Program for Gender Equity in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology

Program Announcement and Guidelines

National Science Foundation

INTRODUCTION

Within the Division of Human Resource Development, the Program for Gender Equity in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology (originally called Program for Women and Girls) is committed to bringing about the needed change in education, and academic and professional climates, through increased awareness of the interests, needs and capabilities of girls and women; promoting instructional materials and teaching methods for increasing interest, retention, and achievement of girls and women in SMET disciplines; and increasing the availability of student enrichment resources including mentoring. In short, efforts in the Program for Gender Equity are dedicated to changing factors that have discouraged the early, and continuing, interest in SMET, and to developing interest, knowledge, and involvement of girls and young women in these fields. The generally low participation of women in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology is a national concern.

Issues of concern underlying the need for the Program for Gender Equity include:

• girls tend to lose interest in science during elementary and middle school;

• relatively fewer girls enroll in advanced high school science and mathematics courses to prepare for college;

• relatively fewer girls enter undergraduate studies in SMET disciplines, particularly in physical sciences, computer sciences, and engineering;

• relatively fewer young women complete SMET graduate degrees; and

• women tend to advance more slowly and in fewer numbers to senior ranks and leadership positions in academic, industry, business, and government careers.

Although programs in the Division of Human Resource Development focus primarily on underrepresented communities, all NSF programs encourage proposals that incorporate this goal. See Guide to Programs (NSF 99-4), or Web address http://www.nsf.gov, for descriptions of all NSF funding opportunities.

ELIGIBILITY

TYPES OF PROJECTS

Large Collaborative Projects

• build on existing research about gender and the SMET infrastructure;

• be grounded in strong SMET content;

• involve multiple institutions with significant commitment;

• have multiple target populations;

• effect permanent change;

• leverage other initiatives;

• have strong formative and summative evaluation components to demonstrate impact and guide project development; and

• have a strong dissemination component.

The roles and commitments of each institutional partner should be addressed in the project description and in letters of commitment from authorized institutional representatives. School districts, not individual schools, are eligible as collaborators. Evidence of commitment may be reflected in programmatic participation, release time for project staff, reduced indirect costs, provision of special services or resources, direct fiscal contributions, and such.

NSF and reviewers will look for evidence of commitment to continue elements of the project after NSF funding ends.

Award Size and Duration. Up to $300,000 per year for up to three years.

Deadline. Proposals must be submitted by 5:00 PM EST on February 1st. Proposals submitted late will be returned. Final award decisions will be announced approximately six months after the proposal deadline.

Planning Grants

Planning grant proposals are subject to external review which will be conducted in parallel with the review of full proposals for Large Collaborative Projects and will be based on an evaluation of the concept, its potential impact, and quality of the proposed planning process. The awards are non-renewable and not eligible for requests for supplemental funds. They may include the expense of attending the annual NSF awardees meeting.

A planning grant does not imply an NSF commitment beyond the planning period. Grantees are expected to submit a full proposal for a Large Collaborative Project subsequent to completion of the planning grant.

Award Size and Duration. Up to $30,000 for a maximum duration of one year.

Deadline. Proposals must be submitted by 5:00 PM EST on February 1st. Proposals submitted late will be returned. Final award decisions will be announced approximately six months after the proposal deadline.

Small Experimental Projects

• small, focused projects;

• involve only one or few institutions;

• develop or test an innovative approach to a problem area;

• build on current research and models of how social, learning, and teaching factors facilitate the interest, motivation, and achievement of girls and women in SMET;

• include an evaluation component to demonstrate results and guide project development; and

• include a dissemination component to distribute results to relevant communities engaged in promoting gender equity.

Deadline. Proposals must be submitted by 5:00 PM EST on May 1st. Proposals submitted late will be returned. Final award decisions will be announced approximately six months after the proposal deadline.

Information Dissemination Activities

IDA's should be national in scope, or designed to stimulate dialogue and action on a regional basis; meet specific needs in the SMET and/or educational community; and catalyze future action by participants.

When multiple organizations are involved, the project description should clearly explain the role of the submitting and other organizations, and managerial arrangements should be specified.

For conferences, workshops, etc., applicants must list recent meetings on the same subject, including dates and places; explain the value added by the proposed event and its probable outcome; note target date(s) and location of the activity; give the estimated number of participants and method of announcement; list proposed speakers and topics; include funds available from other sources (cost sharing is strongly encouraged); show how the format will enhance interactions among presenters, participants, and the audience; describe how meetings will be conducted; and give names of chairpersons and members of organizing committees and their organizational affiliations. For publications, a clear need must be established for a publication on the topic.

