NSF Announces New Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (NSF 18-1)

NSF recently issued a revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide, which will be effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 29, 2018. Until then, the current version of the PAPPG will still apply. Please note that this new version of the PAPPG (NSF 18-1) includes some significant modifications and changes, described in NSF notice below.

A recording of the PPAG webinar and presentation can be found here. 

Read the full NSF notice here:

Dear Colleagues:

We are pleased to announce that a revised version of the Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide, (NSF 18-1) has been issued. The PAPPG has been modified in its entirety, to remove all references to the Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) and Award & Administration Guide (AAG). The document will now be referred to solely as the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide. The document will be sequentially numbered from Chapter I-XII and all references throughout have been modified to reflect this change. Given the number of important revisions, the community is strongly encouraged to review the by-chapter summary of changes provided at the beginning of the PAPPG.

The new PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 29, 2018. In addition to the significant change mentioned above, other revisions include:

• Addition of a new eligibility subcategory on international branch campuses of U.S. Institutions of Higher Education;
• Revision of eligibility standards for foreign organizations;
• Implementation of the standard Collaborators and Other Affiliations (COA) template that has been in pilot phase since April;
• Increase in the Budget Justification page limitation from three pages to five pages;
• Restructuring of coverage on grantee notifications to and requests for approval from NSF, including referral to the Prior Approval Matrix available on the NSF website; and
• Numerous clarifications and other changes throughout the document.

A webinar to brief the community on the new PAPPG will be held on December 8th at 2 PM EST. Registration is required on the outreach events website.

While this version of the PAPPG becomes effective on January 29, 2018, in the interim, the guidelines contained in the current PAPPG (NSF 17-1) continue to apply. We will ensure that the current version of the PAPPG remains on the NSF website, with a notation to proposers that specifies when the new PAPPG (including a link to the new Guide) will become effective.

If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact the Policy Office on (703) 292-8243 or by e-mail to policy@nsf.gov.

Regards,

Jean Feldman
Head, Policy Office
Division of Institution and Award Support
Office of Budget, Finance & Award Management

There will be an NSF webinar in January that you can register for on the outreach events website. If you want to start getting up to speed on the new PAPPG, you can review some important points to note based on NSF’s Summary of Changes.