Title: NSF 02-128, ADVANCE FAQs for Fellows Proposals
Date: May 9, 2002
NSF 02-128
ADVANCE
FAQs for FELLOWS Proposals
Eligibility Criteria (Guidelines)
Postdoctoral Employees
Career Interruption for Family Responsibilities
Relocation
General
POSTDOCTORAL EMPLOYEES
Q. My position is not formally entitled postdoctoral, but is
similar in all essential aspects to a typical postdoctoral
position. Who can I contact to find out if I am eligible to
apply to the Fellows program?
A. As this designation varies by discipline, questions on
whether an applicant's position is a "postdoc equivalent"
position should be directed to the applicable NSF research
directorate. Check the ADVANCE website
(http://www.nsf.gov/ADVANCE) to find a list of directorate contacts.
Q. I have not served as a PI on any NSF award; however, I am
listed as a co-PI on a current award. Am I eligible to apply
to the Fellows program?
A. Applicants who have served as co-PIs on NSF awards are
eligible to apply for Fellows Awards if they are currently in
a postdoctoral or equivalent status, have never held a
tenure-track or tenured position at a U.S. institution of
higher learning, and meet the other eligibility criteria for
Fellows Awards.
Q. I received my Ph.D. in 1998. For the past year and a half,
I have been a faculty member in a tenure-track position. I am
not planning to leave this position since my spouse is also
in a tenure-track position at this institution. Am I eligible
to apply to the ADVANCE program as a Fellow?
A. You are not eligible to apply for a Fellows Award since
you have a tenure-track position. You may wish to apply for
NSF research support through the programs in your area of
research and also to consider the Faculty Early Career
Development (CAREER) Program, a Foundation-wide activity that
supports junior faculty within the context of their overall
career development (http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/career/start.htm).
CAREER INTERRUPTION - FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES
Q. Is a person who has been out of the science and
engineering workforce to attend to a seriously ill family
member eligible to apply?
A. Yes, persons who have taken 2 to 8 years off to attend to
family responsibilities such as child rearing or elder care,
or to care for a spouse or an immediate family member with an
incapacitating illness or injury, are eligible to apply.
Q. The ADVANCE guidelines list some possible career
advancement limitations (child-rearing, elder care, and
spouse relocation). Does an applicant have to demonstrate
such a limitation to be eligible to apply?
A. The ADVANCE guidelines list three categories of eligibility
(http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02121/nsf02121.htm#ELIG) for
the Fellows Awards in addition to the requirements that all
applicants have to hold a Ph.D. in a field of science or
engineering supported by NSF, be a U.S. citizen, U.S.
national or permanent resident of the United States, and be
establishing a full-time independent academic research and
education career at an institution of higher learning in the
U.S., its territories or possessions, or the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico. You must meet one of the eligibility
requirements to apply for a Fellows Award, and when you
submit your proposal you will have to certify which of the
three criteria you meet. In your proposal, you will need to
provide a brief narrative of your career history and
accomplishments to date and describe the likely impact of a
Fellows Award on your career.
Q. I am currently an adjunct faculty member and I have not
been a full-time researcher due to family considerations
since 1998. However, I have never held a tenure-track
position. Am I eligible to apply?
A. There is no requirement under this part of the Fellows
program for an applicant to have had a tenure-track position.
It appears that you have been out of the full-time science
and engineering (S&E) workforce for 2 to 8 years to attend to
family responsibilities and will be out of this workforce on
the proposal due date. Therefore, you may be eligible to
apply if you meet other eligibility requirements for the
Fellows awards.
Q. I left my planned career path as an assistant professor in
1995 in order to raise my children. I am currently employed
in a "soft money" position in a nearby university. Though my
position could be considered as in the "full-time science and
engineering workforce," it is a significant diversion from my
planned career path and does not involve research or
teaching. I would like to apply for the ADVANCE Fellows
program to reestablish my research and teaching experience so
that at the end of the program I am in a position to once
again secure an academic position at an undergraduate
institution. Am I eligible to apply?
A. You would not be eligible for the ADVANCE Program under
the criterion you mentioned because the program solicitation
requires that the applicant "on the proposal due date, be out
of the full-time science and engineering workforce and have
been out of this workforce for 2 to 8 years to attend to
family responsibilities". Since your position is full-time,
you wouldn't qualify under that criterion.
Q. I received my Ph.D. in 1993 and worked in a full-time
position at a national laboratory from 1994-1998. I resigned
my position in 1998 for my husband's relocation. A year
later, I started work as a research assistant professor (a
non-tenure-track position). The appointment ends this year.
