April 2020

This monthly newsletter has been created to  assist FAS researchers across all domains who are looking for funding opportunities related to "Big Data". In response to the need for new conceptual and computational approaches for big data processing and storage, as well as the need for educational opportunities in this area for up and coming researchers, sponsors like NSF, DOD, DOE, NIH and private foundations are offering a growing number of funding opportunities for Big Data research and training programs.

This newsletter will be sent electronically each month. To receive this and other funding opportunity newsletters, please sign up here . All newsletters will be archived and recipients may unsubscribe at any time. In addition, you may access the Science Division Funding Spotlight  here Harvard affiliates also have access to Pivot, a funding opportunity database, and Harvard Link , a system developed by the Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning (VPAL) to provide  personalized suggestions on research funding opportunities. 

A Note from the Research Development Team:  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our team will be working remotely. We are available to provide assistance via email, phone, or Zoom conferencing. As circumstances are evolving quickly, please also refer to our  FAS RAS website  and the  OSP website 
for information about submitting proposals and managing your awards.

News and Resources
The  COVID-19 HPC Consortium encompasses computing capabilities from some of the most powerful and advanced computers in the world. The Consortium hopes to empower researchers around the world to accelerate understanding of the COVID-19 virus and the development of treatments and vaccines to help address infections. Please visit the Consortium's website for a complete list of the available resources, and instructions for submitting a request.

Open to researchers from academia, government laboratories, and industry, DOE's Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program provides the scientific community with access to the nation's fastest supercomputers. This program aims to accelerate scientific discoveries and technological innovations by awarding, on a competitive basis, time on supercomputers to researchers with large-scale, computationally intensive projects that address "grand challenges" in science and engineering. Proposals must be submitted electronically by June 19, 2020.

The objectives of this DCL are to (1) solicit ideas in use-inspired research for NSF Convergence Accelerator tracks for FY 2021 that build upon prior foundational research in the Industries of the Future, NSF's Big Ideas or other areas of research related to areas of national importance; and (2) solicit conference proposals to develop and refine those ideas to develop the technical content that will be used in a future solicitation. The topics must emphasize convergence research, which requires deep interdisciplinary collaborations. Concepts for future topics must be submitted by April 30, 2020. Conference proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis but must be received by May 18, 2020 in order to be considered for FY 2020 funding.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), invites novel Solutions for the  NHLBI Big Data Analysis Challenge: Creating New Paradigms for Heart Failure Research . The goal of the challenge is to foster innovation in computational analysis and machine learning approaches utilizing large-scale NHLBI-funded datasets to identify new paradigms in heart failure research. Up to five winners will be selected, with each winning up to $50,000. The Competition period is open through August 28, 2020. 

Funding Opportunities for Big Data

Indicates a funding announcement that was updated or added to the newsletter this month.  
Social Science
 (Computer) Science and Engineering
Biomedical Science
Education and Training

Social Science
NEHDHAG
Office of Digital Humanities (ODH)
Digital Humanities Advancement Grants (DHAG)
Sponsor Deadline: June 30, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: June 23, 2020
Award Information: Level I awards will be made up to $50,000; Level II awards up to $100,000; and Level III awards up to $325,000, with an additional $50,000 in matching funds. The maximum period of performance for Level I and II awards is 24 months, and for Level III awards is 36 months. NEH anticipates making 25-35 new awards in FY20.

Digital Humanities Advancement Grants (DHAG) support innovative, experimental, and/or computationally challenging projects at different stages throughout their lifecycles, from early start-up phases through implementation and sustainability. Experimentation, reuse, and extensibility are hallmarks of this program, leading to innovative work that can scale to enhance scholarly research, teaching, and public programming in the humanities. This program is offered twice per year. Proposals are welcome for digital initiatives in any area of the humanities. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) also anticipates providing funding through this program to advance digital infrastructures and initiatives in libraries and archives.

Awards are available at three funding levels to support early-stage planning, development, and implementation:
  • Level I awards are small grants designed to fund exploratory sessions, workshops, early alpha-level prototypes, and initial planning. 
  • Level II awards are intended to support projects that have completed an initial planning phase. Level II proposals should include a well-defined plan of work leading to concrete and tangible outcomes, such as working prototypes or code, sample data sets or models, methodological workflows, and/or documentation.
  • Level III awards support scaling-up and expansion of established projects.
Applicants may submit a proposal draft to NEH by May 19, 2020, for review and feedback.
NSFDCLOpenScienceResearchData
Dear Colleague Letter: Open Science for Research Data
Sponsor Deadline: May 1, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: April 24, 2020
Award Information: Conference requests must not exceed $50,000 in total for a one- or two-year duration. EAGERs can be supported up to $300,000 for up to a two-year duration.

In alignment with the benefits of open science, NSF is under taking an expansion of its Public Access Repository (NSF PAR) to include metadata records about the research data that supports the journal and juried conference proceeding manuscripts resulting from NSF-funded research. The metadata records about the research data will contain sufficient information to allow for data discovery and an access determination to be made (but not all the metadata necessary for reuse of the research data). Research data will have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) that was assigned to it prior to it being reported to NSF. The research data will not reside in the NSF PAR but will instead reside in a repository, data center, or data portal managed by an organization that is committed to ensuring the availability of the data over time. The anticipated location of research data associated with a publication, if known, can be identified in the Data Management Plan and budgeted in the proposal.

Through this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces its intention to support conference proposals and EAGER proposals that explore and grow community readiness across all disciplinary areas served by the Foundation for this important advancement in open science as follows:
  • Proposals for Conferences: These are community workshops and other events that bring together stakeholders to explore and advance scientific community readiness in response to this advancement in open science. 
  • Proposals for Early-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER): These are for high-risk/high-reward innovative concepts and pilot project proposals that contribute to community readiness in response to this advancement in open science.
NSFDLIDEL
Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE)
NSF Dynamic Language Infrastructure - NEH Documenting Endangered Languages (DLI-DEL)
Sponsor Deadline: September 15, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: September 8, 2020
Award Information: Varies by award type (see solicitation for complete details)

This funding partnership between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) supports projects to develop and advance knowledge concerning dynamic language infrastructure in the context of endangered human languages-languages that are both understudied and at risk of falling out of use. Made urgent by the imminent loss of roughly half of the approximately 7,000 currently used languages, this effort aims to exploit advances in information technology to build computational infrastructure for endangered language research. The program supports projects that contribute to data management and archiving, and to the development of the next generation of researchers. Funding can support fieldwork and other activities relevant to the digital recording, documentation and analysis, and archiving of endangered language data, including the preparation of lexicons, grammars, text samples, and databases. Funding will be available in the form of one- to three-year senior research grants, fellowships from six to twelve months, and conference proposals. Note: a conference proposal should generally be submitted at least a year in advance of the scheduled date of the conference.

Principal Investigators (PIs) and Applicants for Fellowships (Applicants) may propose projects involving one or more of the following three emphasis areas:
  • Language Description
  • Infrastructure
  • Computational Methods 
NSFSTS
Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE)
Science and Technology Studies (STS)
Sponsor Deadlines: August 3, 2020; February 2, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Varies by award type (see solicitation for complete details). Approximately $6,200,000 will be made available in FY 2020 to support an estimated 40 awards.

The Science and Technology Studies (STS) program supports research that uses historical, philosophical, and social scientific methods to investigate the intellectual, material, and social facets of the scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical (STEM) disciplines. It encompasses a broad spectrum of topics including interdisciplinary studies of ethics, equity, governance, and policy issues that are closely related to STEM disciplines. The STS program supports proposals across the broad spectrum of STS research areas, topics, and approaches, including, but not limited to studies of the societal aspects of an emerging technology such as artificial intelligence, robotics, big data analysis, neuroscience, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and quantum technologies (computers, sensors, and encryption).

The STS program supports several distinct types of proposals in order to accommodate the diverse research needs of the STS community. Types of proposals include Standard Research Grants and Grants for Collaborative Research, Scholars Awards, Conference Support, and Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants. The STS Program also participates in Foundation-wide initiatives such as  CAREERADVANCE, and Ethical and Responsible Research. Investigators may also wish to view the  SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (SMA) web site for additional funding opportunities.
NSFSciLearningAugIntel
Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE)
The Science of Learning and Augmented Intelligence Program (SL)
Sponsor Deadlines: July 8, 2020; January 20, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Unspecified

The Science of Learning and Augmented Intelligence Program (SL) supports potentially transformative research that develops basic theoretical insights and fundamental knowledge about principles, processes and mechanisms of learning, and about augmented intelligence - how human cognitive function can be augmented through interactions with others, contextual variations, and technological advances. The program supports research addressing learning in individuals and in groups, across a wide range of domains at one or more levels of analysis.
The program also supports research on augmented intelligence that clearly articulates principled ways in which human approaches to learning and related processes can be improved through interactions with others, and/or the use of artificial intelligence in technology. For both aspects of the program, there is special interest in collaborative and collective models of learning and/or intelligence that are supported by the unprecedented speed and scale of technological connectivity. 
  
Projects that are convergent and/or interdisciplinary may be especially valuable in advancing basic understanding of these areas, but research within a single discipline or methodology is also appropriate. Connections between proposed research and specific technological, educational, and workforce applications will be considered as valuable broader impacts but are not necessarily central to the intellectual merit of proposed research. The program supports a variety of approaches including: experiments, field studies, surveys, computational modeling, and artificial intelligence/machine learning methods.

Research questions of interest include: What concepts, tools (including Big Data, machine learning, and other computational models), or questions will provide the most productive linkages across levels of analysis, elating understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms of learning in the neurons to circuit and systems-level computations of learning in the brain, to cognitive, affective, social, and behavioral processes of learning?
ParisIASEThicalAI
Fellowship on Major Societal Changes: Impacts and Ethical Dimensions of Artificial Intelligence
Sponsor Deadline: May 20, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: Review not required for awards made to individuals
Award Information: Stipend, accommodations, and travel expenses to support a 5 or 10 month fellowship

In partnership with  Sorbonne University, the  Paris Institute for Advanced Study is offering a 10-month chair or two 5-month chairs for high-level international researchers in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) during the academic year 2021-2022. The Sorbonne University-Paris IAS Fellowship gives a researcher the possibility to work on an innovative project advancing knowledge on the societal impacts and ethical dimensions of major global changes, more specifically artificial intelligence. S/he will benefit from the outstanding work conditions and the scientific environment of the Paris IAS, and will collaborate chiefly with Sorbonne University's  research teams and  Interdisciplinary Institutes. The goal of the Sorbonne University-Paris IAS Chair on "Major Societal Changes" is to provide society with knowledge and solutions that are useful for taking action, while questioning the boundary between basic and applied research. 

Researchers from all countries are eligible. Applicants who have spent more than a total of 12 months in France during the 3 years prior to the application are not eligible. This call for applications is open to:
  • Senior university professors or researchers holding a position in a university or research institution or emeritus and having a minimum of 10 years of full-time research experience after their PhD (at the time of the application). To be considered a senior, the applicant must have received her/his PhD before April 1, 2010.
  • Junior scholars having the status of a postdoctoral researcher or holding a position in a university or research institution, and having a minimum of 2 and maximum of 9 years of research experience after the PhD. To be eligible and considered a junior, the applicant must have received her/his PhD between April 1, 2010, and April 1, 2018.
The institute is bilingual. Knowledge of English is required. The applicants are also expected to understand written and spoken French, as scientific and social activities are held in French and English.
VolkswagenAIFuture
Artificial Intelligence and the Society of the Future
Sponsor Deadlines: October 15, 2020 for Full Grants; March 17, 2021 for Planning Grants
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Planning Grants up to 150,000 Euros for 9-12 months may be requested. Full Grants will be awarded up to 1.5M Euros for up to 4 years. Overhead is not allowed on these awards. Since this amount falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy, please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.

This funding initiative is aimed primarily at postdoctoral researchers and professors at all career levels in the social and engineering sciences who devote themselves to the challenges of artificial intelligence and society in interdisciplinary research constellations. The integration of the humanities is welcome. Against the background of the current and emerging developments in the field of "Artificial Intelligence," the Foundation wishes to support projects dealing with the development of new perspectives and insights with a view to shaping the future of society as well as technology. The aim is to enable novel project constellations and interdisciplinary cooperation in a highly topical area through a shift in thinking towards new perspectives and solutions. The leading applicant has to be based at a scientific institution in Germany but international collaborations are welcome.

