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Important information about NSF’s implementation of the revised 2 CFR

NSF Financial Assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements) made on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the applicable set of award conditions, dated October 1, 2024, available on the NSF website. These terms and conditions are consistent with the revised guidance specified in the OMB Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2024.

Important information for proposers

All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the requirements specified in this funding opportunity and in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that is in effect for the relevant due date to which the proposal is being submitted. It is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that the proposal meets these requirements. Submitting a proposal prior to a specified deadline does not negate this requirement.

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Dear Colleague Letter

A Submission Window for Unsolicited Proposals to DMR

The Division of Materials Research (DMR), in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), will accept unsolicited proposals only during a submission window beginning the third Monday in September and ending the first Friday in November, annually.

The last date of the submission window is an absolute deadline date. DMR Programs can be found on the DMR website at http://www.nsf.gov/materials.

Unsolicited proposals received outside this submission window, or that are not in compliance with the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG), will be returned without review. Full details are given below. The submission window applies to unsolicited proposals submitted to DMR programs, with the exceptions described in Paragraphs 3 and 4 below. Unsolicited proposals that do not arrive within this submission window, as well as proposals that do not explicitly address NSF's primary review criteria (intellectual merit and broader impacts), will be returned without review.

NSF's Grant Proposal Guide defines submission windows as designated periods of time during which proposals will be accepted for review by NSF. For purposes of NSF, the end date of a submission window converts to, and follows the same policies as, a deadline date. (See http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/gpg/nsf04_23/1.jsp#IF.)

  1. Proposals must be submitted within the submission window that begins on the third Monday in September, and ends the first Friday in November each year at 5:00 p.m. submitter's local time.

  2. Proposals that are not in compliance with the NSF GPG may be re-submitted. Such proposals must arrive at NSF within the submission window. Revised proposals submitted either before or after the submission window will be returned without review.

  3. The following types of requests are NOT subject to the submission window restrictions described above. PI’s are strongly encouraged to discuss these submissions with Program Directors prior to submission.

    • Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) or proposals for workshops or conferences may be submitted at any time during the year.
    • Supplements to existing grants to fund Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), Research Experiences for Teachers (RET), Creativity Extensions, or supplement requests for any other purpose, may be submitted at any time during the year.
    • Proposals to the DMR National Facilities Program.
  4. Proposals submitted under an NSF program solicitation are solicited proposals, and are not restricted to the submission window for unsolicited proposals described above. The following DMR programs have proposal solicitations with a deadline that may fall outside the submission window. Please check the appropriate solicitation for the current deadline date.

W. Lance Haworth
Acting Director
Division of Materials Research

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