NSF 09-559: Social-Computational Systems (SoCS)
Program Solicitation
The SoCS program description is being updated to reflect its fullest interdisciplinary scientific scope.聽 We anticipate that the publication of the revised solicitation will appear in the middle of August; there will be no changes in project budget or PI limits; and the new proposal deadline will be in early November.
Program Solicitation
NSF 09-559
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National Science Foundation |
Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):
September 21, 2009
August 31, 2010
Last Tuesday in August, Annually Thereafter
Revision Notes
Please be advised that the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) includes revised guidelines to implement the mentoring provisions of the America COMPETES Act (ACA) (Pub. L. No. 110-69, Aug. 9, 2007.) As specified in the ACA, each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals. Proposals that do not comply with this requirement will be returned without review (see the PAPP Guide Part I: Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II for further information about the implementation of this new requirement).
Summary Of Program Requirements
General Information
Program Title:
Social-Computational Systems (SoCS)
Synopsis of Program:
The Social-Computational Systems (SoCS) program seeks to reveal new understanding about the properties that systems of people and computers together possess, and to develop a practical understanding of the purposeful design of systems to facilitate socially intelligent computing. By better characterizing, understanding, and eventually designing for desired behaviors arising from computationally mediated groups of people at all scales, new forms of knowledge creation, new models of computation, new forms of culture, and new types of interaction will result. Further, the investigation of such systems and their emergent behaviors and desired properties will inform the design of future systems.
The SoCS program will support research in socially intelligent computing arising from human-computer partnerships that range in scale from a single person and computer to an Internet-scale array of machines and people. The program seeks to create new knowledge about the capabilities these partnerships can demonstrate - new affordances and new emergent behaviors, as well as unanticipated consequences and fundamental limits. The program also seeks to foster new ideas that support even greater capabilities for socially intelligent computing, such as the design and development of systems reflecting explicit knowledge about people's cognitive and social abilities, new models of collective, social, and participatory computing, and new algorithms that leverage the specific abilities of massive numbers of human participants.
The SoCS program seeks to capitalize upon the collaborative knowledge and research methods of investigators in the computational and human sciences, recognizing that researchers in computer science and related disciplines often focus on the limits and capabilities of computation in isolation from the people that use computation, while researchers in the social sciences often focus on the use of technology or the capabilities of people with limited impact on how such knowledge can influence the design of new technologies. Proposals that reflect collaborative efforts spanning computational and human centered approaches and perspectives are specifically encouraged.
Cognizant Program Officer(s):
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Amy L. Baylor, CISE Point of Contact, 1125, telephone: (703) 292-8930, email: abaylor@nsf.gov
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David McDonald, CISE Point of Contact, 1125, telephone: (703) 292-8074, email: dmcdonal@nsf.gov
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Vincent R. Brown, SBE Point of Contact, 995, telephone: (703) 292-7305, email: vrbrown@nsf.gov
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Frederick M. Kronz, SBE Point of Contact, 995, telephone: (703) 292-7283, email: fkronz@nsf.gov
Applicable Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s):
- 47.070 --- Computer and Information Science and Engineering
- 47.075 --- Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Award Information
Anticipated Type of Award: Standard Grant or Continuing Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: 20 to 35 standard or continuing grants in each annual competition. Awards with annual budgets up to $250,000 and durations of up to 3 years will be made.
Anticipated Funding Amount: $15,000,000 in FY 2010 and for each annual competition thereafter, pending the availability of funds.
Eligibility Information
None Specified
None Specified
Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization:
None Specified
Limit on Number of Proposals per PI: 1
An individual may participate in at most one proposal as PI, co-PI or Senior Personnel in any annual competition.
Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions
A. Proposal Preparation Instructions
- Letters of Intent: Not Applicable
- Preliminary Proposal Submission: Not Applicable
- Full Proposal Preparation Instructions: NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide, Part I: Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) proposal preparation guidelines apply.
B. Budgetary Information
- Cost Sharing Requirements: Cost Sharing is not required under this solicitation.