The Foundation offers the option to apply for a planning grant with a duration of nine to twelve months and a maximum funding amount of EUR 150,000 in advance of submitting a full application. The financial support for this "orientation phase" is intended, among other things, to enable the composition of a suitable project team, the identification of a connecting topic, and the preparation as well as formulation of a full proposal (full grant). For longer-term work on a research topic developed by the consortium, applicants may apply for a total funding amount of up to 1.5 million EUR for a duration of up to four years for projects involving up to five working groups.
(Computer) Science & Engineering
AWSCloudCredits
AWS Cloud Credits for Research
Sponsor Deadlines:  June 30, 2020; September 30, 2020; December 31, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Awarded amounts will vary depending on the research proposal and usage requirements documented in the proposal, and will be in the form of promotional credits applicable to AWS services. The credits can be used for up to one year.
 
The AWS Cloud Credits for Research Program (formerly AWS Research Grants) supports researchers who seek to:
  1. Build cloud-hosted publicly available science-as-a-service applications, software, or tools to facilitate their future research and the research of their community. 
  2. Perform proof of concept or benchmark tests evaluating the efficacy of moving research workloads or open data sets to the cloud. 
  3. Train a broader community on the usage of cloud for research workloads via workshops or tutorials.
AWSMLRA
AWS Machine Learning Research Awards (MLRA)
Sponsor Deadline:  Rolling
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  The amount awarded is at the discretion of the awards panel and may be based on the number of applicants and number of awards granted during an award cycle. Awards may include funding and AWS Promotional Credits. 69% overhead is required per FAS/SEAS policy.
 
The AWS Machine Learning Research Awards (MLRA) program funds eligible universities, faculty, PhD students and post-docs under the supervision of faculty, that are conducting novel research in machine learning (ML). The goal is to enable research that accelerates the development of innovative algorithms, publications, and source code across a wide variety of ML applications and focus areas. Selected applicants will receive awards that include a cash award as well as AWS Promotional Credits. Award recipients will receive an invitation to attend an annual research seminar and may receive live one-on-one training sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers.
 
Full-time faculty members and university departments leading a team of students and postdocs at education institutions in North America and Europe which are conducting innovative research related to Machine Learning are eligible to apply. Awards provided to faculty or university institutions will support the researchers identified in the application conducting research under the guidance of this PI.
CZIOpenSource
Essential Open Source Software for Science
Sponsor Deadline:  August 1, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: July 24, 2020
Award Information: $50,000-$250,000 (inclusive of up to 15% for indirect/overhead costs) for one year
 
In a new effort to support open source software for science, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) seeks applications for software projects that are essential to biomedical research, have already demonstrated impact, and can show potential for continued improvement. Grants will be for a one-year period with the potential to apply for renewal in future cycles.  The goal of the program is to support software maintenance, growth, development, and community engagement for these critical tools.

Applications for two broad categories of open source projects will be considered in scope:
  • Domain-specific software for analyzing, visualizing, and otherwise working with the specific data types that arise in biomedical science (e.g., genomic sequences, microscopy images, molecular structures).
  • Foundational tools and infrastructure that enable a wide variety of downstream software across several domains of science and computational research (e.g., numerical computation, data structures, workflows, reproducibility). 
USDANIFAAFRI2019
National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - Foundational and Applied Science
Sponsor Deadlines for Letters of Intent: Requirements vary by priority area. For the FACT program, LOIs are only required for Conference proposals and must be submitted at least 135 days before the conference begins.
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals:  Deadlines vary by priority area . Deadline for FACT proposals is July 16, 2020.  
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Awards vary by priority area. Standard, Conference and FASE (Strengthening Standard New Investigator, Strengthening Conference, Seed, Equipment, and Sabbatical) grants are available in the FACT program for Research Projects or Integrated (research, education and/or extension) Projects.
 
The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) is America's flagship competitive grants program that provides funding for fundamental and applied research, education, and extension projects in the food and agricultural sciences. In this RFA, NIFA requests applications for six AFRI priority areas through the Foundational and Applied Science Program for FY 2019 and FY 2020: 1. Plant health and production and plant products; 2. Animal health and production and animal products; 3. Food safety, nutrition, and health; 4. Bioenergy, natural resources, and environment; 5. Agriculture systems and technology; and 6. Agriculture economics and rural communities. A number of these priority areas call for proposals specifically dealing with issues related to big data.

In addition, NIFA invites proposals for Food and Agriculture Cyber informatics Tools (FACT) which address the priority areas listed above. The FACT program focuses on data science to enable systems and communities to effectively utilize data, improve resource management, and integrate new technologies and approaches to further U.S. food and agriculture enterprises. The program encourages university-based research as well as public and private partnerships. This program area priority will support projects that examine the value of data for small and large farmers, as well as the agricultural and food industries, and gain an understanding of how data can impact the agricultural supply chain, reduce food waste and loss, improve consumer health, environmental and natural resource management, affect the structure of U.S. food and agriculture sectors, and increase U.S. competitiveness. The most competitive FACT proposals will be equally well grounded in the agricultural sciences and data science component.
DOCNIST
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Measurement Science and Engineering (MSE) Research Grants Program
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling; applications must be received by May 31, 2020 to be considered for FY2020 funding
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: In FY 2020, the ITL anticipates funding individual projects in the $10,000-$500,000 per year range and with project performance periods of up to 5 years. The MML anticipates funding individual projects in the $5,000-$12M per year range and with project performance periods of up to 5 years.
 
NIST's Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) Grant Program provides financial assistance to support the conduct of research or a recipient's portion of collaborative research consistent with the ITL's missions to support research in the following fields: Advanced Network Technologies, Applied and Computational Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Biometrics, Cloud Computing, Cyber-Physical Systems, Cybersecurity, Forensic Science, Health Information Technology, Human Factors and Usability, Information Access, Information Processing and Understanding, Internet of Things (IoT), Metrology Infrastructure for Modeling and Simulation, Privacy Engineering, and Statistics for Metrology.  See http://www.nist.gov/itl/ for more information about ITL. Financial support may be provided to attend education and outreach programs, conferences, workshops, or other technical research meetings that are relevant to the mission of the ITL. Financial support may also be provided to organizations sponsoring conferences, workshops, or other technical events that are relevant to the mission of the ITL. However, NIST cannot be an official sponsor or cosponsor for any event funded through this program.

NIST's Material Measurement Laboratory (MML) supports the NIST mission by serving as the national reference laboratory for measurements in the chemical, biological, and material sciences. MML's Office of Data and Informatics (ODI) supports researchers and institutions in the biological, chemical, and materials sciences who need to leverage both large and information-rich data sets now common in many disciplines. The ODI supports MML research programs where advanced manipulation, visualization, and analysis of large data sets are needed to advance knowledge. The ODI also identifies, coordinates, integrates, and builds the capabilities needed to meet data challenges and leverage data-driven research opportunities (including Big Data and data.gov), particularly those that relate to the biological, chemical, and materials science communities within the MML.
DODASFOR
United States Department of Defense (DoD)
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Research Interests of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Broad Agency Announcements: Research Grants and Conference & Workshop Support
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAAs are active until superseded)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Award Information: Research proposals budgeting between $200,000 and $400,000 per year are encouraged. Most awards are 3 years in duration, and may not exceed 5 years. Conference and workshop grants up to $1M are also available. AFOSR commits the bulk of its funding by the fall of each year.

AFOSR's focus is on research areas that offer significant and comprehensive benefits to our national warfighting and peacekeeping capabilities. These areas are organized and managed in two scientific Branches: Engineering and Information Sciences (RTA), and Physical and Biological Sciences (RTB). Of interest to the Big Data community, the Information and Networks Team within the Engineering and Information Science Branch is organized to support many U.S. Air Force priority areas including autonomy, space situational awareness, and cyber security. The research programs within this team lead the discovery and development of foundational issues in mathematical, information and network oriented sciences. They are organized along three themes: Information, Decision Making, and Networks. The information theme addresses the critical challenges faced by the U.S. Air Force which lie at the intersection of the ability to collect, mathematically analyze, and disseminate large quantities of information in a time critical fashion with assurances of operation and security. Closely aligned with the mathematical analysis of information is the need for autonomous decision making. Research in this theme focuses on the discovery of mathematical laws, foundational scientific principles, and new, reliable and robust algorithms, which underlie intelligent, mixed human-machine decision-making to achieve accurate real-time projection of expertise and knowledge into and out of the battle space. Information analysis and decision making rarely occur in the context of a single source. The networks theme addresses critical issues involving how the organization and interaction among large collections of information providers and consumers contributes to an understanding of the dynamics of complex information systems.

In addition to research grants, AFOSR also provides partial support for conferences and workshops in areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research or educational findings, or to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new research and educational techniques in its areas of research interest. Proposals must be submitted at least 6 months prior to the conference or workshop start date to be considered.
DoDARLBAA2017to2022
Army Research Laboratory (ARL)
Broad Agency Announcement for Basic and Applied Scientific Research for Fiscal Years 2017 through 2022
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until March 31, 2022 or until superseded)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: There are no specific funding restrictions associated with this BAA (e.g. direct costs, indirect costs, etc.). 

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is the Department of the Army's corporate laboratory and sole fundamental research laboratory. The ARL BAA identifies topics of interest to the ARL Directorates (Computational and Information Sciences Directorate, Human Research and Engineering Directorate, Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate, Survivability/Lethality Analysis Directorate, Vehicle and Technology Directorate, and Weapons and Materials Research Directorate). The Directorates focus on executing in-house research programs, with a significant emphasis on collaborative research with other organizations in an Open Campus setting. The Directorates fund a modest amount of extramural research in certain specific areas, and those areas are described in this BAA.

The ARL BAA seeks proposals from institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and for-profit organizations (i.e. large and small businesses) for research based on the following S&T campaigns: Computational Sciences, Materials Research, Sciences for Maneuver, Information Sciences, Sciences for Lethality and Protection, Human Sciences, and Assessment and Analysis. Please see the BAA for a more detailed description of these topic areas. Proposals are sought for cutting-edge innovative research that could produce discoveries with a significant impact to enable new and improved Army technologies and related operational capabilities and related technologies. The specific research areas and topics of interest should be viewed as suggestive, rather than limiting. 
DoDAROBAA2017to2022
Army Research Office (ARO)
Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Fundamental Research for Fiscal Years 2017 through 2022
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until March 31, 2022 or until superseded)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: There are no specific funding restrictions associated with this BAA (e.g. direct costs, indirect costs, etc.). ARO prefers proposals to cover a 3-year period. 

The purpose of this BAA is to solicit research proposals in the engineering, physical, life, and information sciences for submission to the Army Research Office (ARO) for consideration for possible funding. ARO is focused exclusively on extramural basic research, and is responsible for the vast majority of ARL's extramural research programs and funding.

Proposals are sought from institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and for-profit organizations (i.e. large and small businesses) for scientific research in mechanical sciences, mathematical sciences, electronics, computing science, physics, chemistry, life sciences, materials science, network science, and environmental sciences.

In addition to standard research grants, the following funding mechanisms are also available: 
  1. Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Program: Grants of $60k or less to support rapid, short-term investigations to assess the merit of innovative new concepts in basic research. 
  2. Young Investigator Program: To attract outstanding young university faculty members to pursue fundamental research in areas relevant to the Army. This program is open to U.S. citizens, U.S. Nationals, and Permanent Resident Aliens holding tenure-track positions at U.S. institutions of higher education, who have held their graduate degrees (Ph.D. or equivalent) for fewer than five years at the time of application. Proposals may be submitted at any time. YIP awards will not exceed $120,000 per year for three years. 
  3. Research Instrumentation: To improve the capabilities of U.S. institutions of higher education to conduct research and educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense. Of the funds available to support ARO mission research described in this BAA, funds may be provided to purchase instrumentation in support of this research or in the development of new research capabilities.
  4. Conference and Symposia Grants: In areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research or educational findings or to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new research and educational techniques.
  5. High School Apprenticeship Program (HSAP)/Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP): The HSAP funds the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) apprenticeship of promising high school juniors and seniors to work in a university structured research environment under the direction of ARO sponsored PIs serving as mentors. The URAP provides similar opportunities for undergraduate students.
DARPAAIEMachineVisionDisruption
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Artificial Intelligence Exploration (AIE) Opportunity: Techniques for Machine Vision Disruption (TMVD)
Sponsor Deadline: May 14, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: May 7, 2020
Award Information: Combined Phase 1 Base and Phase 2 Option efforts for the TMVD AIE Opportunity should not exceed 18 months. The Phase 1 (Base) award value is limited to $700K. The Phase 2 (Option) award value is limited to $300K. The total award value for the combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 is limited to $1M.
 
