NSF GRFP: Current Research as Proposal?

[CauchyProcess]

I'm going to soon start year 2 of my graduate program, and have one final opportunity to apply for the NSF fellowship.

 

So, I'm wondering: can the research proposal be current research (with partial results)?

 

I've developed a novel computational algorithm to be used in statistics that is completely parallelizable, but don't yet have a proof of convergence. I'd like to use this algorithm as my research proposal, and include a description of numerical results that I've obtained on large data sets. The algorithm works as far as I can tell: it finds the correct answer for simulated data, and finds the same answer as other techniques on real-world data. The idea is new, and entirely my own (i.e. not a project from my advisor). Is this appropriate - or should the NSF proposal be an area of research that is novel and that no-one has yet worked on?

[Eigen]

Yes. I had data for my proposal as a 2nd year applicant, and I think it's somewhat expected that you will.

[Robin G. Walker]

With what you have described, you are fine. My sense is that reviewers do expect those who are starting their second year to be further along than first year grad students.