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Guidelines for Submission of Supplemental Funding Requests to the Division of Chemistry

Under certain circumstances, PIs of grants supported by the Division of Chemistry may request supplemental funding to their awards while their awards are active. In general, such requests provide the agility to respond to unforeseen circumstances that might jeopardize completion of a project; and to exploit opportunities in basic research and education that occur between the issuance of the original award and its expiration date. A supplemental funding request always should be discussed first with the cognizant program officer and should be submitted early enough to accomplish the original scope of the project within the period of performance established in the grant. Supplemental funding requests received by NSF that have not previously been discussed with the cognizant program officer may be returned without review.

Common examples of supplemental funding requests in the Division of Chemistry include: replacement or repair of damaged instruments or their components; opportunities for international collaborations; initiatives that integrate research and education; addition to projects of faculty from primarily undergraduate institutions (Research Opportunities Award [ROA] program), undergraduates (Research Experiences for Undergraduates [REU] program), and K-12 teachers (Research Experiences for Teachers [RET] program); and travel to national research centers for access to specialized facilities and expertise.1 These examples are meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive.

Additional information on supplemental funding may be found in the Grant Proposal Guide (Chapter V, Section B.4),2 and in the Grant Policy Manual (Section 264).3 Supplemental funding requests may be submitted at any time throughout the year. PIs should recognize, however, that the funds available for support of supplements are limited.

  1. NIST: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf03568/nsf03568.htm
    NIH: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1998/nsf9848/nsf9848.pdf
    DOE: https://www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?nsf04025
  2. https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf042/5.htm#VB4
  3. https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02151/gpm2.htm#264