You can watch a recording of the webinar here.   

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) hosted a webinar on March 12, 2024 to go over updates in the new Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 24-1) that applies to all proposals submitted or due on or after May 20, 2024.   

There are many updates in PAPPG (NSF 24-1) from the previous version; a written summary of changes can be found here. This is a post #3 in a series of posts on the IOS blog to highlight some of the changes.  

Post #1 covers updates to the Biosketch and Current and Pending documents  
Post #2 covers updates to the Mentorship Plan

Here we discuss additional details stipulated in the new PAPPG regarding international collaboration and allocating funds to those collaborative activities. 

These changes are described in Chapter I.E, Who May Submit Proposals, sections 2(c) and 3(b), and  Chapter II.D.1.d(ix), Certification Regarding Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs. 

Foreign Organizations (Chapter I.E,2(c)) 

In this section, the new PAPPG clarifies the information required of proposers to justify the request to include funds in the NSF budget to foreign individuals or foreign organizations.  Note that this section provides more guidance about what must be included on the proposal’s cover page and in the project description; it is not a change in operations.  The section now says:  

“In cases however, where the proposer considers the foreign organization or foreign individual’s involvement to be essential to the project and proposes to provide funding through the NSF budget (via a subaward or consultant arrangement), the proposer must justify the benefit to U.S. research and education. The justification must include, at minimum: 

• why support from the foreign counterpart’s in-country resources is not feasible; 
• why the foreign organization or foreign individual can carry out the activity more effectively than a U.S. organization or U.S. individual; 
• what unique expertise, organizational capability, facilities, data resources, and/or access to a geographic location not generally available to U.S. investigators the foreign organization or foreign individual brings to the project; and 
• what significant science and engineering education, training, or research opportunities the foreign organization or foreign individual offers to the U.S. 

Such information must be included in any proposal to NSF, including new and renewal proposals. The information must be included in the project description section of the proposal. The box for “Funding of a Foreign Organization or Foreign Individual” must be checked on the Cover Sheet if the proposal includes funding for a foreign organization or foreign individual.” 

Parties to Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment (Chapter I.E,3(b)) 

In section 3(b) Parties to Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment, the new PAPPG now makes explicit that those individuals that are Parties to Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs are not eligible to serve as a senior/key person on an NSF proposal or on any NSF award made after May 20, 2024. This addition in the PAPPG is consistent with the CHIPS and Science Act. Such participation is defined in detail HERE starting at the bottom of page 1.   

It should also be noted that, under Chapter II. D.1.e (ii), each individual identified as senior/key person must certify prior to proposal submission that they are not a party to a malign foreign talent recruitment program and annually thereafter for the duration of the award. The AOR must also provide a certification as  detailed in Chapter II.D.1.d(ix), Certification Regarding Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs.