Anyone have experience with NSF grants?

[EnumaElish]

Say I wanted to apply for an NSF grant. Is it an arduous process (the application, I know the research will be)? Is it something that I can hope to do on my own, or do I need the services of a professional grants application specialist?

 

[Asphodel]

NSF grants are a pretty broad topic, as they're responsible for a large chunk of US government sponsored research funds. Some are relatively easy to apply for, especially if you find one targeted at undergraduate researchers. Grant funds for professional research programmes tend to have very strict guidelines, and grant applications that don't meet the guidelines are typically discarded.

I haven't applied for an NSF research grant, this info is largely gleaned from a session they held at a recent AAS conference (although I did indirectly receive a tuition grant that sort of falls in this category :/ ).

I don't know your background, but if you're associated with a university, there are probably several possible places to turn for support. I can think of two solid ones (an undergraduate research office and my department inclusive of professors that could provide advice) as well as a longer list of places that might help (honors program advisors, undergraduate advisors/offices/services, the actual grant office devoted to serving the university's researchers, and so forth). If you write up a solid proposal of what you want to do and what you need to do it, I suspect you can find some degree of funding whether through the NSF or elsewhere.