surveys of the adult household population of the United States with response rates that exceed 70 percent. The survey is currently fielded biennially.  Data from the GSS are made available to scholars, students and the public for research, analysis and educational activities within 12 months of data collection.

The 2006 GSS initiated two innovations that shape the conduct of future surveys.  First, it gathered the baseline sample for a GSS panel component, with a sub-sample of cases to be re-interviewed in 2008, 2010 and 2012. Second, the GSS "core" questions (items that appear regularly on surveys) were translated into Spanish and administered in either English or Spanish, as needed, beginning with the 2006 administration.  It is anticipated that this practice will continue in future surveys.

The Sociology Program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences expects to make one award for the next four-year funding cycle, fiscal years 2009-2012, to support the 2010 and 2012 GSS and the U.S. component of the ISSP survey. We anticipate that NSF will award in the range of $10 million and at most $15 million, over four years (approximately $2.5 million, but not more than $3.75 million per year) to support two waves of data collection and dissemination activities.  The expected starting date is November 2008.

Cognizant Program Officer(s):

• Patricia E. White, telephone: (703) 292-8762, email: pwhite@nsf.gov

Applicable Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s):

• 47.075 --- Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences

Award Information

Anticipated Type of Award:  Continuing Grant

Estimated Number of Awards:    1  

Anticipated Funding Amount:   $10,000,000  to $15,000,000  for up to 4 years, pending availabilty of funds.

Eligibility Information

Organization Limit: 

None Specified

PI Limit: 

None Specified

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: 1

Only one proposal is allowed from an organization.

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI: 1

 A PI may be listed as PI on only one proposal.

Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

• Letters of Intent: Submission of Letters of Intent is required. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

• Full Proposals:

  • Full Proposals submitted via FastLane: NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide, Part I: Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) Guidelines apply. The complete text of the GPG is available electronically on the NSF website at: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg.

  • Full Proposals submitted via Grants.gov: NSF Grants.gov Application Guide: A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF Applications via Grants.gov Guidelines apply (Note: The NSF Grants.gov Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov website and on the NSF website at: https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/docs/grantsgovguide.pdf/)

B. Budgetary Information

• Cost Sharing Requirements: Cost Sharing is not required under this solicitation.  

• Indirect Cost (F&A) Limitations:  Not Applicable

• Other Budgetary Limitations: Not Applicable

C. Due Dates

• Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required):

  December 06, 2007

• Full Proposal Target Date(s):

  February 18, 2008

Proposal Review Information Criteria

Merit Review Criteria:   National Science Board approved criteria. Additional merit review considerations apply. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

Award Administration Information

Award Conditions:   Standard NSF award conditions apply

Reporting Requirements:   Standard NSF reporting requirements apply

Agency Contacts

Other Information

I. Introduction

The General Social Survey (GSS) is a nationally representative personal interview survey of the United States adult population that collects data on a wide range of topics: behavioral items such as group membership and participation; personal psychological evaluations including measures of well-being, misanthropy, and life satisfaction; attitudinal questions on such public issues as crime and punishment, race relations, gender roles, and spending priorities; and  demographic characteristics of respondents and their parents.  The GSS has provided data on contemporary American society since 1972, serving as a barometer of social change and trends in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes of the United States adult population.  In 1984, the GSS stimulated cross-national research by collaborating with Australia, Britain, and Germany to develop data collection programs modeled on the GSS.  This program of comparative cross-national research, called the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), now includes 43 nations and enables researchers and analysts to place findings and trends from the United States within a comparative perspective. 

Since its inception, the GSS has completed 26 in-person, cross-sectional surveys of the adult household population of the United States with response rates that exceed 70 percent. The survey is currently fielded biennially.  Data from the GSS are made available to scholars, students and the public for research, analysis and educational activities within 12 months of data collection.

The 2006 GSS initiated two innovations that shape the conduct of future surveys.  First, it gathered the baseline sample for a GSS panel component, with a sub-sample of cases to be re-interviewed in 2008, 2010 and 2012. Second, the GSS core (questions that appear regularly on surveys) was translated into Spanish and administered in either English or Spanish, as preferred, beginning with the 2006 administration.  It is anticipated that this practice will continue in future surveys.

