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A key focus of the design of modern computing systems is performance and scalability, particularly in light of the limits of Moore's Law and Dennard scaling. To this end, systems are increasingly being implemented by composing heterogeneous computing components and continually changing memory systems as novel, performant hardware surfaces. Applications fueled by rapid strides in machine learning, data analysis, and extreme-scale simulation are becoming more domain-specific and highly distributed. In this scenario, traditional boundaries between hardware-oriented and software-oriented disciplines increasingly are blurred. Achieving scalability of systems and applications will therefore require coordinated progress in multiple disciplines such as computer architecture, high-performance computing (HPC), programming languages and compilers, security and privacy, systems, theory, and algorithms. Cross-cutting concerns such as performance (including, but not limited to, time, space, and communication resource usage and energy efficiency), correctness and accuracy (including, but not limited to, emerging techniques for program analysis, testing, debugging, probabilistic reasoning and inference, and verification), security and privacy, robustness and reliability, domain-specific design, and heterogeneity must be taken into account from the outset in all aspects of systems and application design and implementation.

The RISA program supports the development of knowledge, expertise, and abilities of decision-makers to plan and prepare for climate variability and change. Through regionally-focused and interdisciplinary research and engagement teams, RISA builds and expands the Nation's capacity to adapt and become resilient to extreme weather events and climate change. RISA teams accomplish this through co-developed applied research and partnerships with public and private communities. A central tenet of the RISA program is that learning about climate adaptation and resilience is facilitated by and sustained across a wide range of experts, practitioners, and the public. As such, the RISA program supports a network of people, prioritizing wide participation in learning by doing, learning through adapting, and managing risk with uncertain information. Early decades of the program focused on understanding the use of climate information at regional scales (e.g., through experimental seasonal outlooks), improving predictions and scenarios, building capacity for drought early warning, and advancing the science of climate impact assessments. More recently, emphasis has shifted to address the growing urgency to advance approaches that tackle the complex societal issues surrounding adaptation planning, implementation, and building community resilience. To do so, RISA continues to prioritize collaborative approaches that incorporate multiple knowledge sources and integrate social, physical, and natural science, resulting in long-term support of and increased capacity for communities.

National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) of Japan have agreed to embark on a collaborative research program to address compelling research challenges that arise from networks supporting future demands of device proliferation and data objects. This NSF solicitation parallels an equivalent NICT solicitation. Proposals submitted under this solicitation must describe joint research with Japanese counterparts who are requesting funding separately under the NICT solicitation. This research and development program addresses three specific challenges that arise when environments with trillions of device and information objects are connected via networks. Trillions of network-connected objects are expected to emerge in the global network around 2020. This trend will require novel approaches for network design and modeling, new technologies to manage and control object mobility, and new and more flexible networks with the speed, capacity and environmental characteristics needed to accommodate communications among objects in the emerging world. This program seeks joint Japan-US research projects that leverage each nation's expertise and address these challenges via work in three areas: 1. Network Design and Modeling: Addressing the design, modeling and component interaction challenges associated with increasingly dynamic and heterogeneous network technologies and applications at scale. 2. Mobility: Addressing issues such as security, control, provisioning, naming, discovery, and fast mobility in a world in which mobility is driven by factors such as social networks, the Internet of things, and cyber-physical systems. 3. Optical Networking: Finding novel approaches for sustainable high‐speed, high‐capacity, and energy-efficient networks that will accommodate communications required in "beyond trillions of devices and information objects" situations.

