Updates to NSF Research Security Policies

On July 10, 2025, NSF issued an Important Notice providing updates to the agency's research security policies, including a research security training requirement, Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program annual certification requirement, prohibition on Confucius institutes and an updated FFDR reporting and submission timeline.

Research Terms and Conditions

This page contains federal-wide and agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions. These conditions may apply to grants, cooperative agreements or other award instruments, depending upon the agency.

Effective October 1, 2024, the U.S. National Science Foundation Research Terms and Conditions and Agency-specific Terms and Conditions will no longer be issued as separate documents.

These terms and conditions have been incorporated into the Grant General Conditions, Cooperative Agreement Conditions, and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Terms and Conditions.

Recipients that received NSF awards issued prior to October 1, 2024, will follow the terms and conditions issued at the time of award. This page provides access to the archived documents, which remain applicable to awards issued prior to October 1, 2024.

Federal-wide Research Terms and Conditions

The federal-wide Research Terms and Conditions implement the changes to the Uniform Guidance that were mandated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Research Terms and Conditions (Nov. 12, 2020) (PDF, 758.57 KB)

This overlay document incorporates the Uniform Guidance by reference, clarifying or supplementing select provisions where appropriate and consistent with government-wide research policy.  View the technical corrections statement. (PDF, 140.5 KB)

Appendix A: Prior Approval Matrix (Nov. 2020) (PDF, 263.3 KB)

This document lists prior approvals that award recipients must obtain from the agency administering their research proposal.

Appendix B: Subaward Requirements (Nov. 2020) (PDF, 249.73 KB)

This document outlines subaward requirements for different organization types.

Appendix C: National Policy Requirements (Nov. 2020) (PDF, 613.91 KB)

This document lists statutory, regulatory and executive requirements for research awards.


Agency Implementation Statements

These statements provide specific details on how participating agencies are implementing the revised Research Terms and Conditions mandated by OMB.

Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

DHS does not have agency-specific requirements.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

National Science Foundation (NSF)

Effective October 1, 2024, the NSF Research Terms and Conditions and Agency-specific Terms and Conditions will no longer be issued as separate documents.

The Agency-specific Terms and Conditions provided in the May 20, 2024 release were incorporated into the latest versions of the Grant General Conditions, Cooperative Agreement Conditions, and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Terms and Conditions available on the Award Terms and Conditions webpage.

Recipients awarded prior to October 1, 2024 will follow the terms and conditions issued at the time of award.

U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA/NIFA)