On May 2-3, 2007, the Sociology Program convened a workshop titled The General Social Survey: The Next Decade and Beyond to solicit advice from the social science research community.  The workshop brought together twenty-one experts in survey research methodology and scholars with intimate knowledge of the GSS, charging them with the task of suggesting ways to enhance the GSS by taking advantage of advances in survey research and information technology.  Participants prepared background papers and discussed major areas of the GSS, including operations and governance, survey topics and content, conceptual and methodological innovations, collaboration and integration with other major national and international survey programs, outreach to the social science and other scholarly communities, dissemination of  data and results dissemination, and other broader impacts. The workshop discussions and papers provided advice and generated recommendations to NSF on how to improve and strengthen the GSS in coming years.  The recommendations and papers were compiled in a workshop report available on the NSF Sociology Program webpage http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5369&org=SES&from=home.

Among the workshop recommendations for the next decade of the GSS are:

• Continue surveying a nationally representative sample on a biennial cycle to monitor trends in attitudes and behaviors of the adult United States population. 
• Enhance the panel design whose baseline sample was initiated in the 2006 survey. 
• Maintain participation in the ISSP data collection program.
• Involve the Board of Overseers actively in selecting, evaluating and approving the content of both core and topical survey modules. 
• Support a “module” competition that would allow Board of Overseer members and other social scientists to propose topics and questions for inclusion in the GSS.
• Encourage experimentation and innovation in survey administration and techniques, embedding methodological and substantive experiments within the survey.
• Retain and revitalize GSS core items, involving the user community and Board in the process. 
• Explore ways to over-sample minority groups, improving the quality and precision of comparisons, and collect more “paradata” and “metadata” from the process and context of survey administration.
• Experiment with digital-recording of interviews to enable studies of social interaction that occurs during interviews, using the results both to improve data quality and to encourage the integration of qualitative and quantitative data.
• Upgrade documentation and dissemination technologies to improve the speed, completeness, and ease of use of data for research and teaching.
• Improve the variety and flexibility of data available online, allowing potential users to produce customized data sets (for example, by year, topic, module, or ethnic group) for analysis.

The Sociology Program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences may make one award for the next four-year funding cycle, FY 2009-2012, to support the 2010 and 2012 GSS and the U.S. component of the ISSP survey. We anticipate that NSF will award in the range of $10 million and at most  $15 million, over four years (approximately $2.5 million, but not more than $3.75 million per year) to support data collection and dissemination activities.  The expected starting date is November 2008.

II. Program Description

The Sociology Program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences invites investigators who possess the theoretical, methodological, measurement, and managerial skills, as well as institutional resources, to undertake a large-scale survey data collection project to submit proposals to conduct the General Social Survey (GSS)  and the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) United States surveys. The (GSS) is a personal interview survey that collects data on a wide range of topics: behavioral items such as group membership and voting; personal psychological evaluations, including measures of happiness, misanthropy, and life satisfaction; attitudinal questions on such public issues as abortion, crime and punishment, race relations, gender roles, and spending priorities; demographic characteristics of respondents and their parents.  The basic GSS design is a repeated cross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized adults who speak either English or Spanish.  The GSS is a 90-minute in-person interview, with forty-five minutes devoted to the core items, 15 minutes to questions selected as part of the ISSP, and 30 minutes allocated to topical modules.  The “core” consists of questions that regularly appear on the GSS, allowing long-term comparisons.  The topical modules are used to introduce new topics not previously investigated by the GSS and to cover existing topics in greater detail.  The topical modules are currently supported by external funding secured by the principal investigator (PI).

For the past two GSS survey cycles (2004 and 2006), NSF's Division of Science Resources Statistics (SRS) has funded a survey module on public knowledge and attitudes concerning science and technology (S&T).  SRS has developed and selected questions for the module in cooperation with experts in social science and science education. SRS will support this 30-minute module on both the 2010 and 2012 surveys.  The S&T knowledge questions will be designed to enable analysis of important trends in past NSF data; generate data of interest to the science policy community in government, universities, and industry; generate findings suitable for publication in Science and Engineering Indicators (the National Science Board’s compendium of quantitative information on the state of the science and engineering community) and advance social science understanding of the public’s orientation toward scientific knowledge, technological change, and the institutions centrally involved in S&T.

