NSF Funding Opportunities

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NSF - National Science Foundation

• NSF ERE Advisory Committee Meeting Notes

  Notes from the NSF Environmental Research and Education advisory committee meeting.

• Invitation to Host NSF Workshops (NSF proposal writing)

  Dear Colleague: Are you interested in giving your faculty a competitive edge in writing NSF proposals, particularly for educational research and development projects such as those supported by the Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM (TUES) Program {formerly the Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Program} or for research projects with significant educational components supported by the BRIGE and CAREER programs? Then you will want to make arrangements for your faculty to participate as a group in one or more of the five upcoming National Science Foundation sponsored interactive, web-based workshops. The first two scheduled workshops (F101and F102) are a continuation of the successive series of Proposal Writing Workshops presented to over 1000 engineering faculty members at more than 100 different institutions during Fall 2009 and Spring 2010. These two workshops will be followed by workshops (F103 and F104) that will focus on two topics of significant importance to the quality of TUES proposals- Project Evaluation and Broader Impacts. Better understanding of the latter topic can also be of significant benefit to young faculty members preparing proposals to the BRIGE and CAREER programs. The final workshop in Fall 2010 is a new addition to the webinar series. This webinar will consist of a Mock Panel Review of an actual proposal submitted to the CCLI Program. The workshops will be led by Engineering Program Directors from the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education and will be provided at no cost to your institution. The first workshop is scheduled for October 20, 2010 Abstracts of the workshops are linked below: Mock Panel Review Workshop - https://viterbi.usc.edu/links/?1899 Proposal Writing Workshop - https://viterbi.usc.edu/links/?1900 Project Evaluation and Broader Impacts Workshop - https://viterbi.usc.edu/links/?1901

• Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (IGERT)

• Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12)

• Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service (SFS)

• NSF MRI call for pre-proposals (new process)

  Applicants will submit pre-proposals directly to the Vice Provost for Research Advancement web portal; deans will then have the opportunity to review their school’s submissions.

• Dear Colleague Letter for the Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) NSF-Wide Investment Area

• Feedback requested for NSF Merit Review Criteria

  The National Science Board’s (NSB) Merit Review Task Force is undertaking a thorough review of the National Science Foundation's two merit review criteria (Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts). The merit review process is at the heart of NSF's mission, and the merit review criteria form the critical base for that process. Moreover, in the recently enacted America COMPETES Reauthorization Act, the Broader Impacts Review Criterion was specifically mentioned. The Task Force is now gathering input from a wide variety of stakeholder groups, and will be developing its report and recommendations during 2011. To ensure that all interested parties have an opportunity to provide input, NSF has established a web site through which you can submit your thoughts and ideas on several issues of interest to the Task Force (http://www.nsf.gov/funding/meritreviewform.cfm). Please take this opportunity to provide comments and suggestions for improvements, as the Task Force undertakes this important review. We also encourage you to forward this message to your faculty members, so that the Task Force may obtain their perspectives on this important topic.

• NSB Merit Review Board - Request for Information

  The National Science Board’s (NSB) Merit Review Task Force is undertaking a thorough review of the National Science Foundation's two merit review criteria(Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts). The merit review process is at the heart of NSF's mission, and the merit review criteria form the critical base for that process. Moreover, in the recently enacted America COMPETES Reauthorization Act, the Broader Impacts Review Criterion was specifically mentioned. The Task Force is now gathering input from a wide variety of stakeholder groups, and will be developing its report and recommendations during 2011. To ensure that all interested parties have an opportunity to provide input, NSF has established a web site through which you can submit your thoughts and ideas on several issues of interest to the Task Force (http://www.nsf.gov/funding/meritreviewform.cfm). Please take this opportunity to provide comments and suggestions for improvements, as the Task Force undertakes this important review.

• NSF PIRE & SEES opportunities

  "Dear Colleague" letter linked above This letter is to call your attention to an upcoming opportunity that is anticipated to span the FY2011-FY2012 fiscal years. The Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) Program, a National Science Foundation program since 2005, will focus its next competition exclusively on the NSF-wide investment area of Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES). Through SEES, NSF seeks to enable the discoveries needed to inform actions that lead to environmental, energy and societal sustainability while creating the necessary workforce to address these challenges.

• Feedback on NSF's Merit Review Criteria

  From the NSF: We need your help getting in contact with NSF-funded PIs on your campus or in your institution. The National Science Board's (NSB) Merit Review Task Force is undertaking a thorough review of the National Science Foundation's two merit review criteria (Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts). The merit review process is at the heart of NSF's mission, and the merit review criteria form the critical base for that process. Moreover, in the recently enacted "America COMPETES Reauthorization Act", the Broader Impacts Review Criterion was specifically mentioned.

• NSF PIRE Partnership

  NSF is promoting its PIRE-partnership for international research and education- to help US universities to globalize

• Federal Agency Advisory Committee Openings

  Attached please find a list of federal agency advisory committees with anticipated openings in the next month. As you'll recall, advisory committee members play an integral role in influencing the federal research and education agenda, including having access to agency officials and continuing connections to the relevant agency staff. Upcoming openings include: • Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Deadline: May 16 • Patent and Trademark Public Advisory Committees, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; Deadline: May 20 • National Advisory Council for Healthcare Research and Quality, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; Deadline: June 4 • Committee of Scientific Advisors on Marine Mammals, Marine Mammal Commission; Deadline: May 23 Also linked below is a memorandum describing the federal agency advisory committee process. In addition to the committees listed above, several agencies (such as NSF) accept nominations on a rolling basis at any time of year. My office is happy to assist you as you nominate faculty and staff for roles on federal advisory committees. MEMO: https://viterbi.usc.edu/links/?1938

• NSF CISE Advisory Committee meeting notes, prepared by Dr. Jim Murday

• Dear Colleague Letter: New proposal window/schedule

• Competition for NSF grants Intensifies

  NSF got 55,542 proposals in fiscal 2010 and made 12,996 awards -- a 23 percent funding rate. This is lower than the 32 percent funding rate in 2009, when stimulus money kicked in, but also lower than the 2008 rate. The number of proposals is up 74 percent over 2001, according to the NSF's annual merit review report to the National Science Board, found at the link above.

• Reports from the the 6 NSF-wide Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure (ACCI) established in 2009 are now available

  In 2009 the NSF-wide Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastucture (ACCI) established six task forces to investigate long-term cyberinfrastructure issues: • Campus Bridging • Cyberlearning and Workforce Development • Data and Visualization • Grand Challenges • High Performance Computing • Software for Science and Engineering These task forces were each led by ACCI members and their membership included a cross section of members from both academic and industrial communities. Over a two-year period the task forces gathered broad community input via open workshops and meetings, solicitation of white papers, and other outreach efforts. Each task force subsequently discussed and generated a final report containing recommendations and ideas for advancing cyberinfrastructure in support of NSF research. The recommendations of each task force were discussed in depth during the December 2010 ACCI meeting, and the final reports were approved by the ACCI on April 1st 2011. The reports (available at http://www.nsf.gov/od/oci/taskforces/ ), which will certainly guide NSF investment in cyberinfrastructure and CISE, are: Computational Methods and Algorithms Donald Estep and Omar Gluttas High Performance Computing Abani Patra Software Thom Dunning and Katherine Yelick Data and Visualization Cathy Wu and Christopher Johnson Education, Training and Workforce Sharon Glotzer and Linda Petzold Grand Challenge John King and Victoria Stodden

• Office of CyberInfrastructure (OCI) Advisory Committee - notes

  The National Science Foundation's Office of CyberInfrastructure (OCI) has an advisory committee that meets twice a year. Its purpose is to provide advice, recommendations, and oversight to OCI on such issues as: • How the mission, programs, and goals can best serve the community; • Priority investment areas in research; • How to can promote quality graduate and undergraduate education; • Oversight of overall program management and performance; • Impact of NSF institutional administration and policy; and • The Government Performance and Results Act, including the Committees of Visitors. I have [linked] notes from the 8-9 June 2011 NSF OCI advisory committee meeting. The notes capture highlights of the discussions/presentations at the meeting, with emphasis on those items providing insights toward future NSF programs. I have highlighted in red those items of more importance (at least from my perspective). Jim Murday

• Changes to the NSF proposal submission window policy (via CBET)

  The CBET Division at NSF wants to call your attention to the important "Dear Colleague Letter (DCL)" that addresses the new proposal submission window policy. Basically, each CBET program will have only one, one-month proposal submission window per year, instead of the two that we have had until now. The attached memo from John McGrath, our Division Director, explains the rationale behind this new policy. The policy expressed in the attached DCL is effective immediately. Please note that some CBET program windows will be in the early Fall--and some program windows will be in the Winter/early Spring time period.

• Sustainability Research Networks Competition (SRN) (nsf11574)

  SUMMARY: Sustainability Research Networks will engage and explore fundamental theoretical issues and empirical questions in sustainability science, engineering, and education that will increase our understanding of the ultimate sustainability challenge - maintaining and improving the quality of life for the nation within a healthy Earth system. The goal of the Sustainability Research Networks (SRN) competition is to support the development and coalescence of entities to advance collaborative research that addresses questions and challenges in sustainability science, engineering, and education. Challenges associated with broadly based SEES goals will be met by supporting fundamental science and engineering research and education needed to understand and overcome the barriers to sustainable human well being and to forge reasoned pathways to a sustainable future. THEMES: Energy and Materials Issues in Sustainability Urban Sustainability Large Scale Energy Production and Consumption Dynamics Coastal System Vulnerability and Resilience Altered Biogeochemistry of Earth Systems Sustainability of Freshwater Supplies Food Security and Land Use Change

• NSF OCI AdCom meeting notes

  Notes from the recent NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure Advisory Committee meeting.

• Computational and Data driven Materials Research

• Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants in the Directorate for Biological Sciences (DDIG)

• NFS International Science and Engineering Advisory Committee Notes

  Linked above are notes from the NFS International Science and Engineering Advisory Committee meeting.

• Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC)

  Note multiple NSF Directorates are engaged, including CISE, EHR, SBE, MPS and ENG. The Semiconductor Research Association (SRC) is also engaged. Due Dates - varied, depending on the type The Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program welcomes proposals that address cybersecurity from: a) a Trustworthy Computing Systems (TWC) perspective and/or a Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) perspective; b) the Secure, Trustworthy, Assured, and Resilient Semiconductors and Systems (STARSS) perspective; or c) the Transition to Practice (TTP) perspective. Proposals may be submitted in one of the following three project classes (plus Cybersecurity Education; see below): Small projects: up to $500,000 in total budget, with durations of up to three years; Medium projects: $500,001 to $1,200,000 in total budget, with durations of up to four years; or Large projects: $1,200,001 to $3,000,000 in total budget, with durations of up to five years. For Small hardware security proposals, the Secure, Trustworthy, Assured and Resilient Semiconductors and Systems (STARSS) perspective is focused specifically on hardware research innovation that addresses SaTC goals, and includes the opportunity to collaborate closely with industry. STARSS proposals may not include the TWC, SBE, or TTP perspectives. The STARSS perspective may not be used for Medium or Large proposals. The Transition to Practice (TTP) perspective is focused exclusively on transitioning existing research to practice. TTP proposals may not include the TWC, SBE, or STARSS perspective. The TTP perspective may be used for Small and Medium proposals, but may not be used for Large proposals. In addition, the SaTC program seeks proposals focusing entirely on Cybersecurity Education with total budgets limited to $300,000 and durations of up to two years. These cybersecurity education projects may not include any of the perspectives named above.

• Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR)

  The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EHR) program invites proposals that address immediate challenges and opportunities that are facing undergraduate STEM education, as well as those that anticipate new structures (e.g. organizational changes, new methods for certification or credentialing, course re-conception, cyberlearning, etc.) and new functions of the undergraduate learning and teaching enterprise. The IUSE: EHR program recognizes and respects the variety of discipline-specific challenges and opportunities facing STEM faculty as they strive to incorporate results from educational research into classroom practice and work with education research colleagues and social science learning scholars to advance our understanding of effective teaching and learning. Toward these ends the program features two tracks: (1) Engaged Student Learning and (2) Institutional and Community Transformation. Two tiers of projects exist within each track: (i) Exploration and Design and (ii)Development and Implementation. Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time): November 03, 2015 - Exploration and Design Tier for Engaged Student Learning & Institution and Community Transformation January 13, 2016 - Development and Implementation Tiers for Engaged Student Learning & Institution and Community Transformation

• NSF Funding Opportunity

  A Dear Colleague Letter from Engineering requesting research proposals from joint US-China teams in two environmental sustainability topic areas: 1. Combustion Related to Sustainable Energy 2. Urban water sustainability

• Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS) Funding Opportunity on Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Water NSF 15-108

  Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS) Funding Opportunity on Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Water NSF 15-108 In 2010, NSF established the Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES)1 investment area to lay the research foundation for decision capabilities and technologies aimed at mitigating and adapting to environmental changes that threaten sustainability. Some SEES investments advanced a systems-based approach to understanding, predicting, and reacting to stress upon, and changes in, the linked natural, social, and built environments. In this context, the importance of understanding the interconnected and interdependent systems involving food, energy, and water (FEW) has emerged. In 2015, NSF Issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): SEES: Interactions of Food Systems with Water and Energy Systems2 to accelerate fundamental understanding and stimulate basic research on the connections and interdependencies among these three systems. Through this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), issued by the Division of Chemistry (CHE) in the Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences and the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) in the Directorate for Engineering, the NSF aims to specifically focus on advancing knowledge of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; the production and use of fertilizers for food production; and the detection, separation, and reclamation/recycling of nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing species in and from complex aqueous environments. Humanity is reliant upon the physical resources and natural systems of the Earth for the provision of food, energy, and water. It is becoming imperative that we determine how society can best integrate across the natural and built environments to provide for a growing demand for food, water and energy while maintaining appropriate ecosystem services. Factors contributing to stresses in the food, energy, and water systems include increasing regional, social, and political pressures as result of land use change, climate variability, and heterogeneous resource distribution. These interconnections and interdependencies associated with the food, energy and water nexus create research grand challenges in understanding how the complex, coupled processes of society and the environment function now, and in the future. There is a critical need for research that enables new means of adapting to future challenges. The FEW systems must be defined broadly, incorporating physical processes (such as built infrastructure and new technologies for more efficient resource utilization), natural processes (such as biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles), biological processes (such as agroecosystem structure and productivity), social/behavioral processes (such as decision making and governance), and cyber elements. Investigations of these complex systems may produce discoveries that cannot emerge from research on food or energy or water systems alone. It is the synergy among these components, in the context of sustainability that will open innovative science and engineering pathways to produce new knowledge and novel technologies to solve the challenges of scarcity and variability. This DCL, which is part of the Innovation at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS) portfolio http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf15040, addresses emerging science, technology, and engineering relevant to food, energy and water systems. The availability of nitrogen, phosphorus, and water are the three main factors that limit our ability to produce enough food to feed the growing population of the planet. The nitrogen cycle is one of the most significant biogeochemical cycles on Earth, as nitrogen is an essential nutrient for all forms of life. Although freely available in the atmosphere as dinitrogen, access to fixed forms of nitrogen constitutes, in many cases, the most limiting factor for plant growth. The industrial production of ammonia for fertilizers via the current Haber-Bosch process is an energy intensive process that consumes 1-2% of the world's annual energy supply. For these reasons, the need for advanced catalytic methods for the reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia remains a requirement for sustainability in the food, energy and water systems cycle. Similarly, phosphorus is also essential to plant and animal nutrition. Approximately 80% of the world's economically-viable phosphorus is obtained from "phosphate rock" that is localized in a single place, Western Sahara. Phosphate rock is a more concentrated commodity than petroleum, and like petroleum, the world's supply of phosphorus is threatened by political instability and monopolistic economic practices. Management of phosphorus is a bit of a paradox because, while the world may face a shortage of phosphorus-containing fertilizer later this century, many regions are currently afflicted with an oversupply in both inland and coastal waters causing algal blooms that can produce extremely dangerous toxins that can sicken or kill people or animals, create dead zones in the water, raise treatment costs for drinking water, and hurt industries that depend on clean water. The ability to provide field-deployable, inexpensive, and environmentally-and energetically-sustainable sensors for real-time application and monitoring of nitrogen or phosphorus-containing species to agriculture while reducing the amount of these species in waste or run-off streams would benefit food production, benefit water quality, and result in significantly less energy consumption. The increased demands for fresh water for crops/livestock and energy production will significantly add to the current stress on non-renewable groundwater resources. It is estimated that seven billion people in sixty countries will experience water scarcity by 2050 at current rates of water usage. This will place additional stress on both food supplies and energy consumption rates. These needs necessitate scientific and technological innovations that will address global problems that center on fresh water. In particular, the food production system generates waste streams that are characterized by high concentrations of organic matter, nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing species in water. New approaches are needed to overcome the cost of inefficient and energy-intensive sequestration and removal/recycling of such species while also preserving water quality. This component of the NSF Innovations at the Nexus of the Food, Energy and Waters Systems (INFEWS) investment is designed to advance a new understanding of the role of the chemistry of nitrogen, phosphorous, and water in the nexus of food, energy and water systems, "INFEWS: N/P/H2O." While fundamental science and engineering research will underpin solutions to these areas of national and international need, it must also be recognized that technological innovations themselves require resources for development and deployment. Ostensible solutions to the challenge of N, P and water supply cannot be premised on the assumption that energy, chemical feedstocks, and other required resources will be available in great abundance. In FY 2016, the topics of interest in INFEWS: N/P/H2O include innovative, fundamental research to: 1.advance catalytic methods for the reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia and that will permit reductions in the energy requirements for fertilizer production; 2.develop new sensing modalities that will lead to field-deployable, inexpensive, and environmentally and energetically sustainable sensors for real-time monitoring of nitrogen- or phosphorus-containing species as they move, via agricultural run-off, to other water systems; and 3.gain understanding of the supramolecular recognition and binding of environmentally-relevant nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing species. Such efforts are essential for the selective and efficient detection, sequestration/separation, and recycling of these elements as well as for water purification efforts. Proposals in response to this investment area should be submitted to the existing program of interest in the CHE and CBET within the existing submission windows (deadlines) of the programs. The proposal title must begin with "INFEWS N/P/H2O:". Other than the proposal title, the cover page should be prepared as a regular unsolicited proposal submission to the program. The most competitive proposals will address how the project conceptually advances innovations at the nexus of the food, energy, and water systems and sustainability of the proposed solution, i.e., the monetary and energetic costs for translation and scale-up. Proposals are welcome from either multiple or single investigators. Interdisciplinary proposals that involve principal investigators traditionally supported by the two participating divisions (CHE and CBET) are also welcome. Such proposals should be submitted to the most relevant program in either CHE or CBET. CHE welcomes proposals responding to this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) in all programs, while CBET welcomes proposals responding to this DCL in the Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sustainability, or Catalysis and Biocatalysis Programs. Please consult the Divisional webpages for more details on specific interests.3,4 The challenges at the food, energy, and water nexus are frequently international, and experts around the globe have relevant expertise and resources. Proposals including international collaboration are encouraged when those efforts enhance the merit of the proposed work. The U.S. team's international counterparts generally should have support or obtain funding through their own national or regional sources. Proposals may be submitted in combination with other solicitations. For example, if there are strong collaborations with industry, the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI)5 solicitation can be used in conjunction with this effort. Similarly, proposals may be submitted in combination with the Facilitating Research at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions: Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) and Research Opportunity Awards (ROA)6 solicitation. These proposals should be submitted to the appropriate solicitation and add INFEWS to the title (For example, RUI: INFEWS N/P/H2O: Name of your proposal). Other mechanisms such as EAGER7 and INSPIRE7 may also be appropriate, but principal investigators are required to check with the cognizant program officers for additional guidance. For general questions about INFEWS, email the listed representatives in either CHE8 or CBET9. To see examples of awards made under the Food-Energy-Water investment area, visit the NSF Award Abstracts Database,10 and enter "food, energy, and water" in the "Search Award for:" dialogue field. Alternatively, please visit the webpages of the disciplinary programs of interest in the participating divisions. Under each program, find the link to recent awards made in that program and look for those that contain "FEW" in the proposal title. We are excited by the opportunities in the INFEWS area and encourage our communities to contribute to our sustainable future by participating in this important funding investment area. If interested, please contact the Program Officers listed in References 8 and 9, not the signatories of this DCL, for assistance. Fleming Crim Assistant Director Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences Pramod Khargonekar Assistant Director Directorate for Engineering References 1.Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability NSF-Wide Investment (SEES): http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504707 2.SEES: Interactions of Food Systems with Water and Energy Systems DCL: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf150403.Division of Chemistry webpage: http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=CHE 4.Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) webpage: http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=CBET 5.GOALI:http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504699 6.RUI: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf14579 7.EAGER or INSPIRE:http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg 8.CHE Program Officers: Tim Patten (tpatten@nsf.gov), Suk-Wah Tam-Chang (stamchan@nsf.gov), Lin He (lhe@nsf.gov), and Colby Foss (cfoss@nsf.gov). 9.CBET Program Officers: William Cooper (wcooper@nsf.gov), Bruce Hamilton (bhamilto@nsf.gov), and Robert McCabe (rmccabe@nsf.gov). 10.NSF Awards Search:http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

