total funding request as required by the LOI. (The third INSPIRE funding opportunity,
Director's Awards, is available only indirectly by submitting a Track 1 LOI as a single
investigator.)
Identify at least two (for Track 1) or three (for Track 2) appropriate NSF
program directors to evaluate your LOI. Do this thoughtfully; carefully consider the program
directors you name for their relevance to the project - naming program directors who are far
removed from your topic will lead to delays and unproductive effort both for you and for them.
Do not name senior managers (director, deputy director, office head, office director,
assistant director, deputy assistant director, division director, deputy division director, section
head). If you need assistance in finding appropriate program directors, some keyword
searching of the NSF web site may be helpful in finding appropriate NSF divisions and
programs, for example by using the "Search Funding Opportunities" box in the left-hand
column of the NSF home page, or the "Search Award For" box in the Award Search
database. Another potential resource is the NSF Interdisciplinary Research web site,
http://www.nsf.gov/od/iia/additional_resources/interdisciplinary_research/, where the Contact
Options page suggests various approaches, and the Points of Contact page lists people who
can be helpful at the directorate level.
2. I have an unconventional interdisciplinary idea that I have been reluctant to submit to a
regular NSF review process because I think the reviewers will be too risk-averse to evaluate
it favorably. Should I consider submitting this as an INSPIRE proposal?
Yes, if your description is accurate, this is a primary type of proposal that INSPIRE is
intended for. As explained above, identify the appropriate number of program directors and
submit a letter of intent to start the process.
3. Should I or should I not contact NSF program directors to discuss my idea before
submitting the letter of intent (LOI)?
This depends on your specific circumstances. Program directors welcome inquiries as to
whether a particular topic is of interest to their program(s), and they will readily discuss this
briefly with you, but they field a large number of similar inquiries and this is not a necessary
step for INSPIRE. Your objective is to identify the most appropriate program directors to
evaluate your LOI, and then to make the case to them for your project in the submitted LOI
itself. Any pre-submission contact should be to aid in identifying appropriate program
directors, not to make the case for funding your project.
4. In other solicitations, LOIs are generally for NSF's information only and are not reviewed.
That is, a prospective proposal is not ruled out on the basis of the content of the LOI. Is this
the case here, or is INSPIRE different in this regard?
INSPIRE is different, and prospective proposals will be ruled out on the basis of review of the
content of the LOIs by NSF staff. Thus, you must make a substantive scientific case in the
LOI. The INSPIRE funding opportunities are being offered as approved pilot activities that
deviate in certain ways from established NSF policies.
5. Since the INSPIRE funding opportunities are pilots that may deviate from established
policies, are they exempted from the January 2013 revisions of the NSF Proposal & Award
Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), or from the PAPPG changes to implement revised
merit review criteria?
No. The revisions and changes explained in the Important Information and Revision Notes
section of the solicitation, with links to the relevant NSF documents, apply fully to INSPIRE.
Since all submissions in response to the solicitation are due later than January 14, 2013, the
latest revisions and changes apply to all INSPIRE proposals. The earlier revisions regarding