The 2006 GSS initiated two innovations that shape the conduct of future surveys.  First, it gathered the baseline sample for a GSS panel component, with a sub-sample of cases to be re-interviewed in 2008, 2010 and 2012. Second, the GSS core (questions that appear regularly on surveys) was translated into Spanish and administered in either English or Spanish, as preferred, beginning with the 2006 administration.  It is anticipated that this practice will continue in future surveys.  The panel design and Spanish translation will continue in 2010 and 2012.  The 2010 and 2012 GSS will interview nationally representative samples of 4,525 individuals: 2,525 re-interviews of panel respondents from the 2006 and 2008 surveys and 2000 new cross-sectional respondents.

Project oversight is provided by the GSS Board of Overseers that consists of prominent scholars with expertise in survey research, other social and behavioral methodologies, and a range of substantive areas. Board members review major project operations and participate in the initiation and development of topical modules.  Board members represent the interests of the research communities that use the GSS.  New Board members are nominated by the current board, and serve for two-year renewable terms.  It is expected that proposals will be designed so that the Board of Overseers will continue to fulfill its important functions. 

The GSS award will fund the following activities.

• Two waves, 2010 and 2012, of data collection for the GSS, including the United State ISSP surveys.
• Participation in the ISSP. The United States is one of the four founding members of the ISSP and the GSS representative to the ISSP is a member of the Executive Standing committee and may serve on subcommittees, for example, the survey drafting and methodology committees.
• Continued development and refinement of the SRS-supported module on public knowledge and attitudes concerning science and technology.
• Survey instrument and module development and experimentation for both the GSS and ISSP surveys based on scientific expertise in relevant social sciences.
• Survey design, innovations, and continual enhancement (based on assessment and analysis) of both the cross-sectional survey and panel designs.
• Post data collection editing, processing, and generation of constructed variables, datafiles and codebooks.
• Data dissemination through a cutting-edge web-based data archive.
• Provision of user assistance. 
• Support for a Board of Overseers.

The GSS award will not support secondary data analysis or investigator-based research.

Project descriptions should address the Principal Investigator’s ability and capacity to meet the following scientific infrastructure objectives:

• Scientific and methodological expertise and resources for survey sample and survey instrument development and innovation;
• Continued development and refinement of the SRS module on public knowledge and attitudes concerning science and technology;
• Collection of two biennial waves of survey data from 2000 new cross-sectional respondents, and 2,525 re-interviews from the 2006 and 2008 surveys, while maintaining at least a 75% response rate;
• Maintain continuity and the high quality of the GSS data set;
• Produce innovative and experimental modules to meet the needs of the academic community, other government agencies and potential funders;
• Process, edit and release raw data, generated variables, and code books within 12 months of collection;
• Maintain cyberinfrastructure to disseminate/share data and documentation with expansions and innovations in data sharing tools as technology develops;
• Develop educational and research outreach activities illustrating the use of the data to a variety of audiences; and
• Maintain the following functions:
  • sensitive data dissemination archive;
  • user assistance; and
  • bibliographic and award archive.

Project Descriptions should also address the following project management issues:

• the role of the Board of Overseers;

• standards for data archiving and acquisition;

• plans for managing and integrating all GSS functions;

Any principal investigator or co-principal investigator who has received NSF support during the preceding five years must include a section describing Results from Prior Support.  Please refer to the Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) for more information; the GPG is available at https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg; and

 All proposals submitted for the GSS competition must include a section titled "Expected Project Significance." This section should address, in separate sub-sections, the intellectual merit and the broader impacts of the project.  One sub-section must explain how the next years of the GSS will generate new insight and understanding of attitudes, behaviors and attributes in the United States, taking into account international and temporal comparisons.  The second sub-section should discuss the potential broader impacts of the project, including contributions to education, infrastructure, survey methodology, and public opinion research.

III. Award Information

Anticipated Type of Award: Continuing Grant

Estimated Number of Awards: 1

Anticipated Funding Amount: $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 for up to 4 years, pending availabilty of funds.

IV. Eligibility Information

Organization Limit: 

None Specified

PI Limit: 

None Specified

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: 1

Only one proposal is allowed from an organization.

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI: 1

 A PI may be listed as PI on only one proposal.

