Webinar Recap #2: Updates to the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 24-1) 

On By bioiosbloggersIn Webinar

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 post #2 on the IOS blog highlighting some of these changes. Post #1 covers updates to the Biosketch and Current and Pending Support documents. 

This post focuses on changes to the Mentoring Plan which starts at ~17:49 minutes into the webinar. There are two main updates:  

  1. The mentoring plan is now expected to address both graduate students and postdocs involved in the project. Thus, if you are requesting funding for graduate students and/or postdoctoral scholars, you must include a single mentoring plan, as described in Chapter II.D.2.i(i) in the PAPPG (NSF 24-1). The plan must not exceed one page.   

“A single Mentoring Plan must be included for all graduate students or postdoctoral researchers supported by the project regardless of whether they reside at the submitting organization, any subrecipient organization, or at any organization participating in a simultaneously submitted collaborative proposal.”  

You can have combined or separate sections in the plan for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, but you can only submit a single one-page document.  

  1. There is an additional new requirement for an Individual Development Plan for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in Chapter VII.B.7 of the PAPPG (NSF 24-1). 

“Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers with substantial support must have an Individual Development Plan which maps to educational goals, career exploration, and professional development. This plan must be updated annually. Substantial support refers to any individual who has received one person month or more of support during the annual reporting period.”   

Further, it will be required that PIs/CoPIs certify that each plan is completed as part of the annual report, as stated in Chapter VII.D.1(iv) in the PAPPG (NSF 24-1).