The U.S. National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and U.S. territories. NSF was established in 1950 by Congress to promote the progress of science, advance the national health, prosperity and welfare, and secure the national defense.
This grant program, initiated by the Division of Chemistry, is positioned to evaluate the impact of removing submission deadlines for proposals within three specific chemistry research areas: Chemistry of Life Processes (CLP), Chemical Structure, Dynamics, and Mechanisms-A (CSDM-A), and Chemical Theory, Models, and Computational Methods (CTMC). The pilot aims to ascertain whether granting principal investigators the freedom to submit proposals at any time enhances flexibility, promotes interdisciplinary research, and if it presents any unforeseen issues for the involved parties. Although this scheme permits more submission freedom, it specifies exceptions for certain proposals, such as those under the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER), Facilitating Research at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (RUI/ROA), Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID), Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE), and for conferences, which still have specific guidelines or deadlines.