Current Funding Opportunities

From SIResearchInnovationOffice

Revision as of 10:05, 30 July 2008

Thinking of applying to one of these opportunities? Please email si-ori@umich.edu.

NSF: CISE Coordinated Solicitation: Core Programs

As part of NSF CISE Coordinated Solicitation as described in the June 27th Dear Colleague Letter. Each Core Program has announced their upcoming solicitation cycle. See below for more details.

CISE’s Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) announces its support for research and education projects that develop new knowledge in three core programs:

• The Human-Centered Computing program;
• The Information Integration and Informatics program; and
• The Robust Intelligence program.

A more complete description of the three project classes can be found in section II. Program Description in the Solicitation

CISE’s Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) supports research and education projects that develop new knowledge in three core programs:

• The Algorithmic Foundations program;
• The Communications and Information Foundations program; and
• The Software and Hardware Foundations program.

A more complete description of the three project classes can be found in section II. Program Description in the Solicitation

CISE’s Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) announces its support for research and education projects that develop new knowledge in two core programs:

• The Computer Systems Research (CSR) program; and
• The Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) program.

A more complete description of the three project classes can be found in section II. Program Description in the Solicitation

Proposers are invited to submit proposals in three project classes, which are defined as follows:

• Small Projects: Deadline December 17, 2008: up to $500,000 total budget with durations up to three years; This budget is well suited for one or two investigators and one graduate student and/or postdoc.
• Medium Projects: Deadline October 31, 2008: award range of $500,001 to $1,200,000 total budget with durations up to four years; This budget is well suited for one or more investigators and a few graduate students and/or postdoc.
• Large Projects: Deadline November 30, 2008: award range - $1,200,001 to $3,000,000 total budget with durations up to five years. This budget is well suited for two or more investigators and a team of students and/or postdocs

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI: 2 In any contiguous August through December period, an individual may participate as PI, Co-PI or Senior Personnel in no more than two proposals submitted in response to the coordinated solicitation (where coordinated solicitation is defined to include the Computer and Network Systems (CNS): Core Programs, the Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS): Core Programs and the Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF): Core Programs solicitations). These eligibility constraints will be strictly enforced in order to treat everyone fairly and consistently. No exceptions will be made.

NSF: CISE Cross-Cutting Programs - FY '09- (POSTED: 7/2/08)

This solicitation seeks proposals in cross-cutting areas that are scientifically timely, and that benefit from the intellectual contributions of researchers with expertise in a number of computing fields and/or sub-fields. The cross-cutting programs for FY 2009 are:

• Data-intensive Computing
  • seeks to increase our understanding of the capabilities and limitations of data-intensive computing
  • The program will fund projects in all areas of computer and information science and engineering that increase our ability to build and use data-intensive computing systems and applications, help us understand their limitations, and create a knowledgeable workforce capable of operating and using these systems as they increasingly become a major force in our economy and society

• Network Science and Engineering
  • seeks proposals focused on developing new theoretical foundations, principles and methodologies to understand and reason about the dynamics and behavior of current and future large-scale networks, the interdependence among the physical, informational and social networks they embody, and the tradeoffs among communication, computation and storage
  • seeks broad, interdisciplinary advances in network science and engineering, and thus anticipates that successful projects with multiple investigators will typically need to bring together a team of people with different, complementary expertise, and single-investigator proposals will need to show that the investigator has expertise in two or more CISE-related areas, appropriate for the projects proposed

• Trustworthy Computing
  • program will support projects that strengthen the scientific foundations of trustworthiness, in order to inform the creation of new trustworthy technologies
  • especially seek new models, logics, algorithms, and theories for analyzing and reasoning about all aspects of trustworthiness-- reliability, security, privacy, and usability-- about all components and their composition
  • seeks proposals focused on usability

Proposers are invited to submit proposals in three project classes, which are defined as follows:

• Small Projects - Deadline: December 1, 2008 - December 22, 2008
  • up to $500,000 total budget with durations up to three years
  • well suited to one or two investigators (PI and one co-PI or other Senior Personnel) and at least one student and/or postdoc
• Medium Projects - Deadline: October 1, 2008 - October 31, 2008
  • $500,001 to $1,200,000 total budget with durations up to four years
  • suited to one or more investigators (PI, co-PI and/or other Senior Personnel) and several students and/or postdocs
• Large Projects - November 1, 2008 - November 30, 2008
  • $1,200,001 to $3,000,000 total budget with durations up to five years
  • suited to two or more investigators (PI, co-PI(s), or other Senior Personnel), and a team of students and/or postdocs

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI: 2

For additional information please see NSF Solicitation 08-578

Army Research Laboratory - Basic and Applied Research - Deadline: Open through FY11

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) solicits proposals for basic and scientific research in chemistry, electronics, environmental sciences, life sciences, materials science, mathematical and computer sciences, mechanical sciences, physics, computational and information sciences, sensors and electron devices, survivability/lethality analysis, and weapons and materials research.

