OARS funding Math & Statistics

The consequences of climate variability and change are becoming more immediate and profound than previously anticipated. Over recent decades, the world has witnessed the onset of prolonged droughts on several continents, increased frequency of floods, loss of agricultural and forest productivity, degraded ocean and permafrost ecosystems, global sea level rise and the rapid retreat of ice sheets and glaciers, loss of arctic sea ice, and changes in ocean currents. These important impacts highlight that climate variability and change can have significant effects on decadal and shorter time scales, with significant consequences for plant, animal, human, and physical systems. The EaSM funding opportunity enables interagency cooperation on one of the most pressing problems of the millennium: climate change and??how it is likely to affect our world. It allows the partner agencies -- National Science Foundation (NSF) and??U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) -- to combine resources to identify and fund the most meritorious and highest-impact projects that support their respective missions, while??avoiding duplication of effort and fostering collaboration between agencies and the investigators they support.This interdisciplinary scientific challenge calls for the development and application of next-generation Earth System Models that include coupled and interactive representations of such??components as ocean and atmospheric currents, agricultural working lands and forests,?? biogeochemistry, atmospheric chemistry,?? the water cycle and land ice.?? This solicitation seeks to attract scientists from the disciplines of geosciences, agricultural sciences, mathematics and statistics. Successful proposals will develop intellectual excitement in the participating disciplinary communities and engage diverse interdisciplinary teams with sufficient breadth to achieve the scientific objectives. 

The ASM-NSF Leaders Inspiring Networks and Knowledge (LINK) Program seeks to connect active research investigators and undergraduate educators interested in broadening participation in science and building interdisciplinary collaborations that benefit all partners and contribute to discovery and understanding while promoting teaching and learning. The LINK program is specifically interested in supporting collaborations involving trainees and early-career scientists underrepresented nationally in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to succeed in bioscience education, research and careers.

Mathematical Physics develops and applies advanced mathematical methods to enable the solution of difficult problems in physics.  It often is the work of mathematicians with a strong physics interest and intuition, or of physicists who are also highly regarded in mathematics.  Very advanced mathematical methods are applied (by individuals or collaborators) to important but difficult physics concepts to rigorously establish the behavior of theoretical systems,  resolve conundrums or find new directions.  The PHY Mathematical Physics program is dedicated to supporting such research.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications for developing and testing innovative theories and computational, mathematical, or engineering approaches to deepen our understanding of complex social behavior. This research will examine phenomena at multiple scales to address the emergence of collective behaviors that arise from individual elements or parts of a system working together. Emergence can also describe the functioning of a system within the context of its environment. Often properties we associate with a system itself are in actuality properties of the relationships and interactions between a system and its environment. This FOA will support research that explores the often complex and dynamic relationships among the parts of a system and between the system and its environment in order to understand the system as a whole.

The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. The central theme of submitted projects must be quantitative or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems. Projects should be broad, interdisciplinary efforts that go beyond the scope of typical studies. They should focus on the determinants and interactions of transmission among humans, non-human animals, and/or plants. This includes, for example, the spread of pathogens; the influence of environmental factors such as climate; the population dynamics and genetics of reservoir species or hosts; or the cultural, social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of disease transmission. Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, or enteric diseases of either terrestrial or freshwater systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems. Proposals for research on disease systems of public health concern to developing countries are strongly encouraged, as are disease systems of concern in agricultural systems. Investigators are encouraged to involve the public health research community, including for example, epidemiologists, physicians, veterinarians, food scientists, social scientists, entomologists, pathologists, virologists, or parasitologists with the goal of integrating knowledge across disciplines to enhance our ability to predict and control infectious diseases.

The following programs have due dates that fall between October 1 - 25, 2013, and these dates are being revised due to the Federal  government shutdown. These revised dates apply whether the proposal is being submitted via the NSF FastLane System or  Grants.gov. Due to compressed proposal deadlines resulting from the shutdown, proposers are advised that they may experience a  delay when contacting IT Help Central with technical support questions. Frequently asked questions regarding these date changes  are available on the Resumption of Operations page on the NSF website at: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/postshutdown.jsp. 

