Fastlane
Brief History
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Fastlane electronic proposal submission system had its beginnings in the mid-1980's when initial plans for experiments in electronic proposal submission were developed. The EXPRES (Experimental Research in Electronic Submission) project, which began in 1986, resulted in the first awards (Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan) made for the purpose of developing an interoperable environment which would enable scientists and engineers to exchange multimedia documents freely among dissimilar hardware and software platforms. In 1988, a pilot program was begun to experiment with online proposal and forms submission. Finally, in 1994, an NSF task force on electronic proposal processing, after reviewing past experiments, recommended a new approach that included automating all business functions with the research, engineering and education communities. The project was named Fastlane and development was begun on six pilot applications. Today's Fastlane system is the result of considerable interactions with and comments from the higher education community. More information on the history of Fastlane is available at the Fastlane website.
Features
While not without its share of problems in connection with access to and use of the World Wide Web, Fastlane has evolved to include many features designed to reduce the administration burden associated with proposal submissions. Some of the features of Fastlane include:
- the ability to check on the status of proposals submitted to NSF and annual increments of funding
- the capability of submitting electronic project reports
- a feature that allows for electronic notifications and requests, such as supplements, no-cost extensions, and changes in objectives or scope of projects, and
- allowing the storage of information used on NSF proposal forms.
With these features and more, the Fastlane system is being emulated by other Federal sponsors as they, too, prepare to create electronic proposal submission systems.
Using Fastlane
Please note that, as of October 1, 2000, NSF requires that ALL proposals be submitted electronically. If you are not a prior Fastlane user, it is recommended that you visit the Fastlane web site to familiarize yourself with the environment well before the anticipated submission date of proposals and contact the Office of Research Administration (ORA) with questions. Simply click on the icon below to learn more about or submit proposals using Fastlane.
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: September 11, 2007 13:36:00