SBE Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants

Geography and Regional Science
Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
Thomas J. Baerwald, Program Director
Scott Freundschuh, Program Director
Kenneth R. Young, Program Director

Geography and Regional Science Dissertation Due Dates: October 15 and February 15

Proposals for Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants submitted to the Geography and Regional Science Program must comply with or have information about the following bulleted items:

• Deadline Dates : October 15 and February 15 - These deadlines are firm. Extensions rarely are granted, and if so, occur under very unusual circumstances and with prior approval of a GRS Program Director.
• Project Duration : Maximum 24 Months
• Project Budget : A maximum of $12,000 may be awarded for each DDRI award. The funds are to be used for field, lab, and/or data-collection expenses not normally underwritten by the host institution. (Student stipends, tuition expenses, assistantships, and the doctoral advisor’s travel expenses are not eligible.) No indirect costs or administrative overhead are allowed, although the university may claim waivers of such costs as part of its cost-sharing component.
• Proposal Title : should begin with the prefix: "Doctoral Dissertation Research:" followed by the substantive title of the project.
• Project Summary text may not exceed one (1) page and should provide a summary of the research to be undertaken if the proposal is funded. It should include a statement of the project's theoretical context, project objectives, and the methods to be employed. The Project Summary should contain explicit statements of both (1) the intellectual merit of the proposed activity; and (2) the broader impacts resulting from the proposed activity. (Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts are the two primary NSF evaluation criteria. See Chapter III of the Grant Proposal Guide for elaboration of the items considered appropriate for each of these criteria. Note that the broader scholarly significance of research (such as anticipated contributions toward theory) relates to the Intellectual Merit of a project. Broader Impacts refers to items such as the integration of research and education, contributions toward diversifying the scientific workforce, and potential practical applications and societal significance of research.
• Project Description text may not exceed ten (10) pages. Beginning in 2005, the Geography and Regional Science Program will allow up to two (2) additional pages in the Project Description to present graphics that illustrate any portion(s) of the Project Description. These graphics may be maps, photos, satellite imagery, flow charts, or any other format that is predominantly graphic rather than textual. Captions on the graphics pages must be short and cannot incorporate lengthy explanatory statements. Each graphic must be referenced from the text in the Project Description. Graphics may also be included along with text in the first ten (10) pages of the Project Description, but Pages 11 and 12 of the Project Description cannot have any content other than graphics and brief captions. All text included in the Project Description (including any footnotes or endnotes) must comply with all of the margin, font, and spacing requirements specified in the Grant Proposal Guide. Failure to comply with the page limitations specified here or any of the other formatting requirements specified in the GPG will result in the proposal being returned without review.
• Results from Prior NSF Support does not need to be specified in DDRI proposals.
• References are listed in a separate section of the proposal and do not count against the page limits in the Project Description.
• Biographical Sketches must conform to the format specified in the Grant Proposal Guide, with all appropriate sections as specified in the GPG, including a list of collaborators, advisors/advisees, and other affiliations .
• Appendices may not be included in the proposal. If applicants want to include Items like survey instruments, they must do so by including them in the Project Description.
• The Supplementary Documents section may include letters of cooperation from labs or foreign institutions. It is preferable to include letters that have been prepared on institutional letterhead and signed by a person with proper authority, but letters submitted by e-mail may be used if the transmission information to validate the identity of the sender is included. If letters are written in a language other than English, a translation of the text into English should follow.
• Proposals must be submitted by a U.S. institution that grants doctoral degrees. A faculty member (normally the doctoral candidate's advisor) must be the principal investigator (Project Director) and the student is the second investigator (or co-PI). Although the student cannot submit a proposal independently, it is expected that the intellectual input to the proposed research be predominantly that of the student.
• All proposals must be submitted electronically via FastLane or Grants.gov. Proposals must be submitted before 5:00 PM your local time of the deadline date.

Samples of successful DDRI research proposals are available for review.

What happens after you have submitted your proposal? (The Review Process)

After a proposal is submitted via FastLane, GRS program directors will check the proposal to make sure that it is compliant with foundation and program guidelines. They will look to make sure that the number of pages does not exceed those allowed, that type sizes and margins are not too small, that the Project Summary addresses both Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts, that Biographical Sketches are complete, and that a host of other guidelines have been followed. These guidelines are specified above and in the Grant Proposal Guide. If one or more of these guidelines are violated, the proposal will be returned without review, and you will have to wait until the next deadline date to resubmit. In the event that the GPG and GRS guidelines are not consistent, the GRS guidelines apply.

After a proposal is found to be compliant, it will be sent to reviewers whose identities will remain anonymous. These reviewers will read your proposal and write reviews, commenting on the validity and significance of the research as well as the quality of your proposal, paying particular attention to the major NSF review criteria of Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts. They will submit their reviews via Fastlane. When all reviews have been returned, a GRS DDRI Advisory Panel will meet to discuss and rank the proposals and make funding recommendations to the GRS program directors. The GRS Program Directors will then make decisions regarding which proposals will be funded and which ones NSF will decline to support. Funding limitations may prevent the GRS Program Directors from recommending awards for all meritorious proposals.

The general amount of time it takes to process your application is 6 months from the deadline date (not from the time of your submission). Official notification of a decline or an award will be communicated to your advisor and the Sponsored Research Officer of your university. If your proposal results in an award, that notification will come from the NSF Division of Grants and Agreements. If the proposal is declined, notification will come from the Division Director for the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences. Regardless of whether the proposal is funded or declined, the reviewers' comments and a panel summary will be made available to you in FastLane.

If you have additional questions, please contact a Program Director listed above.