Additional Eligibility Info:

V. Proposal Preparation And Submission Instructions

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

Letters of Intent(required):

• To expedite the review process for General Social Survey competition proposals, a letter of intent to submit a proposal must be submitted via FastLane by 5:00 PM, proposer's local time, on the due date. This letter of intent should contain the following information:
  
  
  • the title of the project,     
  • a brief project description,     
  • the names and affiliations of the principal investigators and other senior personnel and professionals,  and    
  • the names of any other participating institutions.

Only one letter of intent per group should be submitted.  Failure to meet the letter of intent deadline will disqualify a  proposal from consideration. Letters of intent are not evaluated for scientific merit; rather, they are used to assemble review panels with appropriate expertise. Please direct any questions about the letter of intent to  the Cognizant Program Officer listed as Contacts for Additional Information.

Letter of Intent Preparation Instructions:

When submitting a Letter of Intent through FastLane in response to this Program Solicitation please note the conditions outlined below:

• Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) Submission is Required when submitting Letters of Intent
• A Minimum of 0 and Maximum of 4 Other Senior Project Personnel are allowed
• A Minimum of 0 and Maximum of 4 Other Participating Organizations are allowed
• Submission of multiple Letters of Intent is not allowed

Full Proposal Preparation Instructions: Proposers may opt to submit proposals in response to this Program Solicitation via Grants.gov or via the NSF FastLane system.

• Full proposals submitted via FastLane: Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the general guidelines contained in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG). The complete text of the GPG is available electronically on the NSF website at: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg. Paper copies of the GPG may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov. Proposers are reminded to identify this program solicitation number in the program solicitation block on the NSF Cover Sheet For Proposal to the National Science Foundation. Compliance with this requirement is critical to determining the relevant proposal processing guidelines. Failure to submit this information may delay processing.

• Full proposals submitted via Grants.gov: Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation via Grants.gov should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide: A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF Applications via Grants.gov. The complete text of the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov website and on the NSF website at: (https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/docs/grantsgovguide.pdf). To obtain copies of the Application Guide and Application Forms Package, click on the Apply tab on the Grants.gov site, then click on the Apply Step 1: Download a Grant Application Package and Application Instructions link and enter the funding opportunity number, (the program solicitation number without the NSF prefix) and press the Download Package button. Paper copies of the Grants.gov Application Guide also may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov.

In determining which method to utilize in the electronic preparation and submission of the proposal, please note the following:

Collaborative Proposals. All collaborative proposals submitted as separate submissions from multiple organizations must be submitted via the NSF FastLane system. Chapter II, Section D.3 of the Grant Proposal Guide provides additional information on collaborative proposals.

All project descriptions are limited to 25 pages in length. Appendices will not be authorized. Proposals may refer to supplementary materials, such as survey instruments, competitive survey cost estimates, pretest and pilot survey results, and other directly relevant information, posted on investigators' publicly available websites.

See Section II, Program Description, for additional proposal preparation information and instructions.

B. Budgetary Information

Cost Sharing:   Cost sharing is not required under this solicitation.

C. Due Dates

• Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required):

  December 06, 2007

• Full Proposal Target Date(s):

  February 18, 2008

D. FastLane/Grants.gov Requirements

• For Proposals Submitted Via FastLane:

  Detailed technical instructions regarding the technical aspects of preparation and submission via FastLane are available at: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a1/newstan.htm. For FastLane user support, call the FastLane Help Desk at 1-800-673-6188 or e-mail fastlane@nsf.gov. The FastLane Help Desk answers general technical questions related to the use of the FastLane system. Specific questions related to this program solicitation should be referred to the NSF program staff contact(s) listed in Section VIII of this funding opportunity.

  Submission of Electronically Signed Cover Sheets. The Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must electronically sign the proposal Cover Sheet to submit the required proposal certifications (see Chapter II, Section C of the Grant Proposal Guide for a listing of the certifications). The AOR must provide the required electronic certifications within five working days following the electronic submission of the proposal. Further instructions regarding this process are available on the FastLane Website at: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp.

