Title: Dear Colleague Letter
Date: 5/01/03





                           Dear Colleague Letter

     April 10, 2003

                 ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEW MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS

                     FOR PROPOSALS TO THE ECS DIVISION

                        Directorate for Engineering

          Division of Electrical and Communications Systems (ECS)

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     Dear Colleagues:

     In order to ensure both the timely handling of proposals and
     fairness in comparing competing requests for funding, the ECS
     Division has established (effective July 1, 2003) two Proposal
     Submissions windows for all unsolicited proposals submitted to
     the three ECS disciplinary programs. Proposals which do not
     arrive within these windows, or which violate the NSF-wide
     policy on describing broader impacts, will be returned without
     review. The details are as follows:

  1. Dates for submission of unsolicited proposals are now DEADLINES, not
     target dates. Proposals must be submitted within an acceptance window
     from one month before each deadline to the deadline date (by 5 p.m.
     proposer’s local time on the deadline date). All proposals must be
     submitted through FastLane. Proposals submitted either before or
     after the acceptance window will be returned without review. Funding
     requests not subject to these deadlines are described below in
     paragraphs 6-8.

  2. Effective immediately, two deadline dates will be used: October 7 and
     February 7, or the first federal business day thereafter if the date
     falls on a weekend or federal holiday. Federal Holidays can be found
     at http://www.opm.gov/fedhol/index.htm. For fiscal year 2003, the
     deadline dates fall on October 7, 2003, and February 9, 2004.

  3. This submission policy for ECS also applies to proposals submitted as
     requests for research equipment grants (REG) or proposals submitted
     through GOALI (academic liaison with industry). These are reviewed
     together with proposals submitted through disciplinary programs. One
     may do a “funding search” at www.nsf.gov for the key words REG and
     GOALI, for the most current information on those programs.

  4. Proposals must be prepared in compliance with the NSF Grant Proposal
     Guide (GPG). See http://www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?gpg.
     Failure to follow GPG requirements may result in the return of a
     proposal without review.

  5. Proposals are reviewed both for their Intellectual Merit and their
     Broader Impacts. Both criteria will be addressed explicitly in the
     review and in considering funding recommendations. Proposals which do
     not separately address the Broader Impacts Criterion in the project
     summary will be sent back without review. PIs are reminded to insert
     a separate paragraph(s) explicitly entitled “Broader Impacts” in the
     project summary. Broader impacts should not be interpreted as a kind
     of political correctness filter; it is not necessary that every
     proposal have an impact in all areas, but those which have the
     potential for a large impact in any of the areas covered by that
     criterion will be given higher priority for funding. A major goal
     here is to encourage more systematic strategic thinking about ways to
     improve connections between one’s area of work and the larger
     context.

     The following types of request are NOT subject to the acceptance
     window restrictions described above:

  6. Following discussion and encouragement from a Program Director in
     ECS, proposals submitted to request Small Grants for Exploratory
     Research (SGER) or workshops may be submitted at any time during the
     year.

  7. Principal Investigators who wish to apply for supplements to existing
     grants to fund Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) or
     Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) should send requests before
     March 1 of any year to ensure consideration. Requests for REU or RET
     Supplements to existing grants must be made through FastLane.

  8. Principal Investigators wishing to make any other requests for
     supplements should first discuss their request with their ECS Program
     Director. Guidelines for Supplements are given in the GPG.

  9. Questions regarding any type of funding request not covered above
     should be referred to an ECS Program Director.

     Vasundara V. Varandan
     Director, Division of Electrical and Communication Systems
     National Science Foundation
     4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 675
     Arlington, VA 22230
     vvaradan@nsf.gov
     703-292-8339