DARPA invites submissions of innovative basic or applied research concepts in the technical domain of disrupting machine vision systems without detailed knowledge of their internal architecture or how they were trained.  Techniques for Machine Vision Disruption (TMVD) proposals must describe a feasible and convincing strategy for designing and implementing universal adversarial attacks on neural net-based computer vision systems without access to training images or the neural net architecture.

This TMVD AIE Opportunity is being issued under the DARPA Program Announcement for AIE, DARPA-PA-19-03, which details the AIE Program's overall intent and provides evaluation and submission instructions in addition to those outlined in the TVMD solicitation.
DoDDARPADSOBAA
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Defense Sciences Office (DSO) Broad Agency Announcement
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling through June 12, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  The level of funding for individual awards made available under this BAA has not been predetermined and will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. Multiple awards are anticipated. 
 
The mission of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is to identify and create the next generation of scientific discovery by pursuing high-risk, high-payoff research initiatives across a broad spectrum of science and engineering disciplines and transforming these initiatives into disruptive technologies for U.S. national security. In support of this mission, the DSO Office-wide BAA invites proposers to submit innovative basic or applied research concepts that address one of several technical domains, including Frontiers in Math, Computation & Design. Topics of interest under this domain include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) mathematical, computational, and design frameworks and tools that provide robust solutions to challenging DoD problems such as planning, optimization, and platform design; (2) fundamental scientific underpinnings and limits of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI); and (3) alternative computing models, architectures, and substrates for faster, more robust decision making.

Prior to submitting a full proposal, proposers are strongly encouraged to first submit an executive summary and/or abstract. This process allows a proposer to ascertain whether the proposed concept is: (1) applicable to the DSO Office-wide BAA and (2) currently of interest.
DARPAI2O
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Information Innovation Office (I2O) Broad Agency Announcement
Sponsor Deadline:  Rolling through August 28, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  The level of funding for individual awards made available under this BAA has not been predetermined and will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. Multiple awards are anticipated. 
 
The Information Innovation Office (I2O) develops game-changing information science and technology to ensure information advantage for the U.S. and its allies. To accomplish this, I2O sponsors basic and applied research in three thrust areas: Cyber, Analytics and Symbiosis. I2O may also consider submissions outside these areas if the proposal involves the development of novel software-based capabilities having promise to provide decisive information advantage for the U.S. and its allies. I2O seeks unconventional approaches that are outside the mainstream, challenge accepted assumptions, and have the potential to radically change established practice. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, technology, devices, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of the art.

This BAA seeks revolutionary research ideas for topics not being addressed by ongoing I2O programs or other published solicitations. Potential proposers are highly encouraged to review the current I2O programs ( http://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/i2o) and solicitations ( http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities) to avoid proposing efforts that duplicate existing activities or that are responsive to other published I2O solicitations.
DoDERDC2020
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC)
ERDC 2020 Broad Agency Announcement
Sponsor Deadline for Pre-Proposals (required):  Rolling through February 5, 2021
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: TBD
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Research and Conference/Symposia Grants are available.  

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) includes the Coastal and Hydraulics Lab (CHL), the Geotechnical and Structures Lab (GSL), the  Reachback Operations Center (UROC), the Environmental Lab (EL) and the Information  Technology Lab (ITL) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Cold Regions Research and Engineering  Lab (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire, the Construction Engineering Research Lab  (CERL) in Champaign, Illinois, and the Geospatial Research Laboratory (GRL) in Alexandria,  Virginia. The ERDC is responsible for conducting research in the broad fields of hydraulics,  dredging, coastal engineering, instrumentation, oceanography, remote sensing, geotechnical  engineering, earthquake engineering, soil effects, vehicle mobility, self-contained munitions,  military engineering, geophysics, pavements, protective structures, aquatic plants, water  quality, dredged material, treatment of hazardous waste, wetlands, physical/mechanical/ chemical properties of snow and other frozen precipitation, infrastructure and environmental  issues for installations, computer science, telecommunications management, energy,  facilities maintenance, materials and structures, engineering processes, environmental  processes, land and heritage conservation, and ecological processes. This research is  conducted by Government personnel and by contract with educational institutions, non-profit  organizations and private industries.  

The Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) conducts research, development, and studies and provides technical assistance and operational support in information technology (IT) and closely related fields, with particular emphasis on the areas of computer-aided interdisciplinary engineering, computer-aided design and drafting, building information modeling, computer-aided facilities management, computer science, high performance computing, advanced computer security, general-purpose computing, and sensor and instrumentation systems. These activities are conducted to support and enable execution of missions of USACE, the Army, and DoD.
DoDMURIFY21
FY2021 Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative (MURI)
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (encouraged):  June 1, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: September 14, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: September 4, 2020
Award Information:  Typical annual funding per grant is in the $1.25M to $1.5M range. The amount of the award and the number of supported researchers should generally not exceed the limit specified for the individual topics in the solicitation. Each individual award will be for a three-year base period with one two-year option period to bring the total maximum term of the award to five years.
   
The Department of Defense (DoD) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), one element of the University Research Initiative (URI), is sponsored by the DoD research offices, including the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Army Research Office (ARO), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). The MURI program supports basic research in science and engineering at U.S. institutions of higher education that is of potential interest to DoD. The program is focused on multidisciplinary research efforts where more than one traditional discipline interacts to provide rapid advances in scientific areas of interest to the DoD. DOD's MURI program addresses high-risk basic research and attempts to understand or achieve something that has never been done before. The program has regularly produced significant scientific breakthroughs with far reaching consequences to the fields of science, economic growth, and revolutionary new military technologies. Key to the program's success is the close management of the MURI projects by Service program officers and their active role in providing research guidance.
 
The FY 2021 MURI competition is for the topics listed in the solicitation, including:
 
  • Topic 2: A Brain-based Compositional Framework for Robust Computer Vision (ONR)
  • Topic 15: Novel Mechanisms of Neuro-Glio Bio-Computation and Reinforcement Learning (ARO)
  • Topic 27: Advanced Modeling of Evolutionary Cyber Eco-Systems with Autonomous Intelligence (AFOSR)
NGIA2018
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Academic Research Program (NARP)
Sponsor Deadline:  Rolling (current BAA is active until December 31, 2021)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Varies by award type 
 
DoDNewtonCOVID19
United States Department of Defense (DoD)*
Newton Award for Transformative Ideas During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Sponsor Deadline:  Rolling through May 15, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Total costs will not exceed $50,000 per investigator or $100,000 for a collaborative proposal by two investigators. DoD will only cover salary, fringe benefits and indirect costs. The period of performance will be 6 months. Up to 10 awards are anticipated.

From 1665 to 1666, the Great Plague of London swept across England, likely taking the lives of over 100,000 people. Though the germ theory of disease would not be formulated until the 1860s, the English public engaged in "social distancing" behaviors to avoid illness, leading to the closure of universities. Among the displaced was a young Isaac Newton, still a student at Trinity College in Cambridge. During the ensuing year of isolated study and reflection, Newton developed the basis for calculus, as well as foundational theories in gravitation, motion, and optics. Separated from the Great Plague by 350 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to similar health responses among the general public and scientific community, forcing the closure of laboratories and universities throughout the world and slowing scientific progress across theoretical and empirical domains. To help stimulate scientific thought and encourage efforts and advancements in the spirit of Sir Isaac, the Basic Research Office in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announces the Newton Award for Transformative Ideas during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
 
This award will be presented to a single investigator or team of up to two investigators that develops a "transformative idea" to resolve challenges, advance frontiers, and set new paradigms in areas of immense potential benefit to DoD and the nation at large. Proposals should fall within the scope of fields consistent with DoD basic research funding priorities, including but not limited to artificial intelligence/machine learning and autonomy, communications and networks, engineering, materials science, mathematics, microelectronics, physics, quantum science and computing, social and cognitive sciences, synthetic biology and biotechnology. Interdisciplinary and collaborative proposals by up to two  investigators are encouraged as necessary. Proposals should aim to produce novel conceptual frameworks or theory-based approaches that present disruptive ways of thinking about fundamental scientific problems that have evaded resolution, propose new, paradigm-shifting scientific directions, and/or address fundamental and important questions that are argued to be undervalued by the scientific community. Approaches can include analytical reasoning, calculations, simulations, and thought experiments. While data collection and production are therefore allowed, all supporting data should be generated without the use of laboratory-based experimentation or instrumentation. Given the novelty of and circumstances surrounding this one-time FOA, the objective of this program is to generate proposals that are equally novel and pioneering. Therefore, this FOA should be viewed as an opportunity to propose work outside the bounds of traditional proposals.
DoDNRLBAA
United States Department of Defense (DoD)
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
NRL Long Range Broad Agency Announcement for Basic and Applied Research
Sponsor Deadline:  Rolling (current BAA is active until September 5, 2020 or until superseded)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: The funded amount and period of performance of each proposal selected for award may vary depending on the research area and the technical approach to be pursued by the offeror selected.

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the Navy's corporate laboratory. NRL conducts basic and applied research for the Navy in a variety of scientific and technical disciplines. NRL is interested in receiving proposals for Long-Range Science and Technology (S&T) Projects which offer potential for advancement and improvement of Navy and Marine Corps operations.

NRL is organized as follows: Systems Directorate Code 5000; Materials Science and Component Technology Directorate Code 6000; and Ocean and Atmospheric Science and Technology Directorate Code 7000; and the Naval Center for Space Technology Code 8000. Areas of interest listed in the BAA include: Information Management and Decision Architectures; Mathematical Foundations of High Assurance Computing; Federated, Distributed Computing/Network Infrastructure; and Cyber Secure Open Source Information and Analytics. Additional information about the NRL Program Codes and the science and technology thrusts that NRL is pursuing can be found at the NRL website.

Interested offerors must first submit a white paper (WP), which are continuously accepted prior to closing date of the announcement. Offerors of those WPs found to be consistent with the intent of the BAA will be invited to submit a full proposal.
DODONR
United States Department of Defense (DoD)
Office of Naval Research (ONR)
FY20 Long Range Broad Agency Announcement for Navy and Marine Corps Science and Technology
Sponsor Deadline:  Rolling (current BAA is active until September 30, 2020 or until superseded)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: The funded amount and period of performance of each proposal selected for award may vary depending on the research area and the technical approach to be pursued by the offeror selected. 

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is interested in receiving proposals for Long-Range Science and Technology (S&T) Projects which offer potential for advancement and improvement of Navy and Marine Corps operations. Information about ONR's areas of interest is provided on the ONR website.  

Areas of interest related to big data include: 
  • Applied and Computational Analysis
  • Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for Photonics, Power & Energy, Atmospherics, and Quantum Science
  • Computational Methods for Decision Making
  • Computational Neuroscience
  • Machine Learning, Reasoning and Intelligence
  • Mathematical Data Science
Prior to preparing proposals, potential offerors are strongly encouraged to contact the ONR point of contact (POC) identified for each research area.
DOEAIComplexSystems
Office of Science (SC)
Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support for Complex Systems
Sponsor Deadline for Pre-Applications (required): May 6, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: May 29, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (if invited): June 5, 2020
Award Information: $150,000-$400,000 per year for 2-3 years. DOE anticipates that the total value of grants made under this FOA will be between $4M-$16M.