Am I eligible to apply?
A. You would not be eligible under the relocation of a spouse
criterion, as your resignation from full-time employment was
more than 24 months ago.
RELOCATION - FOLLOWING SPOUSE
Q. Last year my husband finished his residency at a hospital
in Chicago. He has started a position with the Washington
Hospital Center. I am a research professor at Northwestern. I
will be resigning this position next December to join him in
the Washington area, where I will attempt to affiliate with
one of the universities to continue to pursue my goal of an
independent academic career. Am I eligible?
A. You would be eligible if you have resigned a full-time
science and engineering position within a two-year period
prior to the next Fellows deadline due to your husband's
relocation.
Q. For the last ten years, I have been on the faculty at an
institution in a different state from the university where my
husband teaches. I would like to relocate to seek a job
closer to my husband. Am I eligible to apply to the ADVANCE
Fellows program?
A. No. To be eligible your spouse has to have relocated in
the 24 months preceding or the 12 months following the
proposal due date.
Q. I am writing to ascertain whether applicants for a
"Fellows Award" can be male. I relocated (leaving behind a
tenure-track appointment) so that my wife could accept a
tenure-track appointment in computer science. I accepted a
temporary visiting position, at significantly lower rank and
wages, and with a significantly higher teaching load than my
counterparts who were recently hired in my department with
tenure-track status. Indeed, my salary dropped significantly
relative to my previous position. On the ADVANCE web page,
the word "spouse" (rather than "husband") is used throughout,
which leads me to believe that it might also be your
intention to support men who have delayed their own careers
to support their wives. Please let me know.
A. Yes, you are eligible to apply for a Fellows Award if your
resignation from the tenure track position occurred in the 24
months preceding the proposal due date. You must also hold a
Ph.D. in a field of science or engineering supported by NSF;
be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national or permanent resident of the
United States; and, at the time of award, be establishing a
full-time independent academic research and education career
at an institution of higher learning in the U.S., its
territories or possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico.
Q. My husband is planning a sabbatical in the year 2002. We
have both received invitations to spend the year at the
national laboratory where I was formerly employed. The
ADVANCE Program would be an ideal opportunity for me to
initiate a new program with the laboratory and perhaps
continue it with a student when I return to my institution.
Would I be eligible for funding to cover a portion of my
salary plus the $25,000 in ancillary expenses?
A. If you are taking a leave of absence, and you plan to
return after your husband's sabbatical, you would not be
eligible.
Q. I will be getting married three months after the proposal
due date. Currently I am research associate professor in
biology. My husband to be is a research associate professor
of biology in a university in the same city. He has been
offered a tenure track position across the country, starting
a month after we are married. I will be resigning at that
time, and will follow him to his new location where I have an
offer for a research associate position in the biology
department.
A. Yes, provided that you do get married as stated above.
Your (future) spouse will be relocating and you will resign
your current position due to his relocation.
GENERAL ELIGIBILITY QUESTIONS
Q. How are Fellows proposals evaluated? Does NSF give
priority to people who have had a really hard time because of
personal circumstances?
A. Fellows proposals are reviewed by disciplinary reviewers
and panels using the NSF merit review criteria, which address
the quality of the science and the broader impact of the
proposed research and education activities. In addition,
there are Fellows-specific criteria, which are available in
the solicitation http://www.nsf.gov/advance. This is an
extremely competitive program that in its first year of
competition had a success rate under 20%, considerably lower
than the success rate of the Foundation overall. Applicants
should submit the strongest research proposal possible, and
give careful thought to a well-designed career advancement
plan, since these are the most important elements in
determining which proposals are competitive for funding.
Q. I am a young, female Assistant Professor with a Ph.D. in
chemistry. I am interested in applying for the affiliated PI,
Fellows Award but I am not certain I would qualify since I am
not a postdoc anymore.
A. Since you are no longer in postdoctoral or equivalent
status and do not meet the other eligibility criteria, you
would not be eligible to apply for a Fellows Award. You may
wish to apply for NSF research support through the programs
in your area of research and also to consider the Faculty
Early Career Development (CAREER) Program, a Foundation-wide
activity that supports junior faculty within the context of
their overall career development
(http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/career/start.htm).
Q. I received my DVM in 1971 and practiced for many years. In
1994, I received a PhD in Veterinary Medicine. I am currently
employed as Research Associate Professor. I need to establish
my own research funding. Am I eligible to apply?