- Indirect Cost (F&A) Limitations: Not Applicable
- Other Budgetary Limitations: Not Applicable
C. Due Dates
- Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):
September 21, 2009
August 31, 2010
Last Tuesday in August, Annually Thereafter
Proposal Review Information Criteria
Merit Review Criteria: National Science Board approved criteria apply.
Award Administration Information
Award Conditions: Standard NSF award conditions apply.
Reporting Requirements: Standard NSF reporting requirements apply.
I. Introduction
Innovations in computing and communications technologies are bringing humans and computers together in powerful new ways. Massive numbers of Internet-based volunteer communities collaboratively write encyclopedia articles of unprecedented scope and scale, craft enormously successful open source software, solve collective problems and perform massive, complex computations that exploit the unused power of millions of computers worldwide. Commerce has been revolutionized; online marketplaces harness the collective behaviors of their participants, create vast storehouses of consumer-supplied reviews, recommend products by matching a consumer's shopping behavior with those other customers with similar behaviors, and set marketplace prices via computationally mediated auctions. Interactive theorem provers and computer-assisted proofs have expanded mathematical prowess to new levels. Search engines are prioritizing pages based on the extent to which each page has been linked to by others across the entire World Wide Web. Political movements are creating new forms of engagement and collective action in political systems worldwide. Millions of people who have never met work together in teams to develop and execute complex activities in online games and virtual worlds. We are witnessing the creation of richly interconnected worlds where people and computers together demonstrate new forms of collaboration, communication, and emergent intelligence that were not previously achievable by people or computers alone.
Yet, as powerful and evocative as such examples may be, they are merely suggestive of the intensely powerful systems of the future that this program targets. NSF defines such systems as socially intelligent computing. Social refers to the interactions among people and increasingly more sophisticated computing technologies; intelligent refers to the emerging intelligence exhibited by such systems as well as their increasing knowledge about people and their interactions with one another and with computers; computing refers to the computation technologies that act as mediators among people, as tools used by people, and as equal or complementary participants with people. These systems generate new, emergent behaviors that arise out of the complex and dynamic interactions among people and computers. Yet there are no adequate theories that explain the behavior of these systems and that can guide us in their purposeful design. Can we understand how such systems give rise to emergent behaviors? What values do they embody and what affordances do they provide? How do we create systems that by design harness the essential characteristics of both people and computers to achieve our ambitions and embody desired behaviors? Ultimately these systems comprise more than computation or human intelligence as we currently think of them in isolation, letting us rethink questions as fundamental as "What is intelligence?" and "What is computable?"
II. Program Description
The Social-Computational Systems (SoCS) program seeks to reveal new understanding about the properties that systems of people and computers together possess, and to develop a practical understanding of the purposeful design of systems to facilitate socially intelligent computing. By better characterizing, understanding, and eventually designing for desired behaviors arising from computationally mediated groups of people at all scales, new forms of knowledge creation, new models of computation, new forms of culture, and new types of interaction will result. Further, the investigation of such systems and their emergent behaviors and desired properties will inform the design of future systems.
The SoCS program will support research in socially intelligent computing arising from human-computer partnerships that range in scale from a single person and computer to an Internet-scale array of machines and people. The program seeks to create new knowledge about the capabilities these partnerships can demonstrate - new affordances and new emergent behaviors, as well as unanticipated consequences and fundamental limits. The program also seeks to foster new ideas that support even greater capabilities for socially intelligent computing, such as the design and development of systems reflecting explicit knowledge about people's cognitive and social abilities, new models of collective, social, and participatory computing, and new algorithms that leverage the specific abilities of massive numbers of human participants.
The SoCS program seeks to capitalize upon the collaborative knowledge and research methods of investigators in the computational and human sciences, recognizing that researchers in computer science and related disciplines often focus on the limits and capabilities of computation in isolation from the people that use computation, while researchers in the human sciences often focus on the use of technology or the capabilities of people with limited impact on how such knowledge can influence the design of new technologies. Proposals that reflect collaborative efforts between computational and human scientists are specifically encouraged.
