Category Archives: Agency Specific

NSF Campus Cyberinfrastructure(CC*)

Posted on by

Program Solicitation: NSF 20-507

Full Proposal Deadline: January 21, 2020

The FY 2020 CC* solicitation invests in coordinated campus-level networking and cyberinfrastructure improvements, innovation, integration, and engineering 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 six program areas:

  1. Data-Driven Networking Infrastructure for the Campus and Researcher awards will be supported at up to $500,000 total for up to 2 years;
  2. Regional Connectivity for Small Institutions awards will be supported at up to $800,000 total for up to 2 years;
  3. Network Integration and Applied Innovation awards will be supported at up to $1,000,000 total for up to 2 years [in some cases, these awards are limited to $500,000 total—see program area (3) in Section II. Program Description];
  4. Campus Computing and the Computing Continuum awards will be supported at up to $400,000 total for up to 2 years;
  5. Cyber Team—Research and Education CI-based Regional Facilitation awards will be supported at up to $1,400,000 total for up to 3 years; and
  6. Planning Grants and CI-Research Alignment awards will be supported at up to $250,000 total for up to 2 years [in some cases these awards are limited to $100,000 total—see program area (6) in Section II. Program Description].

In FY 2020, the expansion in the program aims to align it with NSF’s vision for a holistic CI ecosystem outlined in “Transforming Science Through Cyberinfrastructure: NSF’s Blueprint for a National Cyberinfrastructure Ecosystem for Science and Engineering in the 21st Century” (see https://www.nsf.gov/cise/oac/vision/blueprint-2019/). These changes focus on the aggregation and integration of CI investments at the campus level, with the goal of helping campuses drive toward a 21st-century realization of an integrated CI for enabling science. Program area (1) continues to address science-driven needs in data networking intra-campus, and externally. Area (2) repeats that core theme of networking improvements, with a specific emphasis on supporting the needs of multiple under-resourced campuses through partnerships with regional entities and small institutions with experience in high-performance Research & Education (R&E) networking. Area (3) goes beyond networking infrastructure investments in areas (1) and (2) by leveraging the campus network as a compelling environment on which to develop and deploy new networking capabilities reflecting applied research and development in networking. Areas (4) and (5) build on the networking capability foundation established in the first three areas. Area (4) recognizes both the research computing needs at a campus level, and the largely untapped potential to share unused compute cycles and resources across the entire academic fabric of highly connected and increasingly resourced campuses. Area (5) applies that same approach to perhaps the most important pillar of the CI, i.e., sharing professional, researcher, and student expertise in CI among groups of institutions. It invests in the human element that is essential for bridging CI to the scientific research and education projects across campuses. Areas (3), (4), and (5) reflect NSF’s goal of democratization and broadening participation in scientific networking and computing. Area (6) supports planning and coordination, in part reflecting the challenges for institutions that presently do not participate in the R&E network fabric and community.

Additional information can be found on the NSF CC* program page.

NSF Transitions to Excellence in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Research (Transitions)

Posted on by

Program Solicitation: NSF 20-505

Full Proposal Deadline: Proposals accepted anytime

Synopsis of Program

The Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB) has developed a new opportunity to enable researchers with a strong track record of prior accomplishment to pursue a new avenue of research or inquiry. This funding mechanism is designed to facilitate and promote a PI’s ability to effectively adopt empowering technologies that might not be readily accessible in the PI’s current research environment or collaboration network. Transformative research likely spans disciplines and minimizing the practical barriers to doing so will strengthen research programs poised to make significant contributions. The award is intended to allow mid-career or later-stage researchers (Associate or Full Professor, or equivalent) to expand or make a transition in their research programs via a sabbatical leave or similar mechanism of professional development and then develop that research program in their own lab. This award will also enable the PI to acquire new scientific or technical expertise, facilitate the investigator’s competitiveness, and potentially lead to transformational impacts in molecular and cellular bioscience. The award would fund up to six months of PI salary during the first sabbatical or professional development year, followed by support for continued research for two subsequent years upon the PI’s return to normal academic duties. Through this solicitation MCB and NSF hope to develop a novel mechanism that will encourage investigators to expand and/or transition to new research areas aligned with MCB priorities, to increase retention of investigators in science, and to ensure a diverse scientific workforce that remains engaged in active research.

Through the “Transitions to Excellence In Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Research” (Transitions Award) program, MCB is seeking proposals that (1) promote fundamental understanding of complex living systems at the molecular, subcellular, and cellular levels typical of its core research programs and (2) enable investigators with a strong prior track record of accomplishment to expand or change research direction, thus ensuring their continued competitiveness in science.

Core research programs in MCB place a high priority on projects that provide mechanistic insights that can be used predictively to establish and verify the rules governing life’s processes. MCB encourages proposals that address major biological questions at the intersections of biology with other disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer sciences, and engineering.

The following cross-cutting areas of research, most notably where they elucidate the rules governing life’s processes, will be given high priority for funding in all clusters in MCB core programs.