The advancement of sensing technology such as RGBD (Red Green Blue Depth), multi-camera and light field imaging systems, networks of sensors, advanced visual analytics and cloud computing will challenge the longstanding paradigms of capturing, creating, analyzing and utilizing visual information. Advances in Visual and Experiential Computing (VEC) will enable capability, adaptability, scalability, and usability that will far exceed the simple information systems of today. VEC technology will transform the way people interact with visual information through, for example, the realization of new mobile and wearable devices and the emergence of autonomous machines and semantically aware spaces. VEC research will drive innovation and competition in many industrial sectors as well as enhance the quality of life for ordinary people. Fast growing visual data has become a bottleneck in human decision processes in several emergent situations. New VEC technology is crucial to extracting information from complex visual and related data sets, combining this information with intuitive modes of human perception, and generating actionable information. The goal of this joint solicitation between NSF and Intel is to foster novel, transformative, multidisciplinary approaches that promote research in VEC technologies, taking into consideration the various challenges present in this field. This solicitation aims to foster a research community committed to advancing research and education at the confluence of VEC technologies, and to transitioning its findings into practice. NSF and Intel will support three types of projects, each three years in duration: Small projects with funding from $500,000 to $1,000,000 per project; Medium projects with funding from $1,000,001 to $2,000,000 per project; and Large projects with funding from $2,000,001 to $3,000,000.?? It is intended that NSF and Intel will cofund each project in equal amounts. This NSF/Intel partnership combines CISE??s experience

Achieving a truly secure cyberspace requires addressing both challenging scientific and engineering problems involving many components of a system, and vulnerabilities that stem from human behaviors and choices. Examining the fundamentals of security and privacy as a multidisciplinary subject can lead to fundamentally new ways to design, build and operate cyber systems, protect existing infrastructure, and motivate and educate individuals about cybersecurity. The goals of the SaTC program are aligned with theFederal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan (RDSP) and the National Privacy Research Strategy (NPRS) to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy.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; economics; education; mathematics; statistics; and social and behavioral sciences. Proposals that advance the field of cybersecurity and privacy within a single discipline or interdisciplinary efforts that span multiple disciplines are both encouraged.

NSF's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) initiated the National Network of Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs (BD Hubs) program in FY 2015 (NSF 15-562). Four Big Data Hubs (BD Hubs)—Midwest, Northeast, South, and West—were established, one in each of the four Census Regions of the United States[1]. The BD Hubs provide the ability to engage local or regional stakeholders, e.g., city, county, and state governments, local industry and non-profits, and regional academic institutions, in big data research, and permit a focus on regional issues. These collaborative activities and partnerships play a critical role in building and sustaining a successful national big data innovation ecosystem. This solicitation continues the operation of a national network of BD Hubs. It builds on demonstrated strengths of the program, which has grown to include a set of BD Spokes affiliated with the BD Hubs, and is responsive to the recent developments in data science. For instance, the recently released report on Data Science for Undergraduates: Opportunities and Options from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine exemplifies the urgency of multi-faceted education and training in data science. The BD Hubs will continue to nucleate regional collaborations and multi-sector projects, while fostering innovation in data science. The NSF BD Hubs program is aligned with NSF’s Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Idea, one of NSF’s 10 Big Ideas for Future Investment. HDR is a visionary, national-scale activity to enable new modes of data-driven discovery, allowing fundamentally new questions to be asked and answered in science and engineering frontiers, generating new knowledge and understanding, and accelerating discovery and innovation.

The Best Buy foundation is seeking applications from nonprofit organizations for programs that provide youth with access to new technologies that help them become fluent in digital learning while developing the skills they need for future education and career success. Grants of up to $200,000 will be awarded for programs that utilize technology such as computers, digital cameras, video cameras, and professional software in a wide range of areas, including audio production (music mixing and recording), coding/3D printing, computer maintenance and repair, digital photography/graphic design filmmaking and videography, maker-faires and hack-a-thons, mobile and game app development, programming, robotics, and/ or website design. To be eligible, applicants must be a nonprofit organization with an existing out-of-school time program and a proven track record of serving youth between the ages of 13 and 18 in underserved communities. In addition, programs must operate within twenty-five miles of a Best Buy store or other Best Buy center of operation; have a commitment to diversity and inclusion; a willingness to integrate Geek Squad Academy curriculum into existing programming (if appropriate); and have the ability to conduct programming in multiple targeted sites across the country.