Representative questions and research challenges of interest to the SoCS program are listed below.
- What design techniques and computational, technical, and social substrates and abstractions enable and facilitate the design of and fullest breadth of behaviors from socially intelligent computing systems? How can we design socially intelligent computing systems for desirable properties and values?
- What methods are effective in studying socially intelligent computing, and how can we effectively compare various types of socially intelligent computing?
- How can we better understand what types of behaviors and what new affordances can emerge or be demonstrated by socially intelligent computing? Can we model or parameterize such systems, helping us understand what is "computable" or what behaviors are achievable or unachievable by socially intelligent computing?
- How does socially intelligent computing arise in scales ranging from a single person and computer to an Internet-scale cloud of machines and people? Can we model or parameterize such systems, helping us to understand what is "intelligence" when humans and computers are most effectively or integrally connected?
- Can greater capabilities be achieved if our computational creations - whether as mediators between people, as tools wielded by people, or as equal or complementary participants with people - were explicitly designed with knowledge of the cognitive, social, cultural, and emotional factors that impact our behaviors?
- How can we leverage unexpected behaviors of socially intelligent computing systems? Can we build systems that are robust to the vagary of motivations, calculation, and communication?
- How are value systems embedded in the algorithms and collective participations and what form do they take? For example, volunteerism is a well-established and studied behavior among people, but what distinctive aspects feature strongly in socially intelligent computing where encyclopedia entries, software elements, and product reviews are created by millions of often anonymous, uncompensated people?
- Communities are central to the lives of people as social creatures, but what distinctive aspects feature strongly in people playing together in virtual world games or socializing through the myriad Internet communities and social networking resources?
- Are there general ways to harness those capabilities in which people currently outperform computers - such as image understanding - with complementary capabilities of computing to achieve behaviors that transcend those of people or computers in isolation?
The SoCS program does not seek to rebuild or incrementally improve on existing exemplary systems. Instead, SoCS is targeting a new horizon of computationally mediated human and machine interactions that reframe what it means to think, learn, compute, work, interact and play. Submissions must make clear how the proposed work would ultimately expand our body of knowledge about designing socially intelligent computing systems. Proposals that describe socially intelligent computing experiments designed to address contemporary economic and social issues are specifically encouraged.
III. Award Information
20 to 35 awards with annual budgets up to $250,000 and durations of up to 3 years will be made in each annual competition. Typical awards will reflect collaborations between investigators in the computational and human sciences. Estimated program budget, number of awards and award size/duration are subject to the availability of funds.
IV. Eligibility Information
None Specified
None Specified
Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization:
None Specified
Limit on Number of Proposals per PI: 1
An individual may participate in at most one proposal as PI, co-PI or Senior Personnel in any annual competition.
Additional Eligibility Info:
V. Proposal Preparation And Submission Instructions
A. Proposal Preparation Instructions
Full Proposal Instructions: Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the guidelines specified in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG). The complete text of the GPG is available electronically on the NSF website at:
https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg. Paper copies of the GPG may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-PUBS (7827) or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov.
Proposers are reminded to identify the program solicitation number (NSF 09-559) in the program solicitation block on the NSF Cover Sheet For Proposal to the National Science Foundation. Compliance with this requirement is critical to determining the relevant proposal processing guidelines. Failure to submit this information may delay processing.
B. Budgetary Information
Cost Sharing: Cost sharing is not required under this solicitation.
C. Due Dates
- Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):
September 21, 2009
August 31, 2010
Last Tuesday in August, Annually Thereafter
D. FastLane Requirements
Proposers are required to prepare and submit all proposals for this program solicitation through use of the NSF FastLane system. Detailed instructions regarding the technical aspects of proposal preparation and submission via FastLane are available at: http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a1/newstan.htm. For FastLane user support, call the FastLane Help Desk at 1-800-673-6188 or e-mail fastlane@nsf.gov. The FastLane Help Desk answers general technical questions related to the use of the FastLane system. Specific questions related to this program solicitation should be referred to the NSF program staff contact(s) listed in Section VIII of this funding opportunity.
