Renewing or starting a new Multistate project

Resource for questions or assistance: agInnovation South Program Coordinator/NIMSS System Administrator for the Southern Region (RSA), Cindy Morley at cmorley@uark.edu or 479-502-9545 (office) or 479-422-1405 (cell)

First, contact the agInnovation South Office to discuss the desire to create/renew a multistate project.

Requesting to Write a Proposal (Process to be done by AA or Editor of Project)

  1. Login into NIMSS at www.nimss.org. If you haven’t logged into the new NIMSS yet (effective 12/14/2015), use your email address to reset your password under Forgot Password. Going forward, use your email address as your username and new password to log in.
  2. Select Project Proposals >> Create New Proposal.
  3. On the “Basic Information” tab:
    1. TYPE:
      1. Select New only if the proposal is NOT a renewal of an existing project.
      2. Select Revisions/Replacement, if you are renewing an existing multistate project (most common).
        1. Select the appropriate expiring project number. The title and most other information will automatically populate each text box.
    2. FORM:
      1. Choose the correct Appendix from the second pull-down menu:
        1. Research proposals (NC, W, NE, S-type)- Choose Appendix A (Includes a Methods section)
        2. CC, SERA, or DC proposals – Choose Appendix B (Includes an Activities and Procedures section in place of a Methods section)
        3. 500-series proposals (Rapid Response Committees) – Use Appendix F (Does not include a Methods Section, but does include a section to list the types of project activities expected, requires prior regional office approval. Please contact your regional office prior to starting a new 500-series proposal request.
        4. NRSPs (National Research Support Project), select NRSP from the dropdown.
    3. TITLE and FROM/TO:
      1. Only for New proposals: Type in the desired project title and enter the five year begin and end dates.
  4. Enter the Issues and Justification in the appropriate text box then click Save.
      1. Then Submit for RSA approval.
  5. Your regional office will enter the selected AA name and assign the proposal a temp number to use throughout the uploading and review process. Once the proposal has been fully regionally approved, the temp designation will be removed.

MRC/SERA Review Committee will review all “Requests to Write”.  If approved, complete the remainder of the fields.

Completing the Proposal in NIMSS (process to be done by AA or Editor of project)

  1. Anyone wishing to upload proposal or project materials in NIMSS needs to be granted editing access to the proposal. Please contact your AA or regional office (www.nimss.org/directory/regional_offices) to be granted editing access to a proposal or active project.
  2. To begin uploading and editing a proposal, log into NIMSS and under Action Items, select My Project Proposals. You’ll see several tabs here. To add and edit text, your proposal request needs to have first been RSA approved before it will appear in your Draft Proposals tab and be available for editing. If it is and you have editor access (assigned either by the AA or your RSA), then click Edit to access proposal sections.
  3. After clicking the Edit button, you can navigate between sections via the links on the left. Be sure to save between each section!
  4. Formatting Tips: We recommend you paste sections in as text, then use the text formatting options to add bold, underline, etc. Be sure to click on the View Project occasionally to check formatting and edit sections as needed (don’t forget to save between sections!). MS Word text often contains many hidden HTML tags that may affect how your proposal renders in View.
  5. Figures, charts, and graphs may be attached to proposals using the “Attachments” link on the left side of the screen. We recommend converting files to .pdf before uploading to NIMSS.
  6. When you’ve uploaded all sections and you’re ready to Submit as Final, go to the Basic (title, dates, advisors) section of the proposal and click the Submit as Final button. This action sends a notice to your regional system admin and AA informing them that the proposal is ready for review.

Proposal goes to Peer Review at this point (step initiated by agInnovation South Office)

Completing Participation/Appendix E forms in NIMSS –Before participants are invited to the project, be sure the project’s Objectives section is complete. This section is required to appropriately populate the Appendix E form for a given project.

  1. For AES affiliated participants, Appendix E forms should be completed only with approval from your AES director’s office. Please contact your local AES office to ensure your continued participation on renewal project. Membership in the expiring project does NOT roll over automatically into the renewal.
  2. For Extension participants, please contact your Extension director for approval to join an AES project. Your Extension office will need complete your Appendix E for you. Your institution’s AES may not fund your travel to project meetings, be sure to discuss this with them and your Extension office prior to joining a project.
  3. For non-LGU affiliated members, contact your regional system admin to be added. We’ll need to know your name, email address, company/institution, which project/proposal objectives you’ll be associated with, and your KA, SOI, and FOS codes (or your general field of study, as it relates to the project)
  4. Check the NIMSS manual for specifics on completing Appendix E’s in NIMSS.

Finalizing the Completed Proposal (process to be done by AA or Editor of project)

  1. After Peer Review, make any necessary edits to proposal.
  2. When the proposal is in its final form, editors must click the Submit as Final button from the proposal’s Basic (title, dates, advisors). This function notifies your RSA that the proposal is ready for review.
  3. Along with the new proposal, all projects up for renewal MUST be sure all annual reports have been submitted. Please see our annual report instructions for more information. The final meeting report should be in the form of a summary/termination report.

Project proposal goes to MRC Review at this point (step initiated by agInnovation South Office)

 

Optimal Timeline for New and Renewed Multistate Project Proposals
(All projects initiate on October 1 and terminate on September 30)

Calendar year prior to project initiation

  • September 30: Writing Committee submits a “request to write a proposal” in NIMSS by uploading the Issues and Justifications section. An Administrative Advisor (AA) will be assigned after submitting a proposal request. Effective 2021, all S-projects will retain the same number designation upon renewal, unless otherwise requested.
  • October: MRC meets to review “Request to Write.”
  • October 30: Begin to upload the remaining proposal sections in NIMSS.

Calendar Year of project initiation

  • March 15: Final Project Proposal due in NIMSS along with a list of five suggested peer reviewers. agInnovation South invites participants to the project via NIMSS.
  • March 30: agInnovation South office sends the proposal for peer review.
  • May 15: Proposals are back from peer review. The agInnovation South office sends the peer reviews to the AA to be relayed to the writing committee.
  • June 15: Writing committee responds to the peer review and edits the proposal as appropriate. A document is e-mailed to the agInnovation South office that gives a point-by-point response to each of the comments made by the peer reviewers and the changes made to the project in response to these comments. This document will be shared with the MRC to aid in the review process. The revised proposal is uploaded into NIMSS.
  • July: MRC meets to review projects up for review. Projects that are unable to be reviewed by the MRC at this meeting may not be able to be renewed for the October 1 start date.
  • August: The Writing Committee responds to MRC review and edits the proposal as appropriate
  • September: agInnovation South reviews all revisions and makes any remaining project decisions
  • September 30: Old projects expire.
  • October 1: New projects begin.