Date

Announcement of Opportunity
Virtual Organizations as Sociotechnical Systems (VOSS)
National Science Foundation

For further information, please go to:
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503256&org=OCI&from=home

Full Proposal Deadline: Monday, 2 June 2008


The National Science Foundation (NSF) announces a funding opportunity
for the creation of sociotechnical virtual organizations. The Virtual
Organizations as Sociotechnical Systems (VOSS) program supports
scientific research directed at advancing the understanding of what
constitutes effective virtual organizations (VO) and under what
conditions VOs can enable and enhance scientific, engineering, and
education production and innovation. Levels of analysis may include (but
are not limited to) individuals, groups, organizations, and
institutional arrangements. Disciplinary perspectives may include (but
are not limited to):
- Anthropology
- Complexity sciences
- Computer and information sciences
- Decision and management sciences
- Economics
- Engineering
- Organization theory
- Organizational behavior
- Social and industrial psychology
- Public administration
- Sociology
Research methods may span a broad variety of qualitative and
quantitative methods, including: ethnographies, surveys, simulation
studies, experiments, comparative case studies, and network analyses.

VOSS funded research must be grounded in theory and rooted in empirical
methods. It must produce broadly applicable and transferable results
that augment knowledge and practice of virtual organizations as a
modality. VOSS does not support proposals that aim to implement or
evaluate individual virtual organizations.

A VO is a group of individuals whose members and resources may be
dispersed geographically, but who function as a coherent unit through
the use of cyberinfrastructure (CI). VOs are increasingly central to the
science and engineering projects funded by NSF. Focused investments in
sociotechnical analyses of VOs are necessary to harness their full
potential and the promise they offer for discovery and learning.

For further information, please see the announcement of opportunity at:
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503256&org=OCI&from=home