National Science Foundation - Where Discoveries Begin

Only individuals may submit proposals. There is no limit on the number of fellows that an institution may host.

A university or organization may submit no more than three Institutional Infrastructure (II) proposals per competition.  There is no limit on Community Infrastructure (CI) proposals per competition.

These eligibility constraints will be strictly enforced in order to treat everyone fairly and consistently. In the event that an institution or organization exceeds this limit, proposals received within the limit will be accepted based on the earliest date and time of proposal submission (i.e., the first three II proposals received will be accepted and the remainder will be returned without review). No exceptions will be made.

Alliances: Only one proposal may be submitted by an eligible (lead) institution. Alliances may hold only one active alliance award at a time.  Institutions partnering in an alliance may not be a formal partner in more than one alliance at the same time.  This eligibility applies to proposals for STEM Pathways Implementation-Only Alliances, Bridge to the Baccalaureate Alliances and Louis Stokes STEM Pathways and Research Alliances.

Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Activity:  One proposal for BD support may be submitted annually by an eligible alliance institution.  Beginning in FY2018, an institution may have only one active BD award.  New proposals for additional cohorts may be submitted in the competition closest to the active BD award's expiration date.

Louis Stokes Regional Centers of Excellence in Broadening Participation (LSRCE):  One proposal may be submitted by eligible lead institutions/organizations annually.  Organizations may have only one active center award.  All active alliances are eligible to submit LSRCE proposals as lead organizations.

Pre-Alliance Planning: Only one proposal may be submitted by an eligible institution.

Three Site proposals may be submitted per competition by a U.S. academic institution, including a College/Department of Engineering, Engineering Technology, or Computer and/or Information Science as the lead institution. No more than two of the three proposals may have an engineering focus and only one of the three proposals may have a computer and/or information science focus.

Potential PIs are advised to contact their institutional office of research regarding processes used to select proposals for submission.

An organization may serve as sole submitting institution or as lead institution of a collaborative project on only one submission per competition, regardless of track, but may serve as the non-lead institution of a collaborative project more than once per competition. Additional eligibility requirements are described later in the solicitation.

Potential PIs are advised to contact their institutional office of research regarding processes used to select proposals for submission.

An institution or organization may serve as lead on no more than three (3) proposals submitted to the November deadline. However, an institution or organization may partner as a subaward on other proposals submitted.

An eligible EPSCoR jurisdiction may submit only one Research Infrastructure Improvement Track-1 (RII Track-1) proposal in response to this solicitation. In addition, only the designated fiscal agent/proposing organization, acting on behalf of a jurisdiction's EPSCoR steering committee, may submit the RII Track-1 proposal.

There are no restrictions or limits on the number of proposals per organization. However, there is a limitation on the number of submissions per scientist as noted below.

Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation cannot be duplicates of proposals to any other Federal agency for simultaneous consideration. The only exceptions to this rule are: (1) when the program officers at the relevant Federal agencies have previously agreed to joint review and possible joint funding of the proposal; or (2) proposals for PIs who are beginning investigators (individuals who have not been a PI or co-PI on a Federally funded award with the exception of doctoral dissertation, postdoctoral fellowship or research planning grants). For proposers who qualify under this latter exception, the box for "Beginning Investigator" must be checked on the Cover Sheet.

An organization may submit only one proposal but may be identified as sub-awardee on other proposals responding to this solicitation.  The restriction to no more than one submitted proposal as lead institution is to help ensure that there is appropriate institutional commitment necessary for responsible oversight, by the potential awardee institution, of a national resource.

Collaborative projects may only be submitted as a single proposal in which a single award is being requested. The involvement of partner organizations should be supported through sub-awards administered by the submitting organization.

An organization may participate as submitting organization (or, in the case of collaborative proposals, as the lead organization) for at most one proposal responsive to this solicitation.  

Proposal submissions are limited to 1 per organization (except as non-lead in a collaborative proposal) to maintain a balanced geographic representation of the Regional Hubs and Spokes program and to increase diversity of participating institutions.

Organizations may only be a participant in one proposal per deadline. In addition, organizations may only be associated with one I-Corps Node that is receiving funding from NSF at a given time.

PLEASE NOTE: Institutions that are the Lead organization for a Node award which is ending may only participate in a Track 2 proposal submission.

An Institution may submit one proposal (either as a single institution or as subawardee or a member of a Collaborative Research project) from each constituent school or college that awards degrees in an eligible field. See Additional Eligibility Information below for more details.

There are no restrictions or limits for SSE and SSI proposals.

Each organization may only submit one S²I² Conceptualization proposal within the calendar year.

There is no limit to the number of proposals an eligible Institution may submit to this program, as long as each proposed Site belongs to a different IUCRC.  