In order to conserve valuable offeror and Government resources and to facilitate determining whether a proposed research idea meets the guidelines described herein, prospective offerors contemplating submission of a white paper or proposal are strongly encouraged to contact the appropriate technical point of contact (TPOC) before submission. The TPOCs’ names, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses are listed immediately after each research area of interest.

Some areas of Interest for SI (see the BAA for details, page numbers listed below):

1.2 Information Science and Technology (pages 7-8)

d. Information and data fusion/visualization

e. Data mining/Social network analysis

1.7 Database Technology (page 11)

Air Force Office of Scientific Research FY08 BAA - Deadline: Open through FY08

Some specific areas of interest to the school of information are found in section c of the BAA - Mathematics, Information and Life Sciences. See specifically section 2) Complex Networks, 4) Distributed Intelligence and Information Fusion, 6) Mathematical Modeling of Cognition and Decision, 9) Sensory Information Systems, and 10) Collective Behavior and Socio-Cultural Modeling.

For more information please go to AFOSR FY08 General BAA

New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan - Deadline: Open

New Economy Initiative grants support the efforts of nonprofit organizations, charities, and government agencies to transform the economy of southeast Michigan and return prosperity to the region. Grants are available for a variety of activities, but proposed activities must be focused on helping to achieve the goal of the New Economy Initiative and its objectives focused on talent, innovation and culture change.

For more information please go to New Economy Initiative Program Description

Google Research Awards - Deadline: Open

Awards through this program are typically either monetary awards (in the range from $5K-$150K) and/or potential access to anonymized data for research purposes. The awards are intended to help promote and support academic research aimed at improving information access defined broadly. Areas that are of particular interest are included in the RFP.

Participants in the award program are expected to have a primary contact at Google through which they can discuss research directions, provide updates on progress, engage in knowledge transfer, etc. Google maintains an academic environment that we would like award recipients to participate in by giving talks on their work and engaging in discussions with our research group.

By sharing new ideas and key insights, we hope that both Google and award recipients can mutually benefit from the program. Generally, we will invite the writers of promising award proposals to come to our Mountain View offices to discuss their research further with researchers here. After the research is completed, we will once again invite the award recipient to Google to discuss the results of their work. The purpose of this program is both to facilitate more interaction between Google and academia and also develop a strong relationship and partnership with universities.

For more information please see the RFP

NEH - Preservation and Access: Humanities Collections and Resources - Deadline July 31, 2008

The possibilities presented by advances in digital technology require a new grant category that encompasses the range of activities funded through the previous programs and encourages the development of digital methods and tools to increase the availability and long-term preservation of humanities collections and resources. Grants support projects that preserve and create intellectual access to such collections as books, journals, manuscript and archival materials, maps, still and moving images, sound recordings, art, and objects of material culture. To ensure that significant collections are preserved and available for research, education, or public programming in the humanities, applications may be submitted for the following activities:

• digitizing collections;
• arranging and describing archival and manuscript collections;
• cataloging collections of printed works, photographs, recorded sound, moving image, art, and material culture;
• preservation reformatting;
• deacidification of collections; and
• preserving and improving access to humanities resources in “born digital” form.

For more information please go to the NEH Program Guidelines

NSF Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships - Deadline: August 1, 2008 (POSTED: 7/2/08)

• UM Internal Competition: Project Summary Deadline: August 1, 2008
  • Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: 3

A single organization may submit a maximum of three preliminary proposals as the lead institution. A single organization may also request funding via a subaward as a funded partner organization. In no case may an organization request funds as a lead or funded partner organization on more than five preliminary proposals. Note that this limit only applies if an organization is requesting NSF support, i.e., there is no limit on the number of proposals in which an organization may participate as an unfunded partner. Full proposals are to be submitted only when invited by NSF. The STC program will not provide support for more than one proposed Center from any one lead institution in this competition.

