Proposal Guidelines

The AFOSR Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is the principal document for all award instructions.  Please refer to the BAA for full submission instructions.  This page highlights areas in proposal packages where we commonly see errors that result in delayed processing time. 

R&D and CSP Grants:

To facilitate processing, please adhere to the following:

1. SF424 (R&R)
   • Include the IOA, IOE, or IOS and the IPO name in block 4, b. Agency Routing Identifier (e.g. IOA – Dr. Knopp).
   • The business administrative POC cannot be the PI. It should be someone from the institution business office.
   • In box 16, check the box “NO - Program is not covered by E.O. 12372”
   • In box 17, the “I agree” box must be checked
   • In the resulting workspace form, please ensure the Opportunity Number matches the most recent BAA with the Title “Research Interests of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research”
2. Criminal Violations & Tax Delinquency Certification Form (Criminal Violation & Tax Delinquency Form)
3. Certification of Lobbying Form – include this form if the grant total is greater than $100,000 (Certification of Lobbying Form)
4. Technical Narrative
   • Abstract must be no more than 300 words and should not include formulas or special characters.
   • Clearly define the research objectives and how the methodology is appropriate to measure progress towards objectives
   • Provide academic support showing novelty of the proposed research
   • Include any collaboration with US-based institutions (university, government agencies, companies)
   • If there is collaborative work with another institution (US or otherwise, funded or unfunded), please clearly articulate the work done at each respective institution.
   • Additional details and optional outline here (Project Narrative)
5. Budget Narrative
   • Fill out this budget narrative worksheet to assist (Budget Narrative)
   • a. University overhead greater than 10% will require a University Policy memo documenting the rate
   • If you have equipment (items costing more than $5,000 and can be used for more than 1 year), please provide a reference stating that the institution is both 1) a non-profit institution and 2) mission is primarily basic research.
   • Identify costs to the nearest $500 USD increment.
   • If there is an opportunity for a student exchange, include the student exchange as its own separate option. For more information about student exchanges, please consult the AFOSR BAA on www.grants.gov
6. Submit all forms as PDF for faster processing than .docx

Windows-on-Science Grants

Please see WOS