NSF pending with a date change = reject?

[rehabrobotics]

Dear Colleagues,

PD said that he would recommend my proposal, but it has been pending for more than a month.
Now, I see the change in date, but the status is still pending.
Does it mean usually rejection?

This is my first time, so any advice would be a great help!

[fast_and_bulbous]

Dear Colleagues,

PD said that he would recommend my proposal, but it has been pending for more than a month.
Now, I see the change in date, but the status is still pending.
Does it mean usually rejection?

This is my first time, so any advice would be a great help!

What the program director recommends is what happens, almost without exception. Congratulations!

[research_prof]

Unless something really extraordinary happens, you will be fine. It took almost 2 months for my proposal to change its status to recommended after the PD said it will be recommended for funding. NSF is severely backlogged due to COVID. Things were operating fine until late March or so, but now things are apparently really bad. This is my understanding.

[rehabrobotics]

Unless something really extraordinary happens, you will be fine. It took almost 2 months for my proposal to change its status to recommended after the PD said it will be recommended for funding. NSF is severely backlogged due to COVID. Things were operating fine until late March or so, but now things are apparently really bad. This is my understanding.

Thanks for your insight!

[onthefringe]

Yes, date change usually means something is about to happen. In the absence of previous interactions with the PD that's generally a rejection. But if you have been working with a PD who indicated they plan to recommend funding (+/- budget changes etc) I would expect the upcoming change to be a positive one.

[rehabrobotics]

Thank you for your positive remarks!
It was a positive sign for my case and now the status is "awarded."

Thanks a lot!

[polly_mer]

Congrats!

Thanks for updating us.

[pgher]

Congratulations!

I have a colleague who is an NSF program manager. He said that in general, if your proposal is under review for a long, long time, it's because it's on the bubble and they're waiting to see how many they can fund. Early summer is when they generally make positive decisions, late summer when they generally make negative decisions (as FY end approaches).

He also said that funding rates are sky high right now, by historical standards, since his program went away from due dates.

[fizzycist]

Congratulations!

I have a colleague who is an NSF program manager. He said that in general, if your proposal is under review for a long, long time, it's because it's on the bubble and they're waiting to see how many they can fund. Early summer is when they generally make positive decisions, late summer when they generally make negative decisions (as FY end approaches).

He also said that funding rates are sky high right now, by historical standards, since his program went away from due dates.

That's interesting. Is this because the total number of applications per year has gone down due to deadline elimination? or was there some other concurrent change?

[pgher]

Congratulations!

I have a colleague who is an NSF program manager. He said that in general, if your proposal is under review for a long, long time, it's because it's on the bubble and they're waiting to see how many they can fund. Early summer is when they generally make positive decisions, late summer when they generally make negative decisions (as FY end approaches).

He also said that funding rates are sky high right now, by historical standards, since his program went away from due dates.

That's interesting. Is this because the total number of applications per year has gone down due to deadline elimination? or was there some other concurrent change?

Submissions are down. For solicited programs with deadlines, everything is just as it has always been. But without deadlines, they're not getting the easy-to-reject crappy proposals, and are generally getting far fewer proposals.

[fizzycist]

Congratulations!

I have a colleague who is an NSF program manager. He said that in general, if your proposal is under review for a long, long time, it's because it's on the bubble and they're waiting to see how many they can fund. Early summer is when they generally make positive decisions, late summer when they generally make negative decisions (as FY end approaches).

He also said that funding rates are sky high right now, by historical standards, since his program went away from due dates.

That's interesting. Is this because the total number of applications per year has gone down due to deadline elimination? or was there some other concurrent change?

Submissions are down. For solicited programs with deadlines, everything is just as it has always been. But without deadlines, they're not getting the easy-to-reject crappy proposals, and are generally getting far fewer proposals.

Fascinating  definitely counterintuitive for me. I'll be interested to see if this effect lasts. If time to decision is ~6 months, then they may get a higher frequency of revise/resubmit than with the old annual deadlines.

I wonder what the data from some of the other directorates who have had this no-deadline policy for >2 yrs look like?

[hazelshade]

Congratulations!

I have a colleague who is an NSF program manager. He said that in general, if your proposal is under review for a long, long time, it's because it's on the bubble and they're waiting to see how many they can fund. Early summer is when they generally make positive decisions, late summer when they generally make negative decisions (as FY end approaches).

He also said that funding rates are sky high right now, by historical standards, since his program went away from due dates.

That's interesting. Is this because the total number of applications per year has gone down due to deadline elimination? or was there some other concurrent change?

Submissions are down. For solicited programs with deadlines, everything is just as it has always been. But without deadlines, they're not getting the easy-to-reject crappy proposals, and are generally getting far fewer proposals.

Fascinating  definitely counterintuitive for me. I'll be interested to see if this effect lasts. If time to decision is ~6 months, then they may get a higher frequency of revise/resubmit than with the old annual deadlines.

I wonder what the data from some of the other directorates who have had this no-deadline policy for >2 yrs look like?

Everything I've heard from NSF program staff (in multiple programs) has indicated that moving to no-deadlines results in the outcome pgher describes.

[Vid]

All,

I have a NSF proposal that is pending and the date and PO changed yesterday without contacting me! Any idea what is going on there? As I said both program manager and the date have changed from yesterday. it has now 09/22/2020 date with different PO. Any thought on this?

Thank you very much.

[born_a_prof]

Congratulations!

I have a colleague who is an NSF program manager. He said that in general, if your proposal is under review for a long, long time, it's because it's on the bubble and they're waiting to see how many they can fund. Early summer is when they generally make positive decisions, late summer when they generally make negative decisions (as FY end approaches).

He also said that funding rates are sky high right now, by historical standards, since his program went away from due dates.

I have a proposal for which the PM got back to me in April and asked me to answer some reviewer questions, and send a public abstract.  Everyone I asked told me this is a sign he will recommend for funding. It has now been 2 months since  that contact with PM but I haven't heard a peep since then. What do you think ? Could he have asked for public abstract if he didn't intend to fund ?

[fizzycist]

Congratulations!

I have a colleague who is an NSF program manager. He said that in general, if your proposal is under review for a long, long time, it's because it's on the bubble and they're waiting to see how many they can fund. Early summer is when they generally make positive decisions, late summer when they generally make negative decisions (as FY end approaches).

He also said that funding rates are sky high right now, by historical standards, since his program went away from due dates.

I have a proposal for which the PM got back to me in April and asked me to answer some reviewer questions, and send a public abstract.  Everyone I asked told me this is a sign he will recommend for funding. It has now been 2 months since  that contact with PM but I haven't heard a peep since then. What do you think ? Could he have asked for public abstract if he didn't intend to fund ?

Nah, you're still very likely to get funded. I've had >2 months pass between abstract request and official recommendation for funding twice already.