Happy Holidays Everyone!

Now that we’ve made it through the fall semester, it’s time to take a much earned break. But don’t break too hard, Spring will be here before you know it! Speaking of spring 2017, there’s a couple of things to put on everyone’s radar, especially those of you seeking NSF funding.

First, NSF’s proposal guidelines are changing, effective January 30. We’ll be doing a more in-depth review of the changes, but for those of you familiar with the grant proposal guide, or GPG as it’s affectionately known, it’ll be a sad day as the GPG has officially been replaced with the PAPPG, the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide. Other than the name change though there aren’t too many differences, at least for you grant writers. The main changes are the addition of two new funding mechanisms (RAISE and GOALI), and clarifying instructions for the Collaborators and Other Affiliations Information sections. If you’d like to read over the changes yourself here’s the link: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pubsumm.jsp?odskey=nsf17001

NSF also has numerous programs coming due on or around January 17th. Keep this in mind, as that date will sneak up on you with the holidays and the start of the semester. For those of you who are interested in applying for the NSF CAREER program next summer, you’ll want to plan on attending OPD’s spring CAREER workshop series. These workshops cover a range of topics, all centered around CAREER, including education and broader impact plans, evaluation, budgeting, and for the first time this year, coordinated pre-reviews by peers. Details and registration for these workshops can be found on the NSF CAREER Toolkit at https://www.research.fsu.edu/research-offices/opd/nsf-career-toolkit/. The toolkit itself is also a great resource for any potential CAREER applicant, as it includes a wide array of resources to help you through the process.

Other workshops for spring are planned as well, starting with How to Navigate the Research Offices given by OPD Director Beth Hodges on January 20th. This is a great one for anyone involved in the proposal process, staff or faculty, as it walks you through the roles and responsibilities of each office under the Office of Research. Staff from these offices, including Sponsored Research, will be available to answer any questions you might have.

We’re also pleased to offer a new workshop this spring, specifically focused on the aftermath of a rejected proposal. Those of you who have been in the game for a while know that rejection is a fact of life. This workshop will help with strategies for interpreting and addressing reviewer comments, and re-purposing rejected proposals, either for re-submission or future funding opportunities.

Finally, we’ll be hosting a workshop that will likely be of keen interest to all of you in the research community. Towards the end of the semester in April, OPD will be organizing Federal Update: Research Impacts of the New Administration. Any change in a Presidential administration will come with changes to the federal government’s research funding and priorities, though the changes could be more significant this time around. Joining us to discuss the potential impacts will the State University System’s federal relations expert. Details and registration for all workshops can be found at: https://www.research.fsu.edu/research-offices/opd/workshopstraining/

That’s it for this year! Happy Holidays to everyone, and we’ll see you in January.

Mike