NSF PAPPG 15-1 Updates and NIH Updates

1. NSF PAPPG 15-1 Updates and NIH Updates OSP Awareness Session February 26, 2015

2. NSF PAPPG (15-1) • Effective for proposals submitted or due on or after December 26, 2014. • Effective for new awards or new increments of funds received on or after December 26, 2014. Link to the NSF PAPPG 15-1

3. Cover Sheet Other Information • A maximum of five countries may be listed in the International Activities Country Name(s) section.

4. Project Description • Was updated to reflect that the project description must now contain, as a separate section within the narrative, a section labeled “Broader Impacts of the Proposed Work”.

5. Results from Prior NSF Support • Was clarified to state that the listing of publications resulting from an NSF award must provide a complete bibliographic citation for each publication in either the Results from Prior NSF Support section or in the References Cited section of the proposal. • Remember to separately address intellectual merit and broader impacts within the this section.

6. Budget Justification • Must be no more than three pages. For proposals that contain a subaward(s), each subaward must include a separate budget justification of no more than three pages.

7. Travel • All travel must be specified, itemized and justified by destination and cost. When budgeting for foreign travel you must include the country to be visited, and dates of visit, if known. • Domestic Travel was redefined to be only travel within and between the US, its territories and possessions. Mexico and Canada would now be considered foreign.

8. MaterialsandSupplies • Includes coverage on costs of computing devices. Clarification on when a computing device is considered a supply is provided.  The charging of computing devices as a direct cost is allowable for devices that are essential and allocable, but not solely dedicated, to the performance of the NSF award.

9. Materials and Supplies, cont’d Guiding Principles for requesting computing devices • Necessary computing devices may be charged in full to a sponsored project when predominantly used in support of the sponsored project. Indicators of predominant use include: • Use by students or staff: for student / staff positions supported by the project at a minimum full time equivalent of 0.5 each year of the requested project period. • Use by faculty: when faculty effort in any amount (including summer) is charged to the grant. • Computers dedicated to lab or field use for data gathering and analysis or for computation are also allowable.

10. Administrative Clerical support costs • Revised to reflect conditions under which inclusion of admin/clerical staff salaries may be appropriate, provided that certain criteria are met. FOUR conditions must all be met and described in the budget justification: • Administrative or clerical salaries are integral to a project or activity; • Individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity; • Such costs are explicitly included in the approved budget or have the prior written approval of the cognizant NSF Grants Officer; and • The costs are not also recovered as indirect costs. • NSF Program Officers are being trained to focus on items 1. and 2. above. • Must be a compelling justification made!

11. Biographical Sketch • Clarification: including personal information in the biosketch is not appropriate.  • The location of the individual’s undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral institution(s) must be provided under the ‘Professional Preparation’ section.  • Clarification is made that the total number of collaborators and co-editors, and graduate advisors and postdoctoral sponsors, related to this proposal, must be identified in the appropriate areas in the Collaborators & Other Affiliations section

12. Subawards • Requirement for proposing institution to make a case-by-case determination regarding the role of subrecipients vs. contractors.  OSP will assist with making these determinations. • Subrecipients supported by a fixed amount award (e.g. - fixed price agreement) must have prior approval of the awarding agency, if not conveyed in budget justification. • Subrecipients (including foreign) without a federally negotiated rate can now charge 10% indirect costs on modified total direct costs.

13. Special Information and Supplementary Documentation • Clarifies the use of letters of collaboration (formerly referred to as letters of commitment). • Such letters should be limited to stating the intent of collaborate and should not contain endorsements or evaluation of the proposed project. • Proposals that are not consistent with the instructions in this section will be returned without review.

14. Proposals for Equipment • Removes the requirement to include a References Cited section for equipment proposals submitted in response to the GPG. • Additionally, the Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources section needs to include a brief description of other support services available.

15. Proposals for Conferences • NSF funds are not to be spent for meals and coffee breaks for intramural meetings of an organization or any of its components as direct costs.  • In addition, Facilities, Equipment and other Resources information is now required for conference proposals

16. Participant Support Costs • Prior Approval is now required to move budget line items out of the following Participant support costs, • Stipend • Subsistence, and • Travel; and into ‘Other’ section of Participant Support Costs. • You may still move funds between the items 1. – 3. without prior approval.

