SBE Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants

Archaeology
Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
John Yellen, Program Director

Archaeology Dissertation Target Dates: Proposals may be submitted at any time

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

• Target Date: Proposals may be submitted at any time
• Project Budget: Maximum of $15,000 to meet expenses associated with doctoral dissertation research. Items normally requested include per diem for time spent away from the home institution, travel funds, supplies and equipment, costs associated with field research and analysis fees. Salary for research at one’s home institution is not permitted.
• Students doing international research having a formal affiliation with a foreign institution may be eligible for additional funding. Please contact the appropriate program in NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering and the Archaeology Program Director (John Yellen).
• Project Description is limited to 10 pages of text and 5 pages of figures. While text pages may be traded for figures, the reverse is not allowed.
• Proposal Title must be prefaced with the phrase "Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: "
• List the dissertation advisor as Principal Investigator and the student as Co-Principal Investigator. It should be clear however that the proposal is written by, and the research conducted by, the student.
• Dissertation proposals are exempt from university indirect costs.
• All proposals must be submitted electronically via Fastlane or Grants.gov.

Both graduate students and advisors should feel free to contact the Program Director if they have questions or wish to discuss proposed research.

Dissertation Advice to Students

The NSF Archeology Program constitutes part of a larger Anthropological and Geographical and Regional Sciences cluster and its focus is limited to research of clear anthropological significance. In a proposal the students should describe why their research is important from an anthropological perspective. Proposal bibliographies provide one source of reviewer names and it may be useful for students to write the proposal with the expectation that such types of individuals are likely to review it. Although the NSF success rate is relatively high, many applicants request the same funds from several granting sources and this is both a permitted and useful strategy. If more than $15,000 is necessary to conduct the research, one normally must proceed in this way.

Applications are sent to six reviewers and decisions are based on evaluations received. NSF rules require three reviews before a Program recommendation can be made and the process normally takes about three months although formal notification can take considerably longer. Applicants are invited to contact the Program Director for updates on progress. Note that Fastlane permits applicants to suggest both reviewer and non-reviewer names. The success rate for dissertation proposals is approximately 50%;

The information necessary to write a doctoral dissertation proposal is contained in several documents and all should be consulted.

1. The Grant Proposal Guide contains rules which apply to all NSF proposals. In particular note type size and margin specifications and the requirement that the proposal's project summary must address both the "intellectual merit" and the "broader impacts" of the proposed research.
2. The Archaeology Program is one of many included within the NSF Directorate of Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences and the SBE Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant Program Announcement contains Directorate specific information.
3. The web page you are now reading complements 1 and 2 and contains Archaeology Program specific rules. If information among the three applications differ, the program specific rules should take precedence.
4. Although not all sections are applicable, applicants should also read the two Answers to Frequent Proposal Preparation Questions and Answers to Frequent Award Administration Questions

Under NSF's data sharing policy, the Foundation expects investigators to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the data, samples, physical collections, and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of the work. To implement that policy in ways appropriate to Physical Anthropology and Archaeology, beginning July 1, 2005 these Programs will require that all proposals include a one-page detailed description of the applicant's data access plan in the "Supplementary Documents" section. This page will be in addition to the standard 15-page project description. Applications lacking this statement will not be reviewed. The Programs realize that individual cases may differ widely and recognize that any absolute timeline or rigid set of rules is not possible. They also recognize that revision and adjustment may often be required as the work proceeds. The data access plan, however, will be considered an integral part of the project and therefore subject to reviewer and panel evaluation. Major departure from it will constitute a significant project change and require NSF approval. Successful applicants will be required to address this issue in every progress and final report. PIs on all awards made under these guidelines will be expected to discuss implementation of their plans in the "Results of Prior Research" section when they submit subsequent applications.