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Title: A Submission Window for Unsolicited Proposals to DMR
Date: 03/22/06



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.

        * Instrumentation for Materials Research (IMR), including
          Instrumentation for Materials Research – Major
          Instrumentation Projects (IMR-MIP)
        * Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC)
        * Materials World Network: Cooperative Activity in Materials
          Research between US Investigators and their Counterparts Abroad
          (MWN)
        * Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM)
        * International Materials Institutes (IMI)



W. Lance Haworth
Acting Director
Division of Materials Research