The DOE SC program in Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) is soliciting research applications to explore potentially high-impact approaches in the development and use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the context of computational decision support for complex systems. This Announcement seeks to advance applied mathematics techniques with general applicability. Applicants must demonstrate that their proposed work is not specific to a particular complex system. Proposed approaches may include innovative research with one or more key characteristics, such as asynchronous computations, mixed-precision arithmetic, automatic differentiation, compressed sensing, coupling frameworks, graph and network algorithms, randomization, Monte Carlo or Bayesian methods, probabilistic programming, or other relevant facets.

An individual may participate in no more than two pre-applications, and applications.
DOEOfficeofScienceFY17
Office of Science (SC)
FY 2020 Continuation of Solicitation for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program
Sponsor Deadline:  Rolling (current solicitation is active until September 30, 2020  or until superseded)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Awards in FY17 ranged from $5,000/year to $5M/year. It is anticipated that approximately $250M will be available for DOE Office of Science new, renewal, and supplemental grants and cooperative agreement awards under this and other, more targeted FOAs in FY20. Approximately 200-350 new awards will be funded. Awards are expected to be made for a project period of 6 months to 5 years as befitting the project, with the most common project period being 3 years in duration. 

Through this FOA, the Department of Energy (DOE)'s Office of Science (SC) announces its continuing interest in receiving grant applications for support of work in the following program areas: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, and Nuclear Physics. 

Most relevant to big data is the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program. Its mission is to advance applied mathematics and computer science; deliver the most sophisticated computational scientific applications in partnership with disciplinary science; advance computing and networking capabilities; and develop future generations of computing hardware and software tools for science and engineering, in partnership with the research community, including U.S. industry. The strategy to accomplish this has two thrusts: developing and maintaining world-class computing and network facilities for science; and advancing research in applied mathematics, computer science and advanced networking.

The priority areas for ASCR include the following:
  1. Develop mathematical models, methods and algorithms to accurately describe and predict the behavior of complex systems involving processes that span vastly different time and/or length scales.
  2. Advance key areas of computer science that enable the design and development of extreme scale computing systems and their effective use in the path to scientific discoveries; and transform extreme scale data from experiments and simulations into scientific insight.
  3. Advance key areas of computational science and discovery that support the missions of the Office of Science through mutually beneficial partnerships.
  4. Develop and deliver forefront computational, networking and collaboration tools and facilities that enable scientists worldwide to work together to extend the frontiers of science.
Please note that pre-applications are optional yet encouraged.
DOEScientificML
Office of Science (SC)
Scientific Machine Learning for Modeling and Simulations
Sponsor Deadline for Pre-Applications (required): May 1, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: May 21, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (if invited): May 29, 2020
Award Information: $150,000 per year for 2 years. DOE anticipates that the total value of grants made under this FOA will be between $2M and $8M.

The DOE SC program in Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) is soliciting research applications to explore potentially high-impact approaches in the development and use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) for predictive scientific modeling and simulations. It is expected that the proposed projects will significantly benefit from the exploration of innovative ideas or from the development of unconventional approaches. Proposed approaches may include research with one or more key characteristics, such as asynchronous computations, mixed-precision arithmetic, automatic differentiation, compressed sensing, coupling frameworks, graph and network algorithms, game theory, randomization, Monte Carlo or Bayesian methods, probabilistic programming, or other relevant facets.

An individual may participate in no more than two pre-applications, and applications.
MicrosoftAIforEarth
AI for Earth Grants
Sponsor Deadlines:  July 6, 2020; October 5, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline:  5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Azure compute credits worth $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000, plus additional resources including technical advice and support, online Azure training materials, and invitations to the AI for Earth Summit for networking and education opportunities.
 
AI for Earth grants provide access to Microsoft resources to support projects that change the way people and organizations monitor, model, and manage Earth's natural systems. Researchers who already have access to a labeled dataset and are ready to start using Azure AI tools and cloud computing may apply for Azure compute credits through this grant program. Microsoft's areas of focus for AI for Earth are agriculture, food, biodiversity, and/or climate change. Microsoft recommends that the main applicant has a demonstrated background in environmental science and/or technology (such as a PhD degree), and that at least one member of the team has strong enough technical skills to complete the project successfully.
NatGeoMicrosoftAIforEarth
Microsoft
AI for Earth Innovation
Sponsor Deadline: July 22, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: July 15, 2020
Award Information: $5,000-$100,000 for one year. Proposals with total budgets of at least $50,000 may designate up to 15% as overhead. Applicants requesting less than $50,000 should  discuss their request with a grants administrator before preparing an application s ince the budget may  fall short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. In addition to financial support, successful applicants will receive free access to AI for Earth APIs, applications, tools, and tutorials, and support for their computational work on Microsoft Azure.

The National Geographic Society and  Microsoft's AI for Earth  program are partnering to support novel projects that create and deploy AI tools to improve the way we monitor, model, understand, and ultimately manage Earth's natural resources for a more sustainable future. 
The grants given by the partnership will support projects that use cloud computing to create and deploy open-source models and algorithms that make key analytical processes more efficient in the field. This partnership is focused on supporting projects that will build tools such as applications, application programming interfaces (APIs), or packages to be shared. Microsoft will help the successful applicants make their models and tools available for use by other environmental researchers and innovators.

Proposed work should address biodiversity or climate change and create generalizable, scalable tools that can be used by other environmental researchers and conservationists. National Geographic recommends building a multidisciplinary team that spans technology and environmental science. 
NetAppFacultyFellowship
Advanced Technology Group (ATG)
NetApp ATG Faculty Fellowship Program
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information : Award  amounts vary, however they usually cover a significant amount of the cost for a graduate student to work on the project for a year. FAS and SEAS applicants must request an indirect cost rate of 69% on sponsored research applications to industry.  
 
The NetApp Faculty Fellowship (NFF) program was established to encourage leading-edge research in storage and data management and to foster relationships between academic researchers and NetApp's technical community. The NFF program accepts research proposals from full-time faculty and post-graduate researchers employed by an accredited university that has a PhD program in the field of the proposal's principal investigators.

The NFF program is interested in proposals that describe an innovative project that a researcher desires to pursue over the next one to three years. The proposed research must have some alignment with NetApp core technology and business interests (storage and data management). A sponsor from NetApp will be assigned to communicate and in some cases may collaborate with project's PI(s) and team. 

Topics of particular interest include:
  • Data security in next generation data centers
  • Data management and security in hybrid clouds
  • Data center and enterprise networking
  • Novel data systems, including NoSQL databases, big data systems, and data streaming systems
  • IoT and real time analytics
NSFATD
National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA)
Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS)
Algorithms for Threat Detection (ATD)
Sponsor Deadline: February 17, 2021  
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: February 9, 2021
Award Information : Total a nticipated funding amount is $3M annually to support 10-20 awards.  
 
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).

The ATD program will support research projects in two topical areas:
  1. Projects that aim to develop novel mathematical and statistical algorithms for analysis of large geospatial datasets.
  2. Projects that develop mathematical theory to guide the use of artificial neural networks (ANN) for computer vision tasks.
NSFCCRI
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
CISE Community Research Infrastructure (CCRI)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (required): November 11, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: January 14, 2021  
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: January 7, 2021
Award Information The majority of the  New  awards will be made in the $750,000-$1.5M  Medium  range for up to 3 years. A small number of  Grand  awards may be made in the $1.5M-$5M range for up to 5 years. The majority of the  Planning  awards will be made in the $50,000-$100,000 range for up to 1.5 years. The majority of the  ENS  awards will be made in the $750,000-$2M range for up to 3 years.
 
The Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Community Research Infrastructure (CCRI) program drives discovery and learning in the core CISE disciplines of the three participating divisions [Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Computer and Network Systems (CNS), and Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)] by funding the creation and enhancement of world-class research infrastructure. This research infrastructure will specifically support diverse communities of CISE researchers pursuing focused research agendas in computer and information science and engineering. This support involves developing the accompanying user services and engagement needed to attract, nurture, and grow a robust research community that is actively involved in determining directions for the infrastructure as well as management of the infrastructure. This should lead to infrastructure that can be sustained through community involvement and community leadership, and that will enable advances not possible with existing research infrastructure. Further, through the CCRI program, CISE seeks to ensure that researchers from a diverse range of academic institutions, including minority-serving and predominantly undergraduate institutions, as well as researchers from non-profit, non-academic organizations, have access to such infrastructure.

The CCRI program supports two classes of awards:
  • New awards support the creation of new CISE community research infrastructure with integrated tools, resources, user services, and community outreach to enable innovative CISE research opportunities to advance the frontiers of the CISE core research areas. The New award class includes Grand Ensemble (Grand), Medium Ensemble (Medium), and Planning awards.
  • Enhance/sustain (ENS) awards support the enhancement and sustainment of an existing CISE community infrastructure to enable world-class CISE research opportunities for broad-based communities of CISE researchers that extend well beyond the awardee organization(s).
Each CCRI New or ENS award may support the operation of such infrastructure, ensuring that the awardee organization(s) is (are) well positioned to provide a high quality of service to CISE community researchers expected to use the infrastructure to realize their research goals.
NSFCDSE
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E)
Sponsor Deadline: Varies by program  
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information Varies by program.  Supplemental requests to existing awards will be considered in addition to proposals for new awards.
 
The goal of the CDS&E program is to identify and capitalize on opportunities for major scientific and engineering breakthroughs through new computational and data analysis approaches. The intellectual drivers may be in an individual discipline or they may cut across more than one discipline in various Directorates. The key identifying factor is that the outcome relies on the development, adaptation, and utilization of one or more of the capabilities offered by advancement of both research and infrastructure in computation and data, either through cross-cutting or disciplinary programs. The CDS&E program is not intended to replace existing programs that make awards that involve computation and the analysis of large data sets. Rather, the CDS&E program is meant to fund awards that have a significant component of cyber development or cyber science that goes well beyond what would normally be included in these programs. 

The CDS&E program welcomes proposals in any area of research supported through the participating divisions that address at least one of the following criteria:
  • Promote the creation, development, and application of the next generation of mathematical, computational and statistical theories and tools that are essential for addressing the challenges presented to the scientific and engineering communities by the ever-expanding role of computational modeling and simulation and the explosion and production of digital experimental and observational data.
  • Promote and encourage integrated research projects that create, develop and apply novel computational, mathematical and statistical methods, algorithms, software, data curation, analysis, visualization and mining tools to address major, heretofore intractable questions in core science and engineering disciplines, including large-scale simulations and analysis of large and heterogeneous collections of data.
  • Encourage adventurous ideas that generate new paradigms and that create and apply novel techniques, generating and utilizing digital data in innovative ways to complement or dramatically enhance traditional computational, experimental, observational, and theoretical tools for scientific discovery and application.
  • Encourage ideas at the interface between scientific frameworks, computing capability, measurements and physical systems that enable advances well beyond the expected natural progression of individual activities, including development of science-driven algorithms to address pivotal problems in science and engineering and efficient methods to access, mine, and utilize large data sets.
NSFCDSEMSS
Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS)
Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (CDS&E-MSS)
Sponsor Full Proposal Window: September 1-15, 2020  
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information : Unspecified
 
The CDS&E-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 data-related challenges. This program is part of the wider  Computational and Data-enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E) enterprise at NSF that seeks to address this emerging discipline.

The research supported by the CDS&E-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 CDS&E.
NSFConvergeAccel
NSF Convergence Accelerator Phase I and II
Sponsor Deadline for Preliminary Proposals (required): May 11, 2020 for Phase I projects
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals (if invited): July 10, 2020 for Phase I projects; May 17, 2021 for Phase II projects
Award Information:  Phase I awards are expected to be for up to 9 months and up to $1M each. Phase II proposals may request up to $5M over 2 years.
 