Award Size and Duration. Up to $75,000 for symposia, workshops, conferences, and up to $100,000 for other types of activities. The duration may be up to 18 months.

Deadline. There is no deadline for Information Dissemination Activity proposals. For symposia, conferences, and workshops, the initial request should be made at least 12 months in advance of the proposed date of the event.

PROPOSAL PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS

All NSF grantees and particularly those in education are encouraged to think in terms of the outcomes or impact of their project on the field. Impact is a big factor in the review and rating of proposals in the competition for funds.

Where multiple organizations are involved, the proposal can be submitted by only one of them. It should describe clearly the role to be played by the other organizations, and include a management plan.

Proposers are reminded to identify the program announcement number (NSF 99-25) in the program announcement/solicitation block on the NSF Form 1207, "Cover Sheet for Proposal to the National Science Foundation." Compliance with this requirement is critical to determining the relevant proposal processing guidelines. Failure to submit this information may delay processing.

A. Project Title

The project title should identify the project, inform the public, and be reasonable in length. The title should be prefaced with an abbreviation indicating the type within the Program for Gender Equity:

LCP Large Collaborative Project
PG Planning Grant
SEP Small Experimental Project
IDA Information Dissemination Activity

Items included in the project description are described in the GPG (page 7). Proposals submitted to the Program for Gender Equity must include:

• goals and objectives;

• project design including a demonstration of understanding of previous research and projects; anticipated impact of the project; planned products or publications; timeline for activities; and dissemination strategies;

• description of participant recruitment and selection;

• qualifications of staff (and a list of advisory committee members, if applicable);

• description of participating organizations (and their responsibilities) with letters of agreement included in the appendices;

• planned products or publications; and

• discussion of the results of prior NSF support if received within the last five years (see Chapter II, Section D.4 of the Grant Proposal Guide for further clarification).

• a systematic evaluation/assessment plan (What will be evaluated, how, by whom, when, and is it budgeted?); and

• a dissemination plan (How will the results of the project be made available to the education and gender equity community? Who will prepare what products or events to share the results? What form will the products take, and does the budget cover expenses?).

For projects spanning one year only, a summary budget is required. For multi-year projects, a separate budget for each year and a summary budget are required. In addition to the budget forms, up to three pages of budget justification (narrative for each item) should be included.

The Grant Proposal Guide explains every line on the budget form and provisions ruling allowable costs for items such as salaries and wages, indirect costs, participant support costs, consultant services, travel, etc.

Unique aspects of the Program for Gender Equity are:

• funds should be included for each award year, for the principal investigator(s) to attend a two-day meeting in the Washington, DC area; and

• equipment is not usually funded in this Program's awards (for example, computers and Internet access).

D. Cost Sharing

Cost sharing is not required under this program announcement; however, if it is offered, the amount of cost sharing must be shown in the proposal in enough detail to allow NSF to determine its impact on the proposed project. The proposed cost sharing must be shown on line M on the proposal budget (NSF Form 1030.) Documentation of availability of cost sharing must be included in the proposal.

Only items which would be allowable under the applicable cost principles, if charged to the project, may be included as the grantee's contribution to cost sharing. Contributions may be made from any non-Federal source, including non-Federal grants or contracts, and may be cash or in-kind (see OMB Circular A-110, Section 23). It should be noted that contributions counted as cost-sharing toward projects of another Federal agency may not be counted towards meeting the specific cost-sharing requirements of the NSF grant.

All cost-sharing amounts are subject to audit. Failure to provide the level of cost-sharing reflected in the approved grant budget may result in termination of the NSF grant, disallowance of grant costs and/or refund of grant funds to NSF.

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

A. Mail Submission Eight (8) copies of the proposal, including one copy bearing original signatures, should be mailed to:

Announcement No. NSF 99-25 Gender Equity
National Science Foundation
PPU Room P60
4201 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22230

Gender Equity proposals are strongly encouraged to be submitted electronically using the NSF FastLane system for electronic proposal submission and review, available through the World Wide Web on the FastLane Home Page (http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov). Instructions for preparing and submitting a standard NSF proposal via FastLane are located at http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a1/newstan.htm.

In order to use NSF FastLane to prepare and submit a proposal, you must have the following software: Netscape Navigator 3.0 or above, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or above; Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 or above for viewing PDF files; and Adobe Acrobat 3.X or Aladdin Ghostscript 5.10 or above for converting files to PDF.