Submission of Electronically Signed Cover Sheets. The Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must electronically sign the proposal Cover Sheet to submit the required proposal certifications (see Chapter II, Section C of the Grant Proposal Guide for a listing of the certifications). The AOR must provide the required electronic certifications within five working days following the electronic submission of the proposal. Further instructions regarding this process are available on the FastLane Website at: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp.
VI. NSF Proposal Processing And Review Procedures
Proposals received by NSF are assigned to the appropriate NSF program where they will be reviewed if they meet NSF proposal preparation requirements. All proposals are carefully reviewed by a scientist, engineer, or educator serving as an NSF Program Officer, and usually by three to ten other persons outside NSF who are experts in the particular fields represented by the proposal. These reviewers are selected by Program Officers charged with the oversight of the review process. Proposers are invited to suggest names of persons they believe are especially well qualified to review the proposal and/or persons they would prefer not review the proposal. These suggestions may serve as one source in the reviewer selection process at the Program Officer's discretion. Submission of such names, however, is optional. Care is taken to ensure that reviewers have no conflicts of interest with the proposal.
A. NSF Merit Review Criteria
All NSF proposals are evaluated through use of the two National Science Board (NSB)-approved merit review criteria: intellectual merit and the broader impacts of the proposed effort. In some instances, however, NSF will employ additional criteria as required to highlight the specific objectives of certain programs and activities.
The two NSB-approved merit review criteria are listed below. The criteria include considerations that help define them. These considerations are suggestions and not all will apply to any given proposal. While proposers must address both merit review criteria, reviewers will be asked to address only those considerations that are relevant to the proposal being considered and for which the reviewer is qualified to make judgements.
What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?
How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct the project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of the prior work.) To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts? How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to resources?
What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?
How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)? To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society?
Examples illustrating activities likely to demonstrate broader impacts are available electronically on the NSF website at: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/gpg/broaderimpacts.pdf.
NSF staff also will give careful consideration to the following in making funding decisions:
Integration of Research and Education
One of the principal strategies in support of NSF's goals is to foster integration of research and education through the programs, projects, and activities it supports at academic and research institutions. These institutions provide abundant opportunities where individuals may concurrently assume responsibilities as researchers, educators, and students and where all can engage in joint efforts that infuse education with the excitement of discovery and enrich research through the diversity of learning perspectives.
Integrating Diversity into NSF Programs, Projects, and Activities
Broadening opportunities and enabling the participation of all citizens -- women and men, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities -- is essential to the health and vitality of science and engineering. NSF is committed to this principle of diversity and deems it central to the programs, projects, and activities it considers and supports.
B. Review and Selection Process
Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation will be reviewed by Ad hoc Review and/or Panel Review.
Reviewers will be asked to formulate a recommendation to either support or decline each proposal. The Program Officer assigned to manage the proposal's review will consider the advice of reviewers and will formulate a recommendation.
After scientific, technical and programmatic review and consideration of appropriate factors, the NSF Program Officer recommends to the cognizant Division Director whether the proposal should be declined or recommended for award. NSF is striving to be able to tell applicants whether their proposals have been declined or recommended for funding within six months. The time interval begins on the deadline or target date, or receipt date, whichever is later. The interval ends when the Division Director accepts the Program Officer's recommendation.
A summary rating and accompanying narrative will be completed and submitted by each reviewer. In all cases, reviews are treated as confidential documents. Verbatim copies of reviews, excluding the names of the reviewers, are sent to the Principal Investigator/Project Director by the Program Officer. In addition, the proposer will receive an explanation of the decision to award or decline funding.
In all cases, after programmatic approval has been obtained, the proposals recommended for funding will be forwarded to the Division of Grants and Agreements for review of business, financial, and policy implications and the processing and issuance of a grant or other agreement. Proposers are cautioned that only a Grants and Agreements Officer may make commitments, obligations or awards on behalf of NSF or authorize the expenditure of funds. No commitment on the part of NSF should be inferred from technical or budgetary discussions with a NSF Program Officer. A Principal Investigator or organization that makes financial or personnel commitments in the absence of a grant or cooperative agreement signed by the NSF Grants and Agreements Officer does so at their own risk.
