[Office-of-research] Revisions to NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites and Supplements

[Charles -Jr E Greer]

IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND REVISION NOTES

Indirect Costs: Please note an important change to the treatment of indirect costs that is incorporated in this Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program solicitation. The REU program's previous limitation on indirect costs (i.e., an administrative allowance, limited to 25% of the participant support stipend amount, in lieu of indirect costs) has been removed. This solicitation imposes no limit on indirect cost recovery but limits the total project budget on a per-student basis. NSF's long-standing policy regarding the reimbursement of administrative costs is full reimbursement of indirect costs, based on the awardee's current Federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement. To ensure consistency with Foundation and Federal-wide policies, proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation are subject to the awardee's current Federally negotiated indirect cost rate.

Language has been added to reflect requirements of Section 514 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-358). In particular: (1) REU Sites are now required to recruit at least half of their undergraduate student participants from colleges and universities where research opportunities in STEM are limited. (2) REU Sites are encouraged to provide continued mentoring for students after the research experience (i.e., during the academic year) to the extent practicable. (3) Investigators are reminded that NSF expects the mentors of students at REU Sites to be supported with appropriate salary or stipends (though not necessarily from the REU grant). (4) Investigators who wish to employ undergraduate students to help carry out research under standard NSF research grants are reminded that support for such students should be included in the original research proposal, instead of through a later post-award request for supplemental funding, whenever the undergraduate participation is foreseeable at the time of the original research proposal.

Two optional "special opportunities" that were described in previous REU solicitations have been discontinued: (1) the option of requesting up to $4,000 per year of additional funding (direct costs) for extraordinary activities focusing on ethics in science and engineering and (2) the option of requesting an REU Supplement for an evaluative research experience to support an undergraduate student to work with the professional evaluator on an NSF research or education project.

Previous REU solicitations instructed applicants to omit the Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources section and include the relevant information in the Project Description instead. The Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources section is now required and must be completed in accordance with the instructions in the GPG.

For further information and the full solicitation, please see PROGRAM SOLICITATION-  NSF 12-569 <http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf12569> .

Regards,

Charles Greer


Charles E. Greer, Jr.
Assistant Vice Chancellor/CFAO
Office of Research and Economic Development
University of California Riverside
200 University Office Building
Riverside, CA 92521-0217
(951) 827-3093 (p)
(951) 827-4483 (f)
http://or.ucr.edu/

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