Advance Notice

The Advance Notice application and login can be found at: https://www.fin.ucar.edu/advancenotice/login.jsp.

What is the Advance Notice?

The Advance Notice is UCAR’s internal proposal web based system that guides the internal review of proposals from the principal investigator to the NCAR Director’s Office. The form is made up of several components including: title, abstract, period of performance, participants, funding agency and proposed funding amount, and justification of the project.

What is the Purpose of the Advance Notice?

NSF recognizes that it may be appropriate for NCAR personnel and/or facilities to be used for other projects that contribute to the overall advancement of the atmospheric and related sciences. Such activities must fall within the mission of NCAR, and shall not impact negatively on NSF-sponsored activities. NSF and NCAR are concerned about unfair advantages that the use of NSF-funded NCAR staff and facilities may have on the ability of the university community and others to obtain funding.

The Advance Notice serves several purposes:

1. The Advance Notice is required as part of the NCAR Directorate internal review to ensure proposals for activities outside of NSF base funds fall within the mission of NCAR, do not compete unfairly with the university community, have significant collaboration with a university or provide facilities to the community and use NSF/NCAR resources appropriately.

2. NSF periodically reviews the Advance Notice form and/or NCAR’s database to fulfill their oversight responsibilities and monitor the extent of NCAR’s obligations involving the use of NCAR personnel and/or facilities for non-NSF funded projects.

3. NCAR is required to involve the members of the community in a retrospective review of non-NSF funded proposals. The external committee tasked with the semi-annual retrospective review of the Advance Notice is known as the President’s Advisory Committee on University Relations (PACUR). The committee holds two conferences per year to review a random selection of proposals over $100k to ensure NCAR is meeting the required criteria. The PACUR review process serves as an assurance to the universities that no unfair competition exists, serves as a mechanism to encourage collaboration with the university community, and allows the committee to make recommendations on improving UCAR’s internal review process. This retrospective review replaces past NSF processes, where NSF would review and approve all proposals before they were submitted to an agency.

When is the Advance Notice Required?

As directed in the NSF Cooperative Agreement, NCAR is required to maintain an internet database of all proposals submitted by NCAR involving the use of NCAR personnel, resources or facilities. The database is to include, at a minimum, name of funding agency, proposal #, title, principal investigator, proposed budget, reasons for seeking outside funds, impact of the project on the NSF base funded project, number of person months devoted to project, benefits to the university community, including efforts to involve university partners in the activity, and the level of co-sponsorship.

The Advance Notice form is required for:

    • Proposals over $100k
    • Proposals $100k or less
    • Zero $ Proposals / Unfunded Collaborations
    • MOUs
    • Preproposals / Letters of Intent

Who Should Complete the Form?

Completion of the Advance Notice form is usually a joint effort between the principal investigator and the division/lab administrator. Specifics for completing the form are decided within each division/lab. However, NCAR recommends that the four criteria within the Advance Notice be completed by the NCAR PI instead of the division/lab administrator. The PI is most familiar with the research and the particular project, thus the most knowledgeable to address the criteria.

It is important to note that the PACUR subcommittee does not receive copies of the full proposal during their biannual review. Rather, the subcommittee receives a copy of the Advance Notice, budget, agency cover pages and collaboration letters (if applicable). In addition, the subcommittee is limited to three people; so not all atmospheric disciplines are represented. Therefore, the responses to the criteria need to be very clear, providing sufficient explanation to each of the four criteria. Please also spell out all acronyms.

How Do I Answer the Four Criteria?

NCAR recommends that key elements are addressed within each of the responses as described below:

Criteria 1: Mission Appropriate: Explain how the proposal supports the research, facilities, education and/or leadership objectives and strategic plans of NCAR.

    • The response should demonstrate why the activity is appropriate for the division/lab/NCAR/UCAR.
    • The response should demonstrate how the project complements and enhances NCAR’s objectives.
    • The response should state what particular mission(s) and/or research objective(s) the project satisfies.