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 proposals are solicited that provide for full implementation efforts at academic institutions. Type 2 proposals are solicited that support educational research projects on associate or baccalaureate degree attainment in STEM.

This program supports theoretical and computational materials research and education in the topical areas represented in DMR programs, including condensed matter physics, polymers, solid-state and materials chemistry, metals and nanostructures, electronic and photonic materials, ceramics, and biomaterials. The program supports fundamental research that advances conceptual, analytical, and computational techniques for materials research. A broad spectrum of research is supported using electronic structure methods, many-body theory, statistical mechanics, and Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations, along with other techniques, many involving advanced scientific computing. Emphasis is on approaches that begin at the smallest appropriate length scale, such as electronic, atomic, molecular, nano-, micro-, and mesoscale, required to yield fundamental insight into material properties, processes, and behavior and to reveal new materials phenomena. Areas of recent interest include, but are not limited to: strongly correlated electron systems; low-dimensional systems; nonequilibrium phenomena, including pattern formation, microstructural evolution, and fracture; high-temperature superconductivity; nanostructured materials and mesoscale phenomena; quantum coherence and its control; and soft condensed matter, including systems of biological interest.

The Geospace Section of the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, to ensure the health and vitality of solar and space sciences on university teaching faculties, is pleased to offer awards for the creation of new tenure-track faculty positions within the intellectual disciplines which comprise the space sciences. The aim of these awards is to integrate research topics in solar and space physics into basic physics, astronomy, electrical engineering, geoscience, meteorology, computer science, and applied mathematics programs, and to develop space physics graduate programs capable of training the next generation of leaders in this field. Space Science is interdisciplinary in nature and the Faculty Development in the Space Sciences awardees will be expected to establish partnerships within the university community.

The long-range goal of EXTREEMS-QED is to support efforts to educate the next generation of mathematics and statistics undergraduate students to confront new challenges in computational and data-enabled science and engineering (CDS&E).  EXTREEMS-QED projects must enhance the knowledge and skills of most, if not all, the institution's mathematics and statistics majors through training that incorporates computational tools for analysis of large data sets and for modeling and simulation of complex systems. 

The Applied Mathematics program supports mathematics research motivated by or having an effect on problems arising in science and engineering. Mathematical merit and novelty, as well as breadth and quality of impact on applications, are important factors. Proposals to develop critical mathematical techniques from individual investigators as well as interdisciplinary teams are encouraged.

Supports research on algebraic topology, including homotopy theory, ordinary and extraordinary homology and cohomology, cobordism theory, and K-theory; topological manifolds and cell complexes, fiberings, knots, and links; differential topology and actions of groups of transformations; geometric group theory; and general topology and continua theory.

The program in Geometric Analysis supports research on differential geometry and its relation to partial differential equations and variational principles; aspects of global analysis, including the differential geometry of complex manifolds and geometric Lie group theory; geometric methods in modern mathematical physics; and geometry of convex sets, integral geometry, and related geometric topics.

The Global Innovation Initiative is a joint effort of the United States and the United Kingdom to strengthen global multilateral collaboration through grants to university consortia focusing on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related issues of global significance that foster cutting-edge multinational research and strengthen institutional international partnerships.

Advanced computational infrastructure and the ability to perform large-scale simulations and accumulate massive amounts of data have revolutionized scientific and engineering disciplines.  The goal of the CDS&E program is to identify and capitalize on opportunities for major scientific and engineering breakthroughs through new computational and data analysis approaches.  The intellectual drivers may be in an individual discipline or they may cut across more than one discipline in various Directorates.  The key identifying factor is that the outcome relies on the development, adaptation, and utilization of one or more of the capabilities offered by advancement of both research and infrastructure in computation and data, either through cross-cutting or disciplinary programs. 

