NSF Collaborative Proposals
Collaborative proposals are those in which investigators from two or more organizations wish to collaborate on a unified research project. They may be submitted to NSF in one of two methods: as a single proposal, in which a single award is being requested (with subawards administered by the lead organization); or by simultaneous submission of proposals from different organizations, with each organization requesting a separate award (lead institution links the separate awards in Research.gov).
Single Proposal
To complete a subaward budget:
- As lead institution/PI: On the "Form Preparation" screen, select "Budgets" and "Go to Form." On the "Organization Selector" screen click on "Add New Org.", and pull up the subaward organization. Then on the "Organization Selector" screen click on "Use" to create a budget for an organization (may need to “Add Senior Person”). You will need to add the subaward total amount of request to item G.5 Subawards of the PI's Awardee organization budget.
For proposals involving subawards, see Obtain Subrecipient Information.
Simultaneous Submission
The collaborative proposal mechanism requires that one institution be named the "lead" for the purpose of submitting the proposal. The lead institution is typically the one whose scientists are doing the bulk of the work in terms of writing the proposal and/or those that will manage the largest portion of the funds should the proposal be awarded.
Who does what
- Both the lead and non-lead institutions must create a new proposal in Research.gov.
- When completing the cover sheet, institutions should list only those PIs and coPIs affiliated with their own institution.
- The proposal title must begin with "Collaborative Research:" and all titles, start dates, durations, and NSF programs must be the same across the institutions.
Lead institutions’ submission will include a:
- Proposal Cover Sheet;
- Project Summary;
- Project Description;
- References Cited;
- Biographical Sketches (for senior personnel affiliated with their institution);
- Budgets and budget justification (for the portion of work to be managed by their institution);
- Current & Pending Support;
- Data Management Plan; and
- Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources (for their institution).
- Post-doc Mentoring Plan (if required) for the entire project
- All supplementary single copy documents (ie conflicts of interest tables)
- Any other supplementary documents (ie letters of commitment, quotes, etc.) allowed by the program
Non-lead institution submissions must include the following for their organization. The project summary, project description, and references cited (which are the same for all collaborating organizations) are only submitted by the Lead.
- Cover Sheet
- Budget and budget justification (for the portion of work to be managed by their institution)
- Facilities, Equipment & Other Resources (for their institution)
- Proposal Classification Form (if submitting to BIO)
- Biographical Sketches (for senior personnel affiliated with their institution)
- Current & Pending Support (for senior personnel affiliated with their institution)
While it is acceptable for the non-lead institutions to upload their own supplementary documents, it is recommended that this only be done by the lead institution so that the order of the documents can be controlled.
Linking the Proposals Together
Important: None of the proposals should be submitted to NSF until they are all linked together.
- Once the proposals are linked, Research.gov will combine the proposal submission for printing or electronic viewing.
Collaborative proposals require simultaneous submission of proposals. One organization has the lead role but all are required to submit their original proposal to NSF.
For Research.gov, this means that
- Each organization prepares their proposal (thus creating a temporary proposal number).
- Each non-lead institution provides the temporary proposal number to the lead institution.
- The lead institution initiates linking by entering each non-lead institution’s proposal ID in Research.gov by using the “Link Collaborative Proposals” option found on the “Form Preparation Screen.” The lead institution will 'SEND LINK REQUEST' to the non-lead.
- The request must be accepted by the non-lead in the non-lead institution proposal in the Link/View Collaborative Proposals page.
- The lead institution will see the non-lead institutions that have accepted or rejected links as well as any pending link requests.
- Each institution can continue to do work on their own institution’s proposal, and submit when ready "within a reasonable timeframe of one another" (thus non-lead institutions can submit before the lead institution, as long as the lead institution has linked the proposals; non-lead institutions can also submit after the lead).
- When you are working with no external deadline, coordination and communication between the collaborators becomes more important. Historically, NSF has required that collaborative proposal be submitted within "a reasonable timeframe of one another" but hasn't stated what they consider reasonable.
- After linking, each institution submits their proposal. Thus, each institution comes up with a different proposal number – but, in Research.gov, those separate proposals are linked together for printing or electronic viewing (with NO new collaborative number).
OSP is not able to see the submission status of linked proposals. Therefore, PI’s should verify the successful submission of lead and non-lead institution proposals.
Reviewing Linked Proposals
It is important to review the full proposal document that will be submitted. Both the lead and non-lead institutions can review the proposal when linked. To do this, simply click the "Print Proposal" button in Research.gov. All components of proposal that have been uploaded into Research.gov will appear as a PDF file.
NOTE: While non-lead proposals do not have to be submitted on the same day as the lead collaborative, PAPPG states that all components of the collaborative proposal must meet any established deadline date, and failure to do so may result in the entire collaborative proposal being returned without review. NSF requires submission of linked proposals within "a reasonable time" of one another but does not set a specific timeframe. OSP recommends within 48 hours of each other to help ensure a successful submission.
