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Important National Science Foundation Updates (Revised)

Principal Investigators,

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released its new Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 23-1), which includes several important updates of which every Principal Investigator (PI) who works with NSF should be aware. The new PAPPG is effective January 30, 2023. This post will review several of the important upcoming changes to NSF Proposals and Awards.  Please contact the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) at osp@boisestate.edu if you have any questions about this posting.

NSF Disclosure Requirements

As part of the proposal preparation process, all senior personnel will be required to submit a Biographical Sketch and a Current and Pending Support document that is certified by the individual that information is current, accurate, and complete. Violation of disclosure requirements may lead to criminal, civil, and/or administrative consequences for the individual. Depending on the circumstances of the disclosure violation, NSF may take any of the following actions:

  • non-acceptance of a proposal submitted to NSF;
  • ensuring that individual(s) who violate these requirements are not permitted to perform work under an NSF award;
  • ineligibility for participation as an NSF reviewer;
  • suspension or termination of an award; and/or
  • placement of the individual or research organization in SAM or the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) to alert other agencies.

Senior Personnel include all PIs, Co-PIs, Project Directors, Co-Project Directors, and other faculty members (or equivalent) listed in the project.

More information will be provided soon to senior personnel regarding the disclosure requirements for NSF and other federal agencies.

Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending Support Templates

For proposals and/or reports submitted on or after October 23, 2023, all biographical sketches and current and pending support documents must be created using aSciENcv; the fillable templates for these documents will no longer be allowed for proposal submission or in the submission of annual and final reports to NSF.

Below are NSF’s reasons for this change:

  • SciENcv will produce an NSF-compliant PDF document that will easily upload into Research.gov without compliance issues since SciENcv will always have the most up to date version.
  • Use of old versions and doctored templates frequently creates errors in Research.gov.
  • The FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Section 223 requires senior personnel to make certifications that documents are accurate, current, and complete.  This certification will occur through the creation of these documents in SciENcv.

Ahead of this deadline, the Center for Research and Creative Activity and OSP encourage all faculty who may participate on sponsored projects as senior personnel (including but not limited to Principal Investigators,  Co-Principal Investigators, and other faculty listed on NSF proposals) to establish a SciENcv account and begin using SciENcv to create proposal documents today. SciENcv is available through the National Library of Medicine. Since SciENcv was built as a cooperative project with the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) and in collaboration with sponsors such as NSF, NIH, DOE, DoD, and many others, your account in SciENcv can be initiated and linked to your Research.gov, eRA Commons, ORCiD, Login.gov, and many other third-party accounts.

The main benefits of SciENcv are:

  • Eliminates the need to repeatedly enter biosketch and current and pending information. Once you have created your profile, you will not need to reenter existing information when you create these documents.
  • Reduces the administrative burden associated with federal grant submission and reporting requirements. Documents created with SciENcv will always comply with the formatting requirements.
  • The Federal government is in the process of implementing standardized forms and NSF is the steward for these common forms. It is anticipated that SciENcv will be able to produce compliant forms for most federal submissions when the standardized forms are finalized.
  • Includes a feature to add a delegate to help you manage documents.
  • Provides access to a researcher-claimed data repository with information on expertise, employment, education, and professional accomplishments.
  • Allows researchers to describe their scientific contributions in their own language.

The Center for Research and Creative Activity will offer training in SciENcv in the Spring. If you are interested in training, please reach out to Anna Drennen (annadrennen@boisestate.edu).

Safe and Inclusive Working Environment Plans for Off-Campus and Off-Site Research

Each proposal that includes off-site or off-campus research submitted on or after January 30, 2023, must also have a plan for Safe and Inclusive Work Environments. This plan does not need to be submitted to NSF, but the PI will be required to provide a copy of the plan to OSP prior to the submission of a proposal.

OSP is working with the Center for Research and Creative Activity, the Office of Research Compliance, and the Office of Institutional Compliance and Ethics to develop compliant templates for PIs to use to develop these plans. Please contact your Pre-Award Research Administrator when you are ready to develop a plan.

Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR or RCR)

Effective July 31, 2023, Boise State University will be required to have a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight on the responsible and ethical conduct of research beyond students and postdocs to also include faculty and other senior personnel who will be supported by NSF to conduct research.

The Office of Research Compliance plans to use the CITI Program to deliver content and assist in documenting training completion.  Expect more details this spring.  If you have immediate questions, please reach out to Matt Lundgren (mattlundgren@boisestate.edu).