NCALM NOW proposals are reviewed by the NCALM Steering Committee and follow National Science Foundation guidelines, specified below, for intellectual merit and broader impacts.
Intellectual Merit
- What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?
- How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields?
- How well qualified is the faculty or research staff (individual or team) to conduct the project?
- To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts?
- How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity?
Broader Impacts
- What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?
- How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding, while promoting training and learning?
- How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of under-represented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, or geographic)?
- To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships?
- Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding?
- What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society?
Applicants can expect to hear whether their proposal has been selected within one month following submission.