• Preliminary Proposal Deadline (required): September 30, 2008

• Full Proposal Deadline: April 30, 2009 (Full proposals are by invitation only)

SYNOPSIS: The Science and Technology Centers (STC): Integrative Partnerships program supports innovative, potentially transformative, complex research and education projects that require large-scale, long-term awards. STCs conduct world-class research through partnerships among academic institutions, national laboratories, industrial organizations, and/or other public/private entities, and via international collaborations, as appropriate. They provide a means to undertake important investigations at the interfaces of disciplines and/or fresh approaches within disciplines. STC investments support the NSF vision of advancing discovery, innovation and education beyond the frontiers of current knowledge, and empowering future generations in science and engineering.

Centers provide a rich environment for encouraging future scientists, engineers, and educators to take risks in pursuing discoveries and new knowledge. STCs foster excellence in education by integrating education and research, and by creating bonds between learning and inquiry so that discovery and creativity fully support the learning process.

NSF expects STCs to demonstrate leadership in the involvement of groups traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering at all levels within the Center. To achieve their diversity objectives, STCs are expected to involve individuals from underrepresented groups as members of the Center faculty, and as students actively engaged in Center activities. STCs are strongly encouraged to form meaningful, substantive and long-term partnerships with minority-serving institutions, women's colleges and institutions serving students with disabilities, thereby providing formal connections with institutions that serve large populations of underrepresented students interested in STEM.

Centers undertake activities that will facilitate knowledge transfer, i.e., the mutual exchange of scientific and technical information among the Center partners and others with the objective of disseminating and utilizing knowledge broadly in multiple sectors.

For more information please see NSF Solicitation 08-580

NSF - Science, Technology and Society - Deadline: August 1, 2008

STS considers proposals that examine historical, philosophical, and sociological questions that arise in connection with science, engineering, and technology, and their respective interactions with society. STS has four components:

• Ethics and Values in Science, Engineering and Technology (EVS),
• History and Philosophy of Science, Engineering and Technology (HPS),
• Social Studies of Science, Engineering and Technology (SSS),
• Studies of Policy, Science, Engineering and Technology (SPS).

The components overlap, but are distinguished by the different scientific and scholarly orientations they take to the subject matter, as well as by different focuses within the subject area. STS encourages the submission of hybrid proposals that strive to integrate research involving two or more of these core areas.

STS provides the following modes of support:

• Scholars Awards,
• Standard Research Grants and Grants for Collaborative Research,
• Postdoctoral Fellowships,
• Professional Development Fellowships,
• Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants,
• Small Grants for Training and Research,
• Conference and Workshop Awards,
• Other Funding Opportunities.

For more information please visit the NSF Program Solicitation NSF 08-553

NSF CISE Computing Research Infrastructure - Deadline: August 5, 2008

The Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Computing Research Infrastructure (CRI) program supports the acquisition, development, enhancement, and operation of research infrastructure that enables discovery, learning, and innovation in all computing fields supported by CISE. Supported infrastructure includes instrumentation needed by research or research and education projects, major experimental facilities for an entire department or for multi-institutional projects, and testbeds or data archives for an entire subfield of CISE researchers.

The CRI program aims at providing infrastructure that enables high-quality computing research and education and extending the set of individuals and departments that are able to conduct such activities. The CRI program is committed to maintaining a broad portfolio that supports research and education across a diverse population and lessens the digital divide. The program encourages proposals that are from or that include minority-serving institutions.

The CRI program is designed to complement the funding available in CISE research programs: Infrastructure Acquisition/Development awards support infrastructure that is used for the proposing team's research; and, Community Resource Development awards support the development of resources that serve broad research communities.

The CRI program will support a variety of infrastructure needs, such as general or specialized research equipment, technical support, and/or software. CRI will also support the development of infrastructure that can be used by others, such as data archives or libraries of software tools. The infrastructure must facilitate high-quality research and related education, and cannot be acquired or developed without funding resources beyond those available from individual research and education grants and the host institution.

The CRI program will make three kinds of awards.

• Infrastructure Acquisition/Development. These awards have budgets from $50,000 and up to $2,000,000.
• Community Resource Development. These awards have budgets from $300,000 to $2,000,000. Community Resource Development projects create a resource for an entire CISE research community, such as a testbed for evaluating research results or a large data resource for use by a research community (e.g., annotated speech data).
• Planning. These awards facilitate the preparation of a proposal for a medium or large Infrastructure Acquisition/Development or Community Resource Development grant. They have budgets up to $50,000 for one institution or up to $100,000 if more than one institution is involved.