The Analysis Program supports basic research in that area of mathematics whose roots can be traced to the calculus of Newton and Leibniz.  Given its centuries-old ties to physics, analysis has influenced developments from Newton's mechanics to quantum mechanics and from Fourier's study of heat conduction to Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism to Witten's theory of supersymmetry.  More generally, research supported by Analysis provides the theoretical underpinning for the majority of applications of the mathematical sciences to other scientific disciplines.  Current areas of significant activity include: nonlinear partial differential equations; dynamical systems and ergodic theory; real, complex and harmonic analysis; operator theory and algebras of operators on Hilbert space; mathematical physics; and representation theory of Lie groups/algebras.  Emerging areas include random matrix theory and its ties to classical analysis, number theory, quantum mechanics, and coding theory; and development of noncommutative geometry with its applications to modeling physical phenomena.  It should be stressed, however, that the underlying role of the Analysis Program is to provide support for research in mathematics at the most fundamental level.  Although this is often done with the expectation that the research will generate a payoff in applications at some point down the road, the principal mission of the Program is to tend and replenish an important reservoir of mathematical knowledge, maintaining it as a dependable resource to be drawn upon by engineers, life and physical scientists, and other mathematical scientists, as need arises.

The program in Foundations supports research in mathematical logic and the foundations of mathematics, including proof theory, recursion theory, model theory, set theory, and infinitary combinatorics.

According an NSF official with whom OARS staff recently had a conversation, in keeping with the emphasis on interdisciplinary research, the Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education (INSPIRE) grants are an area of focus for the NSF.  These awards are meant to address "some of the most complicated and pressing scientific problems that lie at the intersections of traditional disciplines."  Further, "it is intended to encourage investigators to submit bold, exceptional proposals that some may consider to be at a disadvantage in a standard NSF review process."  Full proposals are invited following review of letters of intent.  The NSF official we spoke with indicated that successful LOIs and proposals will target at least two directorates and will make a strong argument for why the project is not a good fit for a single directorate.  

A. Proposals for the development of novel collaborative perception algorithms that will enable heterogeneous teams of UxS (specifically unmanned air and ground systems) to share knowledge and perform joint target search and tracking autonomously. While existing distributed data fusion methods have looked at probabilistic representations for fusing detections at a decision level, work is needed to investigate shared perceptual features that exist across unmanned air and ground systems to enable the performance of collaborative tasks.  B. Development of a new Rigid Body Dynamics Software Library for Mathematical and Physics-Based Modeling and Simulation. The basic research proposed here would involve the development of a new software library for the temporal (time) integration of the governing equations of rigid body dynamics. The temporal integration technique employed in this new library involves the application of the Runge-Kutta method of various orders and possibly other finite-difference-type techniques to a system of equations consisting of kinematic equations (arising from the Lie Group structure of the group of rotation transformations) which define the first and second time derivatives of the rotation transformation in terms of angular velocity and angular acceleration together with the equations of motion (balance of momentum and balance of angular momentum) of a rigid body. C. Robustness of the Use of Botanical DNA Materials as Anti-Counterfeit Markers for Electronic Components - The project will solicit academic laboratory participation for doing testing that demonstrates the 'robustness' of the use of Botanical DNA material as anti-counterfeit markers for electronic components. Request analysis of candidate DNA marker materials utilizing current DNA manipulation technology. This would be done especially in light of results from (1) above.

The long-range goal of the DMS Workforce Program is to increase the number of well-prepared U.S. citizens, nationals, and permanent residents who successfully pursue careers in the mathematical sciences and in other NSF-supported disciplines. Among intermediate goals to this end are improvements in recruitment, retention, education, and placement of trainees in the mathematical sciences.  The program's primary interest is in activities centered on education through research involvement for trainees at the undergraduate through postdoctoral educational levels.  Activities that broaden participation in the mathematical sciences are of significant interest to the Division of Mathematical Sciences.