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Harvard Kennedy School Research Administration Office Guidelines for Proposal Submissions to the National Science Foundation

The following guidelines have been developed to assist Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Principal Investigators and authorized representatives with the submission of National Science Foundation (NSF) proposals, via NSF’s electronic Fastlane System. NSF will eventually transfer to the Grants.Gov proposal submission system, but is currently still using Fastlane. The schedule below will ensure sufficient time for thorough review and approval by both the HKS Research Administration Office (RAO) and Harvard’s Office for Sponsored Programs (OSP). This checklist also establishes a definitive point in the submission process where all parties agree that the proposal is complete and where no further changes will be permitted. The timeline below assumes that RAO has been working closely with the PI/authorized representative on the budget and budget justification well in advance of the week the proposal is due.

Please contact the RAO as soon as you are aware that you will be submitting a proposal. Please send a link to the URL for the relevant program/program solicitation to which you will be applying.

If you are a first-time NSF PI and are not registered as a Fastlane user, please contact your Office for Sponsored Programs representative, who will be able to register you as a Fastlane user.

In order for RAO to have access to the proposal on Fastlane, we will need EITHER the PI’s login information OR the proposal number and PIN. Please send this information to RAO as soon as you begin working in Fastlane.

Helpful phone numbers, emails, web addresses:

NSF Fastlane: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp

NSF Grant Proposal Guide: http://www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?gpg

For technical questions, please contact the relevant NSF program officer.

HKS Contacts: Charlene Arzigian: 617-495-5956, email: [email protected] Martha Goldberg: 617-384-7650, email: [email protected]

OSP Contacts: Deborah Dunlap: 617-496-3131, email: [email protected] Deborah Rebelo: 617-496-2504, email: [email protected]

HKS ResearchCentral: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/research/researchcentral.htm

June 12, 2008 Page 1 of 2 NSF Fastlane Submission Checklist

Eight (8) full working days in advance of NSF due date:

HKS Dean's Approval Form, final budget and budget justification and draft proposal (or proposal summary) submitted to RAO. Budget, budget justification and draft proposal or proposal summary uploaded into Fastlane. Please note that this assumes that RAO has been working with the PI/authorized representative on the budget in advance and no further review should be required by RAO upon receipt of the Dean’s Approval Form. This will allow the proposal to advance to the next step, HKS Office of Financial Services approval.

Draft Project Summary, Draft Project Description, References, Current and Pending Support, Biographical Sketches, Facilities Page, Subcontractor and/or Supplementary Documents (if applicable) uploaded into Fastlane. Access is allowed for OSP to "review, edit and submit the proposal."

Please note that OSP does not make changes to the proposal and will not submit to NSF before confirming with HKS and the PI. However, allowing access is the method through which the Fastlane system signals OSP via email that a proposal is in the system for review. It is best to allow full “review, edit, and submit” access as soon as uploading into Fastlane begins to avoid the need to make adjustments later.

RAO and OSP continue review of components of proposal in Fastlane and work with the PI/authorized representative on any changes that are required.

Five (5) days prior to submission deadline:

RAO requests final sign off on the proposal via email to the PI/authorized representative.

Final sign off on the proposal due via email to RAO by the PI/authorized representative. No further changes to documents in Fastlane will be permitted without prior consultation with RAO.

Proposal and Dean’s Approval Form submitted to OSP. OSP performs final review and submits proposal to NSF before the 5:00 p.m. deadline on the due date. Please note that OSP will in most cases be processing several other (HKS and non-HKS) Fastlane (and other Grants.Gov) submissions at the same time. In addition, it is important to note that due to heavy proposal volume on the day a proposal is due, the NSF Fastlane server can experience delays that considerably limit the speed with which OSP can access proposals for review and submission.

NSF sends automatic confirmation of proposal submission to PI via email.

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