• Dear Colleague Letter: FY 2016 Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy andWater Systems (INFEWS) Funding Opportunity on Nitrogen, Phosphorus, andWater

  Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS) Funding Opportunity on Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Water NSF 15-108 In 2010, NSF established the Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES)1 investment area to lay the research foundation for decision capabilities and technologies aimed at mitigating and adapting to environmental changes that threaten sustainability. Some SEES investments advanced a systems-based approach to understanding, predicting, and reacting to stress upon, and changes in, the linked natural, social, and built environments. In this context, the importance of understanding the interconnected and interdependent systems involving food, energy, and water (FEW) has emerged. In 2015, NSF Issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): SEES: Interactions of Food Systems with Water and Energy Systems2 to accelerate fundamental understanding and stimulate basic research on the connections and interdependencies among these three systems. Through this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), issued by the Division of Chemistry (CHE) in the Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences and the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) in the Directorate for Engineering, the NSF aims to specifically focus on advancing knowledge of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; the production and use of fertilizers for food production; and the detection, separation, and reclamation/recycling of nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing species in and from complex aqueous environments. Humanity is reliant upon the physical resources and natural systems of the Earth for the provision of food, energy, and water. It is becoming imperative that we determine how society can best integrate across the natural and built environments to provide for a growing demand for food, water and energy while maintaining appropriate ecosystem services. Factors contributing to stresses in the food, energy, and water systems include increasing regional, social, and political pressures as result of land use change, climate variability, and heterogeneous resource distribution. These interconnections and interdependencies associated with the food, energy and water nexus create research grand challenges in understanding how the complex, coupled processes of society and the environment function now, and in the future. There is a critical need for research that enables new means of adapting to future challenges. The FEW systems must be defined broadly, incorporating physical processes (such as built infrastructure and new technologies for more efficient resource utilization), natural processes (such as biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles), biological processes (such as agroecosystem structure and productivity), social/behavioral processes (such as decision making and governance), and cyber elements. Investigations of these complex systems may produce discoveries that cannot emerge from research on food or energy or water systems alone. It is the synergy among these components, in the context of sustainability that will open innovative science and engineering pathways to produce new knowledge and novel technologies to solve the challenges of scarcity and variability. This DCL, which is part of the Innovation at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS) portfolio http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf15040, addresses emerging science, technology, and engineering relevant to food, energy and water systems. The availability of nitrogen, phosphorus, and water are the three main factors that limit our ability to produce enough food to feed the growing population of the planet. The nitrogen cycle is one of the most significant biogeochemical cycles on Earth, as nitrogen is an essential nutrient for all forms of life. Although freely available in the atmosphere as dinitrogen, access to fixed forms of nitrogen constitutes, in many cases, the most limiting factor for plant growth. The industrial production of ammonia for fertilizers via the current Haber-Bosch process is an energy intensive process that consumes 1-2% of the world's annual energy supply. For these reasons, the need for advanced catalytic methods for the reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia remains a requirement for sustainability in the food, energy and water systems cycle. Similarly, phosphorus is also essential to plant and animal nutrition. Approximately 80% of the world's economically-viable phosphorus is obtained from "phosphate rock" that is localized in a single place, Western Sahara. Phosphate rock is a more concentrated commodity than petroleum, and like petroleum, the world's supply of phosphorus is threatened by political instability and monopolistic economic practices. Management of phosphorus is a bit of a paradox because, while the world may face a shortage of phosphorus-containing fertilizer later this century, many regions are currently afflicted with an oversupply in both inland and coastal waters causing algal blooms that can produce extremely dangerous toxins that can sicken or kill people or animals, create dead zones in the water, raise treatment costs for drinking water, and hurt industries that depend on clean water. The ability to provide field-deployable, inexpensive, and environmentally-and energetically-sustainable sensors for real-time application and monitoring of nitrogen or phosphorus-containing species to agriculture while reducing the amount of these species in waste or run-off streams would benefit food production, benefit water quality, and result in significantly less energy consumption. The increased demands for fresh water for crops/livestock and energy production will significantly add to the current stress on non-renewable groundwater resources. It is estimated that seven billion people in sixty countries will experience water scarcity by 2050 at current rates of water usage. This will place additional stress on both food supplies and energy consumption rates. These needs necessitate scientific and technological innovations that will address global problems that center on fresh water. In particular, the food production system generates waste streams that are characterized by high concentrations of organic matter, nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing species in water. New approaches are needed to overcome the cost of inefficient and energy-intensive sequestration and removal/recycling of such species while also preserving water quality. This component of the NSF Innovations at the Nexus of the Food, Energy and Waters Systems (INFEWS) investment is designed to advance a new understanding of the role of the chemistry of nitrogen, phosphorous, and water in the nexus of food, energy and water systems, "INFEWS: N/P/H2O." While fundamental science and engineering research will underpin solutions to these areas of national and international need, it must also be recognized that technological innovations themselves require resources for development and deployment. Ostensible solutions to the challenge of N, P and water supply cannot be premised on the assumption that energy, chemical feedstocks, and other required resources will be available in great abundance. In FY 2016, the topics of interest in INFEWS: N/P/H2O include innovative, fundamental research to: 1.advance catalytic methods for the reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia and that will permit reductions in the energy requirements for fertilizer production; 2.develop new sensing modalities that will lead to field-deployable, inexpensive, and environmentally and energetically sustainable sensors for real-time monitoring of nitrogen- or phosphorus-containing species as they move, via agricultural run-off, to other water systems; and 3.gain understanding of the supramolecular recognition and binding of environmentally-relevant nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing species. Such efforts are essential for the selective and efficient detection, sequestration/separation, and recycling of these elements as well as for water purification efforts. Proposals in response to this investment area should be submitted to the existing program of interest in the CHE and CBET within the existing submission windows (deadlines) of the programs. The proposal title must begin with "INFEWS N/P/H2O:". Other than the proposal title, the cover page should be prepared as a regular unsolicited proposal submission to the program. The most competitive proposals will address how the project conceptually advances innovations at the nexus of the food, energy, and water systems and sustainability of the proposed solution, i.e., the monetary and energetic costs for translation and scale-up. Proposals are welcome from either multiple or single investigators. Interdisciplinary proposals that involve principal investigators traditionally supported by the two participating divisions (CHE and CBET) are also welcome. Such proposals should be submitted to the most relevant program in either CHE or CBET. CHE welcomes proposals responding to this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) in all programs, while CBET welcomes proposals responding to this DCL in the Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sustainability, or Catalysis and Biocatalysis Programs. Please consult the Divisional webpages for more details on specific interests.3,4 The challenges at the food, energy, and water nexus are frequently international, and experts around the globe have relevant expertise and resources. Proposals including international collaboration are encouraged when those efforts enhance the merit of the proposed work. The U.S. team's international counterparts generally should have support or obtain funding through their own national or regional sources. Proposals may be submitted in combination with other solicitations. For example, if there are strong collaborations with industry, the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI)5 solicitation can be used in conjunction with this effort. Similarly, proposals may be submitted in combination with the Facilitating Research at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions: Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) and Research Opportunity Awards (ROA)6 solicitation. These proposals should be submitted to the appropriate solicitation and add INFEWS to the title (For example, RUI: INFEWS N/P/H2O: Name of your proposal). Other mechanisms such as EAGER7 and INSPIRE7 may also be appropriate, but principal investigators are required to check with the cognizant program officers for additional guidance. For general questions about INFEWS, email the listed representatives in either CHE8 or CBET9. To see examples of awards made under the Food-Energy-Water investment area, visit the NSF Award Abstracts Database,10 and enter "food, energy, and water" in the "Search Award for:" dialogue field. Alternatively, please visit the webpages of the disciplinary programs of interest in the participating divisions. Under each program, find the link to recent awards made in that program and look for those that contain "FEW" in the proposal title. We are excited by the opportunities in the INFEWS area and encourage our communities to contribute to our sustainable future by participating in this important funding investment area. If interested, please contact the Program Officers listed in References 8 and 9, not the signatories of this DCL, for assistance. Fleming Crim Assistant Director Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences Pramod Khargonekar Assistant Director Directorate for Engineering
• The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently announced a partnership with Intel Corporation on two new grants for $6 million to research security and privacy solutions of cyber-physical systems (CPS). Cyber-physical systems, such as smart-homes and autonomous vehicles, are part of the rise of the new Internet of Things (IoT). “Advances in the integration of information and communications technologies are transforming the way people interact with engineered systems,” said Jim Kurose, head of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at NSF. “Rigorous interdisciplinary research, such as the projects announced today in partnership with Intel, can help to better understand and mitigate threats to our critical cyber-physical systems and secure the nation’s economy, public safety, and overall well-being.” This partnership between NSF and Intel represents a new model of cooperation between government, industry and academia. Key features of this model for projects funded by NSF and Intel include joint design of a solicitation, joint selection of projects, an open collaborative intellectual property agreement, and a management plan to facilitate effective information exchange between faculty, students and industrial researchers. The two projects that were announced as part of the NSF/Intel Partnership on Cyber-Physical Systems Security and Privacy are: - Insup Lee, University of Pennsylvania: Security and Privacy-Aware Cyber-Physical Systems - Philip Levis, Stanford University: CPS-Security: End-to-End Security for the Internet of Things Read more about the partnershiphere..

• Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure(NHERI)PROGRAM SOLICITATION NSF 15-598 REPLACES DOCUMENT(S) NSF 14-605

  The planned outcome of this solicitation is to establish the final three awards for the NSF-supported Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) - Network Coordination Office (NCO), Computational Modeling and Simulation Center (SimCenter), and Post-Disaster, Rapid Response Research (RAPID) Facility. The NCO, SimCenter, and RAPID Facility components for NHERI were originally competed under program solicitation NSF 14-605, Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) 2015-2019, but no awards for these components were made under that solicitation. Because the NCO, SimCenter, and RAPID Facility are integral awards for an integrated NHERI facility, this solicitation includes information about all four components of NHERI listed in NSF 14-605: NCO, Cyberinfrastructure (CI), SimCenter and Experimental Facility (EF). The RAPID Facility is considered part of the EF cohort. However, under this solicitation, proposals will only be accepted for the NCO, SimCenter, and RAPID Facility. All other proposals will be returned without review. Proposers to this solicitation should carefully read through this entire solicitation, as revisions from NSF 14-605 to this solicitation have been made, most notably in Section II, Program Description; Section IV, Eligibility Information; Section V.A., Proposal Preparation Instructions; and Section V.B, Budgetary Information.

• EMERGING FRONTIERS IN RESEARCH AND INNOVATION (EFRI)

  The Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program of the NSF Directorate for Engineering (ENG) serves a critical role in helping ENG focus on important emerging areas in a timely manner. This solicitation is a funding opportunity for interdisciplinary teams of researchers to embark on rapidly advancing frontiers of fundamental engineering research. For this solicitation, we will consider proposals that aim to investigate emerging frontiers in the following two research areas:

  • Advancing Communication Quantum Information Research in Engineering (ACQUIRE)
  • New Light and Acoustic Wave Propagation: Breaking Reciprocity and Time-Reversal Symmetry (NewLAW)

  This solicitation will be coordinated with the Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS) and the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), within NSF. EFRI seeks proposals with transformative ideas that represent an opportunity for a significant shift in fundamental engineering knowledge with a strong potential for long term impact on national needs or a grand challenge. The proposals must also meet the detailed requirements delineated in this solicitation. INFORMATION WEBCAST: The Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities (EFMA) Office will hold an information workshop on October 19, 2015 to discuss the EFRI program and answer questions about this solicitation. Details will be posted on the EFMA website (www.nsf.gov/eng/efma).

• Focused Research Hubs in Theoretical Physics (FRHTP) PROGRAM SOLICITATION NSF 16-501

  NSF has released the attached solicitation - Focused Research Hubs in Theoretical Physics (FRHTP). Note Quantum Information Science is one of the two permitted topics. Focused Research Hubs in Theoretical Physics (FRHTP) are designed to enhance significant breakthroughs at anintellectual frontier of physics by providing resources beyond those available to individual investigators, so as topromote a collaborative approach to a focused topic while promoting the preparation of scientists at the beginning of their independent scientific careers. Although interdisciplinary aspects may be included, the bulk of the effortmust fall within the purview of the Division of Physics. The successful hub will demonstrate: (1) the potential to advance science; (2) the enhancement of the development of early career scientists; (3) a synergy or value-added rationale that justifies a group approach. The FRHTP will be funded for an initial duration of five years. The intent is that the research topics proposed areat the stage that the scientific goals of the hub can be achieved in the first five years of the project. The FRHTP awards will provide support only for postdoctoral researchers and hub-related activities. The FRHTP are not intended to provide additional support for senior personnel (individual PIs), graduate or undergraduate students.Instead, the FRHTP is intended to support postdoctoral researchers and enable collaborative interactions via support for travel, collaboration meetings and workshops. Topics for the FY16 competition: Proposals may only be submitted in the specific topic(s) listed in this solicitation, which define particular areas in theoretical physics in which the Division of Physics sees a need for a focused research hub and has reserved budget resources from the core programs that would be impacted by such a hub. Future versions of this solicitation will allow response on different theoretical physics topics. It is expected that one award will be funded in each hub topic. The specific hub topics for this solicitation are: 1. Quantum Information Science (QIS) A QIS focused research hub will support theoretical work to explore quantum applications that will push the frontiers of quantum-based information, transmission, and manipulation within the purview of the Division of Physics. 2. Theoretical Nuclear Physics (TNP) A TNP focused research hub will support theoretical work in the area of Fundamental Symmetries, Neutrinos,and their applications to Nuclear Astrophysics relevant to research within the purview of the Division of Physics.

• ONR STEM Program

  The ONR seeks proposals for developing existing or innovative solutions that directly support the development and maintenance of a robust STEM workforce. The goal of any proposed effort should be to provide solutions that will establish and maintain a diverse pipeline of U.S. citizens who are interested in uniformed or civilian DoN (or Navy and Marine Corps) STEM related workforce opportunities. While this announcement is relevant for any stage of the STEM pipeline, funding efforts will be targeted primarily towards the future DoN (naval) STEM workforce in High Schools, all categories of Post-Secondary institutions, the STEM research enterprise, and efforts that enhance the current naval STEM workforce and its mission readiness. Efforts may encompass a spectrum of project sizes from exploratory pilots to large-scale regional or national initiatives. The technical content of any idea must establish naval relevance within the broad scope of key engineering and scientific areas as outlined in the Naval S&T Strategic Plan, or such as our National Naval Responsibilities (see ONR website), or any identified gaps in workforce needs. Specific audience priority areas may include, but not be limited to, military dependent children, education systems integral to the naval science and technology enterprise, and veteran initiatives that improve education outcomes and connections to naval STEM careers. While not a formal requirement or program focus of this FOA, applicants are strongly encouraged to consider under-represented populations including women and minorities in project plans. Applicants are encouraged to understand the significant reorganization of STEM funding across the Federal government. Applicants seeking to improve general national STEM performance rather than a focus on Naval workforce needs, and particularly efforts aimed at the P/K-9 levels, are encouraged to seek funding from one of the designated lead agencies: The Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, or the Smithsonian Institution.

• Algorithms in the Field

  Algorithms in the Field encourages closer collaboration between two groups of researchers: (i) theoretical computer science researchers, who focus on the design and analysis of provably efficient and provably accurate algorithms for various computational models; and (ii) other computing and information researchers including a combination of systems and domain experts (very broadly construed – including but not limited to researchers in computer architecture, programming languages and systems, computer networks, cyber-physical systems, cyber-human systems, machine learning, artificial intelligence and its applications, database and data analytics, etc.) who focus on the particular design constraints of applications and/or computing devices. Each proposal must have at least one co-PI interested in theoretical computer science and one interested in any of the other areas typically supported by CISE. Proposals are expected to address the dissemination of both the algorithmic contributions and the resulting applications, tools, languages, compilers, libraries, architectures, systems, data, etc.

• ROSES 2015: Sustainable Land Imaging-Technology

  This ROSES NRA (NNH15ZDA001N) solicits basic and applied research in support of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). This NRA covers all aspects of basic and applied supporting research and technology in space and Earth sciences, including, but not limited to: theory, modeling, and analysis of SMD science data; aircraft, scientific balloon, sounding rocket, International Space Station, CubeSat and suborbital reusable launch vehicle investigations; development of experiment techniques suitable for future SMD space missions; development of concepts for future SMD space missions; development of advanced technologies relevant to SMD missions; development of techniques for and the laboratory analysis of both extraterrestrial samples returned by spacecraft, as well as terrestrial samples that support or otherwise help verify observations from SMD Earth system science missions; determination of atomic and composition parameters needed to analyze space data, as well as returned samples from the Earth or space; Earth surface observations and field campaigns that support SMD science missions; development of integrated Earth system models; development of systems for applying Earth science research data to societal needs; and development of applied information systems applicable to SMD objectives and data. Awards range from under $100K per year for focused, limited efforts (e.g., data analysis) to more than $1M per year for extensive activities (e.g., development of science experiment hardware). The funds available for awards in each program element offered in this ROSES NRA range from less than one to several million dollars, which allow selection from a few to as many as several dozen proposals depending on the program objectives and the submission of proposals of merit. Awards will be made as grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, and inter- or intra-agency transfers depending on the nature of the proposing organization and/or program requirements. The typical period of performance for an award is four years, although a few programs may specify shorter or longer (maximum of five years) periods. Organizations of every type, domestic and foreign, Government and private, for profit and not-for-profit, may submit proposals without restriction on the number or teaming arrangements. Note that it is NASA policy that all investigations involving non-U.S. organizations will be conducted on the basis of no exchange of funds. Electronic submission of proposals is required by the respective due dates for each program element and must be submitted by an authorized official of the proposing organization. Electronic proposals may be submitted via the NASA proposal data system NSPIRES or via Grants.gov. Every organization that intends to submit a proposal in response to this ROSES NRA must be registered with NSPIRES; organizations that intend to submit proposals via Grants.gov must be registered with Grants.gov, in addition to being registered with NSPIRES. Such registration must identify the authorized organizational representative(s) who will submit the electronic proposal. All principal investigators and other participants (e.g., co-investigators) must be registered in NSPIRES regardless of submission system. Potential proposers and proposing organizations are urged to access the system(s) well in advance of the proposal due date(s) of interest to familiarize themselves with its structure and enter the requested information. Details of the solicited programs are given in the Appendices of this ROSES NRA. Names, due dates, and links for the individual calls are given in Tables 2 and 3 of this ROSES NRA. Interested proposers should monitor http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ or subscribe to the electronic notification system there for additional new programs or amendments to this ROSES NRA through February 2016, at which time release of a subsequent ROSES NRA is planned. A web archive (and RSS feed) for amendments, clarifications, and corrections to this ROSES NRA will be available at: http://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/grant-solicitations/roses-2015/. Frequently asked questions about ROSES-2015 will be on the web at http://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/faqs/. Further information about specific program elements may be obtained from the individual Program Officers listed in the Summary of Key Information for each program element in the Appendices of this ROSES NRA and at http://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/program-officers-list/. Questions concerning general ROSES NRA policies and procedures may be directed to Max Bernstein, Lead for Research, Science Mission Directorate, at sara@nasa.gov.

