Title  : NSF 94-115  Division of Earth Sciences Letter
Type   : Letter
NSF Org: GEO / EAR
Date   : August 15, 1994
File   : nsf94115



NATIONAL  SCIENCE  FOUNDATION
Division of Earth Sciences
Arlington, VA 22230
August 15, 1994
NSF 94-115  (New)



Dear Colleague:

This will announce a change in the policy of the Division of Earth Sciences 
(EAR) regarding resubmission of unsuccessful proposals.

Research proposal submissions to the Division have continued to increase over 
the past several years.  These increases have impacted both the external review 
community and EAR staff, and the resulting workload is now threatening to 
compromise the attention necessary for the merit review process to function 
properly.  A significant portion (up to 40% in some Programs) of this burden is 
due to resubmissions of unsuccessful proposals, most of which were reviewed in 
the immediately preceding competition.  This creates a negative-feedback 
situation: the growing proposal load takes us longer to process, resulting in 
delays in announcing the decisions and returning reviewer comments to principal 
investigators.  Consequently, immediate resubmissions for our next deadline 
often do not conform to the NSF requirement for substantial revision clearly 
taking into account the major comments resulting from the prior review.

Accordingly, effective immediately, the Division of Earth Sciences will not 
accept revisions of proposals that were considered in the immediately preceding 
semi-annual competition.  Such proposals will be returned to the proposer 
without review, but may be submitted for the following competition.  Proposals 
that cannot be recommended largely on the basis of lack of available funds may 
be held for consideration in the subsequent competition at the discretion of 
the Program Director and with the concurrence of the principal investigator.

We believe that this step will result in substantial benefits to the merit 
review process.  It will allow the submitting investigators adequate time to 
revise the proposal, addressing comments from the prior review, and by reducing 
the total submission rate will reduce the burden on the review community and 
allow NSF Program Directors more time to manage the review process.

Questions regarding this policy may be addressed to Alan Gaines, Head of the 
Research Grants Section, at againes@nsf.gov (Internet) or (703) 306-1553.

     Sincerely yours,


     James F. Hays
     Division Director