The National Science Foundation (NSF) is pleased to announce that the Fall 2016 NSF Grants Conference Plenary (General) Sessions will be webcast live to the research community on November 14-15, 2016. View these sessions to gain key insight into a wide range of current issues at NSF including: the state of current funding; new and current policies and procedures; and pertinent administrative issues.

Please click here to register. Webcast login information will be emailed to registrants on Thursday, November 10^th.

Check out the webcast agenda for more information on the sessions that will be covered.

NSF is pleased to announce that a revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), (NSF 17-1) has been issued.  The PAPPG has been modified in its entirety, to remove all references to the Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) and Award & Administration Guide (AAG).  The document will now be referred to solely as the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide.  The document will be sequentially numbered from Chapter I-XII and all references throughout have been modified to reflect this change. Given the number of important revisions, the community is strongly encouraged to review the by-chapter summary of changes provided at the beginning of the PAPPG.

The new PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 30, 2017.

If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact the Policy Office on (703) 292-8243 or by e-mail to policy@nsf.gov.

NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships applications are being accepted from students pursuing or planning to pursue master’s or doctoral degrees in relevant space technology disciplines. The fellowship awards, worth as much as $74,000 per year, will coincide with the start of the fall 2017 term. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) seeks to sponsor U.S. citizen and permanent resident graduate student researchers who show significant potential to contribute to NASA’s goal of creating innovative new space technologies for our Nation’s science, exploration, and economic future. To date, NASA has awarded these prestigious fellowships to 359 students from 86 universities across 38 states and one U.S. territory.
The deadline for submissions is November 03, 2016.

Please direct your correspondence/inquiries, in writing, to Ms. Claudia Meyer, Space Technology Research Grants Program Executive, at hq-nstrf-call@mail.nasa.gov.

ROSES 2016: Solar System Workings

Deadline: Step-1 proposals due November 17, 2016; Step-2 proposals due February 23, 2017

The Solar System Workings program element supports research into atmospheric, climatological, dynamical, geologic, geophysical, and geochemical processes occurring on planetary bodies, satellites, and other minor bodies (including rings) in the Solar System. This call seeks to address the physical and chemical processes that affect the surfaces, interiors, atmospheres, exospheres, and magnetospheres of planetary bodies.

ROSES 2016: Astrophysics Research and Analysis (APRA)

Deadline: Notice of Intent due January 20, 2017; Proposal due March 17, 2017

The Astrophysics Research and Analysis Program (APRA) program solicits basic research proposals for investigations that are relevant to NASA’s programs in astronomy and astrophysics and includes research over the entire range of photons, gravitational waves, and particle astrophysics. Proposals for suborbital investigations are particularly encouraged.

ROSES 2016: Strategic Astrophysics Technology

Deadline: Notice of Intent due January 20, 2017; Proposal due March 17, 2017

Over the next decade and beyond, NASA’s Astrophysics Division expects to undertake space flight missions that will explore the nature of the universe at its largest scales, its earliest moments, and its most extreme conditions; missions that will study how galaxies and stars formed and evolved to shape the universe we see today; and missions that will search and characterize the planets and planetary systems orbiting other stars. To enable implementation of these missions, the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Astrophysics Division has established the Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) program to support the maturation of key technologies to the point at which they are feasible for implementation in space flight strategic missions.

ROSES 2016: Rapid Response and Novel Research in Earth Science

Deadline: Rolling submissions through March 31, 2017

This program element solicits proposals that advance the goals and objectives of NASA’s Earth Science Division by conducting unique research to investigate 1) unforeseen or unpredictable Earth system events and opportunities that require rapid response, and 2) novel new ideas of potential high merit and relevance for ESD science that have not otherwise been solicited by NASA in the past three years.

Bio-Inspired Erosion Countermeasure: Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation

ASEC 105, 12-1 pm Friday, November 4, 2016

Dr. Julian Tao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering. He has a keen interest in exploring fundamental mechanisms and innovative countermeasures to emerging infrastructure challenges, particularly in the broad area of sustainable and resilient geotechnical engineering. Select topics include sustainable geotechnics, bioinspired geotechnics and computational geomechanics. His career goal is to establish a research platform for bioinspired, sustainable and smart geotechnics (BiSS Geo), where sustainable solutions to a variety of geotechnical problems can be sought at the boundaries of biology, mechanics and engineering.

Presentation Summary

Surface erosion is relevant to a variety of infrastructure problems such as bridge scour, roadway shoulder erosion, coastal erosion, and riverbank and slope stability. For example, about 60% of all bridge failure cases were caused by local scour and other hydraulic related issues. This research investigates the feasibility of using microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) as an erosion countermeasure. MICP is a natural phenomenon where calcite precipitation occurs as a consequence of microbial metabolic activity. The precipitated calcite modifies the soil fabrics and provides additional bonding force between soil particles, thus improving the erosion resistance. A standard soil, Ottawa graded sand, was treated with bacteria, Sporosarcina pasteurii, in a full-contact reactor where the soil in a fabric mold is fully immersed in the bacteria and cementation solution. The treated soil samples were tested in a flume to investigate the erosional behavior; both surface erosion and bridge scour tests were conducted. It was found that, while the untreated soil is highly erodible, the erosion of the treated sand is negligible under the test situations; but some concerns are raised regarding to practical applications. Future efforts will be made to identify alternative treatment procedures which are more applicable to the field.

Anyone is welcome to attend this research presentation; feel free to bring a brown bag lunch!