• Genealogy of Life

  Comprehensive understanding of life and how and why it changes over time depends on knowledge of the phylogeny (evolutionary relationships) of living and extinct organisms. The goals of the Genealogy of Life (GoLife) program are to resolve the phylogenetic history of all life’s diverse forms and to integrate this genealogical architecture with underlying organismal and environmental data. The ultimate vision of this program is an open access, comprehensive Genealogy of Life that willenable the comparative framework necessary for testing questions in systematics, evolutionary biology, ecology, paleontology, and other fields. Strategic integration of this genealogy of life with data layers from genomic, phenotypic, spatial, ecological, geological,and temporal data will produce an extensive synthesis of biodiversity and evolutionary sciences. The resulting knowledge infrastructure will enable synthetic research on biological dynamics throughout the history of life on Earth, within current ecosystems, and for predictive modeling of the future evolution of life. Projects submitted to this program should emphasize increased efficiency in contributing to a complete Genealogy of Life and strategic integration of various types of organismal and environmental data with phylogenies. This program also seeks to broadly train thenext generation of integrative phylogenetic biologists, creating the human resource infrastructure and workforce needed to tackle emerging research questions in comparative biology. Projects should train students for diverse careers by exposing them to the multidisciplinary areas of research within the proposal.

• MacroSystems Biology and Early NEON Science

  The MacroSystems Biology and Early NEON Science: Research on Biological Systems at Regional to Continental Scales program will support quantitative, interdisciplinary, systems-oriented research on biosphere processes and their complex interactions with climate, land use, and invasive species at regional to continental scales as well as planning, training, and development activities to enable groups to conduct MacroSystems Biology and Early NEON Science research.

• International Research Network Connections

  The International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program supports high-performance network connectivity required by international science and engineering research and education collaborations involving the NSF research community. NSF expects to make 1-2 awards to link U.S. research networks with peer networks in Europe and Africa and leverage existing international network connectivity. High-performance network connections funded by this program are intended to support science and engineering research and education applications, and preference will be given to solutions that provide the best economy of scale and demonstrate the ability to support the largest communities of interest with the broadest services. Funded projects will assist the U.S. research and education community by enabling state-of-the-art international network services and access to increased collaboration and data services. Through extended international network connections, additional research and production network services will be enabled, complementing those currently offered or planned by domestic research networks.

• Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems

  The goal of the new INFEWS solicitation is to “catalyze the well-integrated interdisciplinary research efforts to transform scientific understanding of the FEW nexus in order to improve system function and management, address system stress, increase resilience, and ensure sustainability.” The solicitation clarifies that the food, energy, water (FEW) systems “must be defined broadly, incorporating” physical, natural, biological, social and behavioral processes, as well as “cyber elements.” NSF is seeking proposals in four tracks to address four specific goals: 1. FEW System Modeling to “significantly advance our understanding of the food-energy-water system through quantitative and computational modeling, including support for relevant cyberinfrastructure”; 2. Visualization and Decision Support for Cyber-Human-Physical Systems at the FEW Nexus to “develop real-time, cyber-enabled interfaces that improve understanding of the behavior of FEW systems and increase decision support capability”; 3. Research to Enable Innovative System Solutions to support “research that will lead to innovative system and technological solutions to critical FEW problems”; and 4. Education and Workforce Development to “grow the scientific workforce capable of studying and managing the FEW system through education and other professional development opportunities.” Track 4 awards will include some from NSF that support virtual resource centers and some from NIFA that will support education of “INFEWS thinkers capable of making informed decisions and able to work with diverse teams and audiences” The solicitation indicates that NSF and USDA are “interested in promoting international cooperation that links scientists and engineers from a range of disciplines and organizations” to address global challenges related to FEW systems. In addition, partnerships are explicitly encouraged (where appropriate) between “universities, research centers, federal agencies and national labs, state government, and private organizations.” Proposals must integrate across three or more distinct disciplines encompassing research typically funded by at least three participating NSF research directorates or two directorates and NIFA. NSF hopes to leverage existing cyberinfrastructure, environmental observatories, and other investments with this solicitation, so proposals are encouraged to make use of these resources. NSF will also consider supporting new cyberinfrastructure to enable novel capabilities as part of the solicitation. Due Dates: Full proposals are due March 22, 2016 Total Funding and Award Size: The total (anticipated) amount available is $50 million. Of this total amount, USDA anticipates contributing $5 million. An estimated 22 to 40 awards will be distributed. With respect to funding, four tracks have been initially allocated, as well as two levels of proposal size: Category 1 (minimum $1 million, maximum $3 million) or Category 2 (less than or equal to $1 million). • Track 1: FEW System Modeling: $16-$22 million available for six to 12 awards; • Track 2: Visualization and Decision for Cyber-Human-Physical Systems at the FEW Nexus: $9-$15 million available for six to 12 awards; • Track 3: Research to Enable Innovative System Solutions: $12-$18 million available for six to 12 awards; and • Track 4: Education and Workforce Development: $1-$4 million available for one to four Category 2 awards only. Eligibility and Limitations: Universities, colleges, non-academic non-profit organizations are eligible to apply. To receive funding from USDA, state agricultural experiment stations, federal agencies, national laboratories, corporations, and individual citizens and permanent residents are additionally eligible to apply. While there is no limit on the number of proposals per institution, the number of submissions per scientist is limited. Sources and Additional Information: • The INFEWS website with links to program contacts and the solicitation is available at http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505241. • The INFEWS solicitation is available at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16524/nsf16524.htm. • The N/P/H2O DCL is available at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15108/nsf15108.jsp. • The list of INFEWS workshop awardees is available at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=135642.

• Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology

  Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology supports studies of: (1) the changing aspects of life, ecology, environments, and biogeography in geologic time based on fossilorganisms; (2) all aspects of the Earth's sedimentary lithosphere – its insights into the geological processes and rich organic and inorganic resources locked in rock sequences; (3) the science of dating and measuring the sequence of events and rates of geological processes as manifested in Earth's past sedimentary and biological (fossil) record; (4) the geologic record of the production, transportation, and deposition of modern and ancient physical and chemical sediments; and (5) understanding Earth's deep-time (pre-Holocene) climate systems.

• Expeditions in Computing

  Deadline: 01/18/2017
  The far-reaching impact and rate of innovation in the computing and information disciplines has been remarkable, generating economic prosperity and enhancing the quality of life for people throughout the world. The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) has created the Expeditions in Computing (Expeditions) program to provide the CISE research and education community with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, fundamental research agendas that promise to define the future of computing and information. In planning Expeditions projects, investigators are encouraged to come together within or across departments or institutions to combine their creative talents in the identification of compelling, transformative research agendas that promise disruptive innovations in computing and information for many years to come. Funded at levels up to $2,000,000 per year for five years, Expeditions represent some of the largest single investments currently made by the directorate. Together with the Science and Technology Centers CISE supports, Expeditions form the centerpiece of the directorate's center-scale award portfolio. With awards funded at levels that promote the formation of research teams, CISE recognizes that concurrent research advances in multiple fields or sub-fields are often necessary to stimulate deep and enduring outcomes.The awards made in this program will complementresearch areas supported by other CISE programs, which target particular computing or information disciplines or fields.

• Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS)

  The National Science Foundation's Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Engineering (ENG), and Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) are coordinating efforts to identify bold new concepts with the potential to contribute towards significant improvements in the efficiency of radio spectrum utilization, protection of passive sensing services, and the ability for traditionally underserved Americans to benefit from current and future wireless-enabled goods and services. This EARS program solicitation seeks to fund innovative collaborative research addressing large-scale challenges that transcend the traditional boundaries of existing programs.

• Innovation Corps - Nodes Program

  The National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to further develop and nurture a national innovation ecosystem that builds upon fundamental research to guide the output of scientific discoveries closer to the development of technologies, products, processes and services that benefit society. The goal of the program is to dramatically reduce the period of time necessary to bring a promising idea from its inception to widespread implementation.Through this solicitation, NSF plans to build upon the established National Innovation Network (consisting of I-Corps Nodes and Sites) to further support the needs for innovation research, education and training. NSF is seeking to expand and sustain the network of I-Corps Nodes that work cooperatively to support the development of innovations that will benefit society. The interconnected nodes of the network are expected to be diverse in research areas, resources, tools, programs, capabilities, and geographic locations - providing the network with the flexibility to grow or reconfigure as needs arise. I-Corps Nodes will foster understanding onhow to: 1) identify, develop and support promising ideas that can generate value, 2) create and implement tools, resources and training activities that enhance our nation's innovation capacity, 3) gather, analyze, evaluate and utilize the data and insight resulting from the experiences of those participating in regional programs and 4) share and leverage effective innovation practices on a national scale - to improve the quality of life for the U.S. citizenry. In addition, Nodes must identify and implement plans for sustainable scaling of their efforts beyond the duration of NSF support.

• EARLY CAREER FACULTY (ECF)

  NASA plans to make approximately 6-8 awards as a result of this Appendix, subject to the receipt of meritorious proposals and the availability of funds. The actual number of awards will depend on the quality of the proposals received; NASA reserves the right to make no awards under this Appendix. The maximum award duration will be three years, although proposals for less than three years are allowed. Initial funding will be for one year and subsequent funding will be contingent on the availability of funds, technical progress, and continued relevance to NASA programs. Annual continuation reviews are required. The typical annual award value is $200K; smaller amounts may be proposed. The amount in any year may not exceed $220K and is subject to a maximum limit of $600K for three years. All amounts must be justified.

• Joint DMS/NIGMS Initiative to Support Research at the Interface of the Biological and Mathematical Sciences

  The Division of Mathematical Sciences in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health plan to support research in mathematics and statistics on questions in the biological and biomedical sciences. Both agencies recognize the need and urgency for promoting research at the interface between the mathematical sciences and the life sciences. This program is designed to encourage new collaborations, as well as to support existing ones.

• Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

  Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) provide sustained support of interdisciplinary materials research and education of the highest quality while addressing fundamental problems in science and engineering. MRSECs address research of a scope and complexity requiring the scale, synergy, and interdisciplinarity provided by a campus-based research center. They support materials research infrastructure in the United States, promote active collaboration between universities and other sectors, including industry and international institutions, and contribute to the development of a national network of university-based centers in materials research, education, and facilities. A MRSEC may be located at a single institution, or may involve multiple institutions in partnership.

• Innovation Corps - National Innovation Network Sites Program

  he National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to develop and nurture a national innovation ecosystem that builds upon research to guide the output of scientific discoveries closer to the development of technologies, products and processes that benefit society. In order to contribute to a national innovation ecosystem, NSF established the NSF Innovation Corps Sites Program (NSF I-Corps Sites). Sites are funded at academic institutions, having already existing innovation or entrepreneurial units, to enable them to: • Nurture students and/or faculty who are engaged in projects having the potential to be transitioned into the marketplace. I-Corps Sites will provide infrastructure, advice, resources, networking opportunities, training and modest funding to enable groups to transition their work into the marketplace or into becoming I-Corps Team applicants. • Develop formal, active, local innovation ecosystems that contribute to a larger, national network of mentors, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors. Networking is an essential component of all of NSF's I-Corps activities – local and national networking activities help advance the goals of I-Corps and contribute to local and national ecosystems for innovation. The purpose of an I-Corps Site is to nurture and support multiple, local teams to transition their ideas, devices, processes or other intellectual activities into the marketplace.

• Management and Operation of the National Geophysical Observatory for Geoscience

  NSF hereby solicits proposals to manage and operate one or more components of the National Geophysical Observatory for Geoscience (NGEO). NGEO would comprise a distributed, multi-user, national facility for the development, deployment, management, and operational support of modern geodetic, seismic, and related geophysical instrumentation and services to serve national goals in basic research and education in the Earth sciences. In addition, NGEO would support mission goals of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for global real-time earthquake, volcano, and tsunami observations, early warning and hazard mitigation efforts, nuclear test ban verification, precise positioning and timing, and other Earth observation needs. NGEO would also support commercial and international groups that depend on NGEO capabilities for an increasingly wide range of applications. Awardee(s) would work closely with NSF and the scientific community to ensure that NGEO facility capabilities support, sustain, and advance frontier science. In cooperation with NSF and within available resources, the Awardee(s) would plan and execute a viable, coherent, and inclusive program to support multi-user research and education, consistent with guidance and oversight by the scientific community. Proposals should describe how the proposing institution(s) would: (1) provide observing capabilities and scientific data; (2) support the needs of NSF-funded, peer-reviewed research and education projects; (3) foster an integrated program of education, workforce development, and outreach; (4) develop, manage, and maintain facility capabilities; (5) manage and develop a skilled and diverse workforce; and (6) establish appropriate partnerships with universities, industry, private organizations, other Federal agencies, and the international community to support the NGEO mission. NSF anticipates that successful proposal(s) for NGEO management and operations would be awarded as cooperative agreement(s), or a master cooperative agreement with cooperative support agreements. Any such award(s) would commence 1 October 2018 and would have a duration of ten years contingent on the availability of funds and the successful outcome of comprehensive external reviews of Awardee(s) performance and facility success. As necessary, the Awardee(s) will define and execute a budgeted, scheduled, and tracked project plan to manage any transition from the current to the proposed model of NGEO management and operations. Any such transition period would commence with a transition award, under this cooperative agreement, on or after 1 April 2018 and conclude no later than 12 months thereafter.

• Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)

  DUE DATES Full Proposal Window: May 24, 2016 - June 7, 2016 Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are engineered systems that are built from, and depend upon, the seamless integration of computational algorithms and physical components. Advances in CPS will enable capability, adaptability, scalability, resiliency, safety, security, and usability that will far exceed the simple embedded systems of today. CPS technology will transform the way people interact with engineered systems -- just as the Internet has transformed the way people interact with information. New smart CPS will drive innovation and competition in sectors such as agriculture, energy, transportation, building design and automation, healthcare, and manufacturing.

• Plant-Biotic Interactions

  The Plant-Biotic Interactions (PBI) program supports research on the processes that mediate beneficial and antagonistic interactions between plants and their viral, bacterial, oomycete, fungal, plant, and invertebrate symbionts, pathogens and pests. This joint NSF-NIFA program supports projects focused on current and emerging model and non-model systems, and agriculturally relevant plants. The program’s scope extends from fundamental mechanisms to translational efforts, with the latter seeking to put into agricultural practice insights gained from basic research on the mechanisms that govern plant-biotic interactions. Projects must be strongly justified in terms of fundamental biological processes and/or relevance to agriculture and may be purely fundamental or applied, or include aspects of both perspectives. All types of symbiosis are appropriate, including commensalism, mutualism, parasitism, and host-pathogen interactions. Research may focus on the biology of the plant host, its pathogens, pests or symbionts, interactions among these, or on the function of plant-associated microbiomes. The program welcomes proposals on the dynamics of initiation, transmission, maintenance and outcome of these complex associations, includingstudies of metabolic interactions, immune recognition and signaling, host-symbiont regulation, reciprocal responses among interacting species and mechanisms associated with self/non-self recognition such as those in pollen-pistil interactions. Explanatory frameworks may include molecular, genomic, metabolic, cellular, network and organismal processes, with projects guided by hypothesis and/or discovery driven experimental approaches. Where appropriate, quantitative modeling in concert with experimental work is encouraged. Overall, the program seeks to support research that will deepen our understanding of the fundamental processes that mediate interactions between plants and the organisms with which they intimately associate and advance the application of that fundamental knowledge to benefit agriculture. Note that PBI does not require submission of preliminary proposals.

• Conferences and Workshops in the Mathematical Sciences

  Conferences, workshops,and related events (including seasonal schools andinternational travel by groups) support research and training activities of the mathematical sciences community. Proposals for conferences, workshops, or conference-like activities may request funding of any amount and for durations of up to three years. Proposals under this solicitationmust besubmitted to the appropriate DMS programs in accordance with the lead-time requirements specified on the program web page

• Cybermanufacturing Systems

  Important Information for Proposers A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 16-1), is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 25, 2016. Please be advised that, depending on the specified due date, the guidelines contained in NSF 16-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to this funding opportunity. DUE DATES Full Proposal Accepted Anytime Unsolicited full proposals may be submitted at any time. There is no proposal submission window, deadline or due date. Proposals submitted to solicitations, such as the CAREER Program, must meet the respective deadlines of those solicitations. SYNOPSIS The Cybermanufacturing Systems (CM) Program supports fundamental research to enable the evolution of a wide range of network-accessed manufacturing services that: •employ applications (or “apps”) that reside in the “cloud” and plug into an expansible, interactive architecture; •are broadly accessible, guarantee reliable execution and have capabilities that are transparent to users; and •are accessible at low cost to innovators and entrepreneurs, including both users and providers. Current manufacturing software applications are predominantly large, manufacturer-centric, general-purpose programs with the universal applicability needed to justify their development, marketing and acquisition costs. They usually have broad capabilities, but are cumbersome to learn and often require expert intervention. There is an opportunity for researchers to pursue research and educational efforts to accelerate the creation of an interoperating, cross-process manufacturing service layer that enables the rapid, bottom-up transformation of access to manufacturing services. Such a service layer can allow creative entrepreneurs and companies to both furnish and access manufacturing apps that span the full spectrum from ideation to physical realization, giving rise to an era of “cybermanufacturing.” The cybermanufacturing service layer differs from existing Internet services in that it needs an architecture that can incrementally incorporate and organize the rich and deep semantic elements of manufacturing knowledge, requiring an almost unlimited capacity to expand the range and depth of content contributed in the form of partitioned, but interoperating, manufacturing applications. Such efforts are well-suited to incubation in universities, where potential service layer architectures and application modules can be prototyped at low cost, used in coursework and tested by students and faculty. Of particular interest is the exploration of the tradeoffs between generality and tractability in algorithmic representations of manufacturing knowledge. In the classic example, the automation of integrated circuit manufacturing depends on restricting device design options to those that can be produced with 100% reliability by a standardized set of manufacturing processes. As a result, the problem of compiling manufacturing instructions is made tractable by limiting available design options to those that can be manufactured using proven methods. In practice, the considerable design inefficiencies due to such limitations are more than compensated for by the cost savings due to dependable execution.

