FastLane Update

Proposal Preparation

Thanks to the efforts of everyone in the ocean sciences community (Principal Investigators, Research Staff and Assistants, Sponsored Research Office Staff, etc.), we attained our goal of 100 % submission of proposals via FastLane for the 15 August 2000 target date. We received a total of 505 proposals consisting of 285 individual proposals and 220 proposals for 92 collaborative activities.

As most of you are aware, 1 October 2000 was the date set forth in Important Notice No. 123 (3 September 1998) as the deadline for the changeover to full electronic submission of proposals at NSF. The ocean sciences community made rapid progress toward meeting that deadline, considering that its utilization of FastLane in FY 1999 was only approximately 19%. This percentage increased to 44% in the first half of FY 2000 and, with 100% submission for the 15 August 2000 target date, we attained a submission rate for FY 2000 of about 60%.

There continue to be some printing problems (< 5%) with proposals not opening when ‘Print Entire’ is selected. In most cases, these were repaired by NSF staff, but it does demonstrate the importance of checking the ‘Print Entire’ function prior to submitting the proposal. Proprietary and Type 3 fonts are still an issue but many of our TeX and LaTeX users were able to change to Type 1 fonts, making electronic viewing of their proposals much easier.

Use of color figures remains an issue since NSF does not print proposals in color. OCE recommends that for those proposals submitted containing scientifically necessary color, PIs should continue to submit the requisite number of full hardcopies directly to the applicable Program Officer. Special instructions for proposals that contain high resolution graphics can be found at http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a1/newstan.htm#color.

Annual/Final Project Reports

Since October 1999, NSF has required that all Annual and Final Project Reports be submitted via FastLane. The electronic system is not forgiving when it comes to missed deadlines, which results in delays in commitments of continuing grant increments. In the case of final reports, late submissions delay the processing of new awards for PIs and associated Co-PIs. Annual project reports are due 90 days before the end of the current budget period. Final project reports are due 90 days after expiration of a grant. Approximately 30 days before expiration, NSF sends out a notice to remind the PI of the requirement to file the final report. To avoid grant processing complications, we urge PIs to get annual and final project reports in on time.

We greatly appreciate everyone’s patience and persistence as we all become more familiar with this new electronic process for submitting proposals and reports. We will continue to keep you informed of any important changes to this system and hope that it gets easier for you as time goes on. Please do not hesitate to contact the OCE FastLane representative, Kandace Binkley, if you have any questions. She can be reached by phone at (703) 292-8582 or by sending an email to ocefl@nsf.gov.