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Deadline: Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (NSF)

***The National Science Foundation (NSF) is emerging from a 35-day funding lapse in appropriations and shutdown of the agency. See the link below for guidance on the NSF proposer and awardee community regarding the initial resumption of operations. The page will continue to be updated as more information becomes available. Questions regarding the guidance, as well as other post-shutdown questions, should be directed to the Policy Office in the Division of Institution & Award Support at policy@nsf.gov.

https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/postshutdown.jsp?fbclid=IwAR1i2Ew0kYxLMv9YagZP3an7_HmJyUQwni_kTyxoM2kkn172fDa_V19eNfo

 

Grants.gov Announcement

Program Title:

Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (CyberTraining)

Synopsis of Program:

This program seeks to prepare, nurture, and grow the national scientific researchworkforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) to enable and potentially transform fundamental science and engineering research and contribute to the Nation’s overall economic competitiveness and security. The goals of this solicitation are to (i) ensure broad adoption of CI tools, methods, and resources by the research community in order to catalyze major research advances and to enhance researchers’ abilities to lead the development of new CI; and (ii) integrate core literacy and discipline-appropriate advanced skills in advanced CI as well as computational and data-driven science and engineering into the Nation’s educational curriculum/instructional material fabric spanning undergraduate and graduate courses for advancing fundamental research. Pilot and Implementationprojects may target one or both of the solicitation goals, while Large-scale Project Conceptualization projects must address both goals. For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the set of resources, tools, methods, and services for advanced computation, large-scale data handling and analytics, and networking and security for large-scale systems that collectively enable potentially transformative fundamental research.

This solicitation calls for innovative, scalable training, education, and curriculum/instructional materials—targeting one or both of the solicitation goals—to address the emerging needs and unresolved bottlenecks in scientific and engineering research workforce development, from the postsecondary level to active researchers. The funded activities, spanning targeted, multidisciplinary communities, will lead to transformative changes in the state of research workforce preparedness for advanced CI-enabled research in the short- and long-terms. As part of this investment, this solicitation also seeks to broaden CI access and adoption by (i) increasing or deepening accessibility of methods and resources of advanced CI and of computational and data-driven science and engineering by a wide range of scientific disciplines and institutions with lower levels of CI adoption to date; and (ii) harnessing the capabilities of larger segments of diverse underrepresented groups. Proposals from, and in partnership with, the aforementioned communities are especially encouraged.

There are three project classes as defined below:

  • Pilot Projects: up to $300,000 total budget with durations up to two years;
  • Implementation Projects: Small (with total budgets of up to $500,000) or Medium(with total budgets of up to $1,000,000) for durations of up to four years; and
  • Large-scale Project Conceptualization Projects: up to $500,000 total budgets with durations up to 2 years.

Section II. Program Description provides a more complete description of the project classes. Section V.A. Proposal Preparation Instructions describes the proposal elements required for the various project classes in order to address the suitable set of solicitation-specific review criteria.

The CyberTraining program is led by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and has participation from several directorates and divisions as described in Section II. Program Description, Programmatic Areas of Interest. Not all directorates/divisions are participating at the same level and some have specific research and education priorities. The appropriate contact for the CyberTraining program in any directorate/division is the Cognizant Program Officer (PO) for the respective directorate/division/office/program listed.

All projects are expected to clearly articulate how they address important community needs and will provide resources that will be widely available to and usable by the research community. Prospective principal investigators (PIs) are strongly encouraged to contact the Cognizant Program Officers in CISE/OAC and in the participating directorate/division relevant to the proposal to ascertain whether the focus and budget of their proposed activities are appropriate for this solicitation.Such consultations should be completed at least one month in advance of the submission deadline. PIs should include the names of the Cognizant Program Officers consulted in a Single Copy Document as described in Section V.A. Proposal Preparation Instructions. The intent of the CyberTraining program is to stimulate co-funding between OAC and one or more “domain” directorates/divisions. (For this purpose, units of CISE other than OAC are considered “domain” divisions.) To ensure relevance to community needs and to facilitate adoption, those proposals of interest to one or more domain divisions mustinclude at least one PI/co-PI with expertise relevant to the targeted research discipline. All proposals shall include at least one PI/co-PI with expertise relevant to OAC.

