Instituted in 2012, NSF’s Career-Life Balance (CLB) initiative is an agency-wide approach to help attract, retain, and advance graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and other researchers in STEM fields. This effort aims to help reduce the rate at which early-career researchers depart from the STEM workforce. With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), NSF draws attention to the opportunity for supplemental funding to help researchers, who are confronted with a short-term increase in dependent care responsibilities, ensure that the research activities supported by an NSF award can continue. NSF recognizes that primary dependent care responsibilities and other family considerations pose unique challenges to the STEM workforce. The purpose of this DCL is to announce NSF’s continued interest in CLB supplemental funding requests, with two key changes from CLB DCLs issued in FY 2013: 1) an increase in the amount and duration of salary support that may be requested; and 2) an extension of the opportunity to Principal Investigators (PIs) and co-PIs of all active NSF grant or cooperative agreements. Career Life Balance supplements may be requested to support additional personnel (e.g., a technician or research assistant) for existing research awards, graduate research fellowships and postdoctoral fellowship programs when award personnel are on family leave for primary dependent care responsibilities and other direct family considerations. The supplemental request may include funding for up to six months of salary support or stipend for a maximum of $30,000 in direct costs of salary compensation or stipend, but the duration of the salary or stipend support may not exceed the duration of the family leave. Fringe benefits and associated indirect costs, but not tuition, may be included in addition to the salary costs, and therefore, the total supplemental funding request may exceed $30,000.

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