We recently received the following correspondence from an NSF grant applicant:<\/p>\n
\u201cDear GWSW,<\/p>\n
I was very recently unable to complete the submission of my CRII proposal, which was due to the NSF last Wednesday.\u00a0 I, unfortunately, made one of the worst mistakes I could make in my life.\u00a0 I delayed all the document uploading until the last minute without considering the delays that may occur during web document conversion.\u00a0\u00a0 The deadline was passed by a minute or less when the proposal package was finally ready for submission, but it was unfortunately too late.\u00a0 I contacted a couple of program managers, but they were not able to help. The problem is that, by the time the next deadline for CRII applications are due next year, I will be ineligible, based upon years of appointment in my current faculty position. Is there ANYTHING that I can do at this point?<\/p>\n
Disappointed NSF Applicant”<\/em><\/p>\n Dear Disappointed NSF Applicant,<\/p>\n Our first response is, of course, to commiserate with you on this disappointing outcome to all of your earlier efforts to prepare a competitive NSF grant application. If you\u2019ve done this correctly, it requires an enormous commitment of time and effort to prepare a truly competitive proposal and it is truly a tragedy to miss the deadline, literally by less than a minute. We appreciate fully how deeply disappointing and discouraging this must be.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the advice that you received from the NSF program officers accurately represents the position of the NSF regarding late applications. Under truly exceptional circumstances (the occurrence of a hurricane or other adverse weather) in which internet service was disrupted where you live at the time of the deadline that physically prevented you from meeting the deadline, you could make a reasonable case for late submission. Further, if there were a serious personal issue in your family, such as the death of a close relative, you may be able to make a case on an individual basis; however, there would never be a guarantee of this. Absent these exceptional circumstances, the NSF (and most federal funding agencies) is relatively intransigent with respect to applications submitted after the deadline. Certainly \u201cdelaying the uploading of documents until the last minute without considering delays\u201d would not constitute an acceptable excuse for late submission.<\/p>\n One alternative would be to convert the CRII application into a standard NSF application, and resubmit the revised proposal this year, provided that the deadline for the specific NSF program to which you would be applying would be later than the deadline for the CRII application. This would require some modification of your current application in order to meet the requirements for standard NSF proposals, which are not exactly the same as those for the CRII awards. Nevertheless, in most circumstances, such changes would not be likely to present an unmanageable problem. Absent that solution, it does not look like you would have many alternative options with the NSF for this year but potentially could consider alternative target funding agencies.<\/p>\n