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The NRA covers all aspects of basic and applied supporting research and technology in space and Earth sciences, including, but not limited to: theory, modeling, and analysis of SMD science data; aircraft, scientific balloon, sounding rocket, International Space Station, CubeSat and suborbital reusable launch vehicle investigations; development of experiment techniques suitable for future SMD space missions; development of concepts for future SMD space missions; development of advanced technologies relevant to SMD missions; development of techniques for and the laboratory analysis of both extraterrestrial samples returned by spacecraft, as well as terrestrial samples that support or otherwise help verify observations from SMD Earth system science missions; determination of atomic and composition parameters needed to analyze space data, as well as returned samples from the Earth or space; Earth surface observations and field campaigns that support SMD science missions; development of integrated Earth system models; development of systems for applying Earth science research data to societal needs; and development of applied information systems applicable to SMD objectives and data.

he Engineering for Natural Hazards (ENH) program supports fundamental research that advances knowledge for understanding and mitigating the impact of natural hazards on constructed civil infrastructure. Natural hazards considered by the ENH program include earthquakes, windstorms (such as tornadoes and hurricanes), tsunamis, storm surge, and landslides. The constructed civil infrastructure supported by the ENH program includes building systems, such as the soil-foundation-structure-envelope-nonstructural system, as well as the façade and roofing, and other structures, geostructures, and underground facilities, such as tunnels. While research may focus on a single natural hazard, research that considers civil infrastructure performance over its lifetime in the context of multiple hazards, that is, a multi-hazard approach, is encouraged. Research may integrate geotechnical, structural, and architectural engineering advances with discoveries in other science and engineering fields, such as earth and atmospheric sciences, materials science, mechanics of materials, dynamic systems and control, systems engineering, decision theory, risk analysis, high performance computational modeling and simulation, and social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Multi-disciplinary and international collaborations are encouraged.

The NRA covers all aspects of basic and applied supporting research and technology in space and Earth sciences, including, but not limited to: theory, modeling, and analysis of SMD science data; aircraft, scientific balloon, sounding rocket, International Space Station, CubeSat and suborbital reusable launch vehicle investigations; development of experiment techniques suitable for future SMD space missions; development of concepts for future SMD space missions; development of advanced technologies relevant to SMD missions; development of techniques for and the laboratory analysis of both extraterrestrial samples returned by spacecraft, as well as terrestrial samples that support or otherwise help verify observations from SMD Earth system science missions; determination of atomic and composition parameters needed to analyze space data, as well as returned samples from the Earth or space; Earth surface observations and field campaigns that support SMD science missions; development of integrated Earth system models; development of systems for applying Earth science research data to societal needs; and development of applied information systems applicable to SMD objectives and data.

The purpose of this Dear Colleague Letter is to advise you about funding opportunities at the National Science Foundation for the research community to propose research projects or workshops that will gather data on the implementation and impacts of recent science policy initiatives including, but not limited to those noted earlier.  Especially encouraged are proposals that will: Develop new, or improve existing, analytical frameworks for evaluating the impacts of federal science policy initiatives; Explore different agencies' approaches to the implementation of particular policies to examine how variations in approach affect the achievement of intended policy outcomes; Collect case-study or quantitative data that facilitate identification of best practices in science and innovation policy implementation.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) invites investigators at U.S. organizations to submit proposals to the Arctic Sciences Section, Division of Polar Programs (PLR) to conduct research about the Arctic region. The goal of this solicitation is to attract research proposals that advance a fundamental, process, and systems-level understanding of the Arctic's rapidly changing natural environment and social and cultural systems, and, where appropriate, to improve our capacity to project future change. The Arctic Sciences Section supports research focused on the Arctic region and its connectivity with lower latitudes.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) invites investigators at U.S. organizations to submit proposals to the Arctic Sciences Section, Division of Polar Programs (PLR) to conduct research about the Arctic region. The goal of this solicitation is to attract research proposals that advance a fundamental, process, and systems-level understanding of the Arctic's rapidly changing natural environment and social and cultural systems, and, where appropriate, to improve our capacity to project future change. The Arctic Sciences Section supports research focused on the Arctic region and its connectivity with lower latitudes.