17. Compliance Checking • Page Count: Page count rules will be enforced on the following proposal sections: • Project Description: 15-page limit [exceptions: 8-page limit for Early-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), and 5-page limit for Rapid Response Research (RAPID)] • Budget Justification: 3-page limit for the proposing institution and a separate, 3-page limit for each sub-recipient organization • Mentoring Plan: 1-page limit • Data Management Plan: 2-page limit

18. Compliance Checking • Budget: Budget-related checks will focus on proposal duration and requested amount. • Proposal Section: Proposal sections will be enforced by their funding mechanism for Program Announcement, Program Description and other GPG-type funding opportunities(i.e.- announcements that don’t require certain sections, won’t trip up a warning when that section is not included).

19. Additional Thoughts • Follow all NSF guidance precisely; they have compliance checking capabilities that may flag non-compliant proposals, and return without review • References cited must include the names of all authors (in order they appear in the publication), the article and journal title, book title, volume number, page numbers, and year of publication. If document is available electronically, the web address must also be identified. No et al references for authors!! • Biosketch formats must be GPG compliant, not only for SU, but for outside collaborators as well. Don’t add extra stuff to the Biosketch!! • No headers or footers (other than pagination)

20. Additional Thoughts, cont’d Before you submit, we suggest that you: • Contact your Program Manager EARLY • Pitch your idea and see if they might be interested, or perhaps if there may be other programs interested. • Be sure to cite others work carefully! • Remember that individual Program Announcements take precedence over GPG language, so read carefully. • While the compliance checking is nice, trust your eyes and your ruler!

21. NIH Update

22. National Research Service Award (NRSA) FY15 • Stipend levels increased by 2% for undergraduate, graduate students and postdocs • No changes in tuition, fees, and training related expenses • See NOT-OD-15-048 for details • This means that for SU’s budget purposes GA total compensation (salary + fringe + tuition) increases to $42,840, from $42,000.

23. FY 2015 Fiscal Policy – Salaries and New Investigators Salary Cap - • Limited to Executive Level II – increases to $183,300 from $181,500, effective January 11, 2015. • See NOT-OD-15-049

24. New Biographical Sketch • NIH and AHRQ will require applicants to use the newly published biosketch format for all grant and cooperative agreement applications submitted for due dates on or after May 25, 2015. • The revised forms and instructions are now available and adjustments have been made to improve their usability. The following are some of the features of the new format; • Extends the page limit for the biosketch from four to five pages • Investigators can outline the central findings of prior work and the influence of those findings on the investigator’s field work • Emphasizes accomplishments, not just a listing of publications • For more information: NOT-OD-15-032

25. What’s different about the new format? • New Biosketch format allows investigators to include a link to complete publications listing in SciENcv or My Bibliography. • NIH is updating SciENcv to accommodate the new biosketch format. SciENcv autopopulates from PubMed. • New format allows researchers to describe up to 5 of their most significant contributions to science, along with the historical background that framed their research. • Researchers can list up to 4 relevant peer-reviewed publications or other non-publication research products for each scientific contribution, which increases the potential number of publications from 15 to 20. • Non-publication research products may include audio or video products; patents; data and research materials; databases; educational aids or curricula; instruments or equipment; models; protocols; and software or netware that are relevant to the described contribution. To obtain templates for the new biosketch formatvisit the NIH website under the heading “Additional Format Pages.”

26. SciENcv Tool to Help Build the New Biosketch • The Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv), which serves as an interagency system designed to create biosketches for multiple federal agencies, will be updated by the end of December to support the new biosketch format and to address some issues found in testing. • SciENcv pulls information from available resources making it easy to develop a repository of information that can be readily updated and modified to prepare future biosketches. A YouTube video provides instructions for using SciENcv.

27. NIH Implementation of Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC) • Policy for Institutional Oversight of Life Sciences Dual Use Research of Concern (the Policy) issued on September 24, 2014. • Applies to all New and Renewal awards issued on applications submitted on or after January 25, 2015, and to all non-competing continuation awards issued on or after January 25, 2015. • Institutions have one year (until September 24, 2015) to establish the necessary infrastructure to come into full compliance with the Policy. • NOT-OD-15-017

28. OSP Resources • Amy Deppa (e-applications) asdeppa@syr.edu • Amy Graves (CAS) ajgraves@syr.edu • Meghan MacBlane (iSchool, BBI, IVMF) mtmacbla@syr.edu • Caroline McMullin (Maxwell, SoE) cmcmulli@syr.edu • Mary Ellen Gilbert (LCSmith, CoE, CASE) magilber@syr.edu • Stuart Taub (general questions & Research.gov help) staub@syr.edu