The Geography and Spatial Sciences (GSS) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces the release of a new GSS strategic plan as well as new program solicitations for both its regular and its doctoral dissertation research improvement (DDRI) competitions.  These documents are available via links on the GSS websites.  The new strategic plan and the new solicitations replace the previous versions of these documents.  The solicitations include some changes and provide clarification regarding proposal preparation for submission of proposals to the Geography and Spatial Sciences Program.

The GSS DDRI solicitation (NSF 17-567) contains important changes regarding deadlines, budgetary limitations, and project description page limits.  The other GSS solicitation (NSF 17-566) contains information about all other proposal submission types.  This solicitation does not contain any significant substantive changes from the previous solicitation, but it has added text to clarify guidance for the preparation of compliant proposals.  Applicants should be sure to use the new solicitations as guidance for preparing a proposal.  Please prepare and submit in accordance with the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 17-1).  Where there are differences, GSS program guidance takes precedent over the guidance in the PAPPG.

Individuals who have questions about or who wish more information about the new solicitations and the new GSS strategic plan should contact the GSS program directors.  Email is the preferred mode for initial communication.  All GSS program directors can be contacted at once through the use of the gss-info [at] nsf [dot] gov alias.  The GSS program directors can also be contacted individually:  Antoinette WinklerPrins (anwinkle [at] nsf [dot] gov; 703-292-7266); Thomas Baerwald (tbaerwal [at] nsf [dot] gov; 703-292-7301); Holly Hapke (hhapke [at] nsf [dot] gov; 703-292-8457), and Sunil Narumalani (snarumal [at] nsf [dot] gov).