NSF, Fastlane, and Research.Gov

The National Science Foundation is a multifaceted agency that funds basic research in the physical, biological, social sciences, engineering, and education. Grants undergo peer review. Many program officers who serve at the foundation are faculty on temporary leave from their home institutions.

Fastlane is an electronic proposal and award system used by the National Science Foundation for both the submission of proposals and administration of awards. All proposers must have a UserID and password that is unique; each user is affiliated by his/her employing or sponsoring organization. Fastlane is also used for reporting, requesting extensions, and submitting supplemental requests and revised budgets for awards.

To obtain a UserID, you can either call ORSP and we will register you as new user at NSF, or you register yourself through Research.gov (see below). If you already have a Fastlane UserID, do not request a new one. You can simply request to be affiliated with Queens College. Be aware that there are several Queens College organizations. Make sure you are affiliated with the correct organization, CUNY Queens College, #0026906000.

Please note that Fastlane has several user areas, including PI log-in, Administration, Proposal Review, and Financial Functions. We at ORSP cannot use the PI functions and only ORSP can use the Administration functions. All proposals, revisions, and supplemental requests must be initiated by the PI and then “sent” to us, the Sponsored Research Office (SRO), for review, approval, and submission to NSF. ORSP cannot start a proposal and the PI cannot submit it.

Click to log-in to Fastlane

Access a tutorial on Fastlane

If you have additional questions about using Fastlane, please contact our office.

Research.gov provides grants management for the research community. Research.gov will become the replacement for FastLane, providing quick access to research information and grants management services, all in one location.

Services for grantees:

Account Management
Award Cash Management $ervice (ACM$)
Notifications & Requests
Password Management
Research.gov Proposal Preparation and Submission
Project Reports
Proposal Status
Public Access

NOTE: If you have a Fastlane account, you can access Research.gov. The Research.gov Proposal Preparation and Submission Site modernizes proposal submission capabilities. The new system focuses on enhancing the user experience and reducing administrative burden with an intuitive interface and automated compliance checking. The new system is being developed incrementally and, as more FastLane features become available in Research.gov, that system’s features will expand until Research.gov replaces FastLane for proposal preparation and submission. A full timeline for release of system capabilities is available a Release Timeline.pdf Until that time, FastLane will continue to be available, and users will have the option of using either Research.gov or FastLane to prepare and submit proposals.