Criteria 2: Fair Facility Use: Identify which UCAR facilities will be used for the proposed activity.

    • The response should identify all facilities to be utilized in the project. Any facilities discussed within the abstract, statement of work, or budget should also be discussed within response # 2.
    • The response should explain how the facilities are being used in a fair manner with the university community.

When High-Performance Computing is to be utilized:

    • The response should provide an estimate of the number of GAUs required for the project.
    • The response should explain whether the GAUs will come from the divisional allocation or a request to Teragrid, CSL, etc.
    • The response should address whether universities would have access to similar type and quantity of GAUs.
    • The response should address how NCAR’s co-sponsorship of GAUs benefits the university collaborator(s) listed in the proposal.

When Models will be utilized:

    • The response should address the specific models to be used.
    • The response should address the university community’s access to these community models or other non-community models.

When Observational Facilities will be utilized:

    • The response should address the specific observational facilities to be used.
    • The response should address the university community’s access to these observational facilities.

Criteria 3: Collaboration Level: Identify the collaboration type (a, b, c or d) and provide the requested explanation.

Select the appropriate level of university collaboration. Additional explanation is required for 3.c & 3.d.

3a. Joint (e.g.. separate proposal from UCAR and each university institution).

3b. Collaborative with funding to or from university partner.

3c. Collaborative with no funding to or from a university partner. Describe in detail the nature of the collaboration including letters of collaboration. The collaboration should be significant and meaningful. The level and scope of the collaboration must be clearly stated (including graduate student participation, if applicable) in both the Advance Notice Forms and in the letters of collaboration. In addition, it must be clearly stated how this collaboration is supportive of and complementary to the university PI.

    • The response should thoroughly describe who the university participant is and what university they are affiliated with.
    • The response should describe the role of the university collaborator (level and scope of their involvement).
    • The response should address the benefit to the university collaborator (since the collaborator is not receiving funds, what does he/she receive in exchange for providing his/her time, expertise, data sets, etc).
    • The response should explain how the collaboration is meaningful to NCAR and to the university participant.
    • If any graduate students or post docs are involved in the project, explain their role.
    • A collaboration letter from the university participant is required.

3d. No University Collaboration. Explain how the proposed activity supports and complements the university community through: 1) contribution to the development or support of community facilities, community models, community data sets or other community projects such as field programs, workshops, visitor programs, or community meetings, or 2) development or transfer of UCAR-developed technology or expertise to the scientific community or to society at large with demonstrable benefit to the community and to society.

    • The response should thoroughly describe the specific activity that the project relates to (such as enhancement to or development of a new community model, participation in a field campaign, etc).
    • The response should describe the demonstrable benefit to the university community and/or the demonstrable benefit to the scientific community or to society.
    • If the project involves model improvements or data sets, the response should explain how the university community will be notified of these new improvements or data sets and how the community will access this information.
    • If technology is to be transferred, the response should provide detail on what will be transferred and by what means.

Criteria 4: Co-sponsorship Level: Describe and justify any activities that are co-sponsored by NSF Base Funds (i.e., NCAR funds from NSF that contribute to research sponsored by other organizations such as NOAA, NASA, etc.).

    • The response should explain what is being co-sponsored (i.e. salaries and/or high performance computing).
    • The response should identify which NSF base-funded project is supported through co-sponsorship; and how NSF base work will be enhanced through these efforts.
    • If no co-sponsorship is proposed, please write “No co-sponsorship is proposed.”

How Do I Get Access to Advance Notice?

Have your division/lab administrator send an email to ncarprop@ucar.edu requesting to be added to the system. Access to the system is linked with the UCAR Human Resources system and can only be granted to UCAR employees. B&P will confirm PI eligibility and assign the appropriate role. Logging into the system requires use of the employee’s UCAS password.

(printable version - pdf)