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Virginia Tech Faculty Activity Support Team

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ANNOUNCEMENTS 

New deadlines are posted for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Competitive Grants Program Foundational and Applied Science (FAS) Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to ensure that potential applicants can get technical assistance from NIFA staff.

Please do not submit a duplicate application if one was already submitted if there are no changes. If an application has already been submitted and the applicant was not able to receive technical assistance from NIFA staff, the applicant may revise and resubmit prior to the new deadline. If an applicant did not submit an application, they may submit prior to the new deadline.

The National Science Foundation is now operating under a continuing resolution that runs until January 30, 2026.

We are prioritizing the most pressing issues, including restoring the capacity to make awards and ensuring continued management and oversight of existing awards. Our hardworking staff are focused on these activities, and we ask for your continued patience as we do so. 

Please visit the recently updated Resumption of Operations at NSF page on NSF.gov for information and answers to frequently asked questions.

The Virginia Tech Faculty Activity Support Team (VT-FAST) is a virtual team of faculty and staff across campus. We support faculty in all aspects of proposal development and can provide some limited support post award.

Services range from a quick review of a single-investigator proposal to several team members providing support over an extended period for large, complex proposals. Our goal is to enable the faculty to focus on the science, while we help to complete many of the accessory documents and ensure that the proposal is the best that it can be. 

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We provide a broad range of services, and we encourage principal investigators to work with us to help define the services that they need.  Services can include, but are not limited to:

  • Identifying opportunities
  • Developing budgets
  • Developing, collecting, and formatting support materials (i.e., biosketches, current and pending, collaborators and other affiliations, letters of support/commitment, data tables, etc.
  • Graphics
  • Data management plans
  • Compliance review
  • Review and Editing
  • Completing required forms
  • Uploading documents for submission (i.e., Summit, Cayuse, Research.gov, etc.)

For larger proposals we can also provide:

  • Strategic planning and consulting (research intelligence)
  • Proposal management
  • Red Team Reviewing
  • External reviews

Post Award help includes:

  • Manuscript editing
  • Talks and posters

Additional information may be found by contacting: