2024 changes to NSF proposals and awards

The NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) is changing in 2024. The new guidelines (NSF PAPPG 24-1) will take effect for submissions on or after May 20, 2024. Here are some of the changes that Principal Investigators (PIs) should know:

  • NSF Biosketch:
    • There will no longer be a page limitation for this section of the proposal.
    • The Synergistic Activities section has been removed from the biosketch.
    • The SciENcv tool used to develop biosketches now accommodates the new version of the NSF biosketch.
  • Parties to Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs has been modified to incorporate a new section establishing that individuals who are a party to a Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program are not eligible to serve as a senior/key person on an NSF proposal.
    • Current and Pending Support form will have a new certification regarding this requirement: I also certify that, at the time of submission, I am not a party in a malign foreign talent recruitment program.
  • The Synergistic Activities will be in its own separate 1-page document.
  • The Postdoctoral Researcher Mentoring Plan will now be called Mentoring Plan to be inclusive of postdocs and/or graduate students supported on the project. The page limitation for the Mentoring Plan remains at 1 page. 
  • The Data Management Plan (DMP) is now titled the Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMSP). Nothing else besides the title of this document has changed.

OCRD toolkits for NSF proposals due on or after May 20th have been updated to reflect the above changes. You can find many of OCRD’s NSF toolkits in myRESEARCHpath. We also added the updated resources and templates to this Box folder.

Other changes in PAPPG 2024 to note:

  • When to Submit Proposals guidelines now clarify that the 5pm local time designated for proposal deadlines is tied to the administering organization, not the location of the PI. 
  • The proposal’s font, spacing, and margin requirements have been modified to allow for submission of proposal documents in landscape format. Paper size still must not exceed letter paper size (8½ by 11 or 11 by 8½). All other formatting (e.g., fonts, font sizes, margins, lines per inch) remain the same.
  • If you have an interest to include Foreign Organizations in your proposal: In cases where the foreign organization/individual involvement is considered essential to the project, and NSF funding is proposed (via a subaward or consultant arrangement):
    • The box for "Funding of a Foreign Organization or Foreign Individual" must be checked on the Cover Sheet.
    • A justification must be included in the Project Description section. At a minimum, include: 
      • why support from the foreign counterpart’s in-country resources is not feasible; 
      • why the foreign organization or foreign individual can carry out the activity more effectively than a US organization/individuals; 
      • what unique expertise, organizational capability, facilities, data resources, and/or access to a geographic location not generally available to US. investigators the foreign organization or foreign individual brings to the project;
      • what significant science and engineering education, training, or research opportunities the foreign organization or foreign individual offers to the US.

Access the complete summary of changes to the 2024 PAPPG

If you would like to discuss the above changes as they pertain to your proposal, please feel free to reach out to OCRD.