• For Proposals Submitted Via Grants.gov:

Before using Grants.gov for the first time, each organization must register to create an institutional profile. Once registered, the applicant's organization can then apply for any federal grant on the Grants.gov website. The Grants.gov's Grant Community User Guide is a comprehensive reference document that provides technical information about Grants.gov. Proposers can download the User Guide as a Microsoft Word document or as a PDF document. The Grants.gov User Guide is available at: http://www.grants.gov/CustomerSupport. In addition, the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide provides additional technical guidance regarding preparation of proposals via Grants.gov. For Grants.gov user support, contact the Grants.gov Contact Center at 1-800-518-4726 or by email: support@grants.gov. The Grants.gov Contact Center answers general technical questions related to the use of Grants.gov. Specific questions related to this program solicitation should be referred to the NSF program staff contact(s) listed in Section VIII of this solicitation.

Submitting the Proposal: Once all documents have been completed, the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must submit the application to Grants.gov and verify the desired funding opportunity and agency to which the application is submitted. The AOR must then sign and submit the application to Grants.gov. The completed application will be transferred to the NSF FastLane system for further processing.

VI. NSF Proposal Processing And Review Procedures   

Proposals received by NSF are assigned to the appropriate NSF program and, if they meet NSF proposal preparation requirements, for review. All proposals are carefully reviewed by a scientist, engineer, or educator serving as an NSF Program Officer, and usually by three to ten other persons outside NSF who are experts in the particular fields represented by the proposal. These reviewers are selected by Program Officers charged with the oversight of the review process. Proposers are invited to suggest names of persons they believe are especially well qualified to review the proposal and/or persons they would prefer not review the proposal. These suggestions may serve as one source in the reviewer selection process at the Program Officer's discretion. Submission of such names, however, is optional. Care is taken to ensure that reviewers have no conflicts with the proposer.

A. NSF Merit Review Criteria

All NSF proposals are evaluated through use of the two National Science Board (NSB)-approved merit review criteria: intellectual merit and the broader impacts of the proposed effort. In some instances, however, NSF will employ additional criteria as required to highlight the specific objectives of certain programs and activities.

The two NSB-approved merit review criteria are listed below. The criteria include considerations that help define them. These considerations are suggestions and not all will apply to any given proposal. While proposers must address both merit review criteria, reviewers will be asked to address only those considerations that are relevant to the proposal being considered and for which the reviewer is qualified to make judgements.

What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?
How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct the project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of the prior work.) To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts? How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to resources?

What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?
How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)? To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society?

Examples illustrating activities likely to demonstrate broader impacts are available electronically on the NSF website at: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/gpg/broaderimpacts.pdf.

NSF staff will give careful consideration to the following in making funding decisions:

Integration of Research and Education
One of the principal strategies in support of NSF's goals is to foster integration of research and education through the programs, projects, and activities it supports at academic and research institutions. These institutions provide abundant opportunities where individuals may concurrently assume responsibilities as researchers, educators, and students and where all can engage in joint efforts that infuse education with the excitement of discovery and enrich research through the diversity of learning perspectives.

Integrating Diversity into NSF Programs, Projects, and Activities
Broadening opportunities and enabling the participation of all citizens -- women and men, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities -- is essential to the health and vitality of science and engineering. NSF is committed to this principle of diversity and deems it central to the programs, projects, and activities it considers and supports.

Additional Review Criteria:

These criteria apply to the scientific infrastructure objectives listed in Section II.

• Possession of the scientific expertise and resources needed for survey instrument and sample development and innovation;
• Capacity to develop and implement modules to meet the needs of the social science research community, other government agencies, and potential funders;
• Cost-effectiveness;
•  Ability to continue collecting high-quality data from the cross-sectional sample of 2,000 new respondents and the re-interview of  2,525 respondents in the GSS panel while maintaining the target response rate of at least 75%;
• Ability to process, edit, and release data, variables and codebooks within the target timeframe of 12 months after collection;
• Ability to maintain and develop survey data infrastructure;
• Ability to generate tutorials illustrating the use of the data;
• Ability to maintain a sensitive data archive, user assistance, and bibliographic and award archive; and    
• Quality of oversight and management plan.

B. Review and Selection Process

Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation will be reviewed by Ad hoc Review and/or Panel Review.

Reviewers will be asked to formulate a recommendation to either support or decline each proposal. The Program Officer assigned to manage the proposal's review will consider the advice of reviewers and will formulate a recommendation.