One for IT-Preliminary, Institutional Transformation (IT), or Adaptation; no limit for Partnership, ADVANCE Resource and Coordination Network, and ADVANCE Longitudinal Evaluation:

• IT-Preliminary: Non-profit academic institutions are allowed to submit one preliminary proposal in the competition.
• IT and Adaptation: Non-profit academic institutions are allowed to submit one proposal in the competition to either the IT (if invited after the preliminary proposal stage) or the Adaptation track but not both. 
• Non-profit, non-academic organizations are allowed to submit one Adaptation proposal in the competition and may also be a partner on Partnership and/or ADVANCE Resource and Coordination Network proposals.
• A non-profit academic institution or non-profit, non-academic organization may be a partner on multiple Partnership proposals in the same competition but lead only one and may also be a partner on an ADVANCE Resource and Coordination Network and/or an ADVANCE Longitudinal Evaluation proposal if appropriate.  

HBCU-UP Proposals:

• An eligible institution can submit only one Implementation Project or ACE Implementation Project proposal per year. An institution may have only one active Implementation Project or ACE Implementation Project award. However, a new proposal can be submitted by an institution with an active project if that project is due to expire before new awards will be made. Also, an institution can be awarded, at most, three Implementation Projects and one ACE Implementation Project over time.
• An eligible institution can submit only one Broadening Participation Research Center proposal and can have only one active center. The lead institution of the center proposal must have been awarded three rounds of an Implementation or ACE Implementation Project and must demonstrate the capacity to conduct broadening participation research.
• An eligible institution can submit no more than two Broadening Participation Research proposals per year.
• An eligible institution can submit no more than two Targeted Infusion Project proposals per year and can only have one active Targeted Infusion Project for any given department or unit.
• An eligible institution can submit no more than two Research Initiation Award proposals per year.

Only one proposal may be submitted on behalf of any single facility per round of the FSML competition. This limitation does not prevent a single institution from submitting more than one proposal, as long as each proposal is submitted on behalf of a different eligible facility. This limitation is waived for one additional proposal in the event that a facility is also involved in a proposal that would improve multiple facilities.

In a single round of the CSBR competition, only one proposal may be submitted from any individual collection within an organization. One organization may not submit more than three proposals to any one CSBR competition.

Only one Thematic Collections Networks (TCN) proposal may be submitted by any one organization as the lead organization. Organizations may be involved in more than one collaborative effort as a non-lead proposal.

Only one proposal may be submitted by an eligible organization, as defined above, in which a member of their organization serves as the PI. Potential PIs are advised to contact their institutional office of research regarding processes used to select proposals for submission. Organizations submitting more than one proposal will be notified and given one week from notification to select one proposal for consideration. If one is not selected in that time period, all of those proposals will be returned without review. There is no limit on the number of proposals under which an organization may be included as a non-lead collaborator or sub-awardee.

Three (3) as described below. Potential PIs are advised to contact their institutional office of research regarding processes used to select proposals for submission.

If three proposals are submitted, at least one of the proposals must be for instrument development (i.e., no more than two proposals may be for instrument acquisition). 

To ensure a balanced instrumentation award portfolio at diverse organizations, across varied research topics, and in support of a broadly inclusive science and engineering workforce across the entire Nation, the MRI program requires that an MRI-eligible organization may, as a performing organization, submit or be included as a significantly funded¹ subawardee in no more than three MRI proposals.  To promote instrumentation development, the program requires that if an organization submits or is included as a significantly funded¹ subawardee in three MRI proposals, at least one of the three proposals must be for (Track 2) instrument development. 

NSF reserves the right to carefully examine development (Track 2) proposals to ensure that they meet the requirements for this proposal type (see Section II).  If a proposal submitted as development is deemed to be an acquisition proposal either before or during the review, the proposal is subject to return without review or decline.

¹An unfunded collaboration does not count against the submission limit.  Inclusion as a funded subawardee on a development (Track 2) proposal at a level in excess of 20% of the total budget requested from NSF, or as a funded subawardee on any acquisition (Track 1) proposal, will be counted against an organization's proposal submission limit. Separately submitted linked collaborative proposals of either type (Track 1 or Track 2) count against the submission limit of each of the submitting organizations. However, if a subaward to an organization in a development (Track 2) proposal is 20% or less of the proposal's total budget request from NSF, the subawardee's submission limit will not be affected. For subawards within a linked collaborative proposal, the 20% threshold applies to the budget request from NSF in the proposal containing the subaward(s), not to the combined budget request from NSF for the collaborative project.

Note: The 30% cost-sharing requirement applies to only the portion of the total project cost budgeted to non-exempt organizations, including those participating through subawards. When required, cost-sharing must be precisely 30%. Cost sharing is required for Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education and for non-degree-granting organizations. Non-Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education are exempt from  cost-sharing and cannot provide it. National Science Board policy is that voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited. See section V.B. for specific information on cost-sharing calculations and the solicitation text for definitions of organizational types used for the MRI program.