The Best Buy foundation is seeking applications from nonprofit organizations for programs that provide youth with access to new technologies that help them become fluent in digital learning while developing the skills they need for future education and career success. Grants of up to $200,000 will be awarded for programs that utilize technology such as computers, digital cameras, video cameras, and professional software in a wide range of areas, including audio production (music mixing and recording), coding/3D printing, computer maintenance and repair, digital photography/graphic design filmmaking and videography, maker-faires and hack-a-thons, mobile and game app development, programming, robotics, and/ or website design. To be eligible, applicants must be a nonprofit organization with an existing out-of-school time program and a proven track record of serving youth between the ages of 13 and 18 in underserved communities. In addition, programs must operate within twenty-five miles of a Best Buy store or other Best Buy center of operation; have a commitment to diversity and inclusion; a willingness to integrate Geek Squad Academy curriculum into existing programming (if appropriate); and have the ability to conduct programming in multiple targeted sites across the country.  

The goal of the Smart and Connected Health (SCH) Program is to accelerate the development and use of innovative approaches that would support the much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on well-being rather than disease. Approaches that partner technology-based solutions with biobehavioral health research are supported by multiple agencies of the federal government including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of this program is to develop next generation health care solutions and encourage existing and new research communities to focus on breakthrough ideas in a variety of areas of value to health, such as sensor technology, networking, information and machine learning technology, decision support systems, modeling of behavioral and cognitive processes, as well as system and process modeling. Effective solutions must satisfy a multitude of constraints arising from clinical/medical needs, social interactions, cognitive limitations, barriers to behavioral change, heterogeneity of data, semantic mismatch and limitations of current cyberphysical systems. Such solutions demand multidisciplinary teams ready to address technical, behavioral and clinical issues ranging from fundamental science to clinical practice.

The goal of the Smart and Connected Health (SCH) Program is to accelerate the development and use of innovative approaches that would support the much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on well-being rather than disease. Approaches that partner technology-based solutions with biobehavioral health research are supported by multiple agencies of the federal government including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of this program is to develop next generation health care solutions and encourage existing and new research communities to focus on breakthrough ideas in a variety of areas of value to health, such as sensor technology, networking, information and machine learning technology, decision support systems, modeling of behavioral and cognitive processes, as well as system and process modeling. Effective solutions must satisfy a multitude of constraints arising from clinical/medical needs, social interactions, cognitive limitations, barriers to behavioral change, heterogeneity of data, semantic mismatch and limitations of current cyberphysical systems. Such solutions demand multidisciplinary teams ready to address technical, behavioral and clinical issues ranging from fundamental science to clinical practice.

The Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems (CCSS) program is intended to spur visionary systems-oriented activities in collaborative, multidisciplinary, and integrative research. CCSS supports systems research in hardware, signal processing techniques, and architectures to enable the next generation of cyber-physical systems (CPS) that leverage computation, communication, and algorithms integrated with physical domains. CCSS offers new challenges at all levels of systems integration to address future societal needs. CCSS supports innovative research and integrated educational activities in micro- and nano-systems, communications systems, and cyber-physical systems. The goal is to design, develop, and implement new complex and hybrid systems at all scales, including nano, micro, and macro, that lead to innovative engineering principles and solutions for a variety of application domains including, but not limited to, healthcare, medicine, environmental monitoring, communications, disaster mitigation, homeland security, transportation, manufacturing, energy, and smart buildings. CCSS also supports integration technologies at both intra-and inter-chip levels, new and advanced radio frequency (RF), millimeter wave and optical wireless and hybrid communications systems architectures, and sensing and imaging at terahertz (THz) frequencies.

