NSF CAREER Grant UPDATE Thread

[Electrochemist]

Has anyone heard from the DMR Metals & Metals Nanostructures, or DMR SSMC yet? I have a proposal that is co-reviewed in both programs.

How soon do program managers ask for abstracts after the panel reviews are over?

[aspiring.academic]

I came here to correct what I said previously.
PECASE awardees are also CAREER recipients there are no additional funds for being a PECASE awardee. So the budget has nothing to do with PECASE for CAREER recipients, but it's still a great honor to have.

Going back to your comment about PECASE recipients being awarded early in the process — absent any proof, I don't believe this to be true. They are not skipped ahead of others and PECASE is a retroactive honor and up to 25 per year are recommended by the NSF to receive it. They may be among the first to receive notification of the award, but the actual award isn't made until on or after 10/1 to correspond with the new FY.

I was referring to the fact that these people all were awarded their initial CAREER awards within the first two months after submitting their proposals. Some of them didn't even go to external review. I could have been clearer about that, sorry.

PECASE is a little different.
Prior to 2015 the awardees were announced annually making it easier to work into the FY budget.
2015 - 2017 PECASE recipients were announced on July 2, 2019 making it likely that they were awarded out of the FY19 budget.
There's no practical significance to the timing of the PECASE awards.

I have a question about aspiringacademic's point. I know a few people (all eventual PECASE winners) who submitted in July and were awarded before October. Does that mean they were a part of the previous year's award winners? What is the practical significance of this? Not that it matters in my case. (Still waiting to hear back from PD after sending in abstract 2+ months ago, well into FY2020 even though the budget hasn't technically passed yet. All my colleagues who say they envy my position don't understand how stressful this is.)

[aspiring.academic]

There are exceptions to every rule. Just like it's true that a PD may find a proposal that the panel didn't recommend. However, it's clear that the vast majority of awards follow the timeline/criteria outlined.

....  You do make the point I've been trying to make though: CAREER proposals submitted in July can have an award date and start date before January. There have been many examples of this.

I dunno. It's what I heard by well informed people.

"Some of them didn't even go to external review"

Are you kidding me or I misunderstood your point, but how come they can be awarded without external review?

I was referring to the fact that these people all were awarded their initial CAREER awards within the first two months after submitting their proposals. Some of them didn't even go to external review. I could have been clearer about that, sorry.

PECASE is a little different.
Prior to 2015 the awardees were announced annually making it easier to work into the FY budget.
2015 - 2017 PECASE recipients were announced on July 2, 2019 making it likely that they were awarded out of the FY19 budget.
There's no practical significance to the timing of the PECASE awards.

I have a question about aspiringacademic's point. I know a few people (all eventual PECASE winners) who submitted in July and were awarded before October. Does that mean they were a part of the previous year's award winners? What is the practical significance of this? Not that it matters in my case. (Still waiting to hear back from PD after sending in abstract 2+ months ago, well into FY2020 even though the budget hasn't technically passed yet. All my colleagues who say they envy my position don't understand how stressful this is.)

[lightofhope]

how do you know your proposal was co-reviewed by two programs?
You have two POs?

Has anyone heard from the DMR Metals & Metals Nanostructures, or DMR SSMC yet? I have a proposal that is co-reviewed in both programs.

How soon do program managers ask for abstracts after the panel reviews are over?

[aspiring.academic]

Has anyone heard from the DMR Metals & Metals Nanostructures, or DMR SSMC yet? I have a proposal that is co-reviewed in both programs.

How soon do program managers ask for abstracts after the panel reviews are over?

There's 1 SSMC award for this cycle thus far. I see a few Polymer awards.
Timeframe varies greatly.

[Electrochemist]

I submitted my CAREER to SSMC, they transferred it to the Metals program without asking me. I guess my proposal is at the boundary of both programs, so i asked if it could be co-reviewed. So the main program it is reviewed in now is Metals, but the program officer at SSMC said it would be reviewed there as well. If i didn't request it, it would not have been co-reviewed.

how do you know your proposal was co-reviewed by two programs?
You have two POs?

Has anyone heard from the DMR Metals & Metals Nanostructures, or DMR SSMC yet? I have a proposal that is co-reviewed in both programs.

How soon do program managers ask for abstracts after the panel reviews are over?

[Electrochemist]

If we haven't been contacted for abstracts or revised budgets by now does this mean we are not getting the award?
Or is it still too early to tell?

