Date

Announcement of Opportunity
Academic Research Infrastructure Program: Recovery and Reinvestment
Solicitation 09-562
National Science Foundation

Letter of Intent Deadline: Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Full Proposal Deadline: Monday, 24 August 2009

For further information, please go to:
http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503380&org=OCI&from=home

Or contact:
Stephen Meacham
Email: smeacham [at] nsf.gov
Phone: 703-292-8970


The National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Cyberinfrastructure
(OCI) announces a funding opportunity: Academic Research Infrastructure
Program: Recovery and Reinvestment (ARI-R2).

The purpose of this program is to enhance the Nation's existing research
facilities where sponsored and/or unsponsored research activities and
research training take place to enable next-generation research
infrastructure that integrates shared resources across user communities.
Consistent with NSF's mission to strengthen the U.S. science and
engineering enterprise, the ARI-R2 program will:

- Update existing research facilities at institutions of higher
education (including graduate and undergraduate institutions, among
which are included community colleges) and other non-profit research
organizations (e.g., independent research museums, independent
research laboratories, and research consortia) in order to support
research that can address the challenges of the 21st century.

- Enable academic departments, disciplinary and cross-disciplinary
units, or multi-organization consortia to renovate research
facilities through the addition or augmentation of
cyberinfrastructure, other than general-purpose computing systems or
data storage systems, to create environments that enhance and
integrate research with education.

- Improve access to and increase use of next-generation research
facilities for researchers, educators and students.

- Assist research organizations, including those that have
historically received limited Federal research and development
funds, to improve their science and engineering research
environments.

Scientific discoveries are emerging at an accelerated pace, presenting
new frontiers for exploration, stimulating innovation and economic
growth, and driving the development of new tools and systems to support
research. Likewise, the convergence of disciplines and the
cross-fertilization that characterized contemporary science and
engineering have made collaboration a centerpiece of the 21st century
science and engineering enterprise. As new scientific opportunities and
processes have emerged, the Nation's research facility requirements have
also evolved and changed. In 2005, NSF estimated that academic
institutions then had at least $3.6 billion in deferred projects to
repair and renovate science and engineering research facilities (FY05
Survey of Science and Engineering Research Facilities.) As a result of
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, NSF will invest $200
million in the Nation's research facilities and research training
infrastructure. This investment will advance the science and engineering
research enterprise at many institutions.

Please be advised that the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and
Procedures Guide (PAPPG) includes revised guidelines to implement the
mentoring provisions of the America COMPETES Act (ACA) (Pub. L. No.
110-69, Aug. 9, 2007). As specified in the ACA, each proposal that
requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include a
description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such
individuals. Proposals that do not comply with this requirement will be
returned without review (see the PAPP Guide Part I: Grant Proposal Guide
Chapter II for further information about the implementation of this new
requirement).

The letter of intent submission deadline is Wednesday, 1 July 2009. The
full proposal deadline is Monday, 24 August 2009.

For further information, please go to:
http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503380&org=OCI&from=home.

Or contact:
Stephen Meacham
Email: smeacham [at] nsf.gov
Phone: 703-292-8970