VII. Award Administration Information
A. Notification of the Award
Notification of the award is made to the submitting organization by a Grants Officer in the Division of Grants and Agreements. Organizations whose proposals are declined will be advised as promptly as possible by the cognizant NSF Program administering the program. Verbatim copies of reviews, not including the identity of the reviewer, will be provided automatically to the Principal Investigator. (See Section VI.B. for additional information on the review process.)
B. Award Conditions
An NSF award consists of: (1) the award letter, which includes any special provisions applicable to the award and any numbered amendments thereto; (2) the budget, which indicates the amounts, by categories of expense, on which NSF has based its support (or otherwise communicates any specific approvals or disapprovals of proposed expenditures); (3) the proposal referenced in the award letter; (4) the applicable award conditions, such as Grant General Conditions (GC-1); * or Research Terms and Conditions * and (5) any announcement or other NSF issuance that may be incorporated by reference in the award letter. Cooperative agreements also are administered in accordance with NSF Cooperative Agreement Financial and Administrative Terms and Conditions (CA-FATC) and the applicable Programmatic Terms and Conditions. NSF awards are electronically signed by an NSF Grants and Agreements Officer and transmitted electronically to the organization via e-mail.
*These documents may be accessed electronically on NSF's Website at
https://www.nsf.gov/awards/managing/award_conditions.jsp?org=NSF. Paper copies may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov.
More comprehensive information on NSF Award Conditions and other important information on the administration of NSF awards is contained in the NSF Award & Administration Guide (AAG) Chapter II, available electronically on the NSF Website at
https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=aag.
C. Reporting Requirements
For all multi-year grants (including both standard and continuing grants), the Principal Investigator must submit an annual project report to the cognizant Program Officer at least 90 days before the end of the current budget period. (Some programs or awards require more frequent project reports). Within 90 days after expiration of a grant, the PI also is required to submit a final project report.
Failure to provide the required annual or final project reports will delay NSF review and processing of any future funding increments as well as any pending proposals for that PI. PIs should examine the formats of the required reports in advance to assure availability of required data.
PIs are required to use NSF's electronic project-reporting system, available through FastLane, for preparation and submission of annual and final project reports. Such reports provide information on activities and findings, project participants (individual and organizational) publications; and, other specific products and contributions. PIs will not be required to re-enter information previously provided, either with a proposal or in earlier updates using the electronic system. Submission of the report via FastLane constitutes certification by the PI that the contents of the report are accurate and complete.
VIII. Agency Contacts
General inquiries regarding this program should be made to:
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Amy L. Baylor, CISE Point of Contact, 1125, telephone: (703) 292-8930, email: abaylor@nsf.gov
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David McDonald, CISE Point of Contact, 1125, telephone: (703) 292-8074, email: dmcdonal@nsf.gov
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Vincent R. Brown, SBE Point of Contact, 995, telephone: (703) 292-7305, email: vrbrown@nsf.gov
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Frederick M. Kronz, SBE Point of Contact, 995, telephone: (703) 292-7283, email: fkronz@nsf.gov
For questions related to the use of FastLane, contact:
- FastLane Help Desk, telephone: 1-800-673-6188; e-mail: fastlane@nsf.gov.