Scientific research, along with operational support of that research, is the principal activity of the U.S. Antarctic Program in Antarctica. The National Science Foundation's Antarctic Sciences Section (ANT), Division of Polar Programs (PLR), fosters research on globally and regionally important scientific problems. In particular, the Antarctic Sciences Section supports research that expands fundamental knowledge of the region as well as research that relies on the unique characteristics of the Antarctic continent as a platform from which to support research. Antarctic fieldwork will be supported for research that can only be performed or is best performed in Antarctica. The Antarctic Sciences Section strongly encourages research using existing samples, models, and data as well as research at the intersection between disciplines.

NSF and selected foreign counterpart science and technology agencies sponsor international research institutes for U.S. graduate students in seven East Asia and Pacific locations at times set by the counterpart agencies between June and August each year. The Summer Institutes (EAPSI) operate similarly and the research visits to a particular location take place at the same time. Although applicants apply individually to participate in a Summer Institute, awardees become part of the cohort for each location. Applicants must propose a location, host scientist, and research project that is appropriate for the host site and duration of the international visit. An EAPSI award provides U.S. graduate students in science, engineering, and education: 1) first-hand research experiences in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, or Taiwan; 2) an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and 3) an orientation to the society, culture, and language. It is expected that EAPSI awards will help students initiate professional relationships to enable future collaboration with foreign counterparts. The NSF award includes participation in the Pre-Departure Orientation, summer stipend of $5,000, and roundtrip airplane ticket to the host location. EAPSI partner agencies pay in-country living expenses during the Summer Institutes.

EarthScope is an Earth science program to explore the 4-dimensional structure of the North American continent. The EarthScope Program provides a framework for broad, integrated studies across the Earth sciences, including research on fault properties and the earthquake process, strain transfer, magmatic and hydrous fluids in the crust and mantle, plate boundary processes, large-scale continental deformation, continental structure and evolution, and composition and structure of the deep Earth. In addition, EarthScope offers a centralized forum for Earth science education at all levels and an excellent opportunity to develop cyberinfrastructure to integrate, distribute, and analyze diverse data sets. The EarthScope Facility, consisting of the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO), the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD), and the USArray, is a multi-purpose array of instruments and observatories that greatly expands the observational capabilities of the Earth sciences and permits us to advance our understanding of the structure, evolution and dynamics of the North American continent. This Solicitation calls for single or collaborative proposals to conduct scientific research and/or education and outreach activities within North America that make use of capabilities and/or data provided through the EarthScope Facility to further the scientific and educational goals of EarthScope.

This Dear Colleague Letter is to alert all basic science and engineering communities, including education researchers, to the Foundation's interest in receiving proposals that, while investigating fundamental questions, seek to pose and test hypotheses that could inform research in forensic sciences. The interest spans both disciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Additionally, the wide public interest in forensics can provide an effective vehicle for basic research in science education. International partnerships, where appropriate, are encouraged, as are synergistic interactions with forensics and/or law enforcement agencies and organizations. Proposals for workshops to explore fundamental science drivers and their relevance to forensics are also welcome. 

Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) is an NSF-wide program that supports international activities across all NSF supported disciplines. The primary goal of PIRE is to support high quality projects in which advances in research and education could not occur without international collaboration. PIRE seeks to catalyze a higher level of international engagement in the U.S. science and engineering community. International partnerships are essential to addressing critical science and engineering problems. In the global context, U.S. researchers and educators must be able to operate effectively in teams with partners from different national environments and cultural backgrounds. PIRE promotes excellence in science and engineering through international collaboration and facilitates development of a diverse, globally-engaged, U.S. science and engineering workforce.

The Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) awards Postdoctoral Fellowships to recent recipients of doctoral degrees for research and training in topics relevant to Earth sciences. The fellows must develop and implement 1) research projects that seek to address scientific questions within the purview of EAR programs and 2) plans to broaden participation in Earth sciences. The program supports researchers for a period of up to 2 years with fellowships that can be taken to the institution of their choice (including facilities abroad). The program is intended to recognize beginning investigators of significant potential, and provide them with research experience, mentorship, and training that will establish them in leadership positions in the Earth Sciences community. Because the fellowships are offered only to postdoctoral scientists early in their career, doctoral advisors are encouraged to discuss the availability of EAR postdoctoral fellowships with their graduate students early in their doctoral programs. Fellowships are awards to individuals, not institutions, and are administered by the Fellows.

