NSPIRES is the web interface that most scientists use to submit proposals to the Science Mission Directorate. There are tutorials on the NSPIRES pages, but I would like to mention just a few pointers here that have come up recently with tragic consequences.

The Basics: Registration

First of all, the basics. You need to register, and you do that by going to http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ and clicking on the registration links, as seen below...

If you are at an institution that has ever had anyone submit a proposal via NSPIRES before then it should allow you to simply request to be affiliated with your home institution, and someone there who has the authority will have to agree that you can write proposals from there. You can be affiliated with more than one institution, so there is no difficulty with those of you who have joint appointments. If you are at an institution that has never done this before, then contact the NSPIRES Help Desk at (202) 479-9376, or by email at nspires-help at nasaprs.com.

The Basics: Submission

As an individual, you don't usually have the authority to actually submit a proposal. Generally, as a P.I. you can only release your proposal to your organization and the authorized representative of that organization (the AOR) submits it. For some of you who are at small organizations, you are both a proposal writer and an AOR. In some tragic cases, proposals were not properly submitted because of this dual role. To insure this does not happen again, we've included some helpful screenshots and advice here. As the PI, you will see the following at the bottom of your proposal page:

Notice you do not have a button to submit. Instead, you will now press the "Release to Org" button. Once you do this however, you cannot make further changes unless you have your authorizing official send the proposal back to you (more on this below).

Now the proposal is in the hands of your AOR. The AOR will see the following options when they go into 'view proposal mode.'

They can send the proposal back to the PI by clicking on 'Unlock' or they can actually submit the proposal by clicking on 'Submit Proposal.' For NASA to see the proposal the AOR must click 'Submit Proposal' before the deadline, which is usually midnight east coast time on Friday (check the Table of due dates to make sure you get it right). When the proposal is submitted you can see it in your list of submitted proposals. A link to submitted proposals can be found in the upper left hand corner of your normal proposals screen (see below)...

In addition, when a proposal has been submitted both the AOR and the PI will get email from NSPIRES confirming that it has been successfully submitted. We encourage first time users to go through these steps early, just in case you find surprises along the way. Let us know if you have problems we have not addressed here.

Team member participation

An important change has come to NSPIRES, the web page through which proposals are submitted.  Starting in Aug 2009 all team members (e.g., Co-Investigators, Collaborators, etc.) MUST officially agree to participate on a proposal online through the NSPIRES web page. If a team member is invited to participate, but they don't confirm their participation online, then you will have to remove them from your proposal team before you submit your proposal. I have created a walk through of this online participation process with screen captures because NSPIRES is not always totally intuitive. You can download this guide as a PDF file:

Guide for team members to online commitment
Guide for PIs to adding and removing team members