Features

1. REMINDER: Proposal Submission Deadlines and Guidelines
2. INFORMATION: Collaboration
3. REQUEST: Volunteer to Review Proposals

1. Proposal Submission Deadlines and Guidelines

Information Technology Research (ITR) initiative http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02168/nsf02168.htm and Information and Data Management Program (IDM) in the Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) Division http://www.cise.nsf.gov/iis

ITR deadlines (NSF 02-168): December 12, 2002: Small projects (<$500K) February 12, 2003: Medium projects (<$4M) March 24, 2003: Large projects (<$15M): Pre-proposals are mandatory, were due on November 18, 2002, and only encouraged projects can submit full proposals.

Please see the ITR Web site for further details http://www.itr.nsf.gov/.

IDM/IIS deadlines (NSF 01-156): March 1, 2003 (it's a Saturday, so proposals may be submitted the next working day, i.e., Monday March 3, 2003 by 5 PM of the submitter's local time) November 16, 2003 (it's a Sunday, so proposals may be submitted the next working day, i.e., Monday November 17, 2003 by 5 PM of the submitter's local time)

Proposals for workshops http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf032/032_2.htm#IID7 or Small Grants for Exploratory Research http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf032/032_2.htm#IID1, or requests for REU Supplements to existing grants to support Research Experience for Undergraduates http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf032/032_2.htm#IID7 can be submitted any time during the timeframe October - June, but the PIs are requested to contact the program director, Maria Zemankova mzemanko@nsf.gov prior to submitting the proposal/supplement request.

IDM proposals will be handled by Maria Zemankova mzemanko@nsf.gov, 703-292-8930.

ITR proposals in the area of "Information Management", i.e., proposals relevant to the IDM program and other relevant programs in the IIS Division will be handled by Bhavani Thuraisingham bthurais@nsf.gov, 703-292-8930.

Both of us will also be involved in handling ITR proposals in "Scientific and Engineering Frontiers", especially bioinformatics and geoinformatics (GIS, etc.).

The ITR areas "Information Management" (IM) and "Scientific and Engineering Frontiers" (SEF) are NOT defined. However, we use the term IM to describe proposals that address more fundamental/core issues in information technology, whereas SEF refers to proposals where the information technology research is driven by a scientific or engineering application. The SEF proposals very often have interdisciplinary co-PIs.

We would like to encourage you to submit innovative proposals, addressing important and timely research problems, where the results will have broad impacts. (Note that your proposal will be reviewed by the two NSF review criteria, intellectual merit and broader impact, so make sure to address both of them in your proposal.)

Many PIs would like to know where to submit their proposals, what the chances are in the IDM program vs. ITR initiative, what types of proposals are better suited for IDM or ITR. Although we cannot predict your chances of success, we believe this would be a good strategy:

Smaller-scale (<<$500K) projects should be aimed to the IDM program, under the Program Announcement NSF 01-156 and the appropriate deadline. The IDM budget is rather tight, hence it will be extremely difficult to make awards much larger than $300K for 3 years. However, projects that may require individual attention (e.g., very interdisciplinary, hence will need to be reviewed by a diverse body of reviewers, possibly considered by several NSF programs, etc.) should also be directed to the IDM program, although the budget may be higher. The budgetary considerations should not guide your selection of the program for your proposal. Any proposal will be happily accepted in the IDM program, and every stone will be turned to find funding for projects that should be supported.

Small-scale (<$500K) projects that address broader "Information Management" or "Scientific and Engineering Frontiers" issues should be submitted as ITR proposals (NSF 02-168), directed to the Information and Data Management (IDM) Program.

Medium (<$4M) projects and Large (<$15M) projects that address broader "Information Management" or "Scientific and Engineering Frontiers" issues should be submitted as ITR proposals (NSF 02-168), directed to the Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) Division. After selecting IIS as the primary CISE division, you are encouraged to select the Information and Data Management Program as the secondary organizational unit as well as other relevant program(s) (scroll down the screen to the "Show All NSF Units" button, and select the most appropriate program(s)).

ITR awards are an excellent chance for the IDM community to receive support for visionary, larger-scale, often interdisciplinary proposals. We strongly encourage you to take the advantage of the ITR funding opportunity.

2. Collaboration

IDM and ITR proposals with interdisciplinary, industry, government or international collaboration are encouraged.

Please note that in most cases there are special rules for the non-academic collaborators' participation or support. Please check the Grants Proposal Guide (NSF 02-03) http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf032/start.htm and the program announcements (e.g., ITR or GOALI: Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1998/nsf98142/nsf98142.htm ).

The non-US collaborators cannot be supported by NSF, hence must have or should plan on receiving support from their home funding agencies. In addition to IDM and ITR, proposals with international collaboration can be submitted by the US-based researchers to the NSF International Programs http://www.nsf.gov/home/int/start.htm, or to the special Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate programs for collaboration with Mexico, NSF-CONACyT Collaborative Research Opportunities http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1998/nsf96145/nsf96145.htm and Brazil, NSF-CNPq Collaborative Research Opportunities http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1998/nsf98139/nsf98139.htm .

3. Volunteer to Review Proposals

The National Science Foundation cannot function without the advice received from ranks of reviewers and panelists. We would appreciate your volunteering to serve on ITR or IDM review panels, or provide individual reviews. In general, panelists read a set of proposals and write a review for around 10 proposals and come to a panel meeting where proposals are discussed. On the other hand, individual reviewers may write a review for one or more proposals, but do not need to come to the panel meeting. We are looking for panelists or reviewers from academia, industry or government and especially would like to build up our base of international reviewers.

To volunteer, please send email containing
Your name
Your affiliation
Your phone number
Your email address
Your home page URL (if you don't have one, enter the most relevant URL, or enter "No URL")
Area(s) of expertise (up to 8 technical keywords)

(Please observe this order, one entry per line, as we'll try to import this to the NSF reviewer database.)

Please address your email and specify the appropriate Subject, depending on where you would like to volunteer. If you would like to volunteer in more than one category, please send the email message to all relevant categories, to facilitate our channeling the messages correctly.

To: mzemanko@nsf.gov
Subject: IDM panelist volunteer

To: mzemanko@nsf.gov
Subject: IDM reviewer volunteer

To: bthurais@nsf.gov, mzemanko@nsf.gov
Subject: ITR/IM panelist volunteer

To: bthurais@nsf.gov, mzemanko@nsf.gov
Subject: ITR/IM reviewer volunteer

To: bthurais@nsf.gov mailto:bthurais@nsf.gov, mzemanko@nsf.gov

Subject: ITR/SEF panelist volunteer

To: bthurais@nsf.gov, mzemanko@nsf.gov
Subject: ITR/SEF panelist volunteer Sorry if you receive this message several times, as we are trying to use several mailing lists in order to reach as many potential IDM and ITR PIs. Please forward this message to other researchers in the IDM community and pass our encouragement to submit ITR and IDM proposals.

Best wishes,

Maria Zemankova and Bhavani Thuraisingham

Maria Zemankova, Ph.D. mzemanko@nsf.gov
Program Director, Information and Data Management (IDM)
and
Bhavani Thuraisingham, Ph.D. bthurais@nsf.gov
Program Director, Data and Applications Security (DAS)
Information Technology Research (ITR)

Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd., Room 1115
Arlington, VA 22230
Phone: 703-292-8930 Fax: 703-292-9073
URL: http://www.cise.nsf.gov/iis/