• Cyber-Physical Systems

  Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are engineered systems that are built from, and depend upon, the seamless integration of computational algorithms and physical components. Advances in CPS will enable capability, adaptability, scalability, resiliency, safety, security, and usability that will far exceed the simple embedded systems of today. CPS technology will transform the way people interact with engineered systems -- just as the Internet has transformed the way people interact with information. New smart CPS will drive innovation and competition in sectors such as agriculture, energy, transportation, building design and automation, healthcare, and manufacturing. The December 2010 report of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) titled Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology calls for continued investment in CPS research because of its scientific and technological importance as well as its potential impact on grand challenges in a number of sectors critical to U.S. security and competitiveness such as the ones noted above. These challenges and technology gaps are further described in a CPS Vision Statement published in 2012 by the federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) CPS Senior Steering Group. Tremendous progress has been made in advancing CPS technology over the last five-plus years. We have explored foundational technologies that have spanned an ever-growing set of application domains, enabling breakthrough achievements in many of these fields. At the same time, the demand for innovation in these domains continues to grow, and is driving the need to accelerate fundamental research to keep pace. Despite significant inroads into CPS technology in recent years, we do not yet have a mature science to support systems engineering of high-confidence CPS, and the consequences are profound. Traditional analysis tools are unable to cope with the full complexity of CPS or adequately predict system behavior. For example, as the Internet of Things (IoT) scales to billions of connected devices -- with the capacity to sense, control, and otherwise interact with the human and physical world -- the requirements for dependability, security, safety, and privacy grow immensely. One barrier to progress is the lack of appropriate science and technology to conceptualize and design for the deep interdependencies among engineered systems and the natural world. The challenges and opportunities for CPS are thus significant and far-reaching. New relationships between the cyber and physical components require new architectural models that redefine form and function. They integrate the continuous and discrete, compounded by the uncertainty of open environments. Traditional real-time performance guarantees are insufficient for CPS when systems are large and spatially, temporally, or hierarchically distributed in configurations that may rapidly change. With the greater autonomy and cooperation possible with CPS, greater assurances of safety, security, scalability, and reliability are demanded, placing a high premium on open interfaces, modularity, interoperability, and verification. The goal of the CPS program is to develop the core system science needed to engineer complex cyber-physical systems that people can use or interact with and depend upon. Some of these may require high-confidence or provable behaviors. The program aims to foster a research community committed to advancing research and education in CPS and to transitioning CPS science and technology into engineering practice. By abstracting from the particulars of specific systems and application domains, the CPS program seeks to reveal cross-cutting fundamental scientific and engineering principles that underpin the integration of cyber and physical elements across all application sectors. To expedite and accelerate the realization of cyber-physical systems in a wide range of applications, the CPS program also supports the development of methods, tools, and hardware and software components based upon these cross-cutting principles, along with validation of the principles via prototypes and testbeds. We have also seen a convergence of CPS technologies and research thrusts that underpin Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC) and the Internet of Things (IoT). These domains offer new and exciting challenges for foundational research and provide opportunities for maturation at multiple time horizons. In 2016, NSF is working closely with multiple agencies of the federal government, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T); the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and through FHWA, the U.S. DOT Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office (JPO); the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD); several National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes and centers [including the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)]; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA, hereafter referred to as NIFA). Key goals are to identify basic CPS research directions that are common across multiple application domains, along with opportunities for accelerated transition to practice. Three classes of research and education projects -- differing in scope and goals -- will be considered through this solicitation: Breakthrough projects must offer a significant advance in fundamental CPS science, engineering and/or technology that has the potential to change the field. This category focuses on new approaches to bridge computing, communication, and control. Funding for Breakthrough projects may be requested for a total of up to $500,000 for a period of up to 3 years. Synergy projects must demonstrate innovation at the intersection of multiple disciplines, to accomplish a clear goal that requires an integrated perspective spanning the disciplines. Funding for Synergy projects may be requested for a total of $500,001 to $1,000,000 for a period of 3 to 4 years. Frontier projects must address clearly identified critical CPS challenges that cannot be achieved by a set of smaller projects. Funding may be requested for a total of $1,000,001 to $7,000,000 for a period of 4 to 5 years.

• US Ignite

  US Ignite is an initiative that seeks to promote US leadership in the development and deployment of next-generation gigabit applications with the potential for significant societal impact. The primary goal of US Ignite is to break a fundamental deadlock: there is insufficient investment in gigabit applications that can take advantage of advanced network infrastructure because such end-to-end infrastructure is rare and geographically dispersed. And conversely, there is a lack of broad availability of advanced broadband infrastructure for open experimentation and innovation because there are few advanced applications and services to justify it. US Ignite aims to break this deadlock by providing incentives for imagining, prototyping, and developing gigabit applications that address national priorities, and by leveraging and extending this network testbed across US college/university campuses and cities. This solicitation builds on the experience and community infrastructure gained from initial US Ignite activities to further engage the US academic research and non-profit communities along with local cities, municipalities, and regions in exploring the challenges of developing and applying next-generation networking to problems of significant public interest and benefit. In particular, this solicitation has two focus areas: the first encourages the development of application ideas and prototypes addressing national priority areas that explore new uses for high-speed networks and give rise to the Smart & Connected Communities of the future, as well as novel networking and application paradigms; and the second pursues fundamental research advances in networking technology and protocols that will further both the capabilities and our understanding of gigabit networking infrastructure to meet current and future application demands. In 2016, NSF is also working with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office for Access to Justice (ATJ) to identify additional application ideas and prototypes and basic research directions that may serve national priority areas of mutual interest.

• Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate

  The Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program seeks to advance knowledge about models to improve pathways to the professoriate and success for historically underrepresented minority doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty, particularly African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders, in specific STEM disciplines and/or STEM education research fields. New and innovative models are encouraged, as are models that reproduce and/or replicate existing evidence-based alliances in significantly different disciplines, institutions, and participant cohorts. The AGEP program goal is to increase the number of historically underrepresented minority faculty, in specific STEM disciplines and STEM education research fields, by advancing knowledge about pathways to career success. The program objectives include: To support the development, implementation and study of innovative models of doctoral education, postdoctoral training, and faculty advancement for historically underrepresented minorities in specific STEM disciplines and/or STEM education research fields; and to advance knowledge about the underlying issues, policies and practices that have an impact on the participation, transitions and advancement of historically underrepresented minorities in the STEM academy. The AGEP Transformation Alliance projects are collaborative research projects representing new strategic alliances of institutions and organizations to develop, implement, and study evidence-based models to transform doctoral education, postdoctoral training, and faculty advancement for historically underrepresented minorities in specific STEM disciplines and/or STEM education research fields. Embedded social science and education research contributes to the knowledge base about how transformational models eliminate or mitigate negative factors and promote positive policies and practices for historically underrepresented minorities. AGEP addresses academic workforce development in a broadening participation and institutional capacity building context. Strategic collaborations are encouraged with multiple academic partners, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, professional organizations, government agencies, national laboratories, field stations, teaching and learning centers, informal science centers, and other relevant STEM and/or STEM education research organizations. The AGEP program encourages project leadership by, and partnerships with, all types of minority serving institutions, such as majority minority serving institutions, historically black colleges and universities, high Hispanic enrollment institutions, tribal colleges and universities, and institutions serving native Hawaiians, native Pacific Islanders, and/or Alaskan natives. Note to students and postdoctoral scholars seeking support: The AGEP program does not make awards to individual students or postdoctoral scholars to undertake their education or research activities. Undergraduates and graduate students seeking support for graduate education should review the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program (GRFP) (http://nsfgrfp.org/). Postdoctoral scholars seeking support should review the NSF postdoctoral programs summarized at www.fastlane.nsf.gov/servlet/fastlane.pdoc.DisplayProgramType. Additionally, some NSF Directorates may have special funding opportunities to support students and postdoctoral trainees that contribute to broadening participation in STEM. NSF principal investigators seeking funds to support students and postdoctoral trainees, who are members of historically underrepresented minority groups, are encouraged to contact their NSF program officer for information on potential opportunities.

• Prediction of and Resilience against Extreme Events

  Natural disasters cause thousands of deaths annually, and in 2013 alone caused over $130 billion in damage worldwide. There is clear societal need to better understand and mitigate the risks posed to the US by natural hazards, consistent with the mandate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) “…to promote the progress of science [and] advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare NSF and the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) have long supported basic research in scientific and engineering disciplines necessary to understand natural hazards and extreme events, including through the Interdisciplinary Research in Hazards and Disasters (Hazards SEES) program and multiple core programs in the GEO Directorate. PREEVENTS is designed as a logical successor to Hazards SEES and is one element of the NSF-wide Risk and Resilience activity, which has the overarching goal of improving predictability and risk assessment, and increasing resilience, in order to reduce the impact of extreme events on our life, society, and economy. PREEVENTS will provide an additional mechanism to support research and related activities that will improve our understanding of the fundamental processes underlying natural hazards and extreme events in the geosciences. PREEVENTS is focused on natural hazards and extreme events, and not on technological or deliberately human-caused hazards. The PREEVENTS portfolio will include the potential for disciplinary and multidisciplinary research at all scales, particularly aimed at areas ripe for significant near- or medium-term advances. PREEVENTS seeks projects that will (1) enhance understanding of the fundamental processes underlying natural hazards and extreme events on various spatial and temporal scales, as well as the variability inherent in such hazards and events, and (2) improve our capability to model and forecast such hazards and events. All projects requesting PREEVENTS support must be primarily focused on these two targets. In addition, PREEVENTS projects will improve our understanding of the effects of natural hazards and extreme events and will enable development, with support by other programs and organizations, of new tools to enhance societal preparedness and resilience against such impacts.

• NSF/DOE Partnership in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering

  Plasma Physics is a study of matter and physical systems whose intrinsic properties are governed by collective interactions of large ensembles of free charged particles. 99.9% of the visible Universe is thought to consist of plasmas. The underlying physics of the collective behavior in plasmas has applications to space physics and astrophysics, materials science, applied mathematics, fusion science, accelerator science, and many branches of engineering. The National Science Foundation (NSF), with participation of the Directorates for Engineering, Geosciences, and Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and the Department of Energy, Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences are continuing the joint Partnership in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering begun in FY1997 and renewed several times since. As stated in the original solicitation (NSF 97-39), which is superseded by the present solicitation, the goal of the initiative is to enhance basic plasma research and education in this broad, multidisciplinary field by coordinating efforts and combining resources of the two agencies. The current solicitation also encourages submission of proposals to perform basic plasma experiments at NSF and DOE supported user facilities, such as the Basic Plasma Science Facility at the University of California, Los Angeles and facilities located at DOE national laboratories, designed to serve the needs of the broader plasma community.

• Physics Frontiers Centers

  The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program supports university-based centers and institutes where the collective efforts of a larger group of individuals can enable transformational advances in the most promising research areas. The program is designed to foster major breakthroughs at the intellectual frontiers of physics by providing needed resources such as combinations of talents, skills, disciplines, and/or specialized infrastructure, not usually available to individual investigators or small groups, in an environment in which the collective efforts of the larger group can be shown to be seminal to promoting significant progress in the science and the education of students.Activities supported through the program are in all sub-fields of physics within the purview of the Division of Physics: atomic, molecular, optical, plasma, elementary particle, nuclear, particle astro-, gravitational, and biological physics. Interdisciplinary projects at the interface between these physics areas and other disciplines and physics sub-fields may also be considered, although the bulk of the effort must fall within one of those areas within the purview of the Division of Physics. The successful PFC activity will demonstrate: (1) the potential for a profound advance in physics; (2) creative, substantive activities aimed at enhancing education, diversity, and public outreach; (3) potential for broader impacts, e.g., impacts on other field(s) and benefits to society; (4) a synergy or value-added rationale that justifies a center- or institute-like approach.

• Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems

  The Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems (CCSS) Program is intended to spur visionary systems-oriented activities in collaborative, multidisciplinary, and integrative engineering research. CCSS supports systems research in hardware, signal processing techniques, and architectures to enable the next generation of cyber-physical systems (CPS) that leverage computation, communication, and algorithms integrated with physical domains. CCSS supports innovative research and integrated educational activities in micro- and nano- electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), communications and sensing systems, and cyber-physical systems. The goal is to design, develop, and implement new complex and hybrid systems at all scales, including nano and macro, that lead to innovative engineering principles and solutions for a variety of application domains including, but not limited to, healthcare, medicine, environmental and biological monitoring, communications, disaster mitigation, homeland security, intelligent transportation, manufacturing, energy, and smart buildings. CCSS also supports integration technologies at both intra- and inter- chip levels, new and advanced radio frequency (RF), millimeter wave and optical wireless and hybrid communications systems architectures, and sensing and imaging at terahertz (THz) frequencies. Proposals for the CCSS program may involve collaborative research to capture the breadth of expertise needed for such multidisciplinary integrative activities. ECCS will consider supporting a limited number of small team proposals of three or more Investigators from different disciplines and/or universities.

• Electronics, Photonics and Magnetic Devices

  The Electronics, Photonics, and Magnetic Devices (EPMD) Program seeks to improve the fundamental understanding of devices and components based on the principles of micro- and nano-electronics, optics and photonics, optoelectronics, magnetics, electromechanics, electromagnetics, and related physical phenomena. The Electronics & Magnetic Devices component of EPMD enables discovery and innovation advancing the frontiers of nanoelectronics, spin electronics, molecular and organic electronics, bioelectronics, biomagnetics, non-silicon electronics, and flexible electronics. It also addresses advances in energy-efficient electronics, sensors, low-noise, power electronics, and mixed signal devices. The Optic & Photonic Devicescomponent of EPMD supports research and engineering efforts leading to significant advances in novel optical sources and photodetectors, optical communication devices, photonic integrated circuits, single-photon quantum devices, and nanophotonics. It also addresses novel optical imaging and sensing applications and solar cell photovoltaics. EPMD further supports topics in quantum devices and novel electromagnetic materials-based device solutions from DC to high-frequency, millimeter-wave and THz, monolithic integrated circuits built with them, and electromagnetic effects, components needed for communications, telemedicine, and other wireless applications. Wide bandgap semiconductor devices, device design, processing and characterization, as well as metamaterial and plasmonic based devices are of interest. Novel electronic, photonic and magnetic devices with organic, inorganic or hybrid materials on conformable or transparent substrates are also of interest, as are carbon-based and emerging 2D atomic-layered materials for electronic, photonic, magnetic, energy harvesting and other related device application areas. Interest also extends to novel ideas for next generation memory devices. The program supports cooperative efforts with the semiconductor industry on new nanoelectronics concepts beyond the scaling limits of silicon technology. EPMD additionally emphasizes emerging areas of diagnostic, wearable and implantable devices, and supports manipulation and real-time measurement with nanoscale precision through new approaches to imaging and metrology. Proposals for the EPMD program may involve collaborative research to capture the breadth of expertise needed for such multidisciplinary integrative activities. ECCS will consider supporting a limited number of small team proposals of three or more investigators from different disciplines and/or universities.

• Energy, Power, Control, and Networks

  Recent advances in communications, computation, and sensing technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for the design of cyber-physical systems with increased responsiveness, interconnectivity and automation. To meet new challenges and societal needs, the Energy, Power, Control andNetworks (EPCN) Program invests in systems and control methods for analysis and design of cyber-physical systems to ensure stability, performance, robustness, and security. Topics of interest include modeling, optimization, learning, and control of networked multi-agent systems, higher-level decision making, and dynamic resource allocation as well as risk management in the presence of uncertainty, sub-system failures and stochastic disturbances. EPCN also invests in adaptive dynamic programing, brain-like networked architectures performing real-time learning, and neuromorphic engineering. EPCN supports innovative proposals dealing with systems research in such areas as energy, transportation, and nanotechnology. EPCN places emphasis on electric power systems, including generation, transmission, storage, and integration of renewables; power electronics and drives; battery management systems; hybrid and electric vehicles; and understanding of the interplay of power systems with associated regulatory and economic structures and with consumer behavior. Also of interest are interdependencies of power and energy systems with other critical infrastructures. Topics of interest also include systems analysis and design for energy scavenging and alternate energy technologies such as solar, wind, and hydrokinetic. The program also supports innovative tools and test beds, as well as curriculum development integrating research and education. In addition to single investigator projects, EPCN encourages cross-disciplinary proposals that benefit from active collaboration of researchers with complementary skills. Proposals for the EPCN program may involve collaborative research to capture the breadth of expertise needed for such multidisciplinary integrative activities. ECCS will consider supporting a limited number of small team proposals of three or more Investigators from different disciplines and/or universities.

• NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program

  A well-educated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce isa significant contributorto maintaining the competitiveness of the U.S. in the global economy. The National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program addresses the need for a high quality STEM workforce in STEM disciplines supported by the program and for the increased success of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who are pursuing associate, baccalaureate, or graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).Recognizing that financial aid alone cannot increase retention and graduation in STEM, the program provides awards to Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to fund scholarships and to advance the adaptation, implementation, and study of effective evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities that support recruitment, retention, transfer (if appropriate), student success, academic/career pathways, and graduation in STEM. The S-STEM program encourages collaborations among different types of partners: Partnerships among different types of institutions; collaborations of STEM faculty and institutional, educational, and social science researchers; and partnerships among institutions of higher education and local business and industry,if appropriate. The program seeks: 1) to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need obtaining degrees in STEM and entering the workforce or graduate programs in STEM; 2) to improve the education of future scientists, engineers, and technicians, with a focus on academically talented low-income students; and 3) to generate knowledge to advance understanding of how factors or evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities affect the success, retention, transfer, academic/career pathways, and graduation in STEM of low-income students.

• Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Research Initiation Initiative

  With the goal of encouraging research independence immediately upon obtaining one's first academic position after receipt of the PhD, the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) will award grants to initiate the course of one's independent research. Understanding the critical role of establishing that independence early in one's career, it is expected that funds will be used to support untenured faculty or research scientists (or equivalent) in their first three years in a primary academic position after the PhD, but not more than a total of five years after completion of their PhD. One may not yet have received any other grants or contracts in the Principal Investigator (PI) role from any department, agency, or institution of the federal government, including from the CAREER program or any other program, post-PhD, regardless of the size of the grant or contract, with certain exceptions noted below. Serving as co-PI, Senior Personnel, Postdoctoral Fellow, or other Fellow does not count against this eligibility rule. Grants, contracts, or gifts from private companies or foundations; state, local, or tribal governments; or universities do not count against this eligibility rule. It is expected that these funds will allow the new CISE Research Initiation Initiative PI to support one or more graduate students for up to two years. Faculty at undergraduate and two-year institutions may use funds to support undergraduate students, and may use the additional RUI designation (which requires inclusion of a RUI Impact Statement).

• Division of Physics: Investigator-Initiated Research Projects

  Closing Date for Applications: Dec 01, 2016 Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics - Experiment and Theory; Elementary Particle Physics - Experiment; Gravitational Physics - Experiment and Theory; Integrative Activities in Physics; and Particle Astrophysics - Experiment; Physics of Living Systems; Nuclear Physics - Experiment and Theory; Accelerator Science; Elementary Particle Physics - Theory; Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology - Theory; Quantum Information Science The Division of Physics (PHY) supports physics research and education in the nation’s colleges and universities across a broad range of physics disciplines that span scales of space and time from the largest to the smallest and the oldest to the youngest. The Division is comprised of disciplinary programs covering experimental and theoretical research in the following major subfields of physics: Accelerator Science; Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics; Computational Physics; Elementary Particle Physics; Gravitational Physics; Integrative Activities in Physics; Nuclear Physics; Particle Astrophysics; Physics of Living Systems; Plasma Physics (supported under a separate solicitation); and Quantum Information Science. Additional Information The Physics Division strongly encourages single proposal submission for possible co-review rather than multiple submissions of proposals with slight differences to several programs.