The goals of NSF's convergence accelerator effort are to support and accelerate use-inspired convergence research in areas of national importance within particular topics (tracks). NSF Convergence Accelerator tracks can be related to Industries of the Future (IotF)NSF's Big Ideas, or other topics that may not relate directly to an IotF or Big Idea; however, they must have the potential for significant national impact. The 2020 NSF Convergence Accelerator is a two-phase program. Phase I awardees receive significant resources to further develop their convergence research ideas and identify crucial partnerships and resources to accelerate their projects, leading to deliverable research prototypes in Phase II. This solicitation invites proposals for the following Tracks: 
  • Quantum Technology (Track C)
  • AI-Driven Innovation via Data and Model Sharing (Track D)
Proposers must first submit a Phase I preliminary proposal in order to be invited to submit a full Phase I proposal. Phase I proposals must describe a team, or a process to build a team, that includes personnel with the appropriate mix of disciplinary and institutional expertise needed to build a Phase II convergence research effort. Phase I proposals must describe one or more deliverables and how those research outputs could impact society by the end of Phase II. Phase I proposals should describe the deliverable and the research plan and team formation efforts that will refine it to a proof-of-concept. Phase I will include NSF-organized convenings for training and intra- and cross-cohort collaboration. 
 
Only awardees of Phase I grants under this solicitation may submit a Phase II proposal. Phase II proposers must outline a two-year research and development plan in which research transitions to practice through collaboration with end-users. Phase II proposals must describe clear deliverables that will be produced in two years of effort and the metrics by which impacts will be assessed. The Phase II teams must include appropriate stakeholders (e.g., industry, Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), non-profits, government entities, and others), each with a specific role(s) in facilitating the transition of research outputs into practical uses. Successful proposals will be funded initially for one year. Each team's progress will be assessed during the year through approximately six virtual and in-person meetings with NSF program staff. The overall progress will be evaluated at the end of one year, based on a report and presentation that the team will make to a panel of reviewers. Teams that show significant progress during the first year, in accordance with the agreed timetable of milestones and deliverables, will receive funding for a second year. Teams should plan on completing the effort within two years; no-cost extensions will be authorized only in extraordinary circumstances.
NSFCICoE
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
Cyberinfrastructure Centers of Excellence (CI CoE)
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: The level of support for CI CoE projects is expected to vary, based on the topic and range of activities proposed. CI CoEs are typically expected to operate for five years.
 
The NSF Cyberinfrastructure Centers of Excellence (CI CoE) Program aims to support hubs of expertise and innovation targeting specific areas, aspects, or stakeholder communities of the research CI ecosystem. Supported CI CoEs provide expertise and services related to CI technologies and solutions; gather, develop, and communicate community best practices; and serve as readily-available resources for both the research community and the CI community. A key objective of this program is to support CI CoEs that drive advancements in and positively impact the CI ecosystem through structured but strongly community-engaging and community-serving approaches. Overall, CI CoEs are a means of concentrating resources on a specific area of identified need in support of the broader goal of advancing capabilities and performance of the national CI ecosystem.

NSF may initially invest in two-year pilot CI CoE projects which aim to develop concepts and plans and demonstrate feasibility through pilot activities as preparatory precursors to eventual proposals for establishing full-scale CI CoEs.

Individuals interested in submitting a proposal for a CI CoE project must first discuss their project idea with the cognizant CI CoE Program Director(s) in the relevant areas prior to submission. 
NSFCIforBioResearch
Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO)
Cyberinfrastructure for Biological Research (CIBR)
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: The size and duration of any individual request should be justified by the amount and complexity of the work to be accomplished. As a rule, the larger the budget, the greater the expected impact on the biological research community.
 
Biological processes at all scales from molecules to ecosystems are determined through the encoding, exchange, and interpretation of information. Advances in the biological sciences are enabled by our capacity to acquire, manage, represent, and analyze biological information through the use of modern instrumentation and computational tools. Proposals are invited that offer potentially transformative outcomes through the development of informatics tools and resources that: (1) offer novel and significant advances in the use of biological data and/or (2) will enable and stimulate advances through their impact on a significant segment of the biological research community supported by the NSF BIO Directorate.

Awards in CIBR should produce, or substantially expand a finished product that will have demonstrable impact in advancing biological research. Proposals should convey their likelihood of success through greater attention to user engagement, design quality, engineering practices, management plan, and dissemination. Budgets and award durations should accommodate the iterative process of bringing a proof of concept into a robust, broadly-adopted cyberinfrastructure. Development proposals are more outcome-driven than Innovation awards and are typically assessed on their perceived contribution to a broad portfolio of cyberinfrastructure resources. Synergies with, and leveraging of, other existing and ongoing resources are taken into consideration. Full proposals may be submitted anytime through the  Infrastructure Capacity for Biology Core Program (ICB).
NSFCESER
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
Cyberinfrastructure for Emerging Science and Engineering Research (CESER)
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Unspecified
 
The Cyberinfrastructure for Emerging Science and Engineering Research (CESER) program aims to catalyze new science and engineering discovery pathways through early-stage collaborative activities between disciplinary scientists and engineers as well as developers/implementers of innovative cyberinfrastructure (CI) capabilities, services, and approaches.

CESER accepts proposals pursuant to this Program Description year-round. From time to time, NSF may also issue Dear Colleague Letters pursuant to CESER to signal special thematic interests and opportunities. CESER employs existing NSF funding mechanisms to accomplish the program's goals. Successful CESER projects typically involve co-funding from the relevant disciplinary research programs within NSF. Consequently, before submitting a proposal to CESER, proposers must discuss their project idea with a cognizant CESER Program Officer and with the relevant NSF disciplinary research program(s) to ensure that CESER is the appropriate venue and that there is adequate disciplinary interest in the proposed effort.
NSFCPS
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)
Sponsor Deadlines: June 8-22, 2020 for Medium Proposals; December 2, 2020 for Frontier Proposals
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Varies by award type (details below)
 
The CPS program aims to develop the core research needed to engineer complex Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), some of which may also require dependable, high-confidence, or provable behaviors. Core research areas of the program include control, data analytics, and machine learning, including real-time learning for control, autonomy, design, Internet of Things (IoT), mixed initiatives including human-in- or human-on-the-loop, networking, privacy, real-time systems, safety, security, and verification. 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 domains. The program additionally 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. This program also fosters a research community that is committed to advancing education and outreach in CPS and accelerating the transition of CPS research into the real world.

In FY 2020, NSF is working closely with multiple agencies across 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); several National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes and centers including the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), 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).

Proposals for three classes of research and education projects-differing in scope and goals-are supported through the CPS program:
  • Small projects may request a total budget of up to $500,000 for a period of up to 3 years. They are well suited to emerging new and innovative ideas that may have high impact on the field of CPS. Note that Small projects are not accepted under this solicitation.
  • Medium projects may request a total budget ranging from $500,001 to $1,200,000 for a period of up to 3 years. They are well suited to multi-disciplinary projects that accomplish clear goals requiring integrated perspectives spanning the disciplines.
  • Frontier projects must address clearly identified critical CPS challenges that cannot be achieved by a set of smaller projects. Furthermore, Frontier projects should also look to push the boundaries of CPS well beyond today's systems and capabilities. Funding may be requested for a total of $1,200,001 to $7,000,000 for a period of 4 to 5 years. Note that the Frontier project deadline is different than that for Medium projects.
Please note, this solicitation includes windows for Medium and Frontier proposals. Small proposals are not invited in FY 2020. For FY 2021 (beginning Oct. 1, 2020) and beyond, the CPS program anticipates going to a "no-deadline" submission for Small and Medium proposals. Specific annual deadlines for Frontier proposals are anticipated to continue. 

An individual can participate as PI, co-PI, Senior Personnel, or Consultant on no more than two proposals submitted in response to this solicitation.
NSFExpeditions
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
Expeditions in Computing (Expeditions)
Sponsor Deadline for Preliminary Proposals (required): June 16, 2020 for Expeditions proposals
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: February 16, 2021 for Expeditions proposals (by invitation only); InTrans proposals will be accepted between April 25, 2020 and April 26, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Expedition awards will be made up to $15M over 7 years. 2-4 new Expeditions awards will be made in each competition. The award amount for InTrans awards is up to $1.5M, and  the NSF budget must not exceed one-third of the total co-funding support provided by industry.
 
The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) established 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 strongly encouraged to come together within or across departments or institutions to combine their creative talents in the identification of compelling, transformative research agendas that look ahead by at least a decade and promise disruptive innovations in computer and information science and engineering for many years to come.

Expeditions projects represent some of the largest single investments currently made by the CISE directorate. Together with the Science and Technology Centers and the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes that CISE supports, Expeditions projects form the centerpiece of the directorate's center-scale award portfolio. With awards funded at levels that promote the formation of large 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 complement research areas supported by other CISE programs, which target particular computer and information science and engineering fields. An individual may participate in no more than one preliminary and if invited, one full Expeditions proposal per competition as PI, co- PI, or senior personnel.

Additionally, CISE offers Innovation Transition (InTrans) awards for teams nearing the end of their Expeditions as well as Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Frontier projects. The goal of InTrans is to continue the long-term vision and objectives of CISE's center-scale projects. Through InTrans awards, CISE will provide limited funds to match industry support. Prior to submission of an InTrans proposal, the proposer must secure industry funding for the continuation of the research supported under the Expeditions or Frontier award. Industrial funding must last at least three years.
NSFGCR
Growing Convergence Research (GCR)
Sponsor Deadline: February 1, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: January 25, 2021
Award Information:   Interested researchers may request up to $1.2M in total costs for the first two years and $2.4M for the last three years.   Successful proposals will be funded initially for two years and t eams that show significant progress during the first two years will receive funding for an additional three years. Approximately 10 awards are anticipated.
 
Growing Convergence Research is a new NSF-wide program. NSF identified Growing Convergence Research (GCR) as one of 10 Big Ideas. Convergence research is a means for solving vexing research problems, in particular, complex problems focusing on societal needs. It entails integrating knowledge, methods, and expertise from different disciplines and forming novel frameworks to catalyze scientific discovery and innovation.

GCR identifies  Convergence Research as having two primary characteristics:
  • Research driven by a specific and compelling problem. Convergence Research is generally inspired by the need to address a specific challenge or opportunity, whether it arises from deep scientific questions or pressing societal needs.
  • Deep integration across disciplines. As experts from different disciplines pursue common research challenges, their knowledge, theories, methods, data, research communities and languages become increasingly intermingled or integrated. New frameworks, paradigms or even disciplines can form sustained interactions across multiple communities.
This GCR solicitation targets multi-disciplinary team research that crosses directorate or division boundaries and is currently not supported by NSF programs, initiatives and research-focused Big Ideas. Proposers must make a convincing case that the research to be conducted is within NSF's purview and cannot be supported by existing NSF programs and multidisciplinary initiatives. A PI or a co-PI may participate in only one proposal in response to this solicitation. They may not participate in any role in any other proposal. 
NSFSenSE
Multimodal Sensor Systems for Precision Health Enabled by Data Harnessing, Artificial Intelligence, and Learning (SenSE)
Sponsor Deadline: June 8, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: June 1, 2020
Award Information : U p to $750,000 for 3 years. 8-10 awards are anticipated in FY2020.
 
The National Science Foundation (NSF) through its Divisions of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS); Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET); Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI); Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS); and Mathematical Sciences (DMS) announces a solicitation on Multimodal Sensor Systems for Precision Health enabled by Data Harnessing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Learning. Next-generation multimodal sensor systems for precision health integrated with AI, machine learning (ML), and mathematical and statistical (MS) methods for learning can be envisioned for harnessing a large volume of diverse data in real time with high accuracy, sensitivity and selectivity, and for building predictive models to enable more precise diagnosis and individualized treatments. It is expected that these multimodal sensor systems will have the potential to identify with high confidence combinations of biomarkers, including kinematic and kinetic indicators associated with specific disease and disability. This focused solicitation seeks high-risk/high-return interdisciplinary research on novel concepts, innovative methodologies, theory, algorithms, and enabling technologies that will address the fundamental scientific issues and technological challenges associated with precision health.

A minimum of one PI and one co-PI must participate in a proposal, representing expertise in each of the two areas of hardware and software. An investigator may participate as PI, co-PI or senior personnel in no more than one proposal submitted in response to this solicitation.
NSFCompPhysics
Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS)
Physics at the Information Frontier
Sponsor Deadline: December 1, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: November 20, 2020
Award Information : Award size and duration will be commensurate with the scope of the proposed project.
 
Physics at the Information Frontier (PIF) supports the development of enabling capabilities through computational advances that are required to address compelling scientific goals relevant to disciplines within the purview of the Physics Division. The program emphasizes aspects of Big Data and High-Performance Computing convergence, convergent research for algorithm development and efficient use of novel architectures, and community-building activities for computational and data-enabled science.