To access the FastLane Proposal Preparation application, your institution needs to be a registered FastLane institution. A list of registered institutions and the FastLane registration form are located on the FastLane Home Page. To register an organization, authorized organizational representatives must complete the registration form. Once an organization is registered, PIN for individual staff are available from the organization's sponsored projects office.

The signed (paper) cover sheet must be mailed in time to arrive at the following address within five working days of the deadline:

Program for Gender Equity
Room 815
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22230

PROPOSAL REVIEW INFORMATION

Review of proposals submitted to NSF are solicited from peers with expertise in the substantive area of the proposed research or education project. These reviewers are selected by program officers charged with the oversight of the review process. NSF invites the proposer to suggest at the time of submission, the names of appropriate or inappropriate reviewers. Special care is taken to ensure that reviewers have no immediate and obvious conflicts with the proposer. Special efforts are made to recruit reviewers from non-academic institutions, minority serving institutions, adjacent disciplines to that principally addressed in the proposal, etc.

Proposals will be reviewed against the following general merit review criteria established by the National Science Board. Following each criterion are potential considerations that the reviewer may employ in the evaluation. These are suggestions and not all will apply to any given proposal. Each reviewer will be asked to address only those that are relevant to the proposal and for which he/she is qualified to make judgments.

What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?

How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct the project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of prior work.) To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative and original concepts? How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to resources?

What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?

How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)? To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society?

Integration of Research and Education

Integrating Diversity into NSF Program, Projects, and Activities

B. Merit Review Process

Most of the proposals submitted to NSF are reviewed by mail review, panel review, or some combination of mail and panel review.

All proposals are carefully reviewed by at least three other persons outside NSF who are experts in the particular field represented by the proposal. Reviewers will be asked to formulate a recommendation to either support or decline each proposal. A program officer assigned to manage the proposal's review will consider the advice of reviewers and will formulate a recommendation. In most cases, proposers will be contacted by the program officer after his or her recommendation to award or decline funding has been approved by his or her supervisor, the division director. This informal notification is not a guarantee of an eventual award. NSF will be able to tell applicants whether their proposals have been declined or recommended for funding within six months for 95 percent of proposals in this category. The time interval begins on the proposal deadline or target date or from the date of receipt, if deadlines or target dates are not used by the program. The interval ends when the division director accepts the program officer's recommendation.

In all cases, after final programmatic approval has been obtained, the recommendation then goes to the Division of Grants and Agreements for review of business, financial and policy implications and the processing and issuance of a grant or other agreement. Proposers are cautioned that only a Grants Officer may make commitments, obligations or awards on behalf of NSF or authorize the expenditure of funds. No commitment on the part of NSF should be inferred from technical or budgetary discussions with an NSF program officer. A principal investigator or organization that makes financial or personnel commitments in the absence of a grant or cooperative agreement signed by the NSF Grants Officer does so at its own risk.

AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

Notification of the award is made to the submitting organization by a Grants Officer in the Division of Grants and Agreements. Organizations whose proposals are declined will be advised as promptly as possible by the cognizant NSF Program Division administering the program. Verbatim copies of reviews, not including the identity of the reviewer, will be provided automatically to the Principal Investigator.

B. Grant Award Conditions

An NSF grant consists of: (1) the award letter, which includes any special provisions applicable to the grant and any numbered amendments thereto; (2) the budget, which indicates the amounts, by categories of expense, on which NSF has based its support (or otherwise communicates any specific approvals or disapprovals of proposed expenditures); (3) the proposal referenced in the award letter; (4) the applicable grant conditions, such as Grant General Conditions (NSF GC-1) or Federal Demonstration Partnership Phase III (FDP) Terms and Conditions (these documents may be accessed electronically on NSF's Web site at: http://www.nsf.gov/, and paper copies may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone 301-947-2722 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov, and (5) any NSF brochure, program guide, announcement or other NSF issuance that may be incorporated by reference in the award letter. Electronic mail notification is the preferred way to transmit NSF grants to organizations that have electronic mail capabilities and have requested such notification from the Division of Grants and Agreements.

C. Reporting Requirements

For all multi-year grants (including both standard and continuing grants), the PI must submit an annual project report to the cognizant Program Officer at least 90 days before the end of the current budget period.