The goals of the Resilient Interdependent Infrastructure Processes and Systems (RIPS) solicitation are (1) to foster an interdisciplinary research community that discovers new knowledge for the design and operation of infrastructures as processes and services  (2) to enhance the understanding and design of interdependent critical infrastructure systems (ICIs) and processes that provide essential goods and services despite disruptions and failures from any cause, natural, technological, or malicious, and (3) to create the knowledge for innovation in ICIs to advance society with new goods and services. The objectives of this solicitation are: Create theoretical frameworks and multidisciplinary computational models of interdependent infrastructure systems, processes and services, capable of analytical prediction of complex behaviors, in response to system and policy changes. Synthesize new approaches to increase resilience, interoperations, performance, and readiness in ICIs. Understand organizational, social, psychological, legal, political and economic obstacles to improving ICI's, and identifying strategies for overcoming those obstacles. The RIPS solicitation seeks proposals with transformative ideas that will ensure ICIs services are effective, efficient, dependable, adaptable, resilient, safe, and secure.  Successful proposals are expected to study multiple infrastructures focusing on them as interdependent systems that deliver services, enabling a new interdisciplinary paradigm in infrastructure research.  Proposals that do not broadly integrate across the cyber-physical, engineering and social, behavioral and economic (SBE) sciences may be returned without review. 

The Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB) supports quantitative, predictive, and theory-driven fundamental research and related activities designed to promote understanding of complex living systems at the molecular, subcellular, and cellular levels. MCB is soliciting proposals for hypothesis-driven and discovery research and related activities in four core clusters: Molecular Biophysics Cellular Dynamics and Function Genetic Mechanisms Systems and Synthetic Biology MCB gives high priority to research projects that use theory, methods, and technologies from physical sciences, mathematics, computational sciences, and engineering to address major biological questions.  Research supported by MCB uses a range of experimental approaches--including in vivo, in vitro and in silico strategies--and a broad spectrum of model and non-model organisms, especially microbes and plants. Typical research supported by MCB integrates theory and experimentation.  Projects that address the emerging areas of multi-scale integration, molecular and cellular evolution, quantitative prediction of phenome from genomic information, and development of methods and resources are particularly welcome.

The Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems (CCSS) program is intended to spur visionary systems-oriented activities in collaborative, multidisciplinary, and integrative research. CCSS supports systems research in hardware, signal processing techniques, and architectures to enable the next generation of cyber-physical systems (CPS) that leverage computation, communication, and algorithms integrated with physical domains. CCSS offers new challenges at all levels of systems integration to address future societal needs. CCSS supports innovative research and integrated educational activities in micro- and nano-systems, communications systems, and cyber-physical systems. The goal is to design, develop, and implement new complex and hybrid systems at all scales, including nano, micro, and macro, that lead to innovative engineering principles and solutions for a variety of application domains including, but not limited to, healthcare, medicine, environmental monitoring, communications, disaster mitigation, homeland security, transportation, manufacturing, energy, and smart buildings. CCSS also supports integration technologies at both intra-and inter-chip levels, new and advanced radio frequency (RF), millimeter wave and optical wireless and hybrid communications systems architectures, and sensing and imaging at terahertz (THz) frequencies.

DMREF is the primary program by which NSF participates in the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) for Global Competitiveness. MGI recognizes the importance of materials science and engineering to the well-being and advancement of society and aims to "deploy advanced materials at least twice as fast as possible today, at a fraction of the cost." MGI integrates materials discovery, development, property optimization, and systems design with a shared computational framework. This framework facilitates collaboration and coordination of research activities, analytical tools, experimental results, and critical evaluation in pursuit of the MGI goals. The MGI Strategic Plan highlights four sets of goals: -Leading a culture shift in materials science research to encourage and facilitate an integrated team approach; -Integrating experimentation, computation, and theory and equipping the materials community with advanced tools and techniques; -Making digital data accessible; and -Creating a world-class materials science and engineering workforce that is trained for careers in academia or industry.

