Unless specified in an NSF program solicitation, proposals submitted to NSF must be submitted via use of Research.gov or Grants.gov. Research.gov may be used for proposal preparation, submission, proposal file updates, and budgetary revisions. Research.gov supports preparation and submission of all submission types (letters of intent, preliminary proposals, and full proposals) as well as all proposal types.
Proposers should allow adequate time for processing of proposals. Please refer to the established timelines below.
Guides for Proposal Preparation
General Proposals
- Once logged into Research,gov, select “Proposals”
- Prepare and Submit Proposals
- Prepare New à Full Proposal
- Search and Select Funding Opportunity
- Confirm where to apply
- Select Proposal Type (Research)
- Complete Proposal Details
- Select “Prepare Proposals”
Linking Collaborative Proposals
In order to connect proposals, a non-lead has to initiate the proposal. Once a Temporary ID has been generated, the lead organization can click the Link/View Collaborative Proposals button on their In-Progress Proposal form and initiate a link request. The request must be accepted by the non-lead organization proposal. Once proposals are connected, the title, solicitation number and due date sync with the lead's.
Proposal Building Tips
- If you pre-populate the number of years you need for a budget, you can fill in all of the budget years at once. You can also enter a year and copy it into future years.
- The system will auto-check certain components and give you real time warnings and errors (fonts, margins, too many pages, etc.)
- Research.gov automatically numbers every page of the proposal. Pagination will result in an error message. Please remove all page numbers from each document before uploading.
- Once converted to PDF, some documents will trigger the “margin is less than 1-inch” warning. Remove ALL headers and footers from word documents. If that doesn’t work, make margins longer, e.g. 1.05".
- Select everything in the word document and convert to a single font. One word in a different font is enough to have a document rejected.
- Within Summary section, the headings of "Overview", "Intellectual Merit", and "Broader Impacts" must be on their own line with the body text directly underneath. You have to type the heading, then hit enter, then type the paragraph below the heading.
- Errors will stop a submission but warnings will not. Last-minute proposals are not recommended in Research.gov as these error checks can be time-consuming.
- Save often and frequently. Research.gov will log you out every few hours, regardless of activity. Changes not saved will be lost. Once you receive a warning that you will be logged out, stop what you're doing and save your work before you lose it.
Helpful Resources
About Proposal Preparation and Submission Research.gov Proposal Demo Research.gov How-to Guides