After scientific, technical and programmatic review and consideration of appropriate factors, the NSF Program Officer recommends to the cognizant Division Director whether the proposal should be declined or recommended for award. NSF is striving to be able to tell applicants whether their proposals have been declined or recommended for funding within six months. The time interval begins on the date of receipt.  The interval ends when the Division Director accepts the Program Officer's recommendation.

A summary rating and accompanying narrative will be completed and submitted by each reviewer. In all cases, reviews are treated as confidential documents. Verbatim copies of reviews, excluding the names of the reviewers, are sent to the Principal Investigator/Project Director by the Program Officer.  In addition, the proposer will receive an explanation of the decision to award or decline funding.

In all cases, after programmatic approval has been obtained, the proposals recommended for funding will be forwarded to the Division of Grants and Agreements for review of business, financial, and policy implications and the processing and issuance of a grant or other agreement. Proposers are cautioned that only a Grants and Agreements Officer may make commitments, obligations or awards on behalf of NSF or authorize the expenditure of funds. No commitment on the part of NSF should be inferred from technical or budgetary discussions with a NSF Program Officer. A Principal Investigator or organization that makes financial or personnel commitments in the absence of a grant or cooperative agreement signed by the NSF Grants and Agreements Officer does so at their own risk.

VII. Award Administration Information

A. Notification of the Award

Notification of the award is made to the submitting organization by a Grants Officer in the Division of Grants and Agreements. Organizations whose proposals are declined will be advised as promptly as possible by the cognizant NSF Program administering the program. Verbatim copies of reviews, not including the identity of the reviewer, will be provided automatically to the Principal Investigator. (See Section VI.B. for additional information on the review process.)

B. Award Conditions

An NSF award consists of: (1) the award letter, which includes any special provisions applicable to the award and any numbered amendments thereto; (2) the budget, which indicates the amounts, by categories of expense, on which NSF has based its support (or otherwise communicates any specific approvals or disapprovals of proposed expenditures); (3) the proposal referenced in the award letter; (4) the applicable award conditions, such as Grant General Conditions (GC-1); * or Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) Terms and Conditions * and (5) any announcement or other NSF issuance that may be incorporated by reference in the award letter. Cooperative agreements also are administered in accordance with NSF Cooperative Agreement Financial and Administrative Terms and Conditions (CA-FATC) and the applicable Programmatic Terms and Conditions. NSF awards are electronically signed by an NSF Grants and Agreements Officer and transmitted electronically to the organization via e-mail.

*These documents may be accessed electronically on NSF's Website at https://www.nsf.gov/awards/managing/general_conditions.jsp?org=NSF. Paper copies may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov.

More comprehensive information on NSF Award Conditions and other important information on the administration of NSF awards is contained in the NSF Award & Administration Guide (AAG) Chapter II, available electronically on the NSF Website at https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=aag.

C. Reporting Requirements

For all multi-year grants (including both standard and continuing grants), the Principal Investigator must submit an annual project report to the cognizant Program Officer at least 90 days before the end of the current budget period. (Some programs or awards require more frequent project reports). Within 90 days after expiration of a grant, the PI also is required to submit a final project report.

Failure to provide the required annual or final project reports will delay NSF review and processing of any future funding increments as well as any pending proposals for that PI. PIs should examine the formats of the required reports in advance to assure availability of required data.

PIs are required to use NSF's electronic project-reporting system, available through FastLane, for preparation and submission of annual and final project reports.  Such reports provide information on activities and findings, project participants (individual and organizational) publications; and, other specific products and contributions.  PIs will not be required to re-enter information previously provided, either with a proposal or in earlier updates using the electronic system.  Submission of the report via FastLane constitutes certification by the PI that the contents of the report are accurate and complete.

VIII. Agency Contacts

General inquiries regarding this program should be made to:

• Patricia E. White, telephone: (703) 292-8762, email: pwhite@nsf.gov

For questions related to the use of FastLane, contact:

• FastLane Help Desk, telephone: 1-800-673-6188; e-mail: fastlane@nsf.gov.

For questions relating to Grants.gov contact:

• Grants.gov Contact Center: If the Authorized Organizational Representatives (AOR) has not received a confirmation message from Grants.gov within 48 hours of submission of application, please contact via telephone: 1-800-518-4726; e-mail: support@grants.gov.