The Physics at the Information Frontier (PIF) program is focused on investigations relevant to disciplines supported by the Physics Division, while encouraging broader impacts on other disciplines. Disciplines within the purview of the Physics Division include: atomic, molecular, optical, plasma, elementary particle, nuclear, gravitational and biological physics, and particle astrophysics. Proposals with intellectual focus in areas supported by other NSF Divisions should be submitted to those divisions directly.  The Physics at the Information Frontier (PIF) program accepts proposals only as noted in the PHY Program Solicitation.
NSFAmazonFairnessinAI
NSF Program on Fairness in Artificial Intelligence in Collaboration with Amazon (FAI)
Sponsor Deadline: July 13, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: July 6, 2020
Award Information : $750,000-$1.25M for up to 3 years. 6-10 awards are anticipated.
 
NSF and Amazon are partnering to jointly support computational research focused on fairness in AI, with the goal of contributing to trustworthy AI systems that are readily accepted and deployed to tackle grand challenges facing society. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to transparency, explainability, accountability, potential adverse biases and effects, mitigation strategies, algorithmic advances, fairness objectives, validation of fairness, and advances in broad accessibility and utility. Funded projects will enable broadened acceptance of AI systems, helping the U.S. further capitalize on the potential of AI technologies. Although Amazon provides partial funding for this program, it will not play a role in the selection of proposals for award.

Advancing AI is a highly interdisciplinary endeavor drawing on fields such as computer science, information science, engineering, statistics, mathematics, cognitive science, and psychology. As such, NSF and Amazon expect these varied perspectives to be critical for the study of fairness in AI. NSF's ability to bring together multiple scientific disciplines uniquely positions the agency in this collaboration, while building AI that is fair and unbiased is an important aspect of Amazon's AI initiatives. This program supports the conduct of fundamental computer science research into theories, techniques, and methodologies that go well beyond today's capabilities and are motivated by challenges and requirements in real systems.

An individual may participate in at most one proposal as PI, co-PI, or Senior Personnel.
NSFSaTC
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC)
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: See below for details. NSF anticipates approximately 13 EDU awards, 35 Small awards, and 25 Medium awards.
 
The SaTC program welcomes proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and draw on expertise in one or more of these areas: computing, communication and information sciences; engineering; education; mathematics; statistics; and social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Proposals that advance the field of cybersecurity and privacy within a single discipline or interdisciplinary efforts that span multiple disciplines are each welcome.

Proposals must be submitted pursuant to one of the following designations, each of which may have additional restrictions and administrative obligations as specified in the program solicitation.
  • CORE: This designation is the main focus of the SaTC research program, spanning the interests of NSF's Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Engineering (ENG), Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE).
  • EDU: The Education (EDU) designation will be used to label proposals focusing entirely on cybersecurity education. 
  • TTP: The Transition to Practice (TTP) designation will be used to label proposals that are focused exclusively on transitioning existing research results to practice.
CORE and TTP proposals may be submitted in one of the following project size classes:
  • 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.
EDU proposals are limited to $400,000 in total budget, with durations of up to three years.

An individual can participate as a PI, co-PI or senior personnel on no more than four SaTC proposals (two designated as CORE (across Small and Medium), one designated as TTP (across Small and Medium), and one designated as EDU). These limits apply for the period from Oct 1st to Sept 30th of the following year to all proposals in response to this solicitation and are unrelated to any limits imposed in other NSF solicitations.
NSFStatistics
Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS)
Statistics
Sponsor Full Proposal Window: December 1-15, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Unspecified
 
The Statistics Program supports research in statistical theory and methods, including research in statistical methods for applications to any domain of science and engineering. The theory forms the base for statistical science. The methods are used for stochastic modeling, and the collection, analysis and interpretation of data. The methods characterize uncertainty in the data and facilitate advancement in science and engineering. The Program encourages proposals ranging from single-investigator projects to interdisciplinary team projects. Conference and workshop proposals should be submitted eight months before the requested starting date.
Sloan
Digital Information Technology - Data and Computational Research
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling, requires Letter of Inquiry
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Two types of applications, <$125,000 and >$125,000. Awards >$125,000 provide overhead up to 15%.  Overhead is not allowed on awards <$125,000. Since t his amount falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy, please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.

This program seeks to support the efficient management and sharing of research data and code from acquisition through analysis; and grow the current and future scientific data work force. 

Grants in this program tend to fall into four broad types:
  • Software grants support technology development ranging from prototyping funds to substantial scaling resources;
  • Training grants aim at supporting work force training and curricular initiatives as well as targeted adoption of new technologies by specific communities;
  • Research grants bring historical, ethnographic, and economic research methods to bear on our understanding of scholarly activities in a changing technological context;
  • Community grants build networks for knowledge exchange across disciplines as well as institutions that serve to incubate sustainable research and software projects.
Grant requests can be made at any time. A brief letter of inquiry is the first step for an applicant.
SloanEnergyEnvironment
Energy & Environment
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling, requires Letter of Inquiry
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Two types of applications, <$125,000 and >$125,000. Awards >$125,000 provide overhead up to 15%.  Overhead is not allowed on awards <$125,000. Since t his amount falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy, please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.

This program seeks to advance understanding about the economic, environmental, security, and policy trade-offs associated with the increased deployment of low- and no-carbon resources and technologies across the energy system and the resulting impacts on the quality of American life.  Grants in this program focus on generating novel research and knowledge; training the next generation of scholars and practitioners; building multidisciplinary networks and communities; educating stakeholders and disseminating information for decision-making; and attracting additional resources. Funds will support the  investigation of underexplored research questions related to energy sources (supply), transmission and distribution, energy use (demand), new energy technologies, the economics of energy transmission and distribution, big data, energy efficiency, and transportation.

Grant requests can be made at any time. A brief letter of inquiry is the first step for an applicant.
Biomedical Science
C3aiCOVID19
Mitigation of COVID-19 and Future Pandemics
Sponsor Deadline: May 4 , 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: April 24, 2020 
Award Information: $100,000, $250,000, or $500,000 for one year. Awards will also include unlimited free access to the C3 AI Suite hosted on the Microsoft Azure Cloud including between 225,000 and 1.15 million CPU/GPU hours of compute capacity. It is anticipated that up to $5.8 million in cash grants will be awarded from this First Call for Proposals. Indirect costs will not be provided. Since this falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy, interested researchers  should  discuss their request with a grants administrator before preparing an application .

In the context of the Worldwide COVID-19 Pandemic, the C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute (DTI) is soliciting Research Award proposals that catalyze cooperative research activities and advances in machine learning and other AI subdisciplines, analytics, statistical analysis, and advanced computing research aimed at (1) the current acute challenges with COVID-19 and (2) the methods for containing and addressing pandemics more generally for longer-term preparedness, including for future pathogens and SARS-like viruses. In response to the acute challenges the world is facing with the COVID-19 pandemic, C3.ai DTI calls for proposals on understanding and mitigating the spread of COVID-19, improving the ability of the public health and medical establishment to respond, and minimizing the impact of this disease on society.  These projects could be stand-alone or could leverage existing funded efforts that are already addressing COVID-19 and other pandemics. However, the interests of C3.ai DTI are in the use of AI/ML, data analytics, cloud computing, and change management to mitigate the course and impact of the disease. The C3.ai DTI also has an interest at the intersection of technology and policy, related to digital transformation.

Please note, Principal Investigators for these research award proposals must be researchers from the C3.ai DTI consortium member institutions, but Co-Investigators can be from other institutions. 
NIHDrugAbuseResearchR01
Accelerating the Pace of Drug Abuse Research Using Existing Data (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
Sponsor Deadlines:  June 5, 2020; October 5, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Award Information: Budgets may request no more than $499,999 in direct costs per year, and the maximum project period is 5 years.

The purpose of this FOA is to invite applications proposing innovative analysis of existing social science, behavioral, administrative, and neuroimaging data to study the etiology and epidemiology of substance using behaviors (defined as alcohol, tobacco, prescription and other substances) and related disorders, prevention of substance use and HIV, and health service utilization. This FOA encourages the analyses of public use and other extant community-based or clinical datasets to their full potential in order to increase our knowledge of etiology, trajectories of substance using behaviors and their consequences including morbidity and mortality, risk and resilience in the development of psychopathology, strategies to guide the development, testing, implementation, and delivery of high quality, effective and efficient services for the prevention and treatment of substance use disorder and HIV. 
NIHDataRepositoryU24
Biomedical Data Repository (U24 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)
Sponsor Deadlines: September 25, 2020; January 25, 2021; September 24, 2021; January 25, 2022; September 26, 2022; January 25, 2023
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Award Information: Application budgets are not limited. The maximum project period is 5 years.

This funding opportunity announcement is designed to support biomedical data repositories. Biomedical data repositories under this announcement should have the primary function to ingest, archive, preserve, manage, distribute, and make accessible the data related to a particular system or systems. Support for data curation must be limited to that which improves the efficiency and accessibility of data ingestion, management, and use and reuse by the user communities. Support for software and tool development must be limited to that which provides essential functions or significantly increases the efficiency of operation of the repository. Applications that have a significant focus on software and tool development are not appropriate for this activity.
NIHKnowledgebaseU24
Biomedical Knowledgebase (U24 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)
Sponsor Deadlines: September 25, 2020; January 25, 2021; September 24, 2021; January 25, 2022; September 26, 2022; January 25, 2023
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Award Information: Application budgets are not limited. The maximum project period is 5 years.

This funding opportunity announcement is designed to support biomedical knowledgebases. Biomedical knowledgebases under this announcement should have the primary function to extract, accumulate, organize, annotate, and link growing bodies of information related to core datasets. Support for data curation should include efficient and effective methods of curation that scale to the needs of the community and include semi-automated methods. Support for software and tool development must be limited to that which provides essential functions or significantly increases the efficiency of operation of the knowledgebase.  Applications that have a significant focus on software or tool development are not appropriate for this activity.
NIHBRAINDataAnalysisR01
BRAIN Initiative: Integration and Analysis of BRAIN Initiative Data (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested):  30 days prior to the proposal deadline
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals: September 9, 2020; March 4, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The maximum project period is 3 years. NIH intends to commit an estimated total of $4M to fund 10 awards.

This FOA solicits applications to develop informatics tools for analyzing, visualizing, and integrating data related to the BRAIN Initiative or to enhance our understanding of the brain. Tools that integrate different types of data may link data across multiple scales or across different species. The focus for integration tools in this FOA is mainly in finding the data and applying metrics for data alignment, standardization and normalization for further analysis. The tools must be user-friendly in accessing and analyzing data from appropriate data archives. Ultimately, it is expected that much of the BRAIN Initiative data will be stored in a cloud environment, although that may not be initially true. In general, the tools supported under this FOA should analyze/visualize data without the need to download them. The tools should allow data to be combined for analysis/visualization from multiple locations.
NIHBRAINSecondaryAnalysisR01
BRAIN Initiative: Secondary Analysis and Archiving of BRAIN Initiative Data (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested):  May 11, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: June 11, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: June 4, 2020
Award Information:  Maximum of $300,000 in direct costs per year for up to 3 years. NIH intends to commit an estimated total of $4M to fund 8 awards in FY2020.

This FOA encourages secondary analysis of the large amounts of existing data related to the BRAIN Initiative. The data do not need to be held in one of the funded BRAIN Initiative data archives, but the data must be held in a data archive that is readily accessible to the research community. Support will be provided for innovative analysis of relevant existing datasets using conventional or novel analytic methods, data science techniques, and machine learning approaches. Support may also be requested to prepare and submit existing data into any of the BRAIN Initiative data archives. Investigators should not underestimate the time and effort that may be necessary to curate or harmonize data.
 
Analyzed data, models and analytical tools generated under this FOA are expected to be deposited into an appropriate data archive. Since the BRAIN Initiative data archives are mostly making the data available to the research community through cloud-based storage, depositing the analyzed data, models and tools are expected to enhance opportunities to create a data sandbox where investigators can easily compare the results of their analysis with those from other research groups.
 