DMREF is the primary program by which NSF participates in the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) for Global Competitiveness. MGI recognizes the importance of materials science and engineering to the well-being and advancement of society and aims to "deploy advanced materials at least twice as fast as possible today, at a fraction of the cost." MGI integrates materials discovery, development, property optimization, and systems design with a shared computational framework. This framework facilitates collaboration and coordination of research activities, analytical tools, experimental results, and critical evaluation in pursuit of the MGI goals. The MGI Strategic Plan highlights four sets of goals: -Leading a culture shift in materials science research to encourage and facilitate an integrated team approach; -Integrating experimentation, computation, and theory and equipping the materials community with advanced tools and techniques; -Making digital data accessible; and -Creating a world-class materials science and engineering workforce that is trained for careers in academia or industry.

The goals of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN) are to: 1) accelerate the transformation of nanoscience to nanotechnology through the integration of simulation with experimentation; 2) engage an ever-larger and more diverse cyber community sharing novel, high-quality nanoscale computation and simulation research and educational resources; 3) develop open-access, open-source software to stimulate data sharing; and 4) inspire and educate the next-generation workforce.  The NCN consists of a stand-alone Cyber Platform, which provides computation, simulation, and education services to over 330,000 researchers, educators, students, and industry members of the nanoscience and engineering community annually worldwide; and Nodes, which develop compelling new computational and simulation tools to disseminate through Cyber Platform (nanoHUB.org) and cultivate communities of users in emerging areas of nanoscale science and engineering.

The goals of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN) are to: 1) accelerate the transformation of nanoscience to nanotechnology through the integration of simulation with experimentation; 2) engage an ever-larger and more diverse cyber community sharing novel, high-quality nanoscale computation and simulation research and educational resources; 3) develop open-access, open-source software to stimulate data sharing; and 4) inspire and educate the next-generation workforce.  The NCN consists of a stand-alone Cyber Platform, which provides computation, simulation, and education services to over 330,000 researchers, educators, students, and industry members of the nanoscience and engineering community annually worldwide; and Nodes, which develop compelling new computational and simulation tools to disseminate through Cyber Platform (nanoHUB.org) and cultivate communities of users in emerging areas of nanoscale science and engineering.

The International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program supports high-performance network connectivity required by international science and engineering research and education collaborations involving the NSF research community. NSF expects to make 1-2 awards to link U.S. research networks with peer networks in Europe and Africa and leverage existing international network connectivity. High-performance network connections funded by this program are intended to support science and engineering research and education applications, and preference will be given to solutions that provide the best economy of scale and demonstrate the ability to support the largest communities of interest with the broadest services. Funded projects will assist the U.S. research and education community by enabling state-of-the-art international network services and access to increased collaboration and data services. Through extended international network connections, additional research and production network services will be enabled, complementing those currently offered or planned by domestic research networks.

The International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program supports high-performance network connectivity required by international science and engineering research and education collaborations involving the NSF research community. NSF expects to make 1-2 awards to link U.S. research networks with peer networks in Europe and Africa and leverage existing international network connectivity. High-performance network connections funded by this program are intended to support science and engineering research and education applications, and preference will be given to solutions that provide the best economy of scale and demonstrate the ability to support the largest communities of interest with the broadest services. Funded projects will assist the U.S. research and education community by enabling state-of-the-art international network services and access to increased collaboration and data services. Through extended international network connections, additional research and production network services will be enabled, complementing those currently offered or planned by domestic research networks.

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.

This Research Fund is opening a call for projects in the following areas: * Protecting vulnerable populations from epidemics and catastrophes, including COVID-19: be it migrants, informal settlements, workers in the informal economy, isolated people, people with disabilities, the elderly * Improving data collection and quality in health: how can data and technology help us get out of the crisis, understand it and mitigate it? How can it inform future containment and epidemic control? * Understanding the effects of confinement and social distancing: what are the effects of confinement and social distancing on society and households? What are the mental health consequences? The social and domestic repercussions? * Early warning and preparedness: how do we re-enforce our health infrastructure and ecosystem (including medical devices and drug supply) to be better prepared and how do we protect our health workers and caregivers? * Preserving the environment and our health: connections between climate change, biodiversity loss and the origin of viral disease including socioeconomic dynamics leading to infectious disease outbreaks and sanitary crisis; Learnings from COVID-19 for mitigating future related crises in climate and biodiversity

