General Social Survey (GSS) Competition

PROGRAM GUIDELINES

Solicitation  08-506

As announced on May 21st, proposers must prepare and submit proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF) using the NSF FastLane system at http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/. This approach is being taken to support efficient Grants.gov operations during this busy workload period and in response to OMB direction guidance issued March 9, 2009. NSF will continue to post information about available funding opportunities to Grants.gov FIND and will continue to collaborate with institutions who have invested in system-to-system submission functionality as their preferred proposal submission method. NSF remains committed to the long-standing goal of streamlined grants processing and plans to provide a web services interface for those institutions that want to use their existing grants management systems to directly submit proposals to NSF.

Please be advised that the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) includes revised guidelines to implement the mentoring provisions of the America COMPETES Act (ACA) (Pub. L. No. 110-69, Aug. 9, 2007.) As specified in the ACA, each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals. Proposals that do not comply with this requirement will be returned without review (see the PAPP Guide Part I: Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II for further information about the implementation of this new requirement).

DUE DATES

Archived

SYNOPSIS

The General Social Survey (GSS) is a nationally representative personal interview survey of the United States adult population that collects data on a wide range of topics: behavioral items such as group membership and participation; personal psychological evaluations including measures of well-being, misanthropy, and life satisfaction; attitudinal questions on such public issues as crime and punishment, race relations, gender roles, and spending priorities; and  demographic characteristics of respondents and their parents.  The GSS has provided data on contemporary American society since 1972, serving as a barometer of social change and trends in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes of the United States adult population.  In 1984, the GSS stimulated cross-national research by collaborating with Australia, Britain, and Germany to develop data collection programs modeled on the GSS.  This program of comparative cross-national research, called the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), now includes 43 nations and enables researchers and analysts to place findings and trends from the United States within a comparative perspective. 

Since its inception, the GSS has completed 26 in-person, cross-sectional surveys of the adult household population of the United States with response rates that exceed 70 percent. The survey is currently fielded biennially.  Data from the GSS are made available to scholars, students and the public for research, analysis and educational activities within 12 months of data collection.

The 2006 GSS initiated two innovations that shape the conduct of future surveys.  First, it gathered the baseline sample for a GSS panel component, with a sub-sample of cases to be re-interviewed in 2008, 2010 and 2012. Second, the GSS "core" questions (items that appear regularly on surveys) were translated into Spanish and administered in either English or Spanish, as needed, beginning with the 2006 administration.  It is anticipated that this practice will continue in future surveys.

The Sociology Program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences expects to make one award for the next four-year funding cycle, fiscal years 2009-2012, to support the 2010 and 2012 GSS and the U.S. component of the ISSP survey. We anticipate that NSF will award in the range of $10 million and at most $15 million, over four years (approximately $2.5 million, but not more than $3.75 million per year) to support two waves of data collection and dissemination activities.  The expected starting date is November 2008.

Abstracts of Recent Awards Made Through This Program