The NES Request for proposal (RFP) is a request from the GEM Data Team for a proposal from the National Team stating their intentions to complete the NES for that given year. The term RFP has come to include the whole package distributed to Teams (often in March) and includes the following:

• NES Request for Proposal - an Excel document stating the sampling requirements for completing the survey (discussed below).

• NES Questionnaire (English and Spanish Languages) National Teams are responsible for translating the questionnaire into their national language(s) either by doing so themselves, or including it as part of the survey package. A file of translated NES questionnaires is kept by the GERA Data team so that most National Teams only have to translate the updates. New Teams must make their own translations.

• NES Training Session: A detailed PowerPoint provides instructions to individual Teams conducting the survey in which most of the common questions are answered. It also includes how to find experts, how to approach them, how to ask the questions as well as other operational details.

• NES Questionnaire Changes: are collected and collated each year, and updated in both the official document and the on-line version.

• NES Data Input Template: An SPSS template to be used to submit ALL NES data. This file is automatically created if the on-line version is used to conduct the NES survey. For teams not using the on-line version of the survey, a Manual of Data Introduction is provided (English and Spanish versions available).