• Research Experiences for Undergraduates

  Closing Date for Applications: May 27, 2016 Deadline for REU Site proposals except those requiring access to Antarctica; Deadline for REU Site proposals requiring access to Antarctica. All other REU Site proposals must be submitted to the August REU deadline.; Deadline for REU Site proposals requiring access to Antarctica. All other REU Site proposals must be submitted to the August REU deadline.; Deadline for REU Site proposals except those requiring access to Antarctica The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation. REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects specifically designed for the REU program. This solicitation features two mechanisms for support of student research: (1) REU Sites are based on independent proposals to initiate and conduct projects that engage a number of students in research. REU Sites may be based in a single discipline or academic department or may offer interdisciplinary or multi-department research opportunities with a coherent intellectual theme. Proposals with an international dimension are welcome. (2) REU Supplements may be included as a component of proposals for new or renewal NSF grants or cooperative agreements or may be requested for ongoing NSF-funded research projects. Undergraduate student participants in either REU Sites or REU Supplements must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents of the United States. Students do not apply to NSF to participate in REU activities. Students apply directly to REU Sites or to NSF-funded investigators who receive REU Supplements. To identify appropriate REU Sites, students should consult the directory of active REU Sites on the Web at http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.cfm.

• Campus Cyberinfrastructure

  The Campus Cyberinfrastructure (CC*) program invests in coordinated campus-level cyberinfrastructure (CI) components of data, networking, and computing infrastructure, capabilities, and integrated services leading to higher levels of performance, reliability and predictability for science applications and distributed research projects. Learning and workforce development (LWD) in CI is explicitly addressed in the program. Science-driven requirements are the primary motivation for any proposed activity. CC* awards will be supported in seven areas: (1)Data Driven Multi-Campus/Multi-Institution Model Implementations awards will be supported at up to $3,000,000 total for up to 4 years. (2) Cyber Team awards will be supported at up to $1,500,000 total for up to 3 years. (3) Data Driven Networking Infrastructure for the Campus and Researcher awards will be supported at up to $500,000 total for up to 2 years. (4)Network Design and Implementation for Small Institutions awards will be supported at up to $400,000 total for up to 2 years. (5) Network Integration and Applied Innovation awards will be supported at up to $1,000,000 total for up to 2 years. (6) Campus Computing awards will be supported at up to $500,000 for up to 3 years. (7) Innovative Integrated Storage Resources awards will be supported at up to $200,000 for up to 2 years.

• Origin of Life

  This solicitation describes an Ideas Lab on “Origin of Life.” Ideas Labs are intensive workshops focused on finding innovative solutions to grand challenge problems. The ultimate aim of this Ideas Lab organized by the Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO) and Geosciences (GEO) at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Astrobiology Program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is to facilitate the generation and execution of innovative research projects aimed at identifying and funding potentially transformative research to address grand challenge questions in the origin of life. The primary aim of this Ideas Lab is to foster the development of a theoretical framework that encompasses the “metabolism first” and “RNA first” theories for the origin of life by stimulating creative thinking and new research on the earliest events leading to life on early Earth. Understanding plausible pathways for the origin of life will contribute directly to our understanding of the indispensable properties of life on Earth and inform our search for life on other worlds. US researchersmay submit preliminary proposals for participating in the Ideas Lab only via FastLane. Participation in the Ideas Lab is required to be eligible to submit a full proposal. Multidisciplinary ideas developed in the Ideas Lab will be submitted as full proposals to NSF or to NASA by invitation only. Collaboration among researchers is strongly encouraged in the invited full proposals.

• Partnerships for International Research and Education

  Deadline: 04/24/2017
  Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) is an NSF-wide program that supports international activities across all NSF-supported disciplines. The primary goal of PIRE is to support high quality projects in which advances in research and education could not occur without international collaboration. PIRE seeks to catalyze a higher level of international engagement in the U.S. science and engineering community. International partnerships are essential to addressing critical science and engineering problems. In the global context, U.S. researchers and educators must be able to operate effectively in teams with partners from different national environments and cultural backgrounds. PIRE promotes excellence in science and engineering through international collaboration and facilitates development of a diverse, globally-engaged, U.S. science and engineering workforce. This PIRE competition will be open to all areas of science and engineering research which are supported by the NSF.

• Dear Colleague Letter: Exploring Mechanisms to Enhance the Economic and Societal Impacts of Fundamental Advances in Information and Communications Technologies

  Dear Colleague, Advances in information and communications technologies (ICT) are addressing a wide range of economic and societal challenges. For example, researchers are investigating how advances in learning science and technology can help close the educational achievement gap between children in different income classes and aid non-college-educated workers in gaining new technical skills. Additionally, as the nation’s technically trained workforce grows, it will need new forms of work including entirely new industries to achieve full employment and social progress. However, identifying effective technology and successfully deploying it broadly remains a challenge. For instance, although individualized health sensor technologies that track heart rate and physical activity offer the potential to provide more densely-sampled medical data that can be useful for diagnosis and prescription, research suggests that use of these devices may be reduced over time, diminishing their overall impact. Some of the characteristics and capabilities of ICT that can be harnessed to help address societal challenges include: Low marginal cost of ICT-enabled solutions, which will make it easier to scale effective interventions; Artificial intelligence, which can identify signal and noise patterns to predict physiological and psychological states and behavior, and request medical interventions that can guide change in those states; Rapid, low-cost, at-scale experimentation, data analytics, and machine learning, which can support continuous improvement of digital services; Mobile devices, which can provide anytime, anywhere access to digital services; Computer-supported cooperative work systems that maximize the ability of people with a diversity of skills, tools, and work settings to collaborate for accomplishment of shared goals; Educational systems that allow individuals to gain valuable scientific and engineering knowledge through participation in scientific projects (i.e., public participation in science and engineering research); and Simulation, which can support learning by doing, authentic tasks that are predictive of on-the-job performance, and embedded assessment.

• Partnerships for Innovation: Accelerating Innovation Research- Technology Translation

  The NSF Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) program within the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) is an umbrella for two complementary subprograms, Accelerating Innovation Research (AIR) and Building Innovation Capacity (BIC). Overall, the PFI program offers opportunities to connect new knowledge to societal benefit through translational research efforts and/or partnerships that encourage, enhance and accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship. The subject of this solicitation is PFI: AIR-Technology Translation (PFI: AIR-TT). The PFI: AIR-TT solicitation serves as an early opportunity to move previously NSF-funded research results with promising commercial potential along the path toward commercialization. Projects are supported to demonstrate proof-of-concept, prototype, or scale-up while engaging faculty and students in entrepreneurial/innovative thinking. WEBINAR: A webinar will be held the end of July or early August, 2016 to answer any questions about this solicitation. Details will be posted on the IIP website http://www.nsf.gov/eng/iip/pfi/air-tt.jsp as they become available.

• 16-582 NSF/VMware Partnership on Software Defined Infrastructure as a Foundation for Clean-Slate Computing Security

  As the digital and physical worlds become increasingly intertwined, the real-world consequences of cyber-threats will become more pronounced. To mitigate foreseeable risks, fundamental advances in security are needed. This program will therefore explore the hypothesis that software defined infrastructure (SDI) enables realistic opportunities to revisit and improve the foundations of end-to-end computing security. SDI is an architectural approach in which compute, storage, and networking resources are virtualized; that is, abstractions of physical capabilities are made available to applications or higher-level services in a way that is decoupled from the underlying physical infrastructure. To date, SDI has been realized most fully in the context of datacenters, but it can also be viewed as a foundation for related emerging contexts such as the Internet of Things (IoT). Novel security properties of SDI have been demonstrated, and meanwhile, compute, storage, and network virtualization techniques are rapidly maturing. An intriguing opportunity is to systematically explore and identify the full potential of SDI as a new foundation for clean-slate computing security (CSCS). The goal of this joint solicitation between NSF and VMware is to foster novel, transformative, multidisciplinary research that spans systems, networking, and security with the aim of exploring and creating groundbreaking new approaches to security based on the concept of SDI. The program also aims to support a research community committed to advancing research and education at the confluence of SDI-CSCS technologies, and to transition research findings into practice. NSF and VMware will support multiple projects with funding of up to $3,000,000 each over three years, and it is intended that NSF and VMware will co-fund each project.
  This NSF/VMware partnership combines CISE’s experience in developing and managing successful large, diverse research portfolios with VMware’s significant expertise in SDI, virtualization technology, distributed systems, cloud computing, and other aspects of large-scale software infrastructure and infrastructure management.

• Energy for Sustainability

  The goal of the Energy for Sustainability program is to support fundamental engineering research that will enable innovative processes and solutions for the sustainable production of electricity and fuels, and energy storage. Processes for sustainable energy production must be environmentally benign, reduce greenhouse gas production, and utilize renewable resources. Current topics of interest include: •Biomass Conversion, Biofuels & Bioenergy: Fundamental research on innovative approaches that lead to the intensification of biofuel and bioenergy processes is an emphasis area of this program. Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to: biological, thermochemical, or thermocatalytic routes for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to advanced biofuels beyond cellulosic ethanol; microbial fuel cells for direct production of electricity from renewable carbon sources; hydrogen production from autotrophic or heterotrophic microorganisms; hydrocarbons and lipids from phototrophic or heterotrophic microorganisms. Proposals that focus primarily on chemical reactor analysis related to biomass conversion should be submitted to Process Systems, Reaction Engineering and Molecular Thermodynamics (CBET 1403), and proposals related to the combustion of biomass should be sent to Combustion and Fire Systems (CBET 1407). Proposals that focus on the fundamentals of catalysis should be submitted to Catalysis (CBET 1401). Proposals focused on biocatalysis, metabolic engineering, or synthetic biology should be sent to the Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering Program (1491). •Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Energy: Fundamental research on innovative processes for the fabrication and theory-based characterization of future PV devices is an emphasis area of this program. Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to: nano-enabled PV devices containing nanostructured semiconductors, plasmonic materials, photonic structures, or conducting polymers; earth-abundant and environmentally benign materials for photovoltaic devices; photocatalytic or photoelectrochemical processes for the splitting of water into H2 gas, or for the reduction of CO2 to liquid or gaseous fuels. Proposals that focus on the fundamentals of photocatalysis should be submitted to Catalysis (CBET 1401). The generation of thermal energy by solar radiation is not an area supported by this program, but may be considered by Thermal Transport Processes (CBET 1406). •Advanced Batteries for Transportation and Renewable Energy Storage: Radically new battery systems or breakthroughs based on existing systems can move the US more rapidly toward a more sustainable transportation future. The focus is on high-energy density and high-power density batteries suitable for transportation and renewable energy storage applications. Advanced systems such as lithium-air, sodium-ion, as well as lithium-ion electrochemical energy storage are appropriate. Work on commercially available systems such as lead-acid and nickel-metal hydride batteries will not be considered by this program. Fuel-cell related proposals should be directed to other CBET programs, depending on emphasis: electrocatalysis (Catalysis, CBET 1401); membranes (Chemical and Biological Separations, CBET 1417); systems (Process Systems, Reaction Engineering and Molecular Thermodynamics, CBET 1403). NOTE: For proposals involving any aspect of chemistry, including but not limited to biochemistry or physical chemistry, consider making proposal submissions to this program (7644) with the Proposal Title as: ‘SusChEM: Title of Your Proposal'. For more information on SusChEM-related proposals please click here. The same applies for proposals involving sustainable engineering. Innovative proposals outside of these specific interest areas can be considered. However, prior to submission, it is recommended that the PI contact the Program Director to avoid the possibility of the proposal being returned without review or transferred to another program. The duration of unsolicited awards is typically one to three years. The typical award size for the program is $100,000 per year. Collaborative proposals are approximately $150,000 per year for the entire project. Proposals requesting a substantially higher amount than this, without prior consultation with the Program Director, may be returned without review.

• Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering

  Full Proposal Window: October 1, 2016 - October 20, 2016 October 1 - October 20, Annually Thereafter These submission windows do not apply to workshop or supplement proposals, proposals for EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), or Rapid Response Grants (RAPID). As noted below, PIs are strongly encouraged to discuss their requests with the Program Director before submission of proposals of this nature The Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering (BBE) program supports fundamental engineering research that advances the understanding of cellular and biomolecular processes in engineering biology and eventually leads to the development of enabling technology for advanced manufacturing and/or applications in support of the biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, and bioenergy industries, or with applications in health or the environment. A quantitative treatment of biological and engineering problems of biological processes is considered vital to successful research projects in the BBE program. Fundamental to many research projects in this area is the understanding of how biomolecules, cells and cell populations interact in their environment, and how those molecular level interactions lead to changes in structure, function, phenotype, and/or behavior. The program encourages highly innovative and potentially transformative engineering research leading to novel bioprocessing and manufacturing approaches, and proposals that address emerging research areas and technologies that effectively integrate knowledge and practices from different disciplines while incorporating ongoing research into educational activities. Major areas of interest in the program include: •Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for biomanufacturing •Quantitative systems biotechnology •Tissue engineering and stem cell culture technologies •Protein engineering, biocatalysis and enzyme technologies •Single cell dynamics and modeling •Development of novel "omics" tools for biotechnology applications NOTE: For proposals involving any aspect of sustainable chemistry and engineering, including but not limited to biochemistry or physical chemistry, consider making proposal submissions to this program (1491) with the Proposal Title as: ‘SusChEM: Title of Your Proposal'. For more information on SusChEM-related proposals click here. The duration of unsolicited awards is generally one to three years. The typical award size for the program is around $100,000 per year with allowance for up to $200,000 per year for collaborative projects or those involving multiple investigators. Proposals requesting a substantially higher amount than this, without prior consultation with the Program Director, may be returned without review.

• Biological and Environmental Interactions of Nanoscale Materials

  Full Proposal Window: October 1, 2016 - October 20, 2016 October 1 - October 20, Annually Thereafter These submission windows do not apply to workshop or supplement proposals, proposals for EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), or Rapid Response Grants (RAPID). As noted below, PIs are strongly encouraged to discuss their requests with the Program Director before submission of proposals of this nature. SYNOPSIS The goal of the Biological and Environmental Interactions of Nanoscale Materials program is to support research to advance fundamental and quantitative understanding of the interactions of biological and environmental media with nanomaterials and nanosystems. Materials of interest include one- to three-dimensional nanostructures, heterogeneous nano-bio hybrid assemblies, and other nanoparticles. Such nanomaterials and systems frequently exhibit novel physical, chemical and biological behavior in living systems and environmental matrices as compared to the bulk scale. This program supports research that explores the interaction of nanomaterials in biological and environmental media. Research areas supported by the program include: •Characterization of interactions at the interfaces between nanomaterials and nanosystems with surrounding biological and environmental media, including both simple nanoparticles and complex and/or heterogeneous composites; •Development of predictive tools based on the fundamental behavior of nanostructures within biological and ecological matrices to advance cost-effective and environmentally benign processing and engineering solutions over full life material cycles; •Examining the transport, interaction, and impact of nanostructured materials and nanosystems on biological systems; •Simulations of nanoparticle behavior at interfaces, in conjunction with experimental comparisons, and new theories and simulation approaches for determining the transport and transformation of nanoparticles in various media. Research in these areas will enable the design of nanostructured materials and heterogeneous nanosystems with optimal chemical, electronic, photonic, biological, and mechanical properties for their safe handling, management, and utilization. Innovative proposals outside of these specific interest areas may be considered. However, prior to submission, it is recommended that the PI contact the Program Director to avoid the possibility of the proposal being returned without review. NOTE: For proposals involving aspects of sustainable chemistry, consider making proposal submissions to this program (1179) with the Proposal Title as: ‘SusChEM: Title of Your Proposal'. For more information on SusChEM-related proposals please click here. The same applies for proposals involving sustainable engineering. The duration of unsolicited awards is generally one to three years. The typical award size for the program is $100,000 per year. Proposals requesting a substantially higher amount than this, without prior consultation with the Program Director, may be returned without review.

• Catalysis

  Full Proposal Window: October 1, 2016 - October 20, 2016 October 1 - October 20, Annually Thereafter These submission windows do not apply to workshop or supplement proposals, proposals for EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), or Rapid Response Grants (RAPID). As noted below, PIs are strongly encouraged to discuss their requests with the Program Director before submission of proposals of this nature. The goal of the Catalysis program is to advance research in catalytic engineering science and promote fundamental understanding and the development of catalytic materials and reactions that are of benefit to society. Research in this program should focus on new basic understanding of catalytic materials and reactions, utilizing synthetic, theoretical, and experimental approaches. Target applications include fuels, specialty and bulk chemicals, environmental catalysis, biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals, conversion of greenhouse gases, and generation of solar hydrogen, as well as efficient routes to energy utilization. Heterogeneous catalysis represents the main thrust of the program. Proposals related to both gas-solid and liquid-solid heterogeneous catalysis are welcome, as are proposals that incorporate concepts from homogeneous catalysis. Topic areas that are of particular interest include: •Renewable energy-related catalysis with applications in electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, and catalytic conversion of biomass-derived chemicals. Catalysis aimed at closing the carbon cycle (especially conversion of CO2, methane, and natural gas to fuels and chemical intermediates). •Catalytic alternatives to traditionally non-catalytic reaction processes, as well as new catalyst designs for established catalytic processes. •Environmental catalysis (including energy-efficient and green routes to fuels and chemicals). •Catalytic remediation of feedstocks, process streams, products, or effluents. •Commercially scalable methods of catalyst synthesis. •New catalytic materials and architectures (especially those substituting earth-abundant materials for precious and noble metal catalysts). •Basic understanding of catalytic materials, reaction pathways, kinetics, and surface mechanisms. •Durable, poison-resistant, and easily regenerable catalyst formulations and designs. •Advances in tools for catalyst characterization and theoretical/computational catalysis. Proposals that deal with new catalytic materials, especially materials for photocatalysts, with their inherent complexity, will be enhanced by including plans to assess: 1) reproducibility and repeatability of data, 2) stability under realistic operating conditions including start-up and shut-down cycles, 3) performance relative to standard or well-known reference materials, and 4) quantitative, well-accepted measures of catalyst activity and catalytic efficiency, such as turnover frequencies and turnover numbers, quantum and/or photon yields of photocatalysts, and detailed product analyses and mass balances for the targeted application. Proposals focused on biocatalytic processes, including proposals focusing on enzyme engineering, cellular and biomolecular processes, should now be submitted to the Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering (CBET 1491) program. Projects that are interdisciplinary in nature may be jointly funded with other CBET and NSF programs. NOTE: For catalysis proposals involving aspects of sustainable chemistry, consider making proposal submissions to this program (1401) with the Proposal Title as: 'SusChEM: Title of Your Proposal'. For more information on SusChEM-related proposals click here. The same applies for proposals involving sustainable engineering. If the proposal focuses on reaction engineering aspects of catalytic processes, submit to Process Systems, Reaction Engineering, and Molecular Thermodynamics (CBET 1403). If the emphasis is on renewable or sustainable energy systems as a whole, with catalysis as a sub-component, submit to Energy for Sustainability (CBET 7644). Respectively, program directors will review the submissions and may transfer your proposal to give it the best review situation. Innovative proposals outside of these specific interest areas may be considered. However, prior to submission, it is recommended that the PI contact the Program Director to avoid the possibility of the proposal being returned without review. The duration of unsolicited awards is generally one to three years. The typical award size for the program is around $100,000 per year with allowance for up to $150,000 per year for collaborative projects or those involving multiple investigators. Proposals requesting a substantially higher amount than this, without prior consultation with the Program Director, may be returned without review.

