NSPIRES Improvements
The latest upgrade to NSPIRES was released on Saturday Feb 2nd. This release fixed a number of bugs:
- The check element warning symbols now really mean what they say. If you see a
you are missing something important and the proposal cannot be submitted, see below. - A number of bug fixes including:
- Messages now provide more/corrected information about maximum number of characters, lengths, etc.
- Fixed bug that was generating an error when a 1yr budget is submitted correctly to a 3 yr program, and budget for years 2 and 3 are omitted.
- Punctuation and spelling errors
- Repaired errors only seen by internal users to NSPIRES including:
- Show correct point-of-contact name on NSPIRES system access request form that is sent to individuals registering in the system
- Help desk is sent email notification when a late proposal is submitted
- Show correct phone number (not COTR phone number) for Peer Review Administrator, or other roles, when setting up a review.
- Fixed situation when multiple people are adding reviewers at the same time. Roles became misaligned resulting in system not recognizing that a reviewer had been added
- Dropdown list modified to allow searching for solicitations starting in year 2000
Element Check Symbols: Take them seriously.
When preparing a proposal for NSPIRES submission there is an 'element check' that can be performed that gives either a green check, a yellow warning ! sign or a red X (
or , respectively, see below). There have been big changes to the warnings and what they mean in the Feb 2nd 5.0 release to NSPIRES. In the past the often appeared in your element check despite the fact that you had followed the instructions. You could still release it to org and your AOR could submit the proposal despite the .
Starting on Feb 2nd with the release of NSPIRES 5.0 there are now only be two things that will cause a to appear: Either your proposal summary is blank, or you did not answer the business data questions (see image below). Other elements, such as Proposal Team, that appear to be missing something will simply alert you with the (see below).
It will not be possible for the AOR to submit a proposal if a appears in the status field. You (the PI) may be able to release it to org, but your AOR will not be able to submit it. If you see it and don't know why then contact NSPIRES help at (202) 479-9376, or by email at nspires-help@nasaprs.com.
I have been asked, seeing how we want you to just upload one proposal document with everything in it, "Why don't we just fix NSPIRES so one can only upload the proposal and dispense with the warning symbols?" The answer is that we, here at SMD, are not the only ones who use NSPIRES, other directorates use it too and they have different rules.
For more information see http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/faq.do#prop11