Why did NSF remove the budget cap on PIRE proposals?
In previous PIRE competitions most proposals had budgets very close to the upper limit, suggesting that the budget cap may have constrained institutions and PIs in a variety of ways. Some PIs may have cut out aspects of their projects that would have been beneficial but could not be included because of the budget limitation. For projects that required less than the budget cap, PIs may have faced a perceived incentive to include additional elements to bring the budget up to the limit. The intent of removing the budget cap is to encourage submission of proposals of diverse scale and scope, with a wider range of budgets, both large and small, that are more closely tailored to the needs of the proposed partnership project.
