No reply on my early morning request for a status update. I think that's a good sign - I've emailed them three times before and all three times they have been very prompt (within 2 hours) in telling me that nothing new was going on and that they know nothing. Perhaps silence means they are busy!
So, I think it's finally time for me to join the (no actual money) pool and make my bets on number and timing of awards.
My guess for award notification: Friday morning 4/24.
My guess for number of awards: I think they will fund another 663 awardees, or 31% of the 2100 of us in limbo, for a total of 1613 awardees this year. I know that's super optimistic, but here's my math:
According to the fiscal year '09 budget request, NSF GRFP asked for money to give out 700 more awards this year than they did in 2008. In 2008 they gave out 913 awards, so they asked for money to give out 1613 awards this year.
NSF's spending plan is divided into six categories, and GRFP falls under the category "Education and Human Resources." The appropriations were just posted here: http://www.nsf.gov/about/congress/111/h ... 9_0310.jsp (again linked from Twitter), and Education and Human Resources was actually granted 50 million^h^h^h^h^h^h^h billion MORE dollars than they asked for when congress passed the budget on March 10. Thus, I believe that GRFP will be fully funded as described in the original request - they would have no reason to NOT fund the extra 700 this year if their division got more money than they requested. I am not sure whether the appropriations here include ARRA (stimulus funds), but I THINK that they do and that is why NSF was granted more than they asked for.
I think GRFP has known they have this money, they just couldn't move to notify anyone (including call center) until the whole spending plan was approved and sent to congress, which happened today. It seems that NSF has to be very careful with ARRA funds and carefully document and update how they are using them, and so perhaps they needed more infrastructure in place before they notified more awardees. I do not think that there will be any MORE than the extra 663, though - that is, I think these numbers from March 10th are the final numbers, and that the delay is just in setting up Recovery Act infrastructure, not from getting more money than was approved on March 10th.
Well, those are my theories!
Still nobody out there from Colorado?