IX. Other Information

The NSF Website provides the most comprehensive source of information on NSF Directorates (including contact information), programs and funding opportunities. Use of this Website by potential proposers is strongly encouraged. In addition, MyNSF (formerly the Custom News Service) is an information-delivery system designed to keep potential proposers and other interested parties apprised of new NSF funding opportunities and publications, important changes in proposal and award policies and procedures, and upcoming NSF Regional Grants Conferences. Subscribers are informed through e-mail or the user's Web browser each time new publications are issued that match their identified interests. MyNSF also is available on NSF's Website at https://www.nsf.gov/mynsf/.

Grants.gov provides an additional electronic capability to search for Federal government-wide grant opportunities. NSF funding opportunities may be accessed via this new mechanism. Further information on Grants.gov may be obtained at http://www.grants.gov.

About The National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent Federal agency created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (42 USC 1861-75). The Act states the purpose of the NSF is "to promote the progress of science; [and] to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare by supporting research and education in all fields of science and engineering."

NSF funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering. It does this through grants and cooperative agreements to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, K-12 school systems, businesses, informal science organizations and other research organizations throughout the US. The Foundation accounts for about one-fourth of Federal support to academic institutions for basic research.

NSF receives approximately 40,000 proposals each year for research, education and training projects, of which approximately 11,000 are funded. In addition, the Foundation receives several thousand applications for graduate and postdoctoral fellowships. The agency operates no laboratories itself but does support National Research Centers, user facilities, certain oceanographic vessels and Antarctic research stations. The Foundation also supports cooperative research between universities and industry, US participation in international scientific and engineering efforts, and educational activities at every academic level.

Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities provide funding for special assistance or equipment to enable persons with disabilities to work on NSF-supported projects. See Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II, Section D.2 for instructions regarding preparation of these types of proposals.

The National Science Foundation has Telephonic Device for the Deaf (TDD) and Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) capabilities that enable individuals with hearing impairments to communicate with the Foundation about NSF programs, employment or general information. TDD may be accessed at (703) 292-5090 and (800) 281-8749, FIRS at (800) 877-8339.

The National Science Foundation Information Center may be reached at (703) 292-5111.

The National Science Foundation promotes and advances scientific progress in the United States by competitively awarding grants and cooperative agreements for research and education in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. To get the latest information about program deadlines, to download copies of NSF publications, and to access abstracts of awards, visit the NSF Website at https://www.nsf.gov Location: 4201 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA 22230 For General Information (NSF Information Center): (703) 292-5111 TDD (for the hearing-impaired): (703) 292-5090 To Order Publications or Forms: Send an e-mail to: pubs@nsf.gov or telephone: (703) 292-7827 To Locate NSF Employees: (703) 292-5111

Privacy Act And Public Burden Statements

The information requested on proposal forms and project reports is solicited under the authority of the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended. The information on proposal forms will be used in connection with the selection of qualified proposals; and project reports submitted by awardees will be used for program evaluation and reporting within the Executive Branch and to Congress. The information requested may be disclosed to qualified reviewers and staff assistants as part of the proposal review process; to proposer institutions/grantees to provide or obtain data regarding the proposal review process, award decisions, or the administration of awards; to government contractors, experts, volunteers and researchers and educators as necessary to complete assigned work; to other government agencies or other entities needing information regarding applicants or nominees as part of a joint application review process, or in order to coordinate programs or policy; and to another Federal agency, court, or party in a court or Federal administrative proceeding if the government is a party. Information about Principal Investigators may be added to the Reviewer file and used to select potential candidates to serve as peer reviewers or advisory committee members. See Systems of Records, NSF-50, "Principal Investigator/Proposal File and Associated Records," 69 Federal Register 26410 (May 12, 2004), and NSF-51, "Reviewer/Proposal File and Associated Records, " 69 Federal Register 26410 (May 12, 2004). Submission of the information is voluntary. Failure to provide full and complete information, however, may reduce the possibility of receiving an award.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. The OMB control number for this collection is 3145-0058. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 120 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions. Send comments regarding the burden estimate and any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to:

Suzanne H. Plimpton
Reports Clearance Officer
Division of Administrative Services
National Science Foundation
Arlington, VA 22230