The National Science Foundation has issued a new version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), (NSF 13-1), effective for proposals submitted on or after January 14, 2013.  The PAPPG consists of two documents relating to NSF's proposal and award processes:

1.  Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) for preparation and submission of proposals to NSF; and
2.  Award & Administration Guide (AAG) for management and administration of grants and cooperative agreements made by NSF.

Significant changes include:

• Revisions to the NSF Merit Review Criteria which implement National Science Board recommendations. Changes will affect the proposal project summary and project description sections, and award reporting.  (For further information, see UNH Summary here, the revised NSF Merit Review website, and a resource website for the proposer community.)
• The Proposal Project Summary format will be a one-page Fastlane form with 3 separate text boxes for 1) Project Overview, 2) Intellectual Merit Statement, and 3) Broader Impacts Statement.  Total character count for the 3 sections may not exceed 4600 (including blank spaces), and total length may not exceed 51 lines (including blank lines.)  Fastlane will not accept the proposal unless all 3 boxes contain text. (See additional guidance for exceptions for Project Summaries containing special characters such as mathematical symbols or Greek letters.)
• The 15-Page Project Description must contain a separate section with a discussion of the Broader Impacts.
  
• Results from Prior NSF Support must include information on NSF awards received in the past 5 years (including current awards) by each of the proposing PI’s/co-PI’s, regardless of relevance to the current proposal and regardless of whether or not salary support is/was provided.  Each PI/co-PI who received more than one NSF award must report only on his/her one award most related to the proposal.  Among other required information in this section, Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts must be highlighted and described for each award reported on.
• Biosketch: revised to rename the “Publications” section as “Products”, which may include publications, data sets, software, patents, and copyrights.  (For a UNH template, see http://www.unh.edu/research/form/build-proposal/unh-template-and-guide-nsf-biosketch-sr-personnel-effective-11413.)
• Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources:  A new form to complete and upload will be available in Fastlane on 1/14/13.  The form will assist proposers in complying with NSF’s cost sharing policy.
• Facilities and administrative (F&A) costs (indirect costs):  Unless otherwise prescribed by NSF, the applicable indirect cost rate(s) negotiated by the institution with its cognizant negotiating agency must be used in computing indirect costs for a proposal.

For a complete list of proposal components, content descriptions, and requirements presented in an easy-to-use tabular format, see http://scholars.unh.edu/nsf/3/, prepared by UNH Research Development & Communications, and/or contact your UNH GCA: Find your Grant & Contract Administrator