The goal of this FOA is to promote studies that will significantly advance new discoveries and accelerate the pace of research of the BRAIN Initiative through harnessing the big data and machine learning opportunities. Awardees are expected to enhance the value of existing data, improve the overall data integration and analysis capability, and strengthen the statistical power and rigor and reproducibility of BRAIN Initiative related data.
NIHHIV
Harnessing Big Data to Halt HIV (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
Sponsor Deadlines: May 7, 2020; September 7, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The maximum project period is 5 years. 

The purpose of this FOA is to promote research that transforms understanding of HIV transmission, the HIV care continuum, and HIV comorbidities using Big Data Science (BDS). This FOA will support projects to assemble diverse big data sources, conduct robust and reproducible analyses, and create meaningful visualizations of big data, as well as engage ethical experts where appropriate to ensure the development of this scientific area is guided by ethical principles.
NIHNHGRICompGenomicsDS
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
Investigator Initiated Research in Computational Genomics and Data Science (R01 and R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): 30 days prior to the proposal deadline
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals: July 16, 2020; November 16, 2020; July 16, 2021  
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Award Information: R01  application budgets are limited to $500,000 in direct costs per year . The maximum project period for an R01 is 5 years. The combined budget for direct costs for a two year R21 project period may not exceed $275,000. No more than $200,000 may be requested in any single R21 budget year.

The purpose of these FOAs is to invite applications for a broad range of research efforts in computational genomics, data science, statistics, and bioinformatics relevant to basic and/or clinical genomic science, and broadly applicable to human health and disease. These FOAs support fundamental genomics research developing innovative analytical methodologies and approaches, early stage development of tools and software, and refinement or hardening of software and tools of high value to the biomedical genomics community. Work supported under these FOAs should be enabling for genomics and be generalizable or broadly applicable across diseases and biological systems. All applications should address how the methods would scale to address larger and larger data sets.
NIHNIAAIandAgingP41
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratories for Aging Research (P30 Clinical Trial Optional)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): September 1, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals:  October 1, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: September 24, 2020 
Award Information: Up to $2.5M in direct costs per year. The maximum project period is 5 years.

This FOA invites applications for the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratories (AITC) for Aging Research program. The AITC program will serve as a national resource to promote the development and implementation of artificial intelligence approaches and technology through demonstration projects to improve care and health outcomes for older Americans, including persons with dementia (PWD) and their caregivers.

Please note that organizations are limited to submitting one proposal in response to this RFA. If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please contact Erin Hale in FAS Research Development at erin_hale@fas.harvard.edu.
NIHNIAADDataStorageU24
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
NIA Genetics of Alzheimer's Disease Data Storage Site (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): 30 days prior to proposal deadline
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals:  May 25, 2020; September 25, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Award Information: Application budgets are not limited. The maximum project period is 5 years.

This FOA invites applications specific to infrastructure that will support the storage, analysis, and sharing of primary and secondary data for the genetics and genomics of Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD).
NIHNIATranslationalBioinformaticsR01
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Translational Bioinformatics Approaches to Advance Drug Repositioning and Combination Therapy Development for Alzheimer's Disease (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
Sponsor Deadlines:  June 5, 2020; October 5, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Award Information:  Application budgets are not limited. The maximum project period is 5 years. NIA intends to commit $5 million in FY 2021 to fund 2-4 awards.

This FOA enables data-driven drug repositioning and combination therapy for Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD) by developing computational methods and data resources and/or integrating computational approaches with proof-of-concept efficacy studies in cell-based models, animal models, and/or humans.
NIHNICHDDataSetsR03
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Archiving and Documenting Child Health and Human Development Data Sets (R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested):  30 days prior to proposal deadline
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals: June 16, 2020; October 16, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Application budgets are limited to $50,000 in direct costs per year. The maximum project period is 2 years.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement is to support the archiving and documentation of existing data sets within the scientific mission of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in order to enable secondary analysis of these data by the scientific community. The highest priority is to archive original data collected with NICHD funding.
NIHNIMHAINeuralCircuitsR01
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Decoding and Modulating Neural Circuit Activity Linked to Behavior (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): 30 days prior to proposal deadline
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals: March 10, 2021; March 10, 2022
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Application budgets are not limited. The maximum project period is 5 years. 

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) aims to provide strong predictive value along with mechanistic understanding of AI by combining machine learning techniques with effective explanatory techniques. This Funding Opportunity Announcement solicits applications in the area of XAI applied to neuroscientific questions of encoding, decoding, and modulation of neural circuits linked to behavior. This FOA encourages collaborations between computationally and experimentally-focused investigators. This FOA seeks the development of machine learning algorithms that are able to mechanistically explain how experimental manipulations affect cognitive, affective, or social processing in humans or animals. Proof-of-concept applications aimed at improving the current state of the technology that uses XAI to provide unbiased, hierarchical explanations of causal relationships between complex neural and behavioral data are also appropriate.
NIHNLMPersonalHealthLibrariesR01
National Library of Medicine (NLM)
Data Science Research: Personal Health Libraries for Consumers and Patients (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): 30 days prior to proposal deadline
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals: July 31, 2020; January 19, 2021; July 30, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Up to $250,000 in direct costs may be requested in any single year. The total project period may not exceed 4 years.

The National Library of Medicine seeks applications for novel informatics and data science approaches that can help individuals gather, manage and use data and information about their personal health. A goal of this program is to advance research and application by patients and the research community through broadly sharing the results via publication, and through open source mechanisms for data or resource sharing.

Please note that organizations are limited to submitting one proposal in response to this Program Solicitation. If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please contact Erin Hale in FAS Research Development at erin_hale@fas.harvard.edu.
NIHNLMInformaticsDSR01
National Library of Medicine (NLM)
NLM Research Grants in Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
Sponsor Deadlines: June 5, 2020; October 5, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Application budgets are limited to $250,000 per year in direct costs.  The maximum project period is 4 years.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) supports innovative research and development in biomedical informatics and data science. The scope of NLM's interest in these research domains is broad, with emphasis on new methods and approaches to foster data driven discovery in the biomedical and clinical health sciences as well as domain-independent, reusable approaches to discovery, curation, analysis, organization and management of health-related digital objects. Biomedical informatics and data science draw upon many fields, including mathematics, statistics, information science, computer science and engineering, and social/behavioral sciences. Application domains include health care delivery, basic biomedical research, clinical and translational research, precision medicine, public health, biosurveillance, health information management in disasters, and similar areas. NLM defines biomedical informatics as the science of optimal representation, organization, management, integration and presentation of information relevant to human health and biology. NIH defines data science as the interdisciplinary field of inquiry in which quantitative and analytical approaches, processes, and systems are developed and used to extract knowledge and insights from increasingly large and/or complex sets of data.

In March 2019, NIH issued a Notice of Special Interest: Computational and Statistical Methods to Enhance Discovery from Health Data to highlight its interest in receiving grant applications through this program that focus on research to reduce or mitigate gaps and errors in health data sets. NLM invites research grant applications that propose state of the art methods and approaches to address problems with large health data sets or tools used to analyze them, whether the data are drawn from electronic health records or public health data sets, biomedical imaging, omics repositories or other biomedical or social/behavioral data sets. 
NIHNIAIDSecondAnalysisIDR21
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Secondary Analysis of Existing Datasets for Advancing Infectious Disease Research (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Sponsor Deadlines: June 16, 2020; October 16, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Direct costs are limited to $275,000 over a two-year project period, with no more than $200,000 in direct costs allowed in any single year.

The purpose of this FOA is to support projects that utilize open-access data, alone or in combination with other datasets, to address knowledge gaps in basic and/or clinical research in infectious diseases.  
NIHNOSIAdminSuppOpenScience
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements to Support Enhancement of Software Tools for Open Science
Sponsor Deadline: May 15, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: May 8, 2020
Award Information:  Up to $150,000 in direct costs for up to 1 year. 6-10 awards are anticipated.

This Notice announces the availability of administrative supplements to active grants that focus on biomedical software development or have a significant software development component. The goal of these supplements is to invest in research software tools with recognized value in a scientific community to enhance their impact by leveraging best practices in software development and advances in cloud computing. This initiative is part of a plan for implementing the  NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science , which describes actions aimed at modernizing the biomedical research data ecosystem and making data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) with high impact for open science. The supplements are intended to support collaborations between biomedical scientists and software engineers to enhance the design, implementation, and "cloud-readiness" of research software. Through these awards, the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS) intends to help researchers who have developed scientifically valuable software to make tools sustainable, contribute to open science, and take advantage of new data science and computing paradigms.

To be eligible, the parent award must be able to receive funds in FY2020 (Oct. 1, 2019-Sept. 30, 2020) and not be in the final year or in a no-cost extension period at the time of the award. Administrative supplement requests may be submitted for the following activity codes: R01, U01, R03, R00, R21, R33, R35, R37, R61.
NIHPRSStudySitesU01
Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) Methods and Analysis for Populations of Diverse Ancestry - Study Sites (U01 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): May 23, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: June 23, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: June 16, 2020
Award Information:  In FY 2021,  NHGRI intends to commit up to $5M in total costs to fund 3-5 awards, and  NCI intends to commit $1M in total costs to fund 1 award. The award period for this FOA is 5 years.

The goal of this FOA is to establish Study Sites for Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) Methods and Analysis for Populations of Diverse Ancestry to collaboratively generate and refine PRS for populations of diverse ancestry by integrating existing datasets with genomic and phenotype data for a range of complex diseases and traits. Together with a Coordinating Center (described in a separate FOA), grantees funded under this FOA will form a Consortium with the primary objectives of: 1) leveraging genetic diversity to develop methods and improve the applicability of PRS to predict health and disease risk across diverse populations, and for a broad range of health and disease measures; and 2) optimizing the integration of large-scale, harmonized genomic and phenotype data to facilitate collaborative analysis, dissemination of PRS-related data, and development of related methods and resources.  During the five-year project period, the Consortium will support 3-5 PRS Study Sites and one Coordinating Center.  
NIHMobileTechAnalyticsK18
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Short-term Mentored Career Enhancement Awards in Mobile and Wireless Health Technology and Data Analytics: Cross-Training at the Intersection of Behavioral and Social Sciences and STEM Disciplines (K18 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed and K18 Independent Clinical Trial Required)
Sponsor Deadline:  July 12, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: July 2, 2020
Award Information:  Award budgets are composed of salary and other program-related expenses. Participating NIH Institutes and Centers will contribute up to $80,000 per year toward the salary of the career award recipient and $25,000 per year toward the research development costs of the award recipient . The total project period may not exceed 2 years.

The goal of this program is to support the development of research capability in mobile and wireless health technology (e.g., wearable devices, mobile applications, electronic health records, data analytics). Special emphasis will be given to independent behavioral and social sciences investigators who seek to train in a STEM discipline (e.g., big data analysis, computational modeling, engineering, computer science, and mathematics) or to STEM scientists who wish to train in a behavioral and social science discipline. Before submitting the application, the candidate must identify a mentor who will supervise the proposed career development and research experience.