Has anyone heard from the DMR Metals & Metals Nanostructures, or DMR SSMC yet? I have a proposal that is co-reviewed in both programs.

How soon do program managers ask for abstracts after the panel reviews are over?

There's 1 SSMC award for this cycle thus far. I see a few Polymer awards.
Timeframe varies greatly.

[lightofhope]

As far as I know, until May or June of next year, it's still possible that the PD may contact you regarding the awards. So it's hard to say.

If we haven't been contacted for abstracts or revised budgets by now does this mean we are not getting the award?
Or is it still too early to tell?

Has anyone heard from the DMR Metals & Metals Nanostructures, or DMR SSMC yet? I have a proposal that is co-reviewed in both programs.

How soon do program managers ask for abstracts after the panel reviews are over?

There's 1 SSMC award for this cycle thus far. I see a few Polymer awards.
Timeframe varies greatly.

[lightofhope]

I see,
but is it possible that co-reviewed can double the chance to be funded?

I submitted my CAREER to SSMC, they transferred it to the Metals program without asking me. I guess my proposal is at the boundary of both programs, so i asked if it could be co-reviewed. So the main program it is reviewed in now is Metals, but the program officer at SSMC said it would be reviewed there as well. If i didn't request it, it would not have been co-reviewed.

how do you know your proposal was co-reviewed by two programs?
You have two POs?

Has anyone heard from the DMR Metals & Metals Nanostructures, or DMR SSMC yet? I have a proposal that is co-reviewed in both programs.

How soon do program managers ask for abstracts after the panel reviews are over?

[aspiring.academic]

Way too early to tell.

If we haven't been contacted for abstracts or revised budgets by now does this mean we are not getting the award?
Or is it still too early to tell?

Has anyone heard from the DMR Metals & Metals Nanostructures, or DMR SSMC yet? I have a proposal that is co-reviewed in both programs.

How soon do program managers ask for abstracts after the panel reviews are over?

There's 1 SSMC award for this cycle thus far. I see a few Polymer awards.
Timeframe varies greatly.

[ghqwertt]

Got a status date change on Friday, but still pending. Panel met on 11/19, but no contact from PO. Am I doomed?

[lightofhope]

which program?

Got a status date change on Friday, but still pending. Panel met on 11/19, but no contact from PO. Am I doomed?

[adamcolson]

Speculation about this year's cycle is probably premature at this point, especially considering that the 2020 budget is still up in the air and another federal shutdown can't be ruled out.  I'd be very surprised to hear about many more funding decision until after the holidays. 
Last cycle, my proposal was submitted July 16, but was not declined until the following May (i.e. 10 months later). A lot of folks will tell you that no news is good news, but no news can also mean that your proposal was simply forgotten in the chaos. The reviews for my proposal were decent, but I doubt that I was on the "bubble" for funding. I finally had to email the PM in late April/early May to have the official decision and reviews released on Fastlane. The decision delay only left me two months to update and revise the next proposal, and all of my follow-up emails to the PM went unanswered, so I ended up submitting to a different program.

[tobehappyprof]

Thanks for sharing your experience!  I am sorry that you waited that long for a rejection. Good luck with this cycle!

I often wonder why NSF does not just release the panel reviews after the panel. I am ok with the decision pending for months because apparently the funding decision depends on many other factors beyond the reviews per se. But the reviews are fixed at the end of the panel (right?), what is the rationale behind not releasing it until months later?

Speculation about this year's cycle is probably premature at this point, especially considering that the 2020 budget is still up in the air and another federal shutdown can't be ruled out.  I'd be very surprised to hear about many more funding decision until after the holidays. 
Last cycle, my proposal was submitted July 16, but was not declined until the following May (i.e. 10 months later). A lot of folks will tell you that no news is good news, but no news can also mean that your proposal was simply forgotten in the chaos. The reviews for my proposal were decent, but I doubt that I was on the "bubble" for funding. I finally had to email the PM in late April/early May to have the official decision and reviews released on Fastlane. The decision delay only left me two months to update and revise the next proposal, and all of my follow-up emails to the PM went unanswered, so I ended up submitting to a different program.

[ttbeaver]

Still no status change or news from ECI. I really hope they start making decisions before the holiday break. There is a new PD this cycle. The previous PD was very fast. In the last cycle, I got the reject letter by the end of Oct! this is my last try so really have my fingers crossed.