Tag Archives: NSF

NSF Campus Cyberinfrastructure(CC*)

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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)

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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

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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.

NSF Smart and Connected Health (SCH)

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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.

Limited Submission Opportunity – National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI)

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NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI): Limited Submission Opportunity

Internal Notification of Interest Deadline to the Office of Research Administration: Friday, October 18, 2019, 5:00 pm.

NSF Proposal Submission Window: January 1, 2020 – January 21, 2020

The Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program serves to increase access to multi-user scientific and engineering instrumentation for research and research training in our Nation’s institutions of higher education and not-for-profit scientific/engineering research organizations. An MRI award supports the acquisition or development of a multi-user research instrument that is, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs.

MRI provides support to acquire critical research instrumentation without which advances in fundamental science and engineering research may not otherwise occur. MRI also provides support to develop next-generation research instruments that open new opportunities to advance the frontiers in science and engineering research. Additionally, an MRI award is expected to enhance research training of students who will become the next generation of instrument users, designers and builders.

An MRI proposal may request up to $4 million for either acquisition or development of a research instrument. Beginning with the FY 2018 competition, each performing organization may submit in revised “Tracks” as defined below, with no more than two submissions in Track 1 and no more than one submission in Track 2.

  • Track 1: Track 1 MRI proposals are those that request funds from NSF greater than or equal to $100,000 and less than $1,000,000.
  • Track 2: Track 2 MRI proposals are those that request funds from NSF greater than or equal to $1,000,000 up to and including $4,000,000.

Cost sharing 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 provide it. National Science Board policy is that voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited. When required, cost-sharing must be precisely 30%.

Limit on the Number of Proposals per Organization:

Each performing organization is now limited to a maximum of three (3) proposals in revised “Tracks” as defined below, with no more than two (2) submissions in Track 1 and no more than one (1) submission in Track 2.

Any MRI proposal may request support for either the acquisition or development of a research instrument.

For full details on this program, please visit the NSF MRI webpage and the NSF MRI Solicitation, 18-513.

For additional details regarding The University of Akron’s limited submission process, visit the ORA Limited Submission webpage.

If you are interested in submitting a NSF MRI proposal, please visit the ORA Limited Submission webpage and complete step 1: Notification of Interest, by the deadline above.

  • Individuals interested in applying to a limited submission program must submit a Notification of Interest no later than 5pm on the internal deadline. To submit this notification applicants must email limitedsubmissions@uakron.edu with the subject line of the email formatted as follows: “Last name, First name; Limited Submission Notification of Interest”. Notifications will be emailed, and applicants will either be approved to apply or will be prompted to provide a white paper.
  • If ORA receives internal notices of interest in excess of the NSF limit on the number of proposals per organization, an internal competition will be necessary and additional information will be sent to those who submitted a notice of interest.