The program supports projects in four size categories: large projects have budget requests from $800,000 and up to $2,000,000; medium projects have budget requests from $300,000 and up to $799,999; small projects have budgets from $50,000 and up to $299,999; Planning proposals may request budgets up to $50,000 for one institution or $100,000 for two or more institutions. Project sizes affect page limits, review processes, and eligibility.

The CRI program replaces and expands upon three previous CISE programs: Minority Institutional Infrastructure (MII), Research Infrastructure (RI), and Research Resources (RR). The most significant changes from the former programs are that CRI will support Community Resource Development grants in addition to Infrastructure Acquisition/Development grants.

For more information please go to the NSF Program Announcement NSF 06-597

NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM)- Deadline: August 12, 2008 (POSTED 6/13/08)

• Letter of Intent Due Date (optional): July 10, 2008

This program makes grants to institutions of higher education to support scholarships for academically talented, financially needy students, enabling them to enter the workforce following completion of an associate, baccalaureate, or graduate level degree in science and engineering disciplines. Grantee institutions are responsible for selecting scholarship recipients, reporting demographic information about student scholars, and managing the S-STEM project at the institution.

The program does not make scholarship awards directly to students; students should contact their institution’s Office of Financial Aid for this and other scholarship opportunities.

For more information please go to the NSF Program Announcement 07-524

NSF Advances in Biological Informatics (ABI)- Deadline: August 12, 2008

The Advances in Biological Informatics (ABI) program seeks to encourage new approaches to the analysis and dissemination of biological knowledge for the benefit of both the scientific community and the broader public. The ABI program is especially interested in the development of informatics tools and resources that have the potential to advance, or transform, research in biology supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation.

For more information please see NSF Program Solicitation 08-563

NSF Expeditions in Computing - Deadline: September 10, 2008

• Preliminary Proposal Deadline (required): September 10, 2008

• Full Proposal Deadline: February 10, 2009

The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) has created 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, investigators are encouraged to come together within or across departments or institutions to combine their creative talents in the identification of compelling, transformative research agendas that promise disruptive innovations in computing and information for many years to come.

Funded at levels up to $2,000,000 per year for five years, Expeditions represent some of the largest single investments currently made by the directorate. Together with the Science and Technology Centers CISE supports, Expeditions form the centerpiece of the directorate’s award portfolio. With awards funded at levels that promote the formation of research teams, CISE recognizes that concurrent research advances in multiple fields or sub-fields are often necessary to stimulate deep and enduring outcomes.

CISE anticipates hosting an Expeditions competition annually, making three awards in each competition that over five years will result in steady-state support for fifteen projects. The awards made in this program will complement projects supported by other CISE programs, which target particular computing or information disciplines or fields.

For more information please see NSF Program Solicitation 08-568

ALISE/OCLC - Library and Information Science Research Grant Program - Deadline: September 17, 2008

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated, and OCLC Research in collaboration with the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) announce the Library and Information Science Research Grant (LISRG) program for 2009 and invite research proposals. In recognition of the importance of research to the advancement of librarianship and information science, OCLC and ALISE promote independent research that helps librarians integrate new technologies into areas of traditional competence and contributes to a better understanding of the library environment. To aid new researchers, priority will be given when possible to proposals from junior faculty and applicants who have not previously received LISRG fund.

For more information please go to ALISE/OCLC/LISRG Guidelines

NSF CISE Computing Research Infrastructure (CRI) - Deadline: September 22, 2008

The CISE Computing Research Infrastructure (CRI) program drives discovery and learning in the computing disciplines by supporting the creation, enhancement and operation of world-class computing research infrastructure. Further, through the CRI program CISE seeks to ensure that individuals from a diverse range of academic institutions, including minority-serving and predominantly undergraduate institutions, have access to such infrastructure.

The CRI program supports two classes of awards:

• Institutional Infrastructure awards support either the creation of new computing research infrastructure or the enhancement of existing computing research infrastructure to enable world-class research and education opportunities at the awardee and collaborating institutions.

• Community Infrastructure awards support the planning for computing research infrastructure, or the creation of new computing infrastructure, or the enhancement of existing computing research infrastructure to enable world-class research and education opportunities for broadly-based communities of researchers and educators that extend well beyond the awardee institutions. Furthermore, CI awards support the operation of such infrastructure, ensuring that awardee institutions are well-positioned to provide a high quality of service to community researchers and educators expected to use the infrastructure to realize their research and education goals.

