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A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide ("Guide" from this point forward), NSF 11-1, was issued on October 1, 2010 and is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 18, 2011.

The Guide includes some significant changes:

Cost Sharing. The Guide has been revised to implement the National Science Board's recommendations regarding cost sharing. Inclusion of voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited. In order to assess the scope of the project, all organizational resources necessary for the project must be described in the Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources section of the proposal. The description should be narrative in nature and must not include any quantifiable financial information. Mandatory cost sharing will only be required when explicitly authorized by the NSF Director.

Reviewers will evaluate this information during the merit review process and the cognizant NSF Program Officer will review it for programmatic and technical sufficiency. Although these resources are not considered cost sharing as defined in OMB Circular A-110, NSF does expect that the resources identified in the Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources section will be provided, or made available, should the proposal be funded. Changes to the resources available may require prior approval.

Data Management Plan. NSF policy is summarized in the Guide:

Investigators are expected to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the primary data … created or gathered in the course of work under NSF grants.

All proposals must describe plans for data management and sharing of the products of research, or assert the absence of the need for such plans. FastLane will not permit submission of a proposal that is missing a Data Management Plan. The Data Management Plan will be reviewed as part of the intellectual merit or broader impacts of the proposal, or both, as appropriate.

The Guide has some further, more specific language about expectations for data management:

"Proposals must include a supplementary document of no more than two pages labeled "Data Management Plan". This supplement should describe how the proposal will conform to NSF policy on the dissemination and sharing of research results …, and may include:

1. the types of data, samples, physical collections, software, curriculum materials, and other materials to be produced in the course of the project;
2. the standards to be used for data and metadata format and content (where existing standards are absent or deemed inadequate, this should be documented along with any proposed solutions or remedies)
3. policies for access and sharing including provisions for appropriate protection of privacy, confidentiality, security, intellectual property, or other rights or requirements;
4. policies and provisions for re-use, re-distribution, and the production of derivatives; and
5. plans for archiving data, samples, and other research products, and for preservation of access to them."

The data management plans are subject to peer review. Developing a data management plan may be a significant shift for some PIs. The guidance from the Engineering Directorate is meant to assist PIs in composing the plans and reviewers with evaluating them. This is recommended reading for all PIs, especially in the absence of more detailed guidance from other directorates. NSF has also established a Frequently Asked Questions about Data Management Plans.

NSF and the individual directorates will probably issue further guidance in the coming weeks. For now, the essentials of the new requirement are:

• Data management plans are required supplementary documents for proposals with deadlines after January 18, 2011. The plans are considered as part of the peer review process.
• What constitutes data is "determined by the community of interest through the process of peer review" and may include data, publications, samples, physical collections, software and models.
• A data management plan is required even if your project is not expected to generate data or samples. It is acceptable to state in your plan that the project is not anticipated to generate data that requires management of sharing. This statement is subject to peer review.
• If appropriate, the costs of data management may be included in the proposal budget, as long as they are allowable in accordance with university cost principles and necessary to implement the data management plan.
• If your data include information of potential commercial value, the data management plan should describe the proposed approach for balancing the sharing of primary data with the protection of intellectual property rights.

Resources and references:

Data Management for NSF Engineering Directorate Proposals and Awards,http://nsf.gov/eng/general/ENG_DMP_Policy.pdf

Data Management & Sharing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs),http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmpfaqs.jsp

NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guidesection on data management plans:http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf11001/gpg_2.jsp#dmp