The University of Akron’s Office of Research Administration has been informed by the Head of the Policy Office at the National Science Foundation, Jean Feldman, of the following changes:

“We are pleased to announce that a revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 22-1) has been issued.

The new PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted or due on or after October 4, 2021. Significant changes include:

• A new section covering requests for reasonable and accessibility accommodations regarding the proposal process or requests for accessibility accommodations to access NSF’s electronic systems, websites and other digital content;
• A table entitled, NSF Pre-award and Post-award Disclosures Relating to the Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending Support. This table identifies where pre- and post-award current and pending support disclosure information must be provided. Proposers and awardees may begin using this table immediately;
• Increasing the page limit for the biographical sketch from two to three pages;
• Updates to the current and pending support section of NSF proposals to require that information on objectives and overlap with other projects is provided to help NSF and reviewers assess overlap/duplication;
• Adding planning proposals and Career-Life Balance supplemental funding requests as new proposal types;
• Updates to travel proposals will require that AORs certify that prior to the proposer’s participation in the meeting for which NSF travel support is being requested, the proposer will assure that the meeting organizer has a written policy or code-of-conduct addressing harassment.

You are encouraged to review the by-chapter summary of changes provided in the Introduction section of the PAPPG.

NSF plans to conduct a webinar covering these changes. Visit the NSF policy outreach website to sign up for notifications about this and other outreach events.

While this version of the PAPPG becomes effective on October 4, 2021, in the interim, the guidelines contained in the current PAPPG (NSF 20-1) continue to apply. 

If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact the DIAS/Policy Office at policy@nsf.gov.”