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Important information about NSF’s implementation of the revised 2 CFR

NSF Financial Assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements) made on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the applicable set of award conditions, dated October 1, 2024, available on the NSF website. These terms and conditions are consistent with the revised guidance specified in the OMB Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2024.

Important information for proposers

All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the requirements specified in this funding opportunity and in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that is in effect for the relevant due date to which the proposal is being submitted. It is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that the proposal meets these requirements. Submitting a proposal prior to a specified deadline does not negate this requirement.

Implementation of standard 15% indirect cost rate

NSF is updating its policy regarding the reimbursement of indirect costs in federally funded financial assistance.

Read the policy.

Dear Colleague Letter

Innovative Use of Scientific Collections (IUSC)

Encourages proposals that foster innovative and diverse uses of collections and/or associated digital data for novel research, education and training applications within and across STEM.
Encourages proposals that foster innovative and diverse uses of collections and/or associated digital data for novel research, education and training applications within and across STEM.

Dear Colleagues:

With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the National Science Foundation (NSF) encourages submission of proposals to participating NSF programs (listed below) that foster Innovative Use of Scientific Collections (IUSC) and/or associated digital data for novel research, education, and training applications within and across STEM disciplines.

INTRODUCTION

NSF has made significant investments in collections and collections-associated data over the last decade. Collections-focused NSF initiatives in the recent past have included the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program and the Collections competitive area of the Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology. Currently, investments in collections include the Capacity: Biological Collections programmatic area in the BIO Division of Biological Infrastructure as well as collection of biological, genomic, and geological samples and specimens collected by the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) from terrestrial and aquatic sites and housed at the NEON Biorepository. The Geosciences Directorate has long supported samples and collections through its core and sample repositories, and NSF cyberinfrastructure-oriented programs have supported projects to manage collections-associated data and metadata, such as iDigBio and certain projects funded through EarthCube and GEO Open Science Ecosystem programs. In addition, disciplinary research-oriented programs across the foundation have supported efforts to use collections and physical samples, either embedded into research projects or as standalone efforts. Increasing and diversifying the use of collections and collections-associated data would maximize the research, training, and education return on these investments.

Collections and the associated data are powerful yet underutilized research and educational resources. While collection use is routine and vital in several biology, geoscience, and anthropology subdisciplines, an immense untapped potential exists for their use in other fields and subfields such as the social and behavioral sciences, epidemiology, cell and molecular biology, microbial ecology, engineering and materials science, conservation biology, Earth science, critical minerals, ocean science, polar science, and computer science, as well as in training, education, and broadening participation in STEM. Collections of physical samples and resulting data are also a critical long-term archive of biodiversity, environmental change, and fluctuations in other Earth systems and can contribute to research towards a sustainable bioeconomy. Furthermore, the cost of increasing research and educational use of collections is in many cases small, since the resources already exist and are often freely accessible. This creates an opportunity for low-cost but high-impact research projects that also engage students in authentic research experiences.

Increasing and diversifying the use of collections and collections-associated data thus has the potential to improve understanding of their value in research, training, and education; contribute to fundamental research in fields and subfields that currently underutilize them; and increase opportunities for developing or strengthening partnerships.

GOALS OF THE DCL

NSF encourages the submission of proposals that foster Innovative Use of Scientific Collections and/or associated digital data for novel research, education, and training applications within and across STEM disciplines.

Examples of such proposals include, but are not limited to, those that:

  • Propose innovative use of existing biodiversity, living stocks, geological, anthropological, and/or behavioral collections, images and other digital media, and collections-associated data, including to develop or apply new analytical techniques or to answer new scientific questions beyond the original intention of the collections
  • Integrate the use of existing collections and collections-associated data in fields that traditionally have made little use of collections
  • Create partnerships to use existing collections and collections-associated data in research, training, and education
  • Make use of biological, genomic, and/or geological samples and specimens collected by the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) from terrestrial and aquatic sites and housed at the NEON Biorepository
  • Include as a Broader Impact the use of existing collections to engage students in authentic research experiences

The following NSF programs welcome submission of proposals responsive to this DCL: Directorate for Biological Sciences

Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering

Directorate for Geosciences

Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences

HOW TO RESPOND TO THIS DCL

In advance of submitting a proposal in response to this DCL, interested proposers are strongly encouraged to contact a cognizant Program Officer in the relevant NSF program(s).

Proposals should follow the guidelines, deadlines (if any), budget limitations (if any), and solicitation-specific criteria of the relevant NSF program(s). Awards for projects responsive to this DCL will be funded through the relevant NSF program(s).

The proposal title should begin with "IUSC:" after any PAPPG and/or solicitation-specific title requirements, if applicable. Proposals that fail to address the objectives and guidance described in this DCL and in the relevant funding opportunity may be returned without review.

NSF is broadly interested in enabling discovery through the use and reuse of existing resources with untapped potential. Proposals responsive to this DCL should be primarily focused on innovative use of physical specimens and of data tracing back to physical specimens. Proposals primarily focused on the use of data from environmental time series may be appropriate for DCL 24-081, and we encourage PIs to consider that document.

Questions should be directed to Program Directors in the relevant NSF research program(s); not the signatories to this DCL.

Sincerely,

Susan Marqusee
Assistant Director
Directorate for Biological Sciences

Alexandra Isern
Assistant Director
Directorate for Geosciences

Dilma Da Silva
Acting Assistant Director
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering

Sylvia Butterfield
Acting Assistant Director
Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences

 

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