Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) For NSF
Program Solicitation NSF
07-579 "Emerging
Frontiers in Research and Innovation 2008 (EFRI-2008)"
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[PI Limit] Section IV, “Eligibility Information,” states “Limit on Number of Proposals per PI: 1 Each PI/co-PI may participate in only one proposal in response to this solicitation.” Does
this mean that an individual can be PI on one proposal and co-PI on
a second proposal, or that an individual can be on one proposal only
either as PI or co-PI?
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Section V.A. “Proposal Preparation Instructions,” under “Letter
of Intent Preparation Instructions” uses the term “Other Senior
Project Personnel.” How many co-PIs and how many other senior
personnel are allowed in a proposal?
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[Faculty Level or Equivalent] Section IV, “Eligibility Information,” states
under “PI Limit” that “Principal Investigators (PI) must
be at the faculty level or equivalent.” How is “faculty level
or equivalent” for the Principal Investigators defined?
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[Primary Appointment] Section IV, “Eligibility Information,” states
under “PI Limit” that “Principal Investigators (PI) must
be at the faculty level or equivalent and the lead PI must have a primary
appointment in an engineering department.” How is the primary
appointment determined for the lead PI?
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[Department vs. Discipline] Section IV, “Eligibility Information,” states
under “PI Limit” that “The PI and at least two co-PIs,
all from different disciplines and with funded time committed in the budget,
must be listed on the cover page or the budget page of the proposal.” Can
individuals from the same department serve as co-PIs as long as their
disciplines are different?
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[Lead PI Eligibility] Section IV, “Eligibility Information,” states
under “PI Limit” that “Principal Investigators (PI) must
be at the faculty level or equivalent and the lead PI must have a primary
appointment in an engineering department.” What is an “engineering
department?”
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[Lead PI from Centers or Institutes] Section IV, “Eligibility Information,” states
under “PI Limit” that “Principal Investigators (PI) must
be at the faculty level or equivalent and the lead PI must have a primary
appointment in an engineering department.” Can the Lead PI be
from an interdisciplinary Institute or Center within the university
or college that is focused on one of the two topics of the program
solicitation?
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[Industry co-PI?] Can an individual from industry serve as a co-PI?
- For the Cognitive Optimization and Prediction (COPN) topic, are there any
suggestions for what type of neuroscientist would be most suitable as a partner,
and how to find such neuroscientists?
- [PI Limit] Section IV, “Eligibility Information,” states “Limit
on Number of Proposals per PI: 1 Each PI/co-PI may participate
in only one proposal in response to this solicitation.” Does
this mean that an individual can be PI on one proposal and co-PI
on a second proposal, or that an individual can be on one proposal
only either as PI or co-PI?
An individual may participate only in one proposal as
PI or co-PI.
- Section V.A. “Proposal Preparation Instructions,” under “Letter
of Intent Preparation Instructions” uses the term “Other
Senior Project Personnel.” How many co-PIs and how many
other senior personnel are allowed in a proposal?
The term “Other Senior Project Personnel” refers
to the co-PIs that are to be listed on the cover page. A minimum
of two and a maximum of four co-PIs are allowed, in addition
to the PI. There is no limit on the number of senior personnel
in addition to the PI and co-PIs listed on the cover page.
- [Faculty Level or Equivalent] Section IV, “Eligibility
Information,” states under “PI Limit” that “Principal
Investigators (PI) must be at the faculty level or equivalent.” How
is “faculty level or equivalent” for the Principal
Investigators defined?
Principal Investigators (PI and co-PIs) must have a
tenured, tenure-track, or non-tenure track faculty position and
their institution allows them to serve as PI or co-PI. Postdoctoral
researchers are not allowed to serve as PI or co-PI but they
may serve as other personnel.
-
[Primary Appointment] Section IV, “Eligibility
Information,” states under “PI Limit” that “Principal
Investigators (PI) must be at the faculty level or equivalent
and the lead PI must have a primary appointment in an engineering
department.” How is the primary appointment determined
for the lead PI?
The primary appointment is defined as the lead PI's
department as identified in the proposal. Secondary and adjunct
appointments are not considered to be primary appointments.
- [Department vs. Discipline] Section IV, “Eligibility
Information,” states under “PI Limit” that “The
PI and at least two co-PIs, all from different disciplines and
with funded time committed in the budget, must be listed on the
cover page or the budget page of the proposal.” Can individuals
from the same department serve as co-PIs as long as their disciplines
are different?
Yes. Subfields of a major field are allowed as
different disciplines (e.g. heat transfer and operations research
within a Mechanical Engineering Department). However, note
that proposals that are perceived by reviewers as not being cross-
or multi-disciplinary per the “Additional Review Criteria” under
Section VI, “NSF Proposal Processing and Review Procedures” may
not be competitive.
- [Lead PI Eligibility] Section IV, “Eligibility
Information,” states under “PI Limit” that “Principal
Investigators (PI) must be at the faculty level or equivalent
and the lead PI must have a primary appointment in an engineering
department.” What is an “engineering department?”
The lead PI must have a primary appointment in a department,
division, college, or school with the word "engineering“,
the phrase "systems science”, or the phrase "computer
science” in its name. It is acceptable if the division,
college, or school has the word "engineering" in its
title, even if the department does not.
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[Lead PI from Centers or Institutes] Section IV, “Eligibility
Information,” states under “PI Limit” that “Principal
Investigators (PI) must be at the faculty level or equivalent
and the lead PI must have a primary appointment in an engineering
department.” Can the Lead PI be from an interdisciplinary
Institute or Center within the university or college that is
focused on one of the two topics of the program solicitation?
That may be possible. The NSF response to this question
will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Please send
email to efri2008@nsf.gov to
get a specific answer regarding your case, and include the NSF
response in the Special Information and Supplementary Documentation
section of the preliminary proposal and, if invited, of the full
proposal.
- [Industry co-PI?] Can an individual from industry
serve as a co-PI?
Only if the individual has a faculty level or equivalent
position at a U.S. university or college located in the U.S.
and uses that academic affiliation as the individual’s
organization on the proposal cover page.
- For the Cognitive Optimization and Prediction (COPN)
topic, are there any suggestions for what type of neuroscientist
would be most suitable as a partner, and how to find such neuroscientists?
NSF will allow neuroscientists with expertise in various
fields of neuroscience, such as cognitive systems, computational
neuroscience, or behavioral neuroscience that contribute to unraveling
how prediction or optimization are learned in the brain, at the
level described in the program solicitation. It is important
to locate specific partners interested in the broad fundamental
questions addressed in COPN. Among the many possible resources
on the web (which NSF does not necessarily endorse in their totality)
are:
http://www.nsf.gov/crcns
http://neurotree.org/neurotree/
http://scholarpedia.org/
http://intramural.nimh.nih.gov/
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