Preparing Supplemental Funding Requests in Research.gov and Upcoming FastLane Proposal Decommissioning Deadlines

*The below message was shared on behalf of the National Science Foundation (NSF)*

Dear Colleagues:

We are pleased to announce that supplemental funding requests including Career-Life Balance requests can now be prepared in Research.gov. Supplemental funding requests can be submitted in Research.gov regardless of the system used (Research.gov, FastLane, or Grants.gov) for proposal submission. FastLane supplemental funding request functionality will remain available in parallel for the preparation and submission of new requests until January 27, 2023.

In addition, the last two proposal types for the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) will be enabled in Research.gov for the fiscal year (FY) 2023 competitions. With all proposal and submission types soon fully supported in Research.gov, the system will be ready for the transition from FastLane for the preparation and submission of all new proposals in late January 2023, when the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 23-1) is effective. The last day to submit new proposals in FastLane is January 27, 2023.

Please see the table of important FastLane transition deadlines below. Additional information will be forthcoming on the transition of other FastLane functionality and a FastLane Decommissioning webpage is being developed.

Important FastLane Proposal Preparation and Supplemental Funding Request Transition Deadlines

New Supplemental Funding Request Functionality

• The Research.gov Supplemental Funding Request System has many features to help reduce administrative burden, including:

• • Intuitive and dynamic interfaces which provide only relevant preparation options;
  • Inline help features;
  • Fast document uploads and immediate feedback within each section; and
  • Automated compliance checks with specific, actionable warning and error messages.
• The new Research.gov Supplemental Funding Request Demo Site can be used to explore preparing supplemental requests and to check the compliance of uploaded documents.
• The supplemental funding request functionality and demo site are accessible from new links within the Awards & Reporting tile on the Research.gov My Desktop page after signing in to Research.gov.
• Topic-specific Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and demo site guidance are posted on the new Research.gov About Supplemental Funding Request Preparation and Submission page.
• Please refer to PAPPG Chapter VI.E.5. for supplemental funding request policy guidance.

New SBIR and STTR Proposal Types

• Proposers will prepare and submit SBIR and STTR Phase I and Phase II proposals in Research.gov for the FY 2023 competitions.
• SBIR and STTR proposal types will be available to try out on the Research.gov Proposal Preparation Demo Site (you will be prompted to sign in to Research.gov if you are not already signed in) after the SBIR and STTR program solicitations for the FY 2023 competitions are published.

Research.gov Proposal and Supplemental Funding Request Feedback

NSF wants your feedback on the proposal preparation and submission functionality, as well as on the new supplemental funding request enhancements. Your input helps NSF to ensure the systems and demo site features are working as intended and to identify areas of improvement. Feedback may be submitted on the Research.gov Feedback page. Submitted feedback is reviewed on an ongoing basis by NSF’s Research.gov Business Office.

Questions? If you have IT system-related questions, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 (7:00 AM – 9:00 PM ET; Monday – Friday except federal holidays) or via email to rgov@nsf.gov. Policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov.

Regards,

National Science Foundation