Section IV. Declinations and Withdrawals
A. Withdrawals
B. Declinations
C. Reconsideration
D. Resubmission
A proposal may be withdrawn at any time before a final decision is
made. A request for withdrawal must be signed by both the Principal
Investigator and the authorized institutional representative. If funding
for the proposal is accepted from another sponsor, NSF will send a
withdrawal confirmation letter to the Principal Investigator and the
authorized institutional official without waiting for the official
withdrawal request. NSF does not normally return the copies of withdrawn
proposals to the proposer. The Foundation retains a file copy. Copies of
reviews received by the Foundation before a proposal is withdrawn will be
provided to the investigator.
An investigator whose proposal for NSF support has been declined will
receive information and an explanation of the reasons for declination from
the cognizant Program Officer. If that explanation does not satisfy the
investigator, he/she may request additional information from the
cognizant Program Officer.
If the explanation provided above does not satisfy the investigator,
he/she may request that the cognizant NSF Assistant Director reconsider the action to
determine whether the proposal received review that was fair and
reasonable, both substantively and procedurally. The request for
reconsideration must be in writing and must be received within 90 days of
the date of the declination letter. If the proposing institution is still
not satisfied after reconsideration by the responsible Assistant Director,
it may, within 60 days of the determination by the Assistant Director,
request further reconsideration by the NSF Deputy Director. An
investigator whose proposal has been returned because it is inappropriate
for consideration by NSF may also request reconsideration of this
determination.
A declined proposal may be resubmitted only after it has undergone
substantial revision. Resubmittals that have not clearly taken into account the major comments
resulting from the prior NSF review may be returned without further
review. The Foundation will treat the revised proposal as a new one
subject to the standard review procedures.