The Hydrologic Sciences Program focuses on the fluxes of water in the environment that constitute the water cycle as well as the mass and energy transport function of the water cycle in the environment.  The Program supports studying processes from rainfall to runoff to infiltration and streamflow; evaporation and transpiration; as well as the flow of water in soils and aquifers and the transport of suspended, dissolved and colloidal components.  Water is seen as the mode of coupling among various components of the environment and emphasis is placed on how the coupling is enabled by the water cycle and how it functions as a process.  The Hydrologic Sciences Program retains a strong focus on linking the fluxes of water and the components carried by water across the boundaries between various interacting components of the terrestrial system and the mechanisms by which these fluxes co-organize over a variety of timescales and/or alter the fundamentals of the interacting components.  The Program is also interested in how water interacts with the solid phase, the landscape and the ecosystem as well as how such interactions and couplings are altered by land use and climate change.  Studies may address aqueous geochemistry and solid phase interactions as well as physical, chemical, and biological processes as coupled to water transport. These studies commonly involve expertise from basic sciences and mathematics, and proposals may require joint review with related programs.  The Hydrologic Sciences Program will also consider some synthesis activities.

In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) unveiled a set of "Big Ideas", 10 bold, long-term research and process ideas that identify areas for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering. The Big Ideas represent unique opportunities to position our Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering leadership by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergence research. As such, when responding to this solicitation, even though proposals must be submitted to the Directorate for Geosciences, once received, the proposals will be managed by a cross-disciplinary team of NSF Program Directors. Arctic temperatures are warming faster than nearly everywhere else on Earth, with some models predicting that continued warming could produce an ice-free Arctic Ocean by mid-century. The rapid and wide-scale changes occurring in response to this warming portend new opportunities and unprecedented risks to natural systems; social and cultural systems; economic, political and legal systems; and built environments of the Arctic and across the globe. The lack of scientific observations and the prevalence of interdependent social, natural, and built systems in the Arctic make it challenging to predict the region's future. Understanding and adapting to a changing Arctic will require creative new directions for Arctic-specific research, education, workforce development, and leveraging of science, engineering, and technology advances from outside the Arctic.

The Engineering for Natural Hazards (ENH) program supports fundamental research that advances knowledge for understanding and mitigating the impact of natural hazards on constructed civil infrastructure.  Natural hazards considered by the ENH program include earthquakes, windstorms (such as tornadoes and hurricanes), tsunamis, storm surge, and landslides.  The constructed civil infrastructure supported by the ENH program includes building systems, such as the soil-foundation-structure-envelope-nonstructural system, as well as the façade and roofing, and other structures, geostructures, and underground facilities, such as tunnels.  While research may focus on a single natural hazard, research that considers civil infrastructure performance over its lifetime in the context of multiple hazards, that is, a multi-hazard approach, is encouraged.  Research may integrate geotechnical, structural, and architectural engineering advances with discoveries in other science and engineering fields, such as earth and atmospheric sciences, materials science, mechanics of materials, dynamic systems and control, systems engineering, decision theory, risk analysis, high performance computational modeling and simulation, and social, behavioral, and economic sciences.  Multi-disciplinary and international collaborations are encouraged.  The ENH program encourages research integrated with knowledge dissemination and activities that can lead to broader societal benefit for reducing the impact of natural hazards on civil infrastructure.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Geosciences (GEO), the Divisions of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) and Environmental Biology (DEB), in the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), the Division of Computer and Network Systems in the Directorate Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE/CNS), and the Division of Chemistry (CHE) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, in collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) encourage convergent research that transforms existing capabilities in understanding dynamic soil processes, including soil formation, through advances in sensor systems and modeling. The Signals in the Soil (SitS) program fosters collaboration among the two partner agencies and the researchers they support by combining resources and funding for the most innovative and high-impact projects that address their respective missions. To make transformative advances in our understanding of soils, multiple disciplines must converge to produce environmentally-benign novel sensing systems with multiple modalities that can adapt to different environments and collect and transmit data for a wide range of biological, chemical, and physical parameters. Effective integration of sensor data will be key for achieving a better understanding of signaling interactions among plants, animals, microbes, the soil matrix, and aqueous and gaseous components. New sensor networks have the potential to inform models in novel ways, to radically change how data is obtained from various natural and managed (both urban and rural) ecosystems, and to better inform the communities that directly rely on soils for sustenance and livelihood.