Within 90 days after expiration of a grant, the PI also is required to submit a final project report. Approximately 30 days before expiration, NSF will send a notice to remind the PI of the requirement to file the final project report. Failure to provide final technical reports delays NSF review and processing of pending proposals for that PI. PIs should examine the formats of the required reports in advance to assure availability of required data.

NSF has implemented a new electronic project reporting system, available through FastLane, which permits electronic submission and updating of project reports, including information on: project participants (individual and organizational); activities and findings; publications; and, other specific products and contributions. Reports will continue to be required annually and after the expiration of the grant, but PIs will not need to re-enter information previously provided, either with the proposal or in earlier updates using the electronic system.

Effective October 1, 1998, PIs are required to use the new reporting format for annual and final project reports. PIs are strongly encouraged to submit reports electronically via FastLane. For those PIs who cannot access FastLane, paper copies of the new report formats may be obtained from the NSF Clearinghouse as specified above. NSF expects to require electronic submission of all annual and final project reports via FastLane beginning in October, 1999.

D. New Awardee Information

If the submitting organization has never received an NSF award, it is recommended that the organization's appropriate administrative officials become familiar with the policies and procedures in the NSF Grant Policy Manual which are applicable to most NSF awards. The "Prospective New Awardee Guide" (NSF 97-100) includes information on: Administration and Management Information; Accounting System Requirements and Auditing Information; and Payments to Organizations with Awards. This information will assist an organization in preparing documents that NSF requires to conduct administrative and financial reviews of an organization. The guide also serves as a means of highlighting the accountability requirements associated with Federal awards. This document is available electronically on NSF's Web site at: http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf97100.

RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER NSF PROGRAMS

A program called Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education (POWRE) supports individual outstanding women scientists and engineers and gives them an opportunity, at a critical stage, to further their career development by providing opportunities for career advancement, professional growth, and increased prominence. POWRE awards are not intended to substitute for standard NSF grants. Potential proposers should consult the NSF Web site: http://www.nsf.gov/ under "Crosscutting Programs" to access POWRE information specific to each NSF directorate or office. Specific information may also be found directly through the home page of the appropriate NSF organizational unit. Basic research in social and behavioral sciences might address aspects of gender equity in society and is supported by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences.

Principal Investigators may find that their proposal fits the objectives of several programs at NSF. They are encouraged to review the scope of related programs on the NSF web pages at: http://www.nsf.gov, or the printed Guide to Programs, and consider where their proposal might compete best.

OTHER PROGRAMS OF INTEREST

For deadline and target date information, consult the NSF E-Bulletin, available electronically on the NSF Web site at: http://www.nsf.gov/. The direct URL for recent issues of the Bulletin is: http://www.nsf.gov/home/ebulletin/. Subscribers can also sign up for NSF's Custom News Service to find out what funding opportunities are available.

INQUIRIES

For information on prior grants in the Program for Gender Equity, on the Web go to: http://www.nsf.gov/verity/srchawd.htm. In the search dialog window, type 1544. You will see a list of projects funded by the Program for Gender Equity (formerly the Program for Women and Girls). Each project gives public information, including the Principal Investigator, amount granted, an abstract, contact information, and more.

E-mail inquiries should be addressed to hrdwomen@nsf.gov, or you may telephone the Gender Equity program staff at 703-306-1637. The mail address is:

Program for Gender Equity Room 815 Division of Human Resource Development Directorate for Education and Human Resources National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA 22230

APPENDIX A: RESOURCES FOR PROPOSAL PREPARATION

• Grant Proposal Guide (NSF 99-2) October 1998 contains complete guidelines on proposal preparation, eligibility, proposal review criteria, continued support and grant administration

• Proposal Forms Kit (NSF 99-3) is available on its own and is also contained in the Grant Proposal Guide

• Guide to Programs, Fiscal Year 1999 NSF Funding Opportunities (NSF 99-4) is the most comprehensive guide to NSF funding

• A Guide for Proposal Writing (NSF 98-91) was developed by the Division of Undergraduate Education in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, and offers basic, step-by-step help in developing a competitive proposal

• Grant General Conditions, NSF GC-1 (10/98) contains a summary of the legal conditions ruling NSF grants

1. Visit http://www.nsf.gov and select "Documents"

2. More directly, go to http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/pubsys/browser/odbrowse.pl

• Select "Search by Document Reference Number"
  
• Enter "NSF 99-2" or another document number
  
• Select whatever version is available: ASCII, HTML, or PDF
  
• You may download and print

4. Call 301-947-2722 and provide the publication number, and your name and address

APPENDIX B: PROPOSAL CHECKLIST