Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Information Technology Research (ITR) (NSF 04-012)

REVISIONS AND UPDATES

Two FAQ's were added under Letter of Intent, one was added under Eligibility Requirements and one was added under Proposal Preparation (February 06, 2004).

Table of Contents

Information Technology Research

Frequently Asked Questions - Collaboration

• What type(s) of inter-institutional collaborations is NSF encouraging?
• If multiple institutions are cooperating in the research project, should we submit a collaborative proposal with one organization as the lead or a collaborative proposal from multiple organizations?
• Does EPSCOR certification interact with the choice between a collaborative proposal from one organization (with subawards administered by the lead organizations) or from multiple organizations?
• My question is not in this list and is not answered in the solicitation. What should I do?

• How many proposals am I allowed to submit this year to the ITR solicitation (NSF 04-012)?
• In the “Revisions and Updates” section of the ITR solicitation, you say that an “individual may appear as Principal Investigator (PI), co-PI, other senior personnel or paid consultant on only one ITR proposal….” Do you include subawards and/or collaborative proposals in your count?
• What actions will NSF take if I am found to be on more than one ITR project?
• Isn’t there some way that this one proposal policy can be circumvented?
• I have received an ITR award in the past. Am I eligible to submit an ITR proposal this year?
• In submitting to ITR, does the university department of the PI matter?
• Can international institutions apply to ITR?
• Are government laboratories or for-profit organizations allowed to submit ITR proposals?
• My question is not on this list and is not answered in the solicitation. What should I do?
• What other information do I need to know about including international, for-profit or governmental agencies as collaborators in my ITR proposal? (added 2/6/04)

• How will the ITR funds be divided across the directorates and different subject areas of the solicitation?
• May teaching faculty request academic year salary in addition to or instead of summer salary?
• What kinds of administrative costs may be included in the budget?
• What balance is expected between support of students and other costs?
• When NSF examines ITR budgets to ascertain the “balance” mentioned in the previous FAQ, where do postdocs fall? Are they counted as students or as faculty and research staff?
• May ITR proposal budgets include equipment?
• How might the requested budget affect chances of success? Are there budgets that would be inappropriate because they are too large or too small?
• What happened to the three size classes – small, medium, and large -- that were in previous ITR solicitations?
• My question is not in this list and is not answered in the solicitation. What should I do?

Frequently Asked Questions – Letters of Intent

• Can I change parts of the LOI that I submitted? (added 2/6/04)
• What parts of the LOI can be changed in the Full Proposal? (added 2/6/04)

• How many Letters of Intent (LOI) should be submitted for each project and how do I submit one?
• What is meant by the phrase, “Vibrant Civil Society,” that is mentioned in the solicitation as one of the National Priority Areas?
• What should be in the Project Summary?
• Will you enforce the page limits on proposals?
• Do citations and references count against the 15-page project description limit?
• May I submit the same proposal to ITR and to another NSF program?
• Can I request an extension of time to submit a proposal?
• What if FastLane or my university computer is unavailable on a submission deadline?
• What if there is an earthquake, fire or other disaster?
• Should proposals from non-profit research organizations address the broader impacts criterion and the integration of research and education?
• What if listing my five most recent relevant papers would take more than two pages because these papers have several hundred authors each?
• How do we submit supplementary documents, such as human subjects forms or letters of support?
• Can I be a reviewer for ITR this year?
• Why does the Biology Directorate have only one division I can select for ITR – Emerging Frontiers -- while other directorates have several divisions?
• My question is not in this list and is not answered in the solicitation. What should I do?
• Why does NSF only allow 4 co-PIs to be listed on the cover sheet of the Full Proposal and on the LOI? I would like for our project to have five (or more) co-PIs.(added 2/6/04)