The primary objective is to support scholarships for nuclear science, engineering, technology and related disciplines to develop a workforce capable of supporting the design, construction, operation, and regulation of nuclear facilities and the safe handling of nuclear materials. The primary objective is to support fellowships for nuclear science, engineering, technology and related disciplines to develop a workforce capable of supporting the design, construction, operation, and regulation of nuclear facilities and the safe handling of nuclear materials. The primary objective is to support faculty development for nuclear science, engineering, technology and related disciplines to develop a workforce capable of supporting the design, construction, operation, and regulation of nuclear facilities and the safe handling of nuclear materials. The grants specifically target probationary, tenure-track faculty during the first 6 years of their career and new faculty hires in the following academic areas: Nuclear, Mechanical, Civil, Environmental, Electrical, Fire Protection, Geotechnical, Structural and Materials Sciences Engineering as well as Health Physics. The program provides support to enable newer faculty to enhance their careers as professors and researchers in the university department where employed.

In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) unveiled a set of "Big Ideas," 10 bold, long-term research and process ideas that identify areas for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering (see https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/big_ideas/index.jsp). The Big Ideas represent unique opportunities to position our Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering leadership by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergence research. As such, when responding to this solicitation, even though proposals must be submitted to the Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate/Division of Human Resource Development (HRD), once received, the proposals will be managed by a cross-disciplinary team of NSF Program Directors.

The FRES program will support research in Earth systems from the core through the critical zone. The project may focus on all or part of the surface, continental lithospheric, and deeper Earth systems over the entire range of temporal and spatial scales. FRES projects should have a larger scientific scope and budget than those considered for funding by disciplinary programs in the Division of Earth Sciences (EAR). FRES projects may be interdisciplinary studies that do not fit well within EAR's disciplinary programs or cannot be routinely managed by sharing between disciplinary programs . Innovative proposals within a single disciplinary area with outcomes of potential broad relevance to Earth Science research are also encouraged. Investigations may employ any combination of field, laboratory, and computational studies with observational, theoretical, or experimental approaches. Projects should be focused on topics that meet the guidelines for research funded by the Division of Earth Sciences.

The Instrumentation and Facilities Program in the Division of Earth Sciences (EAR/IF) supports meritorious requests for infrastructure that promotes research and education in areas supported by the Division (see http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=EAR).  Under this solicitation EAR/IF will consider proposals for Laboratory Technician Support to provide for optimal and efficient operation of advanced instrumentation, analytical protocol development, and user training for Earth science research instrumentation.  Efforts to support participation of underrepresented groups in laboratory and/or field instrument use and training are encouraged as part of any described technician's duties..  Proposals from early career (tenure track but untenured) lead investigators are also encouraged.  Such proposals will be given due consideration as part of the Broader Impacts merit review criterion.

The Instrumentation and Facilities Program in the Division of Earth Sciences (EAR/IF) supports meritorious requests for infrastructure that promotes research and education in areas supported by the Division (see http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=EAR).  Under this solicitation EAR/IF will consider proposals for Laboratory Technician Support to provide for optimal and efficient operation of advanced instrumentation, analytical protocol development, and user training for Earth science research instrumentation.  Efforts to support participation of underrepresented groups in laboratory and/or field instrument use and training are encouraged as part of any described technician's duties..  Proposals from early career (tenure track but untenured) lead investigators are also encouraged.  Such proposals will be given due consideration as part of the Broader Impacts merit review criterion.  

The National Science Foundation (NSF) invites investigators at U.S. organizations to submit proposals to conduct research about the Arctic. Arctic research includes field and modeling studies, data analysis, and synthesis about the arctic region.The goal of the NSF Section for Arctic Sciences, Division of Polar Programs (PLR),??is to gain a better understanding of the Arctic's physical, biological, geological, chemical, social and cultural processes; the interactions of oceanic, terrestrial, atmospheric, biological, social, cultural, and economic systems; and the connections that define the Arctic. The Arctic Sciences and other NSF programs support projects that contribute to the development of the next generation of researchers and scientific literacy for all ages through education, outreach, and broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Program representatives from polar and other non-polar NSF programs that support arctic research coordinate across NSF, including joint review and funding of arctic proposals and mutual support of special projects with high logistical costs.