This mechanism supports basic research to increase knowledge/understanding through discovery and hypothesis generation, and should focus on providing basic fundamental knowledge that will inform and enable the future development of novel autonomous and/or robotic medical systems to care for wounded soldiers/patients through breakthrough, exploratory research. The objective is focused on addressing the following 1. Autonomous and Unmanned Medical Capability - Identify novel ideas, approaches and research towards the conceptualization of autonomous and unmanned technologies for next-generation, high-quality medical capabilities with limited or absent medical care personnel, or personnel with limited skills. Research novel concepts, plausible approaches and advanced concept designs using biologically inspired cognitive computing models, machine learning, artificial intelligence, soft robotic semi-autonomous/autonomous resuscitation concepts and advanced applications of information sciences among other innovative, exploratory research towards advancing the state-of-the-art in delivery of forward resuscitative care at the point of injury. 2. Medical Robotics Research - Identify novel ideas, approaches and research towards the conceptualization of medical robotics and real-time tele-presence capabilities exploring the limits of machine perception for tele-robotic semi-autonomous and autonomous trauma care within remote and dispersed geographic settings. This could include exploratory research in semi-autonomous robotic surgery to improve the safety profile and efficacy of tele-surgical procedures and outcomes using hard robotics in challenging situations (e.g., combat casualties on the multi-domain battlefield or mass casualty situations) and remote or austere geographic locations, among other innovative, exploratory research aims and novel concepts.

The Nation's advanced research cyberinfrastructure (CI) ecosystem catalyzes discovery and innovation across all areas of science and engineering (S&E) research and education. The increasingly complex and rapidly evolving S&E landscape requires an agile, integrated, robust, trustworthy, and sustainable CI ecosystem that will drive new thinking and transformative discoveries in all areas of research and education. The success of this vision depends on the ability of the research community to be able to easily and effectively access and use state-of-the-art research CI resources and services in a timely way. This, in turn, drives a set of requirements on the development, operation, and evolution of the CI ecosystem. First, research CI resources and services must be designed to leverage and drive innovations, and they must be user-centric and interoperable to enable the efficient, flexible end-to-end discovery pathways that are increasingly essential for the conduct of research. Second, the information, expertise, and services needed to maximally utilize the CI ecosystem must be disseminated broadly and concertedly to the research community. The NSF Cyberinfrastructure Centers of Excellence (CI CoE) Program aims to realize the above vision by supporting hubs of expertise and innovation targeting specific areas, aspects, or stakeholder communities of the research CI ecosystem.

The Acquisition Research Program (ARP) (www.acquisitionresearch.net) conducts and supports research in academic disciplines that bear on public procurement policy and management. These include economics, finance, financial management, information systems, organization theory, operations management, human resources management, risk management, and marketing, as well as the traditional public procurement areas such as contracting, program/project management, logistics, test and evaluation and systems engineering management. The ARP is interested in innovative proposals that will provide unclassified and non-proprietary findings suitable for publication in open scholarly literature. Studies of government processes, systems, or policies should also expand the body of knowledge and theory of processes, systems, or policies outside the government. The following research areas are of special interest: Leading-edge techniques in data collection, management, visual analytics and decision-making; Robust risk modeling techniques; Performance metrics and methodologies; Collaboration and cross-functional teams; and, Model-Based Acquisition. Offerors bear prime responsibility for the design, management, direction and conduct of research. Researchers should exercise judgment and original thought toward attaining the goals within broad parameters of the research areas proposed and the resources provided. Offerors are encouraged to be creative in the selection of the technical and management processes and approaches and consider the greatest and broadest impact possible.