  • Integrating Across Scales: Integrating knowledge from single molecules to molecular machines and from networks to subcellular and cellular complexity.
  • Transformative Methods and Resources: Developing technologies for molecular and cellular biology research (when motivated by compelling biological questions), including biophysical and computational methods for broad application and genetic resources for model systems.
  • Molecular and Cellular Evolution: Discovering mechanisms and theoretical underpinnings of evolutionary changes in molecules, genomes, and cells.
  • Synthesizing Life-Like Systems: Using synthetic molecular parts and processes to understand the transition from simple to complex systems and to build novel living systems.
  • Genomes to Phenomes: Integrating theoretical, computational, and high-throughput experimental approaches to determine and predict how the genome/epigenome gives rise to phenotype.

Fastlane and Research.gov unavailable from Friday 11/8/19 until Tuesday 11/12/19

Posted on by

Please be advised that FastLane and Research.gov will be unavailable from Friday, November 8 at 8:00 PM EST until Tuesday, November 12 at 6:00 AM EST.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is migrating its business applications to a modern and flexible platform from November 8 at 8:00 PM EST through November 12 at 6:00 AM EST. As part of this effort, NSF will also upgrade the alpha-numeric character set used by the FastLane and Research.gov systems to correct text errors, such as special characters displaying as question marks (“?”) in proposals and project reports. This migration has been scheduled over the Veterans Day holiday weekend to minimize the impact of the systems downtime on the research community and NSF staff.

During this outage, there will be no access to these websites, proposals cannot be prepared or submitted in FastLane and Research.gov, and project reports and cash requests cannot be submitted in Research.gov. However, previously saved information and uploaded documents in FastLane and Research.gov, including in-progress proposals and project reports, will be accessible after the migration is completed.

We encourage you to share this information with your colleagues. For IT system-related questions, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 or rgov@nsf.gov. Any policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov.

Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC) Broad Agency Announcement for FY19

Posted on by

Full Proposal Due: 01 November 2019 Eastern Daylight Time 11:59pm

The topics of interest for this BAA are as follows:

  • CA-01: Polymers, composites, smart materials, and intelligent coating systems (including adhesives) for improved performance require focus on multi-scale analysis approaches that may evolve into low-fidelity, high-reliability design tools.
  • CA-02: Techniques to aid in the prediction, quantification, and validation of ship motions and loads in conventional and/or extreme behaviors.
  • CO-01: System, subsystem, and component identification utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP). Proposal should address techniques to derive semantic relations in disparate datasets including meronymy, holonymy, and hyponymy.
  • CO-02: Innovative concepts for automated data ingestion and combination for disparate datasets. 
  • CR-01: Development of foundational theories, methods, and techniques for advanced modeling and simulation of complex hypervelocity flight systems-of-systems at the component scale.
  • CR-02: Techniques and methodologies to automate the design and security assessment of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) bitstreams.
  • DD-01: Explore emerging software developments related to software scrambling in the areas of security, accuracy, or verification.
  • DD-02: Analysis and development of quantum and quantum-inspired algorithms for applications in machine learning and artificial intelligence which may include elements related to data classification, clustering, network security, optimization, and community detection.
  • DD-03: Investigation into the characterization and breakdown physics of streamer discharge to allow for a thorough understanding of the mechanisms of streamer discharge as well as the development of associated predictive models.
  • DD-04: Research into hypersonic vehicle thermo-protection systems (TPS); may include active and passive ablation solutions, hybrids and structural insulators, and related aerothermal, computational fluid dynamics and fluid/structure interaction methods.
  • IH-01: Novel energetic materials, formulations and applications to include predictive methods, energy storage, enhanced safety and reduced sensitivities in applications, processing characteristics and energy release for enhanced performance or lethality.
  • IH-02: Advanced manufacturing methods and processes for energetic and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) applications to include but not limited to additive manufacturing of co-layered materials and sensitive materials and resonance mixing. Improve chemical processing and chemical formulation scale-up methods, tools, and processes for energetic materials.
  • IH-03: Improved EOD analytical tools and methods for remote detection/characterization of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and home-made explosives (HME) to render them safe.
  • PC-01: Expand Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) navigation capabilities to GPS-denied environments through the development of innovative magnetic sensor configurations to include design, development, and experimentation of novel magnetic sensing systems coupled with algorithm development and integration onto viable UUV platforms for demonstration testing.
  • PC-02: Innovative methods for through-the-sensor environmental characterization.
  • PC-03: Advanced machine learning architectures that produce human-interpretable results and yield explainable decisions.
  • PD-01: The trend for future Navy shipboard power systems is a continued increase in simultaneous, transient power demands from increasing numbers of mission loads (propulsion, sensors, and weapons).
  • PH-01: Advanced computer vision methods and algorithms to verify the completion and accuracy of complex maintenance tasks.
  • PH-02: Low latency, accurate, and precise spatial registration, localization, and tracking of multiple AR devices in GPS-denied environments during fabrication/maintenance where access to tracking sensors is limited.
  • PH-03: Research and development of radio frequency transparent “super hydrophobic” coatings to prevent ice formation on combat and communication systems in arctic and subarctic atmospheres.
  • KPT-01: Automation, telerobotics and/or robotics innovation for naval maintenance applications: Applications for aboard ships, both underway and in dry dock, to reduce reliance on or hazards to personnel.
  • KPT-02: Research affordable techniques in the areas of close-proximity wireless underwater communication that can enable coordination of a group of small Unmanned Underwater Vehicles.
  • KPT-03: Predictive analysis of user behavior and user data needs for an application in a data rich environment: Research models and methods of identifying a user’s level of expertise, and identifying user’s data needs using data analytics methods such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks.
  • KPT-04: Expand Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) capabilities through artificial intelligence (AI) to static undersea sensors and/or dynamic groups (unmanned vehicles) to improve autonomous perception.
  • KPT-05: Software and Mechanical part obsolescence management and risk impact on systems: Innovative framework for a system-level model of the impact of software and mechanical part obsolescence.
  • KPT-06: Effects of Prolonged Marine Environment for Additively Manufactured (AM) Polymers: Research quantifiable data to build confidence in the use of additively manufactured polymer processes for marine systems.
  • NPT-01: Innovative concepts for big data collection, classification, automatic integration, and querying from potentially sensitive sources with applicability to naval readiness and naval situational awareness.
  • NPT-02: The plasticity of the human brain is seen in blind subjects who learn how to navigate using active sonar.
  • SSC-01: Extensible and scalable framework for novel management of the electromagnetic spectrum coordinated among multiple stakeholders.
  • SSC-02: Innovative concepts for scalable, automated, generalized approaches that inform recommendations for DoD C4ISR applications to include planning across heterogeneous assets in electromagnetic (EM) constrained environments.
  • SSC-03: New concepts for transmission methods and datalinks enabling greater bandwidth and increased security, range, and power efficiency by exploiting the unused radio spectrum and RF sensing for multiband, dynamic spectrum agility.
  • SSC-04: Novel techniques for physical cybersecurity of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems (i.e. Industrial facilities cyber control systems and network attacks).
  • NS1: Power distribution systems and engineering for efficiency and high power needs.
  • NS2: Statistical analysis of seaway hindcast data for new operating areas and existing areas that are changing due to climate change.
  • NS3: Naval ship maneuvering in waves to include research in performance prediction with the added resistance due to waves and ship motions.
  • NS4: Balanced hull form design for the navy after next operating environment: to include seakeeping, resistance, maneuvering, ice going and warfighting missions.
  • NS5: Designing for ship operability in a post damage condition to include impacts on maneuvering/seakeeping, powering, personnel effectiveness (arrangements, distributed systems), and hydrostatic effects.