A. The date of your PhD would make you ineligible for a
Fellows Award. You might be eligible for support in one of
the other Fellows eligibility categories, but we would need
more information to determine that. There are also
restrictions on the type of research NSF supports. For
example, research with disease-related goals, including work
on the etiology, diagnosis or treatment of physical or mental
disease, abnormality, or malfunction in human beings or
animals, is normally not supported. Animal models of such
conditions or the development or testing of drugs or other
procedures for their treatment also are not eligible for
support. This is obliquely referenced in the solicitation:
"Proposals submitted in response to this program
announcement/solicitation should be prepared and submitted in
accordance with the general guidelines contained in the NSF
Grant Proposal Guide (GPG). The complete text of the GPG is
available electronically on the NSF Web Site at:
http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf012."
However the GPG clarifies that research in bioengineering,
with diagnosis or treatment-related goals, which applies
engineering principles to problems in biology and medicine
while advancing engineering knowledge is eligible for
support. Bioengineering research to aid persons with
disabilities also is eligible, as is research on the ecology
of infectious disease.
U.S. National
Q. What is meant by U.S. national?
A. The term "nationals of the United States" designates
citizens of the United States or native residents of a
possession of the United States such as American Samoa. It
does not refer to citizens of another country who have
applied for U.S. citizenship.
Permanent Residents
Q. I applied for a green card some time ago and have been
assured that I will have it by the end of the calendar year.
Am I eligible to apply for a Fellows Award?
A. In order to qualify as a permanent resident, Fellows
applicants must have their green card in hand at the proposal
deadline date.
Institutions of Higher Learning
Q. Do 2-year (community) colleges that award A.A.S. degrees
qualify as "academic institutions of higher learning" for
purposes of the ADVANCE Program?
A. Yes.
Institutional Support
Q. Must supporting institutions guarantee a tenure-track or
"hard money" position at the end of an ADVANCE fellowship (as
in NSERC Women's Fellowships)?
A. No, there is no requirement that institutions offer a
tenure track position at the end of an ADVANCE fellowship.
Supportable Activities
Q. Can fellowships be used to allow a scientist to re-tool
her/his research and teaching expertise?
A. Yes, if the fellow meets the eligibility criteria and
makes a good case for the proposed career development plan.
Q. Must an "independent academic research and education
career" involve undergraduate teaching, or may it involve
only supervision of graduate theses?
A. There is no requirement that undergraduate teaching be
part of the independent academic research and education
career.
Q. Can fellowships be used to establish a part-time academic
career to accommodate family obligations?
A. No. In order to be eligible for a Fellows Award, a PI
must, at the time of award, be establishing a full-time,
independent academic research and education career.
Q. I am very interested in research questions related to
mechanisms underlying brain injury and recovery and have been
working in the area of somatosensory physiology, specifically
the neural control of active touch. However, I am not sure
that this research is in field of science supported by NSF.
A. NSF does not support research with disease-related goals,
including work on the etiology, diagnosis or treatment of
physical or mental disease, abnormality or malfunction in
human beings or animals. For such research, the National
Institutes of Health and private foundations would be the
most likely sources of support. However, research in normal
somatosensory physiology, is supported by NSF's Sensory
Systems Program and would be supportable research under the
ADVANCE guidelines. You can obtain more detailed information
on the types of research supported by the NSF through the NSF
Guide to Programs at
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/publicat/nsf013/how-to/toc.htm
and the NSF directorate Web pages.
Q. What are my chances of getting funding in the ADVANCE
Fellows competition?
A. Our last Fellows competition had a success rate lower than
20%, which is below the average success rate of most NSF
research programs.
Q. Who were the successful applicants in the last competition?
A. You may retrieve that information by searching NSF’s web
page, under: http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/servlet/A6QueryPgm
Select the Program name ADVANCE-FELLOWS, and press the
Generate List button.
As soon as the awards have been recommended, you will be able
to see a list of awardees and download the abstracts to their
proposals.
Deadline (Guidelines)
Q. What happens if my proposal arrives after the directorate
deadline for proposal submissions?
A. Only proposals submitted by your institution through
FastLane before 5:00 p.m. (your local time) on or before the
Directorate/Office deadline will be accepted. Because the
volume of ADVANCE Fellows may be quite large and individuals
who are not submitting through an institution must register
as a FastLane organization before submitting a proposal, you
are encouraged to start your FastLane proposal submission
well before the ADVANCE Fellows deadline. Refer to the
ADVANCE Guidelines for Submission and the FastLane Web page
for more details. Any proposal received after the
Directorate/Office deadline will be returned to the preparer
without review. Please note that NSF program officers are not
authorized to grant extensions to the deadline for the
ADVANCE program.