By the time of award, the individual must be a citizen or a non-citizen national of the United States or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence (i.e., possess a currently valid Permanent Resident Card USCIS Form I-551, or other legal verification of such status). Candidates for the K18 award must have a research or health-professional doctoral degree. This award is intended for well-established investigators who have established records of independent, peer-reviewed Federal or private research grant funding. Applicants are not required to have active research grant support at the time of application for this award. Candidates are required to commit a minimum of 75% of full-time professional effort (i.e., a minimum of 9 person-months) to their program of career development during the mentored phase. 
NIHVAEHRLargeScaleDataR01
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
High-Priority Areas for Research Leveraging EHR and Large-Scale Data (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Sponsor Deadlines:  June 5, 2020; October 5, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The maximum project period is 5 years.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement encourages research project grant (R01) applications to leverage large-scale, real-world data from electronic health records (EHRs) from a variety of systems (e.g., the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrative claims, as well as public or private health care systems and networks) to understand risk, onset, course, and impact of treatments and services for mental and neurological disorders and to identify promising new mental health and neurological disorders research. There is particular interest in leveraging EHRs and administrative data to: 1) understand and improve the treatment of post traumatic psychopathology, including posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and risk for suicide; and 2) characterize post-trauma multi-symptom recovery trajectory patterns of TBI, that may include post traumatic stress disorder, depression, cognitive impairment, pain, substance abuse disorder and risk for suicide. NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) also invites innovative approaches to use EHR and administrative data to understand risk, onset, course, and impact of treatments and services for mental disorders more broadly.
NSFCogNeuro
Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE)
Cognitive Neuroscience (CogNeuro) 
Sponsor Deadlines: August 13, 2020; February 11, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Average award size is ~$175,000 per year (including both direct and indirect costs) and the average duration is 3 years
 
The cognitive neuroscience program seeks to fund highly innovative proposals that employ brain-based measurements in order to advance our understanding of the neural systems that mediate cognitive processes.  New frontiers in cognitive neuroscience research have emerged from investigations that integrate data at different spatial and temporal scales.  Human cognitive science encompasses a wide range of topics, including attention, learning, memory, decision-making, language, social cognition, and emotions. Proposals will be considered that investigate a particular cognitive process using human brain data. 
NIHNSFJointDMSNIGMS
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Joint DMS/NIGMS Initiative to Support Research at the Interface of the Biological and Mathematical Sciences (DMS/NIGMS)
Sponsor Full Proposal Window: September 1-18, 2020 
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Awards for high-risk, high-reward exploratory projects, or those from new teams of collaborators, are expected to range from $100,000 to $200,000 (total costs) per year for 3 years. Awards for projects of larger scope from well-established teams are expected to range from $200,000 to $400,000 (total costs) per year with durations of 3-4 years. Approximately $5M per year will be made available for new applications (up to $2M from NSF and up to $3M from NIGMS), subject to availability of funds and receipt of meritorious proposals.
 
The Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) plan to support fundamental research in mathematics and statistics necessary to answer questions in the biological and biomedical sciences. Both agencies recognize the need to promote research at the interface between mathematical and life sciences. This program is designed to encourage new collaborations, as well as to support innovative activities by existing teams. Awards from this competition may be made by either NSF or NIH at the option of the agencies, not the grantee.
NSFSCH
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Smart and Connected Health (SCH): Connecting Data, People and Systems
Sponsor Deadline: December 11, 2020 
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: December 4, 2020
Award Information: U p to $300,000 per year for up to 4 years. 8-16 awards per year are anticipated.  
 
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. 

The solicitation invites applications for Integrative projects (INT) which undertake research addressing key application areas by solving problems in multiple scientific domains. The work must make fundamental contributions to two or more disciplines. Projects are expected to include several students and postdocs. Scientists from all disciplines are encouraged to participate. Collaborations with researchers in the health application domains are required.
Education and Training
AERA
AERA Research Grants
Sponsor Deadline: TBA (Fall 2020)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Awards for Research Grants are up to $25,000 for 1 year projects, or up to $35,000 for 2 year projects. Overhead is not allowed on AERA Resarch Grants.  This amount falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. Please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.
 
This program seeks to stimulate research on U.S. education issues using data from the large-scale, national and international data sets supported by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), NSF, and other federal agencies, and to increase the number of education researchers using these data sets. Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals that:
  • develop or benefit from new quantitative measures or methodological approaches for addressing education issues;
  • include interdisciplinary teams with subject matter expertise, especially when studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning;
  • analyze TIMSS, PISA, or other international data resources; or
  • include the integration and analysis of more than one data set.
Research projects related to at least one of the strands above and to science and/or mathematics education are especially encouraged. Other topics of interest include policies and practices related to student achievement in STEM, contextual factors in education, educational participation and persistence (kindergarten through graduate school), early childhood education, and postsecondary education.
IESStatisticsMethods
National Center for Education Research (NCER)
Statistical and Research Methodology in Education
Sponsor Deadline for Letter of Intent (strongly encouraged): May 28, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: July 30, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: July 23, 2020
Award Information: Regular grant proposals may request up to $900,000 for up to 3 years. Early-Career proposals may request up to $225,000 for a maximum project period of 2 years.
 
In this RFA, IES invites applications for research projects that will contribute to its Statistical and Research Methodology in Education grant program. IES's mission is to provide rigorous evidence on which to ground education practice and policy and to encourage its use. The Methods program supports the development of a wide range of methodological and statistical products, including new or improved methods, guidelines and software, to better enable applied education scientists to conduct rigorous education research. Researchers should plan to disseminate their products to applied education researchers who may use them in their own work as well as to methods researchers who may further develop or make use of them.

Two categories of awards are available:
  • Regular grants
  • Early-Career grants - Applicants to the Early Career Grants topic must have received their doctorate on or after April 1, 2016. Applicants who apply for an Early-Career Grant must include a required research mentor or advisory panel who will collaborate on the research. Early Career grants are intended for applicants proposing high-quality work that can be done over a shorter period and with less funding than a Regular Grant. Applicants eligible for Early Career Grants may apply to either the Early Career or the Regular Grants topic.
NIHNHGRIDataScienceAdminSupps
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Availability of Administrative Supplements for Providing Research Experiences for Data Scientists
Sponsor Deadline: May 1, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: April 24, 2020
Award Information:  Application budgets are limited to $125,000 in total costs for a maximum of one year of support. NHGRI anticipates making two awards.

Through this notice, NHGRI seeks to attract early-career researchers with predoctoral data science training into the genomics workforce.This supplement is intended to support NHGRI-funded projects at domestic institutions to enhance genomics research experiences of master's level data scientists. Examples include both individuals who have completed MS degrees in data science and those with MS degrees in areas connected to data science (e.g., mathematics/statistics/computer science/computational biology).  To be eligible, the parent award must be active in June 30, 2021 and not be in an extension period.  Participants will be required to devote a minimum of 6 person-months (50% of full-time professional effort). Applications must be submitted to  PA-18-591 "Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)".
NIHResponsibleDataScienceR25
Training Modules to Enhance the Rigor, Reproducibility and Responsible Conduct of Biomedical Data Science Research (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 
Sponsor Deadline: June 19, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: June 12, 2020
Award Information:  Application budgets may request up to $250,000 in direct costs to cover the entire award project period. Applications may request award project periods of up to three years.

The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The over-arching goal of this 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 c urriculum development.  Specifically, this FOA will support the development of exportable training modules designed to enhance the rigor, reproducibility, and responsible conduct of biomedical and behavioral data science research, targeted to trainees and researchers at any career level.
NSFCSForAll
Computer Science for All (CSforAll: Research and RPPs)
Sponsor Deadline: April 27, 2020; February 10, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information Small RPP  proposals (maximum of $300,000 for up to 2 years) are designed to support the initial steps in establishing a strong and well-integrated RPP team that could successfully compete for a Medium or Large proposal in the near future.  Medium RPP  proposals (maximum of $1M for up to 3 years) are designed to support the modest scaling of a promising approach by a well-defined RPP team.  Large RPP  proposals (maximum of $2M for up to 4 years) are designed to support the widespread scaling of an evidence-based approach by a RPP team that builds on prior collaborations.  Research  proposals (maximum of $500,000 for up to 3 years) are designed to support research projects.

This program aims to provide all U.S. students with the opportunity to participate in computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) education in their schools at the preK-12 levels. With this solicitation, the National Science Foundation (NSF) focuses on both research and researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) that foster the research and development needed to bring CS and CT to all schools. Specifically, this solicitation aims to provide (1) high school teachers with the preparation, professional development (PD) and ongoing support they need to teach rigorous computer science courses; (2) preK-8 teachers with the instructional materials and preparation they need to integrate CS and CT into their teaching; and (3) schools and districts with the resources needed to define and evaluate multi-grade pathways in CS and CT.

Proposals will be funded in four "strands" that foster design, implementation at scale, and/or research:

RPP Strands:
  • For the High School Strand, the focus is on preparing and supporting teachers to teach rigorous CS courses;
  • For the PreK-8 Strand, the focus is on designing, developing, and piloting instructional materials that integrate CS and CT into preK-8 classrooms;
  • For preK-12 or preK-14 Pathways Strand, the focus is on designing pathways that support school districts in developing policies and supports for incorporating CS and CT across all grades and potentially into introductory levels at community or four-year colleges and universities.
Research Strand:

For the Research Strand, the focus is on building strategically instrumental, or "high leverage" knowledge about the learning and teaching of introductory computer science to support key CS and CT understandings and abilities for all students.

A proposal can be submitted to only one strand.
NSFDCLCyberEducationAI
Dear Colleague Letter: Cybersecurity Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Sponsor Deadlines for Research Concept Outlines: May 15, 2020; August 31, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: TBA
Award Information U p to $300,000 over 2 years

NSF intends to fund a small number of Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) to encourage advances in cybersecurity education, an area supported by the Foundation's Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace Education Designation (SaTC-EDU), CyberCorps: Scholarships for Service, and Advanced Technological Education (ATE) programs.  EAGER is a mechanism to support exploratory work, in its early stages, on untested but potentially transformative research ideas or approaches. This work may be considered especially "high risk-high payoff" in the sense that it, for example, involves radically different approaches, applies new expertise, or engages novel disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives. With  this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), NSF expresses its interest in using the EAGER mechanism to encourage new collaborations between the Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and education research communities . Such collaborative efforts could also foster a robust workforce with integrated AI and cybersecurity competencies, and develop an informed public that understands the privacy, confidentiality, ethics, safety, and security implications of AI.

A PI may participate in only one submission pursuant to this DCL.
NSFWorkforceSurveyData
Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE)
Research on the Science and Technology Enterprise: Statistics and Surveys - R&D, U.S. S&T Competitiveness, STEM Education, S&T Workforce
Sponsor Deadline: January 15, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: January 8, 2021
Award Information:  The t otal maximum amount for all awards in FY18 is $750,000. 7-12 awards are anticipated.

The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is one of the thirteen principal federal statistical agencies within the United States. It is responsible for the collection, acquisition, analysis, reporting and dissemination of objective, statistical data related to the science and engineering enterprise in the United States and other nations that is relevant and useful to practitioners, researchers, policymakers and the public. The Center would like to enhance its efforts to support analytic and methodological research in support of its surveys, and to engage in the education and training of researchers in the use of large-scale nationally representative datasets. NCSES welcomes efforts by the research community to use NCSES data for research on the science and technology enterprise, to develop improved survey methodologies for NCSES surveys, to create and improve indicators of S&T activities and resources, and strengthen methodologies to analyze and disseminate S&T statistical data. To that end, NCSES invites proposals for individual or multi-investigator research projects, doctoral dissertation improvement awards, workshops, experimental research, survey research and data collection and dissemination projects under its program for Research on the Science and Technology Enterprise: Statistics and Surveys.
NSFCyberTraining2018
Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (CyberTraining)
Sponsor Deadline: January 20, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: January 12, 2021
Award Information:  Pilot  Projects will be funded up to $300,000 in total costs with durations up to 2 years.  Implementation Projects may be requested at the Small level (with total budgets of up to $500,000) or Medium (with total budgets of up to $1M) for durations of up to 4 years; and  Large-scale Project Conceptualization Projects will be funded up to $500,000 in total costs with durations up to 2 years. Up to 4 Pilot, 8 Small and 3 Medium Implementation, and 3 Large-scale Project Conceptualization awards are anticipated.

This program seeks to prepare, nurture, and grow the national scientific research workforce 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 Implementation projects 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.

Three classes of proposals are being accepted:
  • Pilot Projects are exploratory activities that may lead to Implementation projects.
  • Implementation Projects make CI training and educational activities or curriculum/instructional materials broadly accessible to a significant portion of a community for one or more disciplines. 
  • Large-Scale Project Conceptualization awards are planning grants for potential future large-scale (at the level of institutes) CyberTraining projects. 
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. An individual may serve as PI or co-PI on only one Pilot or Implementation proposal submitted to the CyberTraining program per competition. There are no restrictions or limits on Large-scale Project Conceptualization Project proposals.
Questions about this newsletter or proposal submission may be directed to:

Jennifer Corby
Research Development Officer
jcorby@fas.harvard.edu | 617-495-1590

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Research Development | Research Administration Services | research.fas.harvard.edu