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Title: Dear Colleague Letter: Changes to the Funding Cycle and Proposal Due 
       Dates for Senior Awards and Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement 
	   Grants in the Biological Anthropology Program (BCS, SBE)
Date: 08/07/12

NSF 12-115

Dear Colleague Letter: Changes to the Funding Cycle and Proposal Due Dates
for Senior Awards and Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants in
the Biological Anthropology Program (BCS, SBE)

   Programs throughout the National Science Foundation have experienced
   substantial increases in the number of proposals submitted and a
   concurrent decline in the percentage of those proposals which can be
   funded under current budgetary realities. The increase in proposals,
   and the growing likelihood that a large number of these must be
   revised and resubmitted under stringent time constraints post merit
   review and notification, has accentuated the burden on all members of
   the research community, including principal investigators, external
   reviewers, and advisory panel members. In response to these pressures,
   programs within the Foundation are instituting constructive changes in
   the structure of their submission and review policies and procedures.
   Those changes for the Biological Anthropology Program are detailed in
   this letter to the community.

   Effective beginning August 2012, the Biological Anthropology Program
   (Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, Directorate for
   Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences) will convert to an 8-month
   interval between competitions for both the regular research (Senior)
   awards and the doctoral dissertation research improvement grants
   (DDRIG). There will be no alterations to the scope of the programs or
   to the merit review procedures for each, the requirements for
   proposals submitted to each remain unchanged, and investigators should
   anticipate receipt of decisions on proposals within the same timeframe
   (most typically, within 6 months of the submission deadline/target
   date). There will be an impact on the deadline/target dates for the
   two competitions and the purpose of this letter is to convey those
   changes.

     * The target date for submission of regular research (Senior)
       proposals for the next funding cycle will be altered in the
       process of establishing the new format. The original target date
       for the 2012 fall funding cycle of 20 August 2012 has been changed
       to 7 December 2012. Subsequent target dates will fall on the first
       Friday of the month following the 8-month interval: 2 August 2013;
       4 April 2014; 5 December 2014.

     * The deadline for submission of dissertation research proposals for
       the 2012 fall funding cycle remains unchanged: 16 August 2012. The
       subsequent submission deadlines will reflect the newly instituted
       8-month interval and will be the first Friday of the appropriate
       month: 5 April 2013; 6 December 2013; 1 August 2014. These remain
       firm deadlines.

   Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program proposals will
   continue to be due on the NSF-announced full proposal annual deadline
   for the Directorate (SBE); 24 July 2013 for the next competition.
   Other funding mechanisms eligible for support through the Biological
   Anthropology Program which do not have set, recurring due dates for
   proposal submission are not affected by these program changes.

   Members of the community are encouraged to contact the program
   director with any questions regarding these structural changes:
   Carolyn L. Ehardt, Program Director, Biological Anthropology Program;
   703.292.7850; [1]cehardt@nsf.gov.

   Sincerely,

   Mark L. Weiss
   Director, Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
   Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
   National Science Foundation

References

   1. mailto:cehardt@nsf.gov