NSF BIO Shares Impact of No-Deadline Proposal Submission Policy

In October 2017, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Biological Sciences Directorate (BIO) had announced a no-deadline system for proposal submissions with the goal to reduce the number of rejected proposals that were later resubmitted without major changes and to encourage collaborations between scientists. On June 2, 2020, BIO shared impacts of that policy change.
Proposal data from fiscal years (FY) 2018 and 2019 were analyzed by BIO with the help of a subcommittee of the BIO Advisory Committee. The analysis provides a review of the impact of the no-deadline policy on the number of proposal submissions, funding rates, and other metrics.
According to the analysis, there was an increase in the funding rate across BIO from 21 percent in FY 2018 to 28.1 percent in FY 2019, although the number of proposals submitted decreased from 3,226 in FY 2018 to 1,965 in FY 2019.
The analysis showed no substantial impacts on the gender, race, or ethnicity of PIs or co-PIs on proposal submissions. However, there was an increase in the number of individuals who did not provide these data. A significant number of co-PIs also did not report the year of their highest degree. According to BIO, they are “actively monitoring this trend and encourage submitters to provide this information as it helps us better understand the biological sciences community and those seeking funding from BIO.”
Additionally, there was “a slight shift to shorter periods between submission...

Source: Public Policy Reports - June 8, 2020 Category: Biology Authors: AIBS Source Type: news