• Environmental Engineering

  The goal of the Environmental Engineering program is to support transformative research which applies scientific and engineering principles to avoid or minimize solid, liquid, and gaseous discharges, resulting from human activities on land, inland and coastal waters, and air, while promoting resource and energy conservation and recovery. The program also fosters cutting-edge scientific research for identifying, evaluating, and monitoring the waste assimilative capacity of the natural environment and for removing or reducing contaminants from polluted air, water, and soils. Any proposal investigating sensors, materials or devices that does not integrate these products with an environmental engineering activity or area of research may be returned without review. Major areas of interest include: •Enhancing the availability of high quality water supplies: Development of innovative biological, chemical and physical treatment processes to meet the growing demand for water; investigation of processes that remove and degrade contaminants, remediate contaminated soil and groundwater, and convert wastewaters into water suitable for reuse; investigation of environmental engineering aspects of urban watersheds, reservoirs, estuaries and storm water management; investigation of biogeochemical and transport processes driving water quality in the aquatic and subsurface environment. (Please note that water treatment research targeting chemical or physical separation processes (e.g. membranes) should be submitted to the Chemical and Biological Separations Program, CBET 1417). •Fate and transport of contaminants of emerging concern in air, water, solid waste, and soils: Investigate the fate, transport and remediation of potentially harmful contaminants and their by-products. (Please note that research concerning nanomaterials should be submitted to Biological and Environmental Interactions of Nanoscale Materials, CBET 1179). NOTE: For proposals involving any aspect of chemistry, including but not limited to biochemistry or physical chemistry, consider making proposal submissions to this program (1440) with the Proposal Title as: ‘SusChEM: Title of Your Proposal'. For more information on SusChEM-related proposals click here. The same applies for proposals involving sustainable engineering. The duration of unsolicited awards is generally one to three years. The typical annual award size for the program is around $110,000 per year. Principal Investigators requesting a higher amount must consult with the Program Director prior to the submission of a proposal, to avoid the possibility of the proposal being returned without review.

• Integrated Earth Systems

  The Earthconsists of a variety ofcomplex systemsthat are variable over space and time, andrespond to a wide range ofperturbations. The goal of the Integrated Earth Systems (IES) program is to investigate the interplay among the continental, terrestrial, and interior systems of the planet. The program provides an opportunity for collaborative, multidisciplinary research into the operation, dynamics, and complexity of Earth systems that encompass the core of the Earth through the surface. Innovative projectsthat explore new research directions beyond those typically considered by core programs of the Division of Earth Sciences (EAR)are encouraged.Investigations may include all or part of the continental, terrestrial and deep Earth at all temporal and spatial scales. IES will support topics that include (but are not limited to) continental systems; terrestrial orsurficial Earth systems including physical, chemical, and biotic dimensions; linkages among tectonics, climate, and landscape evolution; the coupling of the Earth's climate, depositional and biotic systems; and global cycles that involve core and mantle processes.

• ADVANCE: Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers

  Deadline: 01/11/2017
  The goals of the ADVANCE program are (1) to develop systemic approaches to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic STEM [1] careers; (2) to develop innovative and sustainable ways to promote gender equity that involve both men and women in the STEM academic workforce; and (3) to contribute to the research knowledge base on gender equity and the intersection of gender and other identities in STEM academic careers. The ADVANCE program contributes to the development of a more diverse science and engineering workforce because of the focus on equity for STEM academic faculty who are educating, training, and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. There are three program tracks. All projects are expected to build on prior ADVANCE work and gender equity research and literature to broaden the implementation of organizational and systemic strategies to foster gender equity in STEM academic careers. All ADVANCE proposals are expected to recognize that gender does not exist in isolation from other characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, disability status, sexual orientation, foreign-born and foreign-trained status, faculty appointment type, etc., and should offer strategies to promote gender equity for all faculty: The Institutional Transformation (IT) track supports the development of innovative organizational change strategies to produce comprehensive change within one non-profit two-year or four-year academic institution across all STEM disciplines. IT projects are also expected to contribute new research on gender equity in STEM academics. Projects that do not propose innovative strategies may be more appropriate for the Adaptation track. The Adaptation track supports the adaptation and implementation of evidence-based organizational change strategies, ideally from among those developed and implemented by ADVANCE projects. Adaptation awards may support the adaptation and implementation of proven organizational change strategies within a non-profit two-year or four-year academic institution that has not had an ADVANCE IT award. Adaptation awards may also be made to a STEM organization to implement systemic change strategies focused across all STEM disciplines, several STEM disciplines, or within one STEM discipline. The Partnership track will support partnerships of two or more non-profit academic institutions and/or STEM organizations to increase gender equity in STEM academics. Projects should have national or regional impact and result in systemic change within one STEM discipline, several STEM disciplines, or all STEM disciplines. Partnering STEM organizations can include any entity eligible for NSF support. Partners may include professional societies, industry, non-profit organizations, publishers, policy and research entities, state systems of higher education, higher education organizations, as well as institutions of higher education.

• Arctic Research Opportunities

  The National Science Foundation (NSF) invites investigators at U.S. organizations to submit proposals to the Arctic Sciences Section, Division of Polar Programs (PLR) to conduct research about the Arctic region. The goal of this solicitation is to attract research proposals that advance a fundamental, process, and systems-level understanding of the Arctic's rapidly changing natural environment and social and cultural systems, and, where appropriate, to improve our capacity to project future change. The Arctic Sciences Section supports research focused on the Arctic region and its connectivity with lower latitudes. The scientific scope is aligned with, but not limited to, research challenges outlined in the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (https://www.nsf.gov/geo/plr/arctic/iarpc/start.jsp) five-year plans. The Arctic Sciences Section coordinates with programs across NSF and with other federal and international partners to co-review and co-fund Arctic proposals as appropriate. The Arctic Sciences Section also maintains Arctic logistical infrastructure and field support capabilities that are available to enable research.

• Condensed Matter and Materials Theory

  Current Closing Date for Applications: Proposals accepted anytime CMMT supports theoretical and computational materials research in the topical areas represented in DMR's core or individual investigator programs, which include: Condensed Matter Physics (CMP), Biomaterials (BMAT), Ceramics (CER), Electronic and Photonic Materials (EPM), Metals and Metallic Nanostructures (MMN), Polymers (POL), and Solid State and Materials Chemistry (SSMC). The program supports fundamental research that advances the conceptual understanding of hard and soft materials, and materials-related phenomena; the development of associated analytical, computational, and data-centric techniques; as well as predictive materials-specific theory, simulation, and modeling for materials research. The broad spectrum of research supported in CMMT includes first-principles, quantum many-body, statistical mechanics, classical and quantum Monte Carlo, and molecular dynamics methods. Computational efforts span from workstations to advanced and high-performance scientific computing. Emphasis is on approaches that begin at the smallest appropriate length scale, such as electronic, atomic, molecular, nano-, micro-, and mesoscale, required to yield fundamental insight into material properties, processes, and behavior, to predict new materials and states of matter, and to reveal new materials-related phenomena. Approaches that span multiple scales of length and time may be required to advance fundamental understanding of materials properties and phenomena, particularly for polymeric materials and soft matter. Examples of areas of recent interest appear in the program description. CMMT encourages potentially transformative theoretical and computational materials research, which includes but is not limited to: i) developing materials-specific prediction and advancing understanding of properties, phenomena, and emergent states of matter associated with either hard or soft materials, ii) developing and exploring new paradigms including cyber- and data-enabled approaches to advance fundamental understanding of materials and materials related phenomena, oriii) fostering research at interfaces among subdisciplines represented in the Division of Materials Research. Research involving significant materials research cyberinfrastructure development, for example, software development with an aim to share software with the broader materials community, should be submitted to CMMT through Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E) within its annual proposal submission window in the fall. Additional Information Eligibility rules apply for submissions; please see the Program Description section of the CMMT solicitation for details.

• Ceramics

  Current Closing Date for Applications: Proposals accepted anytime This program supports fundamental scientific research in ceramics (e.g., oxides, carbides, nitrides and borides), glass-ceramics, inorganic glasses, ceramic-based composites and inorganic carbon-based materials. Projects should be centered on experiments; inclusion of computational and theory components are encouraged. The objective of the program is to increase fundamental understanding and to develop predictive capabilities for relating synthesis, processing, and microstructure of these materials to their properties and ultimate performance in various environments and applications. Research to enhance or enable the discovery or creation of new ceramic materials is welcome. Development of new experimental techniques or novel approaches to carry out projects is encouraged. Topics supported include basic processes and mechanisms associated with nucleation and growth of thin films; bulk crystal growth; phase transformations and equilibria; morphology; surface modification; corrosion, interfaces and grain boundary structure; and defects. Additional Information Eligibility rules apply for submissions; please see the Program Description section of the CER solicitation for details. PIs are encouraged to include all anticipated broader impact activities in their initial proposals, rather than planning on supplemental requests. Most projects include: (1) the anticipated significance on science, engineering and/or technology including possible benefits to society, (2) plans for the dissemination, and (3) broadening participation of underrepresented groups and/or excellence in training, mentoring, and/or teaching. Many successful proposals include one additional broader impact activity.

• Science of Learning

  Deadline: 01/18/2017
  The Science of Learning program supports potentially transformative basic research to advance the science of learning. The goals of the SL Program are to develop basic theoretical insights and fundamental knowledge about learning principles, processes and constraints. Projects that are integrative and/or interdisciplinary may be especially valuable in moving basic understanding of learning forward but research with a single discipline or methodology is also appropriate if it addresses basic scientific questions in learning. The possibility of developing connections between proposed research and specific scientific, technological, educational, and workforce challenges will be considered as valuable broader impacts, but are not necessarily central to the intellectual merit of proposed research. The program will support research addressing learning in a wide range of domains at one or more levels of analysis including: molecular/cellular mechanisms; brain systems; cognitive affective, and behavioral processes; and social/cultural influences. The program supports a variety of methods including: experiments, field studies, surveys, secondary-data analyses, and modeling.

• Smart and Connected Health

  Deadline: 12/08/2016
  The goal of the Smart and Connected Health (SCH) Program is to accelerate the development and use of innovative approaches that would support the much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on well-being rather than disease. Approaches that partner technology-based solutions with biobehavioral health research are supported by multiple agencies of the federal government including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of this program is to develop next generation health care solutions and encourage existing and new research communities to focus on breakthrough ideas in a variety of areas of value to health, such as sensor technology, networking, information and machine learning technology, decision support systems, modeling of behavioral and cognitive processes, as well as system and process modeling. Effective solutions must satisfy a multitude of constraints arising from clinical/medical needs, social interactions, cognitive limitations, barriers to behavioral change, heterogeneity of data, semantic mismatch and limitations of current cyberphysical systems. Such solutions demand multidisciplinary teams ready to address technical, behavioral and clinical issues ranging from fundamental science to clinical practice.

• Algorithms in the Field

  Deadline: 01/26/2017
  Algorithms in the Field encourages closer collaboration between two groups of researchers: (i) theoretical computer science researchers, who focus on the design and analysis of provably efficient and provably accurate algorithms for various computational models; and (ii) other computing and information researchers including a combination of systems and domain experts (very broadly construed – including but not limited to researchers in computer architecture, programming languages and systems, computer networks, cyber-physical systems, cyber-human systems, machine learning, artificial intelligence and its applications, database and data analytics, etc.) who focus on the particular design constraints of applications and/or computing devices. Each proposal must have at least one co-PI interested in theoretical computer science and one interested in any of the other areas typically supported by CISE. Proposals are expected to address the dissemination of both the algorithmic contributions and the resulting applications, tools, languages, compilers, libraries, architectures, systems, data, etc.

• Scalable Nanomanufacturing for Integrated Systems

  Deadline: 01/13/2017
  The National Science Foundation (NSF) announces a 7^th (seventh) year of a solicitation on collaborative research and education in the area of Scalable Nanomanufacturing for Integrated Systems (SNM-IS). This solicitation is in response to and is a component of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Signature Initiative: Sustainable Nanomanufacturing - Creating the Industries of the Future (http://www.nano.gov/NSINanomanufacturing). Many nanofabrication techniques have demonstrated the ability to synthesize small quantities of nanomaterials and nanostructures for characterization and evaluation and simple nanodevices for analysis and testing purposes. The emphasis of the Scalable Nanomanufacturing for Integrated Systems (SNM-IS) solicitation is on research in new nano-scale manufacturing concepts and integration methods to realize complex integrated systems based on nanotechnology. The research will focus on overcoming the key scientific and engineering barriers that prevent the translation of laboratory-scale discoveries in nano-enabled integrated systems to an industrially relevant scale, reliably, affordably and within sustainability and environmental, health and safety (EHS) guidelines. The goal of the SNM-IS solicitation is to study and formulate the fundamental principles of scalable nanomanufacturing and integration for nanotechnology-based integrated systems towards the eventual manufacture of useful nano-enabled products. The SNM-IS solicitation is driven by the discovery of numerous new nanomaterials with unique properties (2D atomic layer, transition metal dichalcogenides, van der Waals heterostructures, perovskites, metal-organic frameworks, metamaterials, origami, etc.) in recent years and invention of many novel fabrication methods (nano additive manufacturing, strain engineering processing, bio-nanomanufacturing, etc.) to synthesize nanostructures with different geometries, 'microstructures' and functionalities.

• Solar and Planetary Research Grants

  Closing Date for Applications: Proposals accepted anytime The Solar and Planetary Research Grants (SPG) Program provides individual investigator and collaborative research grants for observational, theoretical, laboratory, and archival data studies in the science of our solar system and extrasolar planetary systems. Proposals for projects and tools that enable and enhance research in those areas may also be submitted. Proposals addressing the astronomy and astrophysics of stars,our galaxy, external galaxies, and cosmologywill be handled under a companion NSF solicitation,NSF 16-574, Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grants (AAG), not under the SPG Program.Proposals that address planet formation within circumstellar disks are appropriate for this SPG Program; proposals that address star formation are better directed to the AAG Program and will not be considered by the SPG Program. Proposals submitted to one of these two programs, and deemed more appropriate for the other program, will be routed to the other program and considered during the next proposal submission season for that program. Potential proposers are cautioned that this could delay a proposal considered more appropriate to the AAG Program for up to a year. Proposals that are solely or predominantly for the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of space-based data from NASA-supported missions will be returned without review.

• 16-604 Scalable Nanomanufacturing for Integrated Systems National Science Foundation

  Deadline: 01/13/2017
  The National Science Foundation (NSF) announces a 7th (seventh) year of a solicitation on collaborative research and education in the area of Scalable Nanomanufacturing for Integrated Systems (SNM-IS). This solicitation is in response to and is a component of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Signature Initiative: Sustainable Nanomanufacturing - Creating the Industries of the Future.

• 16-606 NSF/Intel Partnership on Computer Assisted Programming for Heterogeneous Architectures National Science Foundation

  Deadline: 12/15/2016
  The NSF/Intel Partnership on Computer Assisted Programming for Heterogeneous Architectures (CAPA) aims to address the problem of effective software development for diverse hardware architectures through groundbreaking university research that will lead to a significant, measurable leap in software development productivity by partially or fully automating software development tasks that are currently performed by humans. The main research objectives for CAPA include programmer effectiveness, performance portability, and performance predictability. In order to address these objectives, CAPA seeks research proposals that explore (1) programming abstractions and/or methodologies that separate performance-related aspects of program design from how they are implemented; (2) program synthesis and machine learning approaches for automatic software construction that are demonstrably correct; (3) advanced hardware-based cost models and abstractions to support multi-target code generation and performance predictability for specified heterogeneous hardware architectures; and (4) integration of research results into principled software development practices.

• Scalable Parallelism in the Extreme

  Deadline: 01/10/2017
  The Scalable Parallelism in the Extreme (SPX) program aims to support research addressing the challenges of increasing performance in this modern era of parallel computing. This will require a collaborative effort among researchers in multiple areas, from services and applications down to micro-architecture. SPX encompasses all five NSCI Strategic Objectives, including supporting foundational research toward architecture and software approaches that drive performance improvements in the post-Moore's Law era; development and deployment of programmable, scalable, and reusable platforms in the national HPC and scientific cyberinfrastructure ecosystem; increased coherence of data analytic computing and modeling and simulation; and capable extreme-scale computing. Coordination with industrial efforts that pursue related goals are encouraged.

• Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience

  Deadline: 12/19/2016
  Computational neuroscience provides a theoretical foundation and a rich set of technical approaches for understanding complex neurobiological systems, building on the theory, methods, and findings of computer science, neuroscience, and numerous other disciplines. Through the CRCNS program, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF), the French National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANR), and the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) support collaborative activities that will advance the understanding of nervous system structure and function, mechanisms underlying nervous system disorders, and computational strategies used by the nervous system. Two classes of proposals will be considered in response to this solicitation: Research Proposals describing collaborative research projects; and Data Sharing Proposals to enable sharing of data and other resources. Domestic and international projects will be considered.

• NSF/Intel Partnership on Computer Assisted Programming for Heterogeneous Architectures

  Deadline: 12/15/2016
  The NSF/Intel Partnership on Computer Assisted Programming for Heterogeneous Architectures (CAPA) aims to address the problem of effective software development for diverse hardware architectures through groundbreaking university research that will lead to a significant, measurable leap in software development productivity by partially or fully automating software development tasks that are currently performed by humans. The main research objectives for CAPA include programmer effectiveness, performance portability, and performance predictability. In order to address these objectives, CAPA seeks research proposals that explore (1) programming abstractions and/or methodologies that separate performance-related aspects of program design from how they are implemented; (2) program synthesis and machine learning approaches for automatic software construction that are demonstrably correct; (3) advanced hardware-based cost models and abstractions to support multi-target code generation and performance predictability for specified heterogeneous hardware architectures; and (4) integration of research results into principled software development practices.

• NSF 16-605 Scalable Parallelism in the Extreme (SPX)

  Deadline: 01/10/2017
  he Scalable Parallelism in the Extreme (SPX) program aims to support research addressing the challenges of increasing performance in this modern era of parallel computing. This will require a collaborative effort among researchers in multiple areas, from services and applications down to micro-architecture. SPX encompasses all five NSCI, including supporting foundational research toward architecture and software approaches that drive performance improvements in the posts Law era; development and deployment of programmable, scalable, and reusable platforms in the national HPC and scientific cyber infrastructure ecosystem; increased coherence of data analytic computing and modeling and simulation; and capable extreme-scale computing. Coordination with industrial efforts that pursue related goals are encouraged.