In addition to the Program Officers identified above, the following Program Officers will also support the SoCS program:
Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
- Bill Bainbridge, (703) 292-8930, wbainbri@nsf.gov, Room 1125
- Doug Fisher, (703) 292-8930, dhfisher@nsf.gov, Room 1125
- Sol Greenspan, (703) 292-8910, sgreensp@nsf.gov, Room 1108
- Tanya Korelsky, (703) 292-8930, tkorelsk@nsf.gov, Room 1125
Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
- Li Ping, (703) 292-8643, pli@nsf.gov, Room 995
- Amber Story, (703) 292-7249, astory@nsf.gov, Room 995
- Stephen Zehr, (703) 292-7318, szehr@nsf.gov, Room 995
IX. Other Information
The NSF Website provides the most comprehensive source of information on NSF Directorates (including contact information), programs and funding opportunities. Use of this Website by potential proposers is strongly encouraged. In addition, National Science Foundation Update is a free e-mail subscription service designed to keep potential proposers and other interested parties apprised of new NSF funding opportunities and publications, important changes in proposal and award policies and procedures, and upcoming NSF Regional Grants Conferences. Subscribers are informed through e-mail when new publications are issued that match their identified interests. Users can subscribe to this service by clicking the "Get NSF Updates by Email" link on the NSF web site.
Grants.gov provides an additional electronic capability to search for Federal government-wide grant opportunities. NSF funding opportunities may be accessed via this new mechanism. Further information on Grants.gov may be obtained at http://www.grants.gov.
About The National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent Federal agency created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (42 USC 1861-75). The Act states the purpose of the NSF is "to promote the progress of science; [and] to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare by supporting research and education in all fields of science and engineering."
NSF funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering. It does this through grants and cooperative agreements to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, K-12 school systems, businesses, informal science organizations and other research organizations throughout the US. The Foundation accounts for about one-fourth of Federal support to academic institutions for basic research.
NSF receives approximately 40,000 proposals each year for research, education and training projects, of which approximately 11,000 are funded. In addition, the Foundation receives several thousand applications for graduate and postdoctoral fellowships. The agency operates no laboratories itself but does support National Research Centers, user facilities, certain oceanographic vessels and Antarctic research stations. The Foundation also supports cooperative research between universities and industry, US participation in international scientific and engineering efforts, and educational activities at every academic level.
Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities provide funding for special assistance or equipment to enable persons with disabilities to work on NSF-supported projects. See Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II, Section D.2 for instructions regarding preparation of these types of proposals.
The National Science Foundation has Telephonic Device for the Deaf (TDD) and Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) capabilities that enable individuals with hearing impairments to communicate with the Foundation about NSF programs, employment or general information. TDD may be accessed at (703) 292-5090 and (800) 281-8749, FIRS at (800) 877-8339.
The National Science Foundation Information Center may be reached at (703) 292-5111.
The National Science Foundation promotes and advances scientific progress in the United States by competitively awarding grants and cooperative agreements for research and education in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. To get the latest information about program deadlines, to download copies of NSF publications, and to access abstracts of awards, visit the NSF Website at https://www.nsf.gov
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Privacy Act And Public Burden Statements
The information requested on proposal forms and project reports is solicited under the authority of the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended. The information on proposal forms will be used in connection with the selection of qualified proposals; and project reports submitted by awardees will be used for program evaluation and reporting within the Executive Branch and to Congress. The information requested may be disclosed to qualified reviewers and staff assistants as part of the proposal review process; to proposer institutions/grantees to provide or obtain data regarding the proposal review process, award decisions, or the administration of awards; to government contractors, experts, volunteers and researchers and educators as necessary to complete assigned work; to other government agencies or other entities needing information regarding applicants or nominees as part of a joint application review process, or in order to coordinate programs or policy; and to another Federal agency, court, or party in a court or Federal administrative proceeding if the government is a party. Information about Principal Investigators may be added to the Reviewer file and used to select potential candidates to serve as peer reviewers or advisory committee members. See Systems of Records, NSF-50, "Principal Investigator/Proposal File and Associated Records," 69 Federal Register 26410 (May 12, 2004), and NSF-51, "Reviewer/Proposal File and Associated Records, " 69 Federal Register 26410 (May 12, 2004). Submission of the information is voluntary. Failure to provide full and complete information, however, may reduce the possibility of receiving an award.
An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. The OMB control number for this collection is 3145-0058. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 120 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions. Send comments regarding the burden estimate and any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to:
Suzanne H. Plimpton
Reports Clearance Officer
Division of Administrative Services
National Science Foundation
Arlington, VA 22230
