Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) (NSF 04-537)

Table of Contents

Collaboration

• What type(s) of inter-institutional collaborations is NSF encouraging?

• If multiple institutions are cooperating in the research project, should we submit a collaborative proposal with one organization as the lead or a collaborative proposal from multiple organizations?

• Does EPSCOR certification interact with the choice between a collaborative proposal from one organization (with subawards administered by the lead organizations) or from multiple organizations?

• My question is not in this list and is not answered in the solicitation. What should I do?

Eligibility Requirements

• How many proposals am I allowed to submit this year to the HSD solicitation (NSF 04-537)?

• In submitting to HSD, does the university department of the PI matter?

• Can international institutions apply to HSD?

• Are government laboratories or for-profit organizations allowed to submit HSD proposals?

• Are graduate students or unaffiliated researchers eligible to apply to HSD?

• My question is not on this list and is not answered in the solicitation. What should I do?

Financial/Budget

• How will the HSD funds be divided across the directorates and different subject areas of the solicitation?

• May teaching faculty request academic year salary in addition to or instead of summer salary?

• What kinds of administrative costs may be included in the budget?

• May HSD proposal budgets include equipment?

• How might the requested budget affect chances of success? Are there budgets that would be inappropriate because they are too large or too small?

• My question is not in this list and is not answered in the solicitation. What should I do?

Letters of Intent

• Can I change parts of the LOI that I submitted?

• What parts of the LOI can be changed in the Full Proposal?

• My question is not in this list and is not answered in the solicitation. What should I do?

Proposal Preparation

• How many Letters of Intent (LOI) should be submitted for each project and how do I submit one?

• What should be in the Project Summary?

• Will you enforce the page limits on proposals?

• Do citations and references count against the 15-page project description limit?

• May I submit the same proposal to HSD and to another NSF program?

• Can I request an extension of time to submit a Letter of Intent?

• Can I request an extension of time to submit a proposal?

• What if FastLane or my university computer is unavailable on a submission deadline?

• What if there is an earthquake, fire or other disaster?

• Should proposals from non-profit research organizations address the broader impacts criterion and the integration of research and education?

• What if listing my five most recent relevant papers would take more than two pages because these papers have several hundred authors each?

• How do we submit supplementary documents, such as acknowledgements to our Letters of Intent or letters of support?

• Can I be a reviewer for HSD this year?

• Why is the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences the only one to appear on the FastLane Cover Sheet? I normally apply to Geosciences and my proposal deals primarily with Geosciences?

• Why does NSF only allow 4 co-PIs to be listed on the cover sheet of the Full Proposal and on the LOI? I would like our project to have five (or more) co-PIs.

• My question is not in this list and is not answered in the solicitation. What should I do?