• Emerging Frontiers In Research And Innovation 2017 (EFRI-2017)

  The Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program of the NSF Directorate for Engineering (ENG) serves a critical role in helping ENG focus on important emerging areas in a timely manner. This solicitation is a funding opportunity for interdisciplinary teams of researchers to embark on rapidly advancing frontiers of fundamental engineering research. For this solicitation, we will consider proposals that aim to investigate emerging frontiers in the following two research areas: Advancing Communication Quantum Information Research in Engineering (ACQUIRE) New Light, EM (Electronic) and Acoustic Wave Propagation: Breaking Reciprocity and Time- Reversal Symmetry (NewLAW) This solicitation will be coordinated with the Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS) and the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), within NSF. EFRI seeks proposals with transformative ideas that represent an opportunity for a significant shift in fundamental engineering knowledge with a strong potential for long term impact on national needs or a grand challenge. The proposals must also meet the detailed requirements delineated in this solicitation. Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time): October 24, 2016 Preliminary Proposal Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time): December 21, 2016 Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time): March 24, 2017

• Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future

  Deadline: 01/17/2017
  DMREF will support activities that accelerate materials discovery and/or development by building the fundamental knowledge base needed to design and make materials with specific and desired functional properties from first principles.This will be accomplished through forming interdisciplinary teams of researchers working synergistically in a "closed loop" fashion, building a vibrant research community, leveraging Big Data science, providing ready access to materials data, and educating the future MGI workforce.Specifically, achieving this goal will involve modeling, analysis, and computational simulations, validated and verified through sample preparation, characterization, and/or device demonstration. DMREF will enable development of new data analytic tools and statistical algorithms; advanced simulations of material properties in conjunction with new device functionality; advances in predictive modeling that leverage machine learning, data mining, and sparse approximation; data infrastructure that is accessible, extensible, scalable, and sustainable; the development, maintenance, and deployment of reliable, interoperable, and reusable software for the next-generation design of materials; and new collaborative capabilities for managing large, complex, heterogeneous, distributed data supporting materials design, synthesis, and longitudinal study. DMREF aligns with national priorities for advanced manufacturing and future industries, national defense and homeland security, information technologies and high performance computing, human health and welfare, clean energy, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). By facilitating interdisciplinary integrative materials research, DMREF is supportive of the NSF long-range transformative agenda. The multidisciplinary character of this effort dictates the involvement of programs in the NSF Directorates of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Computer and Information Science and Engineering. Awards are expected to range from $250,000 - $400,000 per year for a duration of three or four years, thus totaling $750,000 – $1,600,000 over the award period. To cover the breadth of this endeavor, it is expected that proposed projects will be directed by a team of at least two Senior Personnel with complementary expertise. Assuming that sufficient funding is provided in the NSF budget, it is anticipated that the DMREF program will continue through at least FY2019, with competitions biennially in odd-numbered years.

• Smart and Connected Communities

  Deadline: 02/16/2017
  Cities and communities in the U.S. and around the world are entering a new era of transformational change, in which their inhabitants and the surrounding built and natural environments are increasingly connected by smart technologies, leading to new opportunities for innovation, improved services, and enhanced quality of life. The goal of this Smart Connected Communities (SCC) solicitation is to support strongly interdisciplinary, integrative research and research capacity-building activities that will improve understanding of smart and connected communities and lead to discoveries that enable sustainable change to enhance community functioning. Unless stated otherwise, for the purposes of this year's solicitation, communities are physical, geographically-defined entities, such as towns, cities, or incorporated rural areas, consisting of various populations, with a governance structure and the ability to engage in meaningful ways with the proposed research. Successful SCC projects are expected to pursue research and research capacity-building activities that integrate multiple disciplinary perspectives and undertake meaningful community engagement, and to include appropriate and robust evaluation plans for assessing activities and outcomes. To meet the multidisciplinary criterion, proposals must meaningfully integrate across both social and technological research dimensions. In this solicitation, the social dimensions reflect areas typically included in the portfolios of the NSF's Directorates for Social, Behavior, and Economic Sciences (SBE) and Education and Human Resources (EHR), while the technological dimensions reflect disciplinary areas typically included in the portfolios of the Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and Engineering (ENG). Proposals may also pursue integration with other disciplines as needed, including but not limited to those typically encompassed in the portfolio of the NSF's Directorate for Geosciences (GEO). Successful proposals are also expected to include appropriate community engagement as defined further in the solicitation.

• Smart and Autonomous Systems

  Deadline: 12/19/2016
  The Smart and Autonomous Systems (SAS) program focuses on Intelligent Physical Systems (IPS) that are cognizant, taskable, reflective, ethical, and knowledge-rich. The S&AS program welcomes research on IPS that are aware of their capabilities and limitations, leading to long-term autonomy requiring minimal or no human operator intervention. Example IPS include, but are not limited to, robotic platforms and networked systems that combine computing, sensing, communication, and actuation. Cognizant IPS exhibit high-level awareness beyond primitive actions, in support of persistent and long-term autonomy. Taskable IPS can interpret high-level, possibly vague, instructions, translating them into concrete actions that are dependent on the particular context in which the IPS is operating. Reflective IPS can learn from their own experiences and those of other entities, such as other IPS or humans, and from instruction or observation; they may exhibit self-aware and self-optimizing capabilities. Ethical IPS should adhere to a system of societal and legal rules, taking those rules into account when making decisions. Knowledge-rich IPS employ a variety of representation and reasoning mechanisms, such as semantic, probabilistic and commonsense reasoning; are cognitively plausible; reason about uncertainty in decision making; and reason about the intentions of other entities in decision making.

• Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS)

  Deadline: 12/19/2016
  Computational neuroscience provides a theoretical foundation and a rich set of technical approaches for understanding complex neurobiological systems, building on the theory, methods, and findings of computer science, neuroscience, and numerous other disciplines. Through the CRCNS program, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF), the French National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANR), and the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) support collaborative activities that will advance the understanding of nervous system structure and function, mechanisms underlying nervous system disorders, and computational strategies used by the nervous system. Two classes of proposals will be considered in response to this solicitation: Research Proposals describing collaborative research projects; and Data Sharing Proposals to enable sharing of data and other resources.

• IUSE/Professional Formation of Engineers: REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments

  Deadline: 01/18/2017
  In FY 2017, NSF is continuing a program aligned with the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) framework: REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments. This funding opportunity enables engineering and computer science departments to lead the nation by successfully achieving significant sustainable changes necessary to overcome longstanding issues in their undergraduate programs and educate inclusive communities of engineering and computer science students prepared to solve 21st-­century challenges. In 2014, ENG launched an initiative, the Professional Formation of Engineers (PFE), to create and support an innovative and inclusive engineering profession for the 21stcentury.

• Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

  Deadline: 12/09/2016
  The CDSE-MSS program accepts proposals that confront and embrace the host of mathematical and statistical challenges presented to the scientific and engineering communities by the ever-expanding role of computational modeling and simulation on the one hand, and the explosion in production of digital and observational data on the other. The goal of the program is to promote the creation and development of the next generation of mathematical and statistical theories and tools that will be essential for addressing such issues. To this end, the program will support fundamental research in mathematics and statistics whose primary emphasis will be on meeting the aforementioned computational and date-related challenges. This program is part of the wider Computational and Data-enabled Science and Engineering (CDSE) enterprise in NSF that seeks to address this emerging discipline; see http://www.nsf.gov/mps/cds-e/ The research supported by the CDSE-MSS program will aim to advance mathematics or statistics in a significant way and will address computational or big-data challenges. Proposals of interest to the program will include a Principal Investigator or co-Principal Investigator who is a researcher in the mathematical or statistical sciences in an area supported by the Division of Mathematical Sciences. The program encourages submission of proposals that include multidisciplinary collaborations or the training of mathematicians and statisticians in CDSE.

• IUSE/Professional Formation of Engineers: REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments

  Deadline: 01/18/2017
  In FY 2017, NSF is continuing a program aligned with the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) framework: REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments. This funding opportunity enables engineering and computer science departments to lead the nation by successfully achieving significant sustainable changes necessary to overcome longstanding issues in their undergraduate programs and educate inclusive communities of engineering and computer science students prepared to solve 21st-century challenges. In 2014, ENG launched an initiative, the Professional Formation of Engineers (PFE), to create and support an innovative and inclusive engineering profession for the 21stcentury. At the same time, in 2014, NSF launched the agency-wide Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) framework, which is a comprehensive effort to accelerate improvements in the quality and effectiveness of undergraduate education in all STEM fields. The RED program was first offered in FY 2015 as a PFE initiative aligned with the IUSE framework. Additional programs have been created within the IUSE framework across NSF, such as the IUSE: EHR program within EHR.

• Data Infrastructure Building Blocks

  Deadline: 01/03/2017
  The Data Infrastructure Building Blocks (DIBBs) program is an integral part of CIF21. The DIBBs program encourages development of robust and shared data-centric cyberinfrastructure capabilities, to accelerate interdisciplinary and collaborative research in areas of inquiry stimulated by data. DIBBs investments enable new data-focused services, capabilities, and resources to advance scientific discoveries, collaborations, and innovations. The investments are expected to build upon, integrate with, and contribute to existing community cyberinfrastructure, serving as evaluative resources while developments in national-scale access, policy, interoperability and sustainability continue to evolve. Prospective PIs should be aware that DIBBs is a multi-directorate activity, and are encouraged to submit proposals that have broad, interdisciplinary interest. PIs are encouraged to refer to NSF core program descriptions, Dear Colleague Letters, and recently posted initiatives on directorate and divisional home pages to gain insight into the priorities for the relevant area(s) of science and engineering in which their proposals may be responsive.

• Spectrum Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, and Security (SpecEES): Enabling Spectrum for All

  Deadline: 01/19/2017
  The National Science Foundation's Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) are coordinating efforts to identify bold new concepts to significantly improve the efficiency of radio spectrum utilization while addressing new challenges in energy efficiency and security, thus enabling spectrum access for all users and devices, and allowing traditionally underserved Americans to benefit from wireless-enabled goods and services. The SpecEES program solicitation (pronounced "SpecEase") seeks to fund innovative collaborative research that transcends the traditional boundaries of existing programs.

• Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science

  Deadline: 03/15/2017
  Transdisciplinary Research In Principles Of Data Science (TRIPODS) aims to bring together the statistics, mathematics, and theoretical computer science communities to develop the theoretical foundations of data science through integrated research and training activities. Phase I, described in this solicitation, will support the development of small collaborative Institutes. Phase II (to be described in an anticipated future solicitation, subject to availability of funds) will support a smaller number of larger Institutes, selected from the Phase I Institutes via a second competitive proposal process. All TRIPODSInstitutes must involve significant and integral participation by all three of the aforementioned communities.

• Data Infrastructure Building Blocks

  Deadline: 01/03/2017
  The NSF vision for a Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21) considers an integrated, scalable, and sustainable cyberinfrastructure to be crucial for innovation in science and engineering (see www.nsf.gov/cif21). The Data Infrastructure Building Blocks (DIBBs) program is an integral part of CIF21. The DIBBs program encourages development of robust and shared data-centric cyberinfrastructure capabilities, to accelerate interdisciplinary and collaborative research in areas of inquiry stimulated by data.

• Critical Resilient Interdependent Infrastructure Systems and Processes

  Deadline: 02/08/2017
  The goals of the Critical Resilient Interdependent Infrastructure Systems and Processes (CRISP) solicitation are to: (1) foster an interdisciplinary research community of engineers, computer and computational scientists and social and behavioral scientists, that creates new approaches and engineering solutions for the design and operation of infrastructures as processes and services; (2) enhance the understanding and design of interdependent critical infrastructure systems (ICIs) and processes that provide essential goods and services despite disruptions and failures from any cause, natural, technological, or malicious; (3) create the knowledge for innovation in ICIs so that they safely, securely, and effectively expand the range of goods and services they enable; and (4) improve the effectiveness and efficiency with which they deliver existing goods and services. These goals lead to the following specific objectives for this solicitation:

  • To create new knowledge, approaches, and solutions to increase resilience, performance, and readiness in ICIs. The solutions may emerge primarily from advances in cyber (computing, information, computational, sensing and communication), engineering, or societal (behavioral, economic, organizational) elements of ICIs, although proposals must integrate research across all three elements.

• Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM

  Deadline: 02/17/2017
  Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM) funds research projects that identify factors that are efficacious in the formation of ethical STEM researchers in all the fields of science and engineering that NSF supports. CCE STEM solicits proposals for research that explores the following: ‘What constitutes ethical STEM research and practice? Which cultural and institutional contexts promote ethical STEM research and practice and why?’ Factors one might consider include: honor codes, professional ethics codes and licensing requirements, an ethic of service and/or service learning, life-long learning requirements, curricula or memberships in organizations (e.g. Engineers without Borders) that stress social responsibility and humanitarian goals, institutions that serve under-represented groups, institutions where academic and research integrity are cultivated at multiple levels, institutions that cultivate ethics across the curriculum, or programs that promote group work, or do not grade. Do certain labs have a ‘culture of academic integrity’? What practices contribute to the establishment and maintenance of ethical cultures and how can these practices be transferred, extended to, and integrated into other research and learning settings?

• NSF-16-503 National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) Program

  Deadline: 12/16/2016
  The over-arching goal of this NIH Big Data to Knowledge R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation’s biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this FOA will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on: Curriculum and Methods Development: The development of coursework in Big Data Science for the training of predoctoral level students in the biomedical sciences; the integration of data science into biomedical curricula to improve biomedical, behavioral or clinical science education; working in tandem with other awardees to formulate core competencies; and sharing the instructional material and educational tools developed with others who wish to include this instruction in their curriculum. Curricular materials are expected to reflect the FAIR principles.

• Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure

  Deadline: 01/18/2017
  The overarching goal of this program is to prepare, nurture and grow the national scientific workforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) that enables cutting-edge science and engineering and contributes to the Nation's overall economic competiveness and security. For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the resources, tools, and services for advanced computation, data handling, networking and security.

• NSF DCL on Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems

  Through this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), issued by the Divisions of Chemistry (CHE) and Materials Research (DMR) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences and the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) in the Directorate for Engineering, the NSF aims to specifically focus on advancing knowledge of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; the production and use of fertilizers for food production; and the detection, separation, and reclamation/recycling of nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing species in and from complex aqueous environments.

• EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Track 4: EPSCoR Research Fellows

  Deadline: 02/28/2017
  The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is designed to fulfill the mandate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to promote scientific progress nationwide.

• EarthScope

  Deadline: 02/10/2017
  EarthScope is an Earth science program to explore the 4-dimensional structure of the North American continent. The EarthScope Program provides a framework for broad, integrated studies across the Earth sciences, including research on fault properties and the earthquake process, strain transfer, magmatic and hydrous fluids in the crust and mantle, plate boundary processes, large-scale continental deformation, continental structure and evolution, and composition and structure of the deep Earth. In addition, EarthScope offers a centralized forum for Earth science education at all levels and an excellent opportunity to develop cyberinfrastructure to integrate, distribute, and analyze diverse data sets. ThisSolicitation primarilyencourages submission of proposals that integrate and synthesize major outcomes of EarthScope research and education and outreach efforts with the goal of elucidating and documenting the advances the EarthScope program has made since its inception.

• Algorithms for Threat Detection

  Deadline: 02/21/2017
  The Algorithms for Threat Detection (ATD) program will support research projects to develop the next generation of mathematical and statistical algorithms for analysis of large spatiotemporal datasets with application to quantitative models of human dynamics. The program is a partnership between the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA).

• Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure

  Deadline: 01/18/2017
  The overarching goal of this program is to prepare, nurture and grow the national scientific workforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) that enables cutting-edge science and engineering and contributes to the Nation's overall economic competitiveness and security. For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the resources, tools, and services for advanced computation, data handling, networking and security.

• Earth Sciences: Laboratory Technician Support

  Deadline: 02/09/2017
  The Instrumentation and Facilities Program in the Division of Earth Sciences (EAR/IF) supports meritorious requests for infrastructure that promotes research and education in areas supported by the Division (see http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=EAR). Under this solicitation EAR/IF will consider proposals for Laboratory Technician Support to provide for optimal and efficient operation of advanced instrumentation, analytical protocol development, and user training for Earth science research instrumentation. Support is available through grants in response to investigator-initiated proposals. Technician support duties that promote human resource development and education are expected to be an integral part of proposals. Efforts to support participation of underrepresented groups in laboratory and/or field instrument useand training are encouraged as part of any described technician’s duties.. Proposals from early career (tenure track but untenured) lead investigators are also encouraged. Such proposals will be given due consideration as part of the Broader Impacts merit review criterion.

• NSF-16-503 National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) Program

  Slots: Four available (2 for the Traineeship Track, 2 for the Innovations in Graduate Education Track) LOI: December 9, 2016, 5pm Internal Deadline: September 21, 2016, 5pm External Deadline: February 7, 2017, 5pm Award Information: Type: Standard Grant Estimated Number of Awards: 28 to 35 Anticipated Amount: $51,680,000 NRT Traineeship Track Awards (14-15 anticipated; FY 2016) are expected to be up to five (5) years in duration with a total budget up to $3,000,000. NRT IGE Track Awards (14-20 anticipated; FY 2016) are expected to be up to three (3) years in duration with a total budget between $300,000 and $500,000 The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, and potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The NRT program seeks proposals that ensure that graduate students in research-based master’s and doctoral degree programs develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The NRT program includes two tracks: the Traineeship Track and the Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Track.

• United States-Israel Collaboration in Computer Science

  Deadline: 02/15/2017
  The United States-Israel Collaboration in Computer Science (USICCS) program is a joint program of NSF and the United States - Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF). The program supports research projects that develop new knowledge in the theory of computing; algorithm design and analysis; design, verification, and evaluation of software systems; and revolutionary computing models based on emerging scientific ideas. Through this program, NSF and BSF will jointly support collaborations among US-based researchers and Israel-based researchers. US-based researchers will receive funds from NSF to support travel to Israel to interact with their Israeli counterparts. Israel-based and US-based researchers will receive funds allowable under the BSF program described at http://www.bsf.org.il/.

• Algorithms for Threat Detection

  Deadline: 02/21/2017
  The Algorithms for Threat Detection (ATD) program will support research projects to develop the next generation of mathematical and statistical algorithms for analysis of large spatiotemporal datasets with application to quantitative models of human dynamics. The program is a partnership between the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA).

• Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience

  Computational neuroscience provides a theoretical foundation and a rich set of technical approaches for understanding complex neurobiological systems, building on the theory, methods, and findings of computer science, neuroscience, and numerous other disciplines. Through the CRCNS program, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF), the French National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANR), and the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) support collaborative activities that will advance the understanding of nervous system structure and function, mechanisms underlying nervous system disorders, and computational strategies used by the nervous system. Two classes of proposals will be considered in response to this solicitation: Research Proposals describing collaborative research projects; and Data Sharing Proposals to enable sharing of data and other resources. Domestic and international projects will be considered.

• Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems

  Deadline: 02/06/2017
  The complexities of brain and behavior pose fundamental questions in many areas of science and engineering, drawing intense interest across a broad spectrum of disciplinary perspectives while eluding explanation by any one of them. Rapid advances within and across disciplines are leading to an increasingly interconnected fabric of theories, models, empirical methods and findings, and educational approaches, opening new opportunities to understand complex aspects of neural and cognitive systems through integrative multidisciplinary approaches. This program calls for innovative, integrative, boundary-crossing proposals that can best capture those opportunities. NSF seeks proposals that are bold, risky, and transcend the perspectives and approaches typical of single-discipline research efforts. This cross-directorate program is one element of NSF’s broader effort directed at Understanding the Brain, a multi-year activity that includes NSF’s participation in the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative (http://www.nsf.gov/brain/). NSF envisions a connected portfolio of transformative, integrative projects that create synergistic links across investigators and communities, yielding novel ways of tackling the challenges of understanding the brain in action and in context. Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems is open to proposals to advance the foundations of one or more of the following integrative research themes, described within the solicitation: 1. Neuroengineering and Brain-Inspired Concepts and Designs 2. Individuality and Variation 3. Cognitive and Neural Processes in Realistic, Complex Environments 4. Data-Intensive Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. Within each theme, advances in theory and methods, technological innovations, educational approaches, research infrastructure, and workforce development are all of significant interest. Proposals must be consistent with the missions of the participating directorates. High-risk, high-payoff approaches are expected. Proposals must directly address risks and how they will be managed, potentially transformative payoffs, and the relationship between the risks and rewards at stake

• Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM)

  Purpose: Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM) funds research projects that identify factors that are efficacious in the formation of ethical STEM researchers in all the fields of science and engineering that NSF supports. CCE STEM solicits proposals for research that explores the following: ‘What constitutes ethical STEM research and practice? Which cultural and institutional contexts promote ethical STEM research and practice and why?’ Factors one might consider include: honor codes, professional ethics codes and licensing requirements, an ethic of service and/or service learning, life-long learning requirements, curricula or memberships in organizations (e.g. Engineers without Borders) that stress social responsibility and humanitarian goals, institutions that serve under-represented groups, institutions where academic and research integrity are cultivated at multiple levels, institutions that cultivate ethics across the curriculum, or programs that promote group work, or do not grade. Do certain labs have a ‘culture of academic integrity’? What practices contribute to the establishment and maintenance of ethical cultures and how can these practices be transferred, extended to, and integrated into other research and learning settings? Successful proposals typically have a comparative dimension, either between or within institutional settings that differ along these or other factors. CCE STEM research projects will use basic research to produce knowledge about what constitutes responsible or irresponsible, just or unjust scientific practices and sociotechnical systems, and how to best instill students with this knowledge. Proposals for awards from minority-serving institutions (e.g. Tribal Colleges and Universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions), women’s colleges, and institutions primarily serving persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged.

• Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN)Supporting the Next Phase of NCN Nodes Programs

  The goals of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN) are to: 1) accelerate the transformation of nanoscience to nanotechnology through the integration of simulation with experimentation; 2) engage an ever-larger and more diverse cyber community sharing novel, high-quality nanoscale computation and simulation research and educational resources; 3) develop open-access, open-source software to stimulate data sharing; and 4) inspire and educate the next-generation workforce. The NCN consists of a stand-alone Cyber Platform, which provides computation, simulation, and education services to over 330,000 researchers, educators, students, and industry members of the nanoscience and engineering community annually worldwide; and Nodes, which develop compelling new computational and simulation tools to disseminate through Cyber Platform (nanoHUB.org) and cultivate communities of users in emerging areas of nanoscale science and engineering.

• Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (PFI:BIC)

  Purpose: The National Science Foundation invites requests for funding in the area of smart service systems under this Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (PFI:BIC) solicitation. The hallmark of PFI:BIC is an academe-industry partnership crafted to collaborate on research to advance and adapt novel technology(ies) for integration into a specified human-centered smart service system. Sensing, actuating, and computational and communication technologies and their integration into smart service systems have the potential for abundant societal and economic benefits. The perspectives, competencies, and commitments of both academe and industry are needed to address the central issue of advancing and adapting technology to interact with humans in order to create or add value in a service system. Knowledge gained in the course of the integration process may generate additional research activities and additional discoveries that will become essential part(s) of the system. Clear understanding of the state of the art of the technologies, as well as of the research in the knowledge area(s) being advanced, and a review of the commercial competitive landscape of available solutions to the proposed service system are required. This knowledge should help not only to guide project activities, but also to act as a filter when a proposer and his/her institution is deciding whether a project is a viable candidate for submission.

• Major Research Instrumentation Program: (MRI)

  Deadline: 01/11/2017
  Purpose: The Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) serves to increase access to shared scientific and engineering instruments for research and research training in our Nation’s institutions of higher education, not-for-profit museums, science centers and scientific/engineering research organizations. The program provides organizations with opportunities to acquire major instrumentation that supports the research and research training goals of the organization and that may be used by other researchers regionally or nationally. Each MRI proposal may request support for the acquisition (Track 1) or development (Track 2) of a single research instrument for shared inter- and/or intra-organizational use. Development efforts that leverage the strengths of private sector partners to build instrument development capacity at MRI submission-eligible organizations are encouraged. The MRI program assists with the acquisition or development of a shared research instrument that is, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs. The program does not fund research projects or provide ongoing support for operating or maintaining facilities or centers. The instrument acquired or developed is expected to be operational for regular research use by the end of the award period. For the purposes of the MRI program, a proposal must be for either acquisition (Track 1) or development (Track 2) of a single, well-integrated instrument. The MRI program does not support the acquisition or development of a suite of instruments to outfit research laboratories or facilities, or that can be used to conduct independent research activities simultaneously. Instrument acquisition or development proposals that request funds from NSF in the range $100,000-$4 million may be accepted from any MRI-eligible organization. Proposals that request funds from NSF less than $100,000 may also be accepted from any MRI-eligible organization for the disciplines of mathematics or social, behavioral and economic sciences and from non-Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education for all NSF-supported disciplines. Cost-sharing of precisely 30% of the total project cost is required for Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education and for non-degree-granting organizations. Non-Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education are exempt from cost-sharing and cannot include it. National Science Board policy is that voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited. SPECIAL NOTE Applicants seeking to acquire new equipment for USC Core Laboratories may request cost-share funding from the core instrumentation fund via a companion proposal, up to $200,000. MRI pre-proposals will be reviewed separately from core instrumentation proposals. All other MRI proposals (e.g., non-core proposals and development proposals) must seek cost-share support from other sources, such as schools, departments or centers.

• National Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots National Science Foundation

  Deadline: 02/02/2017
  he goal of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) is to support fundamental research that will accelerate the development and use of robots in the United States that work beside or cooperatively with people. The original NRI program focused on innovative robotics research that emphasized the realization of collaborative robots (co-robots) working in symbiotic relationships with human partners. The NRI-2.0 program significantly extends this theme to focus on issues of scalability: how teams of multiple robots and multiple humans can interact and collaborate effectively; how robots can be designed to facilitate achievement of a variety of tasks in a variety of environments, with minimal modification to the hardware and software; how robots can learn to perform more effectively and efficiently, using large pools of information from the cloud, other robots, and other people; and how the design of the robots; hardware and software can facilitate large-scale, reliable operation. In addition, the program supports innovative approaches to establish and infuse robotics into educational curricula, advance the robotics workforce through education pathways, and explore the social, behavioral, and economic implications of our future with ubiquitous collaborative robots. Collaboration between academic, industry, non-profit, and other organizations is encouraged to establish better linkages between fundamental science and engineering and technology development, deployment and use. Well-justified international collaborations that add significant value to the proposed research and education activities will also be considered. The NRI-2.0 program is supported by multiple agencies of the federal government including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Questions concerning a particular project's focus, direction and relevance to a participating funding organization should be addressed to that agency's point of contact listed in section VIII of this solicitation.

• Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems

  Deadline: 02/06/2017
  The complexities of brain and behavior pose fundamental questions in many areas of science and engineering, drawing intense interest across a broad spectrum of disciplinary perspectives while eluding explanation by any one of them. Rapid advances within and across disciplines are leading to an increasingly interconnected fabric of theories, models, empirical methods and findings, and educational approaches, opening new opportunities to understand complex aspects of neural and cognitive systems through integrative multidisciplinary approaches. This program calls for innovative, integrative, boundary-crossing proposals that can best capture those opportunities. NSF seeks proposals that are bold, risky, and transcend the perspectives and approaches typical of single-discipline research efforts. This cross-directorate program is one element of NSF's broader effort directed at Understanding the Brain, a multi-year activity that includes NSF's participation in the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative.

• Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies

  Deadline: 02/10/2017
  The intention of this program is to advance technologies that specifically focus on the experiences of learners; innovations that simply focus on making teaching easier will not be funded. Proposals that focus on teachers or facilitators as learners are invited; the aim in these proposals should be to help teachers and facilitators capitalize on the affordances of technology and fundamental knowledge about how people learn to make the learning experiences of learners more effective.Proposals are expected to address all three of the program's thrusts. Of particular interest are technological advances that (1) foster deep understanding of content coordinated with masterful learning of practices and skills; (2) draw in and encourage learning among populations not served well by current educational practices; and/or (3) provide new ways of assessing understanding, engagement, and capabilities of learners. It is expected that research funded by this program will shed light on how technology can enable new forms of educational practice. This program does not support proposals that aim simply to implement and evaluate a particular software application or technology in support of a specific course.

• Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure

  Deadline: 01/18/2017
  The overarching goal of this program is to prepare, nurture and grow the national scientific workforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) that enables cutting-edge science and engineering and contributes to the Nation's overall economic competitiveness and security. For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the resources, tools, and services for advanced computation, data handling, networking and security.

• Dimensions of Biodiversity

  Deadline: 02/21/2017
  Despite centuries of discovery, most of our planet's biodiversity remains unknown. The scale of the unknown diversity on Earth is especially troubling given the rapid and permanent loss of biodiversity across the globe. The goal of the Dimensions of Biodiversity campaign is to transform, by 2020, how we describe and understand the scope and role of life on Earth. This campaign promotes novel integrative approaches to fill the most substantial gaps in our understanding of the diversity of life on Earth. It takes a broad view of biodiversity, and focuses on the intersection of genetic, phylogenetic, and functional dimensions of biodiversity. Successful proposals must integrate these three dimensions to understand interactions and feedbacks between and among them. While this focus complements several core programs in BIO, it differs by requiring that multiple dimensions of biodiversity be addressed simultaneously, in novel ways, to understand their synergistic roles in critical ecological and evolutionary processes, especially pertaining to the mechanisms driving the origin, maintenance, and functional roles of biodiversity. The Dimensions of Biodiversity program again includes partnerships with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) of Brazil in fiscal year 2017.

• Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science

  Deadline: 05/16/2017
  Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES) is a comprehensive national initiative designed to enhance U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) discoveries and innovations focused on NSF's commitment to diversity, inclusion,and broadening participation in these fields. NSF INCLUDES supports efforts to create networked relationships among organizations whose goals include developing talent from all sectors of society to build the STEM workforce. This initiativeseeks to improve collaborative efforts aimed at enhancing the preparation, increasing the participation, and ensuring the contributions of individuals from groups that have traditionally been underrepresented and underserved in the STEM enterprise: women, persons with disabilities, African Americans/Blacks, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Native Pacific Islanders, and persons from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Significant advancement in the inclusion of these groups will result in a new generation of STEM talent and leadership to secure our nation’s future and long-term economic competitiveness. The grand challenge of broadening participation in STEM is to transform the STEM enterprise at all levels in order to fully engage the nation’s talent for the ultimate improvement of the STEM enterprise. As a comprehensive national initiative, NSF INCLUDES aimsto address the various complex equity and inclusion-related challenges and opportunities that characterize the nation’s cultural and linguistic diversity, with a specificemphasis on the aforementioned groups. The goal is to achieve impact at the national level. Viewing inclusion as an asset and opportunity for social innovation, NSF is particularly interested in using approaches to scaling and growth, such as collective impact, networked improvement communities, and strategic partnerships. The objective is to develop networks that involve representative organizations and consortia from different sectorsthat are committed to a common agenda that comprehensively solves a specific STEM-inclusion problem. The long-term goal of NSF INCLUDES is to support innovative models, networks, partnerships, technical capabilities and research that will enable the U.S. science and engineering workforce to thrive by ensuring that traditionally underrepresented and underserved groups are represented in percentages comparable to their representation in the U.S. population. Researchers and practitioners at minority serving institutions are strongly encouraged to participate in this activity given their experience and expertise in broadening participation.

• Algorithms for Modern Power Systems

  Deadline: 02/13/2017
  The Algorithms for Modern Power Systems (AMPS) program will support research projects to develop the next generation of mathematical and statistical algorithms for improvement of the security, reliability, and efficiency of the modern power grid. The program is a partnership between the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability (OE) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

• Management and Operation of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)

  Deadline: 04/17/2017
  The OOI is a large scale ocean observing system constructed and deployed under NSF sponsorship and oversight as a Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC)Project. The systemincludes an integrated network of cabled and uncabled arrays of instrumentation, distributed in various coastal and global ocean locations, to facilitate Ocean Science research. Since construction was completed in 2016, the OOI has been in operational status at an approximate funding level of $55,000,000 ($55M) per year. The existing Cooperative Agreement (CA) for Construction and Initial Operation of the facility extends from September 2009 through April 2017. A National Research Council (NRC) review commissioned by NSF to examine the balance of Ocean Science research and infrastructure costs over the next decade resulted in NSF developing an implementation planthat will require significant changes to the facility operation envisioned by the current CA.The new approaches required for managing and operating the OOI in the best interest of U.S. science will most effectively be implemented by a new operating model that encourages greater efficiency, innovation,and collaboration. This solicitation seeks the services of a qualified organization to provide scientific and technical management and operation of the OOI consistent with National Science Board policy and NSF's decisions regarding NRC recommendations. The initial period of the award is intended to cover five years, plus a maximum 6 month transition period if required, with performance expected to begin in late-2017.

• Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science

  Deadline: 05/16/2017
  Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES) is a comprehensive national initiative designed to enhance U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) discoveries and innovations focused on NSF's commitment to diversity, inclusion,and broadening participation in these fields. NSF INCLUDES supports efforts to create networked relationships among organizations whose goals include developing talent from all sectors of society to build the STEM workforce. This initiative seeks to improve collaborative efforts aimed at enhancing the preparation, increasing the participation, and ensuring the contributions of individuals from groups that have traditionally been underrepresented and under served in the STEM enterprise: women, persons with disabilities, African Americans/Blacks, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Native Pacific Islanders, and persons from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Significant advancement in the inclusion of these groups will result in a new generation of STEM talent and leadership to secure our nation's future and long-term economic competitiveness. The grand challenge of broadening participation in STEM is to transform the STEM enterprise at all levels in order to fully engage the nation's talent for the ultimate improvement of the STEM enterprise. As a comprehensive national initiative, NSF INCLUDES aims to address the various complex equity and inclusion-related challenges and opportunities that characterize the nation's cultural and linguistic diversity, with a specific emphasis on the aforementioned groups. The goal is to achieve impact at the national level. Viewing inclusion as an asset and opportunity for social innovation, NSF is particularly interested in using approaches to scaling and growth, such as collective impact, networked improvement communities, and strategic partnerships. The objective is to develop networks that involve representative organizations and consortia from different sectors that are committed to a common agenda that comprehensively solves a specific STEM-inclusion problem. The long-term goal of NSF INCLUDES is to support innovative models, networks, partnerships, technical capabilities and research that will enable the U.S. science and engineering workforce to thrive by ensuring that traditionally underrepresented and under served groups are represented in percentages comparable to their representation in the U.S. population. Researchers and practitioners at minority serving institutions are strongly encouraged to participate in this activity given their experience and expertise in broadening participation. NSF INCLUDES is a multi-year program with three essential components currently under development: NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilots: Two-year pilot projects that explore the feasibility of bold, innovative ways for solving a broadening participation challenge in STEM.Successful pilots will deliver models or prototypes, which incorporate data and measurement infrastructures, supporting collective efforts aimed at increasing the active participation of those who have been traditionally under served and underrepresented in all STEM fields. NSF INCLUDES Alliances: NSF INCLUDES Alliances will leverage existing Design and Development Launch Pilots, programs, people, organizations, technologies, and institutions to catalyze NSF's broadening participation investments, with each Alliance committed to collectively solving a specific set of objectives. NSF INCLUDES Backbone Organization: The Backbone Organization will drive the following activities for all NSF INCLUDES Alliances over the life cycle of the initiative: (a) providing a guiding vision and strategy; (b) developing a collaborative infrastructure to align NSF INCLUDES activities; (c) establishing shared models, measurement practices, and evaluation criteria; (d) building public will; (e) advancing policy; and (f) mobilizing funding.

• NSF-17-522: Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES)

  Slots: One LOI: Not required Internal Deadline: December 22, 2016, 5pm Preliminary Proposal Deadline: February 14, 2017, 5pm PST Full Proposal Deadline: May 16, 2017, 5pm PST Award Information: Type: Grant Estimated Number of Awards: 24 Anticipated Amount: UP to $300,000 per award. Cost Sharing: Inclusion of voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited. Materials to submit: Single Page Proposal Summary (0.5” margins; single-spaced; font type: Arial, Helvetica, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt.). CV – (5 pages maximum) Purpose: NSF INCLUDES aims to mobilize communities concerned with both broadening participation and STEM opportunities to bring renewed focus and effective collaboration to optimizing diversity possibilities across and within STEM fields at scale. This initiative will leverage investments from NSF programs and projects focused on broadening participation and build on lessons learned, promising practices, and proven mechanisms for achieving success.

• Computer Science for All

  Deadline: 02/28/2017
  This program aims to provide all U.S.students the opportunity to participate in computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) education in their schools at the K-12 levels. With this solicitation, the National Science Foundation (NSF) focuses on researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) that foster the research and development needed to bring CS/CT to all schools. Specifically, this solicitation aims to provide high school teachers with the preparation, professional development (PD) and ongoing support that they need to teach rigorous computer science courses, and K-8 teachers with the instructional materials and preparation they need to integrate CS/CT into their teaching.

• Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI)

  Note there is a limit of 2 proposals per organization. Advancements in data-driven scientific research depend on trustworthy and reliable cyberinfrastructure. Researchers rely on a variety of networked technologies and software tools to achieve their scientific goals. These may include local or remote instruments, wireless sensors, software programs, operating systems, database servers, high performance computing, large-scale storage, and other critical infrastructure connected by high-speed networking. This complex, distributed, interconnected global cyberinfrastructure ecosystem presents unique cybersecurity challenges. NSF-funded scientific instruments, sensors and equipment are specialized, highly-visible assets that present attractive targets for both unintentional errors and malicious activity; untrustworthy software or a loss of integrity of the data collected by a scientific instrument may mean corrupt, skewed or incomplete results. Furthermore, often data-driven research, e.g., in the medical field or in the social sciences, requires access to private information, and exposure of such data may cause financial, reputational and/or other damage. Therefore, an increasing area of focus for NSF is the development and deployment of hardware and software technologies and techniques to protect research cyberinfrastructure across every stage of the scientific workflow. Full proposal due 1 Mar 2017

• Spectrum Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, and Security (SpecEES): Enabling Spectrum for All

  The National Science Foundation's Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) are coordinating efforts to identify bold new concepts to significantly improve the efficiency of radio spectrum utilization while addressing new challenges in energy efficiency and security, thus enabling spectrum access for all users and devices, and allowing traditionally underserved Americans to benefit from wireless-enabled goods and services. The SpecEES program solicitation (pronounced "SpecEase") seeks to fund innovative collaborative research that transcends the traditional boundaries of existing programs. Full Proposal Deadline Date January 19, 2017

• Computer Science for All

  Deadline: 02/28/2017
  his program aims to provide all U.S.students the opportunity to participate in computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) education in their schools at the K-12 levels. With this solicitation, the National Science Foundation (NSF) focuses on researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) that foster the research and development needed to bring CS/CT to all schools. Specifically, this solicitation aims to provide high school teachers with the preparation, professional development (PD) and ongoing support that they need to teach rigorous computer science courses, and K-8 teachers with the instructional materials and preparation they need to integrate CS/CT into their teaching.