For more information please see NSF Program Solicitation 08-570

NSF Creative IT - Deadline: September 26, 2008

The CreativeIT Program solicits proposals for projects that explore synergistic cross disciplinary research in creativity and computer science and information technology. Information technology is playing an increasing role in extending the capability of human creative thinking and problem solving. The study of creativity and computing as a way to advance computer science and information technology, cognitive science, engineering, education, or science can lead to new models of creative computational processes, innovative approaches to education that encourage creativity, innovative modes of research that include creative professionals, and new technology to support human creativity.

For more information please see NSF Program Solicitation 08-572

International Council for Canadian Studies - Research Grant Program - Deadline: September 30, 2008

The Research Grant Program promotes research that contributes to a better knowledge and understanding of Canada, its relationship with the United States, and its international affairs. The grant is designed to assist individual scholars, or a team of scholars, in writing an article-length manuscript of publishable quality and reporting their findings in a scholarly publication and at scholarly conferences, thus contributing to the development of expertise on Canada in the United States. We welcome efforts to integrate the research findings into the applicant's teaching load.

We are particularly interested in projects that have policy relevance for Canada and Canada-U.S. relations. Topics that are highly relevant to Canada-U.S. relations include smart and secure borders; North American economic competitiveness; regulatory cooperation; Canada-U.S. trade and investment partnership; energy security and sustainability; environmental sustainability; emergency planning and management; Canada-U.S. security and defense cooperation; Canada in Afghanistan; global health policy; and changing demographics in North America. We strongly encourage projects that include collaboration with researchers at Canadian institutions.

Applications will be considered in accordance with the procedures, guidelines and conditions described below. Over the past three years, applicants have had a 39 percent success rate.

This program is intended for faculty members at accredited U.S. four-year colleges and universities, as well as scholars at American research institutions. Recent Ph.D. recipients who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States are also eligible to apply. Applicants are ineligible to receive the same grant in two consecutive years or to receive two individual category Canadian Studies grants in the same grant period.

For more information please visit the Washington Canadian Embassy Website

NSF Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) - Deadline: September 30, 2008 (POSTED: 6/16/08)

• Letter of Intent Due Date (optional): August 19, 2008

The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) seeks to increase the number of students (U.S. citizens or permanent residents) receiving associate or baccalaureate degrees in established or emerging fields within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Type 1 Deadline for the U of M Internal Competition was July 14, 2008 Type 2 proposals are solicited that support educational research projects on associate or baccalaureate degree attainment in STEM.

For more information please see NSF Program Solicication 08-569

CCMB Pilot Research Grant Program - Deadline: October 20, 2008 (POSTED: 7/18/08)

The CCMB is committed to developing and applying computational and informatics approaches in biomedical research through faculty interactions, our academic program and seminars, major interdisciplinary research, and Pilot Projects. One of the key aims of this process is to stimulate new collaborations and bring resources of the CCMB to the attention of the University community. The CCMB announces its Pilot Research Grant Competition for 2008 (FY2009). The goal is to bring together research faculty in different fields computational/mathematical/statistical/informatics and biological/chemical/clinical/translational) in joint projects which will foster successful future proposals to NIH or other funding agencies.

Proposals for the Pilot Research Grant Program require a pairing of a computational/mathematical/statistical/informatics PI with a biological/chemical/clinical/translational PI. The two primary collaborators must be from the two different domains, and both must make substantive research contributions. At least one investigator must be on the roster of CCMB Affiliate Faculty. The compelling and feasible research aim should combine use of computational and informatics capabilities with an important biological or biomedical problem. Innovation on both computational and experimental sides is strongly encouraged. The plan must be persuasive that a grant of $50,000 to $70,000 total over a one-year time frame would make a significant difference in generating a strong research proposal for external funding.

complete application guidelines and instructions

International Council for Canadian Studies - Doctoral Student Research Award - Deadline: October 31, 2008

The Doctoral Student Research Award promotes research that contributes to a better knowledge and understanding of Canada, its relationship with the United States, and its international affairs. The grant is designed to give doctoral students an opportunity to conduct part of their research in Canada. We welcome efforts to integrate the research findings into the applicant's conference presentations.

