Subject:                               Time:8:48 AM
  OFFICE MEMO          RE:  NSF Forms and Guidelines          Date:2/4/94
The new forms are not up on the NSF STIS system yet--I've tried every day for
the last few days.  Maybe next week.  I've also ordered a number of hard
copies, but they are not going to be mailed out for a few weeks.
RE:  Electronic proposal transmission.  We've looked into it seriously at Yale,
but the problems seem to outweight the benefits.  First, the transmittal system
is very cumbersome and complicated.  Apparently NSF is using outdated software
which doesn't communicate well with newer systems.  The old problem of PC vs.
Mac complicates the issue as well.  And we have not come up with a creative
solution for who should do the sending--tying up one of our computers for hours
at deadline times is not an attractive idea.  We believe a much more workable
process would be to send proposals on disk to NSF--resolves the issue of too
much paper, and NSF could still send out the proposals electronically to
reviewers.  Unfortunately, NSF has put in a lot of time and money to electronic
proposal transmission and they appear unwilling to think about other
alternatives!