Professional Appointments & Positions (NSPM-33)

Professional appointments and positions per definitions from NSPM-33 guidance from November 2023 hosted on the National Science Foundation (NSF) website. While hosted by NSF, other federal agencies also rely on this definition when it comes to the common forms for the Biographical Sketch and/or Current and Pending or Other support.

Appointments and positions conveyed in a formal manner (e.g., via appointment letter, executed offer letter, employment contract) by one or more organizations, foreign or domestic, other than one’s primary place of employment.

They are undertaken owing to the individual’s professional expertise (e.g., as a physician, structural engineer, mathematician) and usually are temporary in nature. In most cases, such appointments and positions consist of professional service activities (e.g., serving on or chairing local, state, regional, or national societies, boards, commissions, or committees; or serving as a professional staff member in local, state or Federal offices or agencies – such as a program officer at a Federal funding agency).

Professional appointments and positions do not include service at purely charitable or faith-based organizations, or other activities that reside outside the individual’s domain of professional expertise.