NSF Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships
WHAT: Limited Submission Proposal for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships
WHO: Texas A&M University faculty, including TAES, TEES and TTI personnel.
WHY: Annual budgets must range between $1.5 and $5.0 million dollars for a maximum of five years.
WHEN: Internal proposal deadline of August 4, 2008.
HOW: Faculty should submit an internal proposal via email for review by the internal selection committee.
THE FINE PRINT:
The funding agency below has limited the number of solicitations to three preliminary proposals as the lead institution and two more as a funded partner organization. If the number of faculty wishing to submit a proposal exceeds the number allowed by the agency, we will conduct an internal selection process. Below are due dates for the program, including the due date for the internal proposal for review by the internal selection committee, the date for announcement of the internal selection, the due date for the letter of intent and the due date for submission of the proposal to the agency.
AGENCY: National Science Foundation (NSF)
AGENCY PROGRAM TITLE: NSF 08-580 Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships
BRIEF PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The NSF Science and Technology Centers (STC): Integrative Partnerships Program is designed to support world-class research through partnerships among academic institutions, national laboratories, industrial organizations, and/or other public/private entities, and via international collaborations, as appropriate. The STCs should provide a rich environment for encouraging future scientists, engineers and educators to take risks in pursuing discoveries and new knowledge.
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. Further, centers should undertake activities that will facilitate knowledge transfer, i.e., the mutual exchange of scientific and technical information among center partners and others with the objective of disseminating and utilizing knowledge broadly in multiple sectors.
The seven main objectives of the STC Program are to: support research and education of the highest quality in a center-based environment in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; exploit opportunities in science, engineering and technology where the complexity of the research agenda requires the advantages of scope, scale, flexibility, duration, equipment and facilities that a center can provide; support innovative frontier investigations at the interfaces of disciplines and/or investigations that will lead to fresh approaches within disciplines; engage and develop the nation’s intellectual talent, including groups underrepresented in the sciences, mathematics and engineering disciplines, in the conduct of research and education activities; promote organizational connections and linkages within and between campuses, schools or the world beyond (state, local, federal agencies, national labs, industry, international collaborations), capitalizing upon cyberinfrastructure to facilitate these linkages; focus on integrative learning and discovery and the preparation of U.S. students for a broad set of career paths; and foster science and engineering in service to society especially with respect to new research areas, promising new instrumentation and potential new technologies.
Principal investigators are encouraged to exploit aspects of cyberinfrastructure such as high performance computing, data analysis and visualization, and virtual organizations for distributed communities, in order to support the science and engineering of the center, and to enable and enhance collaborations and resource sharing among the partner institutions. Education and human resource development within centers may be advanced through formal and informal education, research and varied activities such as summer programs, workshops, and recruitment and retention programs. STCs may involve individuals from underrepresented groups as members of the center faculty and as students and postdoctoral researchers actively engaged in the center activities in order to achieve diversity objectives.
Knowledge transfer in a center environment is multidirectional and may be facilitated in a variety of ways, including: involvement of industrial or other non-academic experts on the STC external advisory committee or on graduate student advisory committees, formal partnerships established through membership agreements, faculty consulting relationships with industry, visiting instructorships by industrial scientists at the STC, use of industrial or university facilities, student internships in industry, student mentoring by industrial or other partners, innovative use of cyberinfrastructure and/or other mechanisms.
In addition, one of the partner institutions must accept overall management and budgetary responsibility for the proposed center and is thus designated as the lead institution. The lead institution has ultimate responsibility for planning, operating and managing the center. Individuals with a financial, institutional or collaborative connection with the center may not serve as members of the external advisory committee.
More information can be found here.
AGENCIES ELIGIBLE TO SUBMIT: The STC Program is open to U.S. academic degree-granting institutions.
AWARD INFORMATION: Annual budgets must range between $1.5 and $5.0 million dollars for a maximum of five years.
ELIGIBLE PROJECTS COSTS: Indirect Costs (F&A) Limitations: NONE.
COST SHARING: NONE.
Internal Selection Procedures and Deadlines
August 1, 2008: Deadline for an email of intent, including the name of the PI, co-PIs, title of internal proposal and a 1-3 sentence description of the project. Send email of intent.
August 4, 2008: Deadline to obtain approval from your department head and dean to submit an internal proposal to the Office of Sponsored Projects for review by the internal selection committee. The internal proposal should include:
(1) An executive summary, up to three pages, based on the proposal description as outlined in the NSF announcement;
(2) Project and Management Plans;
(3) Summary budget.
The form for completing the internal proposal is here.
*Once your internal proposal has been received with all of the necessary signatures, you will receive an email indicating it will be reviewed by the internal selection committee. If you do not receive the confirmation email, please call 5-1812.*
This completed form should be submitted electronically for review by the internal selection committee.
Please read the RFP carefully for specific requirements of the program here.
Selection of a proposal will be based on National Science Foundation guidelines. Meeting the needs of the university’s reinvestment plan will also be taken into account.
During the selection process, the internal selection committee may contact
departments and colleges for their opinions and commitments. They may also
request additional information from PIs.
August 15, 2008: The Internal Selection Committee will notify PIs of the result of the internal competition.
September 30, 2008: NSF deadline for required preliminary proposal (due by 5 p.m. proposer’s local time).
April 30, 2009: Full proposals are by invitation only.
