The National Science Foundation (NSF) is making major changes to the way the research community registers for NSF accounts and maintains account and user profile information in both Fastlane and Research.gov. Effective Monday, March 26, 2018, NSF will introduce a new centralized and streamlined account registration process that will provide new users with a single profile and unique identifier (i.e., NSF ID) for signing in to FastLane and Research.gov to complete proposal and award activities.

The new account management functionality will:

• Allow users to create and self-manage accounts, including personal information and role requests.
• Eliminate the need for organizational Administrators to create accounts and maintain profile information for their users.
• Replace the existing FastLane and Research.gov account management functions.

 

New and Existing NSF Accounts

New users can register directly with NSF through Research.gov beginning on Monday, March 26, via this link: https://www.research.gov/accountmgmt/#/registration. (Note: This link will not be effective until Monday, March 26, 2018. It will generate an error message until that date.)

Current users with existing NSF accounts, including Grants.gov and Application Submission Web Service (ASWS) users, will be migrated to the new account management system through a one-time process when signing into FastLane or Research.gov for the first time after the new functionality is released. Account holders will be required to verify information to transfer it to the new system. Each user will have one NSF ID per the Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (NSF 18-1), Chapter I.G.4. Users with existing NSF accounts can look up their NSF IDs here, and retrieve forgotten passwords here.

 

Grants.gov and ASWS

Beginning on March 26, 2018, the Principal Investigator (PI), all co-PIs and the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) listed on a Grants.gov proposal must all be registered with NSF prior to proposal submission. NSF IDs for the PI, all co-PIs and the AOR listed must be included in the proposal submission.

Currently, for proposals submitted via Grants.gov or ASWS, the NSF system registers organizations and will allow proposal submission in cases where there is a mismatch of the DUNS number and/or organization name with NSF records. This will no longer be possible after the account management changes go into effect. After the March 26 implementation, when a proposal is submitted to NSF through Grants.gov or ASWS, the NSF system will cross-check the DUNS number and organization name with NSF records. If there is no match to the DUNS number and/or organization name, the proposal will be rejected and the PI/AOR listed on the proposal submission will receive an email notifying that the proposal submission was not accepted by NSF.

 

Planned Releases

The new centralized account management functionality is being released first to the Administrator, PI, AOR, Sponsored Project Officer (SPO), Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Coordinating Official and Financial Official, and Award Cash Management Service (ACM$) groups. NSF plans to eventually expand the new functionality to additional groups including proposal reviewers, GRFP applicants and NSF staff.

 

Training Resources

NSF is finalizing new account management training resources such as job aids, FAQs and instructional videos. These materials will be made available on an “About Account Management” page accessible through the Research.gov homepage.

 

16 March 2018