National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, Virginia 22230

Dear Colleague Letter

ANNOUNCEMENT OF PROPOSAL SUBMISSION WINDOWS
Chemical and Transport Systems Division
Directorate for Engineering

Dear Colleagues:

In order to ensure both the timely handling of proposals and fairness in comparing competing requests for funding, the CTS Division has established two proposal submission windows for all unsolicited proposals submitted to the CTS disciplinary programs. The submission windows are the month of September closing on Oct. 1 (5:00 PM local time) and the month of January closing on Feb. 1 (5:00 PM local time). Only proposals submitted during these proposal submission windows will be considered for review. If Oct. 1 or Feb. 1 falls on a weekend or a Federal Holiday, the closing date will be the first federal business day thereafter. Federal Holidays can be found at http://www.opm.gov/fedhol/index.htm.

The above dates for the Proposal Submission Windows do not apply to proposals sent in response to Foundation-wide solicitations with their own deadlines.
The following types of requests are NOT subject to the proposal submission windows:

• Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) or workshops which may be submitted at any time during the year
• Supplements to existing grants such, as Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) or Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) requests, which may be submitted any time during the year

The CTS Division requires that all proposals submitted during these windows be submitted via FastLane. All proposals must adhere to the guidelines described in the most recent issue of the Grant Proposal Guide. Proposals not adhering to the guidelines and not explicitly addressing the review criteria (intellectual merit and broader impacts) will be returned without review.

Esin Gulari
Director, Division of Chemical and Transport Systems
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Ste 525
Arlington, VA 22230
egulari@nsf.gov

"As this new policy is being phased in by CTS, unsolicited proposals will be accepted until May 15, 2004. After that date no unsolicited proposals will be accepted until the September 2004 submission window"