Research.gov is the grants management system of the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is a web portal providing access to a variety of research-related public information and grants management services. Practically speaking, Research.gov represents the modernization of FastLane.
Included among Research.gov’s public services are:
- SEE Innovation – Information on the outcomes and impact of NSF-funded research activities
- Research Spending and Results – A searchable database of information on NSF and NASA awards to enhance transparency of public spending.
- Policy Library – A compilation of federal and agency-specific policies and guidelines
- Research Headlines – News items of interest from NSF, NASA and the USDA/NIFA
Features for NSF awardees include (these require an account):
- Grants Application Status – Allows institutions to check on the status of NSF grant applications.
- Project Reports – Project reporting is transferring from FastLane to Research.gov; this transition is expected to be complete in Spring 2013. PIs and Co-PIs will submit all annual, interim and final project reports through Research.gov. The Project Reporting Dashboard will show users what reports are due (or overdue!), and provide access to all prior reports submitted.
- Federal Financial Report (FFR) – The FFR is a government-wide standard financial report. Currently one has to be filed quarterly by awardee institutions, which can be done via Research.gov
- Institution & User Management – Allows institutional administrators to create new users and manage user profiles.
Research.gov also sports a feature to allow submission of system-to-system (S2S) applications – like those from InfoEd’s Proposal Development module – to NSF via Research.gov. This service is in addition to the ability to submit NSF S2S application packages via Grants.gov. The Reseach.gov service is essentially duplicative of the Grants.gov service, however over time, Research.gov intends to expand its suite of S2S services available to include submission of other data such as financial and project reports. InfoEd has not yet provided support for client systems to submit S2S NSF applications through Research.gov, however NSF applications can be submitted through Grants.gov using InfoEd’s Proposal Development module. The development of S2S receipt functionality in Research.gov demonstrates NSF’s support for institutions to leverage electronic submission systems they have in place such as InfoEd despite the significant investment and success they have achieved with FastLane.
Once an application is submitted – either through Grants.gov using Adobe forms or S2S or through Research.gov using S2S – the application ends up in FastLane. PIs and Institutional Officials can track the status of a submission via Research.gov’s Grant Application Status service. Edits to the application after submission can be made through FastLane. Certain kinds of NSF applications cannot currently be submitted via either Research.gov or Grants.gov – these include fellowships and linked applications. Both of these types of applications need to be developed and submitted directly in FastLane currently.