NSF Simultaneous Submission of Collaborative Proposals

In a simultaneous submission of proposals from different organizations, each organization requests a separate award. 

A simultaneous submission of the collaborative proposal from multiple organizations is preferred whenever possible due to less administrative burden for the lead organization, quicker access to funding for the non-lead organization, cleaner reporting responsibilities for both. The exception is when the work of the non-lead organization is more contractual in scope rather than as a subaward.

Lead submits

Non-lead submits

Cover sheet

Cover sheet

Project Summary

 

Project Description

 

References cited

 

Biosketch, Current & Pending, Collab & Other Affiliations

Biosketch, Current & Pending, Collab & Other Affiliations

Budget and Justification

Budget and Justification

Facilities and equipment

Facilities and equipment

Data Management Plan

  

Postdoc Mentoring Plan

  

Other supplementary docs

  

 Process for simultaneous submission of a collaborative proposal:

  • (i) Each non-lead organization must assign their proposal a proposal PIN. This proposal PIN and the temporary proposal ID generated by FastLane when the non-lead proposal is created must be provided to the lead organization before the lead organization submits its proposal to NSF.
  • (ii) The lead organization must then enter each non-lead organization(s) proposal PIN and temporary proposal ID into the FastLane lead proposal by using the “Link Collaborative Proposals” option found on the FastLane “Form Preparation” screen.

Research.gov vs. Fastlane

NSF guidance for New "Submission Pending" Status: The Research.gov submission process for separately submitted collaborative proposals is different than the submission process in FastLane.

  • A new Research.gov “Submission Pending” status informs the organization that their proposal submission is pending in a queue until all linked lead and non-lead proposals in the collaboration attain “Submission Pending” status and can be submitted to NSF as a set. 
  • Separately submitted collaborative proposals with a "Submission Pending" status can be edited, but the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must resubmit the edited proposal to return it to a "Submission Pending" status.
  • A Proposal File Update (PFU) is not required to edit the proposal at the "Submission Pending" stage. However, a PFU could be utilized after the entire collaborative set is submitted to NSF and a proposal ID number for each separately submitted collaborative proposal is generated.