Prospective PIs contemplating submissions that primarily target communities relevant to directorates/divisions that are not participating in this solicitation are directed to instead explore the education and workforce development programs of the respective directorates/divisions.

Cognizant Program Officer(s):

Please note that the following information is current at the time of publishing. See program website for any updates to the points of contact.

  • Sushil K. Prasad, CISE/OAC, telephone: (703) 292-5059, email: sprasad@nsf.gov
  • Almadena Y. Chtchelkanova, CISE/CCF, telephone: (703) 292-8910, email: achtchel@nsf.gov
  • Victor P. Piotrowski, EHR/DGE, telephone: (703) 292-8670, email: vpiotrow@nsf.gov
  • Chun-Hsi (Vincent) Huang, EHR/DGE, telephone: (703) 292-7877, email: chuang@nsf.gov
  • Joanne D. Culbertson, ENG/CMMI, telephone: (703) 292-4602, email: jculbert@nsf.gov
  • Ronald Joslin, ENG/CBET, telephone: (703) 292-7030, email: rjoslin@nsf.gov
  • Christina Payne, ENG/CBET, telephone: (703) 292-2895, email: cpayne@nsf.gov
  • Anthony Kuh, ENG/ECCS, telephone: (703) 292-2210, email: akuh@nsf.gov
  • Nigel A. Sharp, MPS/AST, telephone: (703) 292-4905, email: nsharp@nsf.gov
  • Daryl W. Hess, MPS/DMR, telephone: (703) 292-4942, email: dhess@nsf.gov

Applicable Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s):

  • 47.041 — Engineering
  • 47.049 — Mathematical and Physical Sciences
  • 47.050 — Geosciences
  • 47.070 — Computer and Information Science and Engineering
  • 47.075 — Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences
  • 47.076 — Education and Human Resources

Award Information

Anticipated Type of Award: Standard Grant or Continuing Grant or Cooperative Agreement

Estimated Number of Awards: 12 to 18

Up to 4 Pilot, 8 Small and 3 Medium Implementation, and 3 Large-scale Project Conceptualization awards are anticipated.

Anticipated Funding Amount: $6,000,000

Estimated program budget, number of awards and average award size/duration are subject to the availability of funds.

Eligibility Information

Who May Submit Proposals:

The categories of proposers eligible to submit proposals to the National Science Foundation are identified in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide(PAPPG), Chapter I.E.

Who May Serve as PI:

To ensure relevance to community needs and to facilitate adoption, those proposals of interest to one or more domain divisions must include at least one PI/co-PI with expertise relevant to the targeted research discipline. All proposals shall include at least one PI/co-PI with expertise relevant to OAC.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization:

There are no restrictions or limits.

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or Co-PI:

Pilot and Implementation Project proposals: An individual may serve as PI or co-PI on only one Pilot or Implementation proposal submitted to the CyberTraining program per competition. In the event that an individual exceeds this limit, proposals will be accepted based on earliest date and time of proposal submission, i.e., the first proposal will be accepted, and the remainder will be returned without review. No exceptions will be made.

Large-scale Project Conceptualization Project proposals: There are no restrictions or limits.

Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

  • Letters of Intent: Not required
  • Preliminary Proposal Submission: Not required

B. Budgetary Information

  • Cost Sharing Requirements:Inclusion of voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited.
  • Indirect Cost (F&A) Limitations:Not Applicable
  • Other Budgetary Limitations:Not Applicable

C. Due Dates

  • Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitter’s local time):February 06, 2019

    January 15, 2020

    Third Wednesday in January, Annually Thereafter

Proposal Review Information Criteria

Merit Review Criteria:

National Science Board approved criteria. Additional merit review considerations apply. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

Award Administration Information

Award Conditions:

Additional award conditions apply. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

Reporting Requirements:

Standard NSF reporting requirements apply.