We are particularly interested in projects that have policy relevance for Canada and Canada-U.S. relations. Topics that are highly relevant to Canada-U.S. relations include smart and secure borders; North American economic competitiveness; regulatory cooperation; Canada-U.S. trade and investment partnership; energy security and sustainability; environmental sustainability; emergency planning and management; Canada-U.S. security and defense cooperation; Canada in Afghanistan; global health policy; and changing demographics in North America. We strongly encourage projects that include collaboration with researchers at Canadian institutions.

Applications will be considered in accordance with the procedures, guidelines and conditions described below. Over the past three years, applicants have had a 37 percent success rate.

This program is intended for doctoral students at accredited U.S. and Canadian four-year colleges and universities whose dissertations are related in substantial part to the study of Canada or Canada-U.S. relations. Candidates must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States and should have completed all doctoral requirements except the dissertation when they apply for a grant. Applicants are ineligible to receive the same grant in two consecutive years.

For more information please go to the Washington Canadian Embassy Website

NSF TeraGrid Phase III: eXtreme Digital Resources for Science and Engineering - Deadline: November 4, 2008 (POSTED: 6/30/08)

• (Required) Deadline for preliminary proposals for Integrating Services: November 04, 2008

• Deadline for full proposals for High-Performance Remote Visualization and Data Analysis Services: November 04, 2008

In many areas of research, a key to making advances is the ability of scientists and engineers to manipulate extremely large quantities of information. Examples include: numerical simulation and modeling; the analysis of very large datasets, whether generated by new generations of scientific instrumentation or by numerical models; and the mining of a wide range of collections of digital artifacts. At the largest scales, the resources needed to work with huge volumes of digital information are expensive and scarce. In recent years, the research community, with support from NSF, has developed the TeraGrid as a way of providing wide access to these scarce, expensive resources. The need for such widely shared, national resources continues to grow and as the currently funded phase of TeraGrid operations approaches its close, NSF is inviting innovative proposals for a new infrastructure to deliver the next generation of high-end digital services, as national resources, that will provide researchers and educators with the capability to work with extremely large amounts of digitally represented information.

For more information please see NSF Program Solicitation 08-571

- - Please note the limit on number of proposals per organization - -

NSF Science of Science and Innovation Policy(SciSIP)- Deadline: December 16, 2008 (POSTED 7/30/08)

The Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) aims to foster the development of the knowledge, theories, data, tools, and human capital needed to cultivate a new Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP). The SciSIP program underwrites fundamental research that creates new explanatory models, analytic tools and datasets designed to inform the nation’s public and private sectors about the processes through which investments in science and engineering (S&E) research are transformed into social and economic outcomes. SciSIP’s goals are to understand the contexts, structures and processes of S&E research, to evaluate reliably the tangible and intangible returns from investments in research and development (R&D), and to predict the likely returns from future R&D investments within tolerable margins of error and with attention to the full spectrum of potential consequences. Specifically, the research, data collection and community development components of SciSIP’s activities will: (1) develop usable knowledge and theories of creative processes and their transformation into social and economic outcomes; (2) develop, improve and expand models and analytical tools that can be applied in the science policy decision making process; (3) improve and expand science metrics, datasets and analytical tools; and (4) develop a community of experts across academic institutions and disciplines focused on SciSIP. For purposes of this solicitation, the term “science metrics” refers to quantitative measures or indicators that provide summary information on the size, scope, quality, and impact of science and engineering activities, with particular focus on inputs and outputs of the science, technology and innovation system. Characterizing the dynamics of discovery and innovation is important for developing valid metrics, for predicting future returns on investments, for constructing fruitful policies, and for developing new forms of workforce education and training.

The FY 2009 competition includes three emphasis areas: Analytical Tools, Model Building, and Data Development and Augmentation. The emergent body of research will develop and utilize techniques for retrospective and prospective analyses. In addition, research will provide insight into factors that propagate new ideas at levels from the molecular functioning of the human brain to the organizational, state, national and international levels as well as advances the analysis and visualization of datasets describing complex social relationships and networks.

In addition to these three emphasis areas, the FY 2009 competition particularly encourages the submission of proposals that demonstrate the viability of collecting and analyzing data on knowledge generation and innovation in organizations. In addition to providing innovative and scientifically based ways of describing and analyzing knowledge generation and innovation in organizations, these demonstration projects should address three specific aspects of the data collection approach:

• scalability and sustainability;
• protection of the confidentiality of respondents in computerized, widely accessible databases
• evaluation and assessment of the project's progress towards its scientific goals

For more information please see NSF Solicitation 08-586