NSF FastLane

• Description
• Functionality Available to USC Investigators
• System Requirements
• Registration
• NSF Provided Assistance

Description

The National Science Foundation's electronic research administration system is called FastLane. The purpose of FastLane is to experiment with ways to use the World Wide Web to facilitate business transactions and the exchange of information between the National Science Foundation and its client community including researchers, reviewers, research administrators, and others doing business with NSF. To access FastLane, please visit https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp.

Functionality Available to USC Investigators

Most business functions related to extramural awards from NSF have been made available in the FastLane system. These include proposal preparation and submission, project status, project reporting, submitting notifications and requests, and peer review actions.

NSF also provides a demonstration site where users can try the capabilities of FastLane in a sample environment. The demonstration site can be found at https://www.fldemo.nsf.gov/.

System Requirements

FastLane requires use of an internet connection and a qualified web browser, such as Internet Explorer 4.0 (or later) or Netscape 3.0.  

Contact your department technical staff for assistance.

Registration

All USC investigators with active awards from NSF, or who have submitted a proposal to NSF through USC, appear as USC investigators in the FastLane database.

If you have never submitted a proposal to NSF, or have not submitted a proposal to NSF through USC, or have submitted an NSF proposal through another institution, the NSF database will need to be updated to reflect your employment with USC. In order to register or to request a password, please contact the Administrator assigned to your unit (http://dcg.usc.edu/dcg/staff.cfm) or complete the Registration Page. Once submitted, your request will be promptly processed by DCG staff.

For security reasons, all requests must come directly from the investigator. Requests via graduate students or via administrative staff cannot be honored. First time investigators will need to provide the following information.

• Name
• Highest Degree and Year Conferred
• Department
• E-Mail Address
• Business Phone

NSF Provided Assistance

FastLane User Support
(800) 673-6188
(800) 437-7408 (FastLane Availability Recording)
Email User Support at fastlane@nsf.gov

A User Guide for Fastlane is available at https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/guides/EB_Proposal_Submission.pdf.