Additional information can be found on grants.gov, including the BAA.

NSF Smart and Connected Health (SCH)

Posted on by

The goal of the interagency Smart and Connected Health (SCH): Connecting Data, People and Systems program is to accelerate the development and integration of innovative computer and information science and engineering approaches to support the transformation of health and medicine. Approaches that partner technology-based solutions with biomedical and biobehavioral 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 multidisciplinary science that encourages existing and new research communities to focus on breakthrough ideas in a variety of areas of value to health, such as networking, pervasive computing, advanced analytics, sensor integration, privacy and security, modeling of socio-behavioral and cognitive processes and system and process modeling. Effective solutions must satisfy a multitude of constraints arising from clinical/medical needs, barriers to change, heterogeneity of data, semantic mismatch and limitations of current cyberphysical systems and an aging population. Such solutions demand multidisciplinary teams ready to address issues ranging from fundamental science and engineering to medical and public health practice.

The SCH program:

  • takes a coordinated approach that balances theory with evidenced-based analysis and systematic advances with revolutionary breakthroughs;•seeks cross-disciplinary collaborative research that will lead to new fundamental insights; and
  • seeks cross-disciplinary collaborative research that will lead to new fundamental insights; and
  • encourages empirical validation of new concepts through research prototypes, ranging from specific components to entire systems.

The purpose of this interagency program solicitation is to support the development of technologies, analytics and models supporting next generation health and medical research through high-risk, high-reward advances in computer and information science, engineering and technology, behavior and cognition. Collaborations between academic, industry, and other organizations are strongly encouraged to establish better linkages between fundamental science, medicine and healthcare practice and technology development, deployment and use. This solicitation is aligned with national reports calling for new partnerships to facilitate major changes in health and medicine, as well as healthcare delivery and is aimed at the fundamental research to enable these changes. Realizing the promise of disruptive transformation in health, medicine and/or healthcare will require well-coordinated, multi-disciplinary approaches that draw from the computer and information sciences, engineering, social, behavioral, cognitive and economic sciences, biomedical and health research. Only Integrative proposals (INT) spanning up to 4 years with multi-disciplinary teams will be considered in response to this solicitation.

Full Proposal Deadline: December 11, 2019

Additional information can be found on the NSF SCH webpage or in the solicitation 18-541.