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Synthesis Centers are a mechanism used by NSF's Directorate for Biological Science (BIO) to bring together communities that leverage existing data to catalyze discoveries through synthesis, analysis, and integrative training. Research supported by the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) in BIO focuses on organisms as integrated units of biological organization, i.e., why they are structured as they are and function as they do. IOS seeks to establish a new Synthesis Center to advance our ability to explain and predict organismal resiliency and plasticity in response to complex and dynamic environmental circumstances encountered over a lifespan through the synthesis of varied data sets and types that bridge multiple scales and levels. The Synthesis Center will enable innovative synthesis and analysis of available biological and related data by providing the vision, infrastructure, and expertise to advance new avenues of inquiry in organismal biology focused on organismal resilience and plasticity. To accomplish this vision, the Synthesis Center will adopt approaches that are based on open science, team science, and data-intensive methods that enable data synthesis, sharing and inclusive collaborations among researchers across multiple levels of biological inquiry that may include genomic, physiological, structural, developmental, behavioral, neural, immunological, and microbiological analyses across some or all the IOS subdisciplines. In addition to supporting data and knowledge synthesis, the Synthesis Center should train new generations of researchers in solving challenging research problems through data-intensive, open, cross-disciplinary, and collaborative science. The Synthesis Center is also expected to serve as an example in effectively engaging diverse scientists from different types of institutions and across multiple disciplines. These types of data syntheses are expected to provide the basis for fundamental scientific discoveries and/or potentially translational, use-inspired research. In doing so, the Synthesis Center will have a profound impact on the progress of science and society.

NSF-supported science and engineering research increasingly relies on cutting-edge infrastructure. With its Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program and Major Multi-user Research Facilityprojects (Major Facilities), NSF supports infrastructure projects at the lower and higher ends of infrastructure scales across science and engineering research disciplines. The Mid-scale Research Infrastructure Programs are intended to provide NSF with an agile, Foundation-wide process to fund experimental research capabilities in the mid-scale range between the MRI and Major Facilities thresholds.In alignment with NSF’s goal to bring together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergent research, proposals submitted in response to this solicitation will be managed by a cross-disciplinary team of NSF Program Directors. NSF defines Research Infrastructure (RI) as any combination of facilities, equipment, instrumentation, or computational hardware or software, and the necessary human capital in support of the same. Major facilities and mid-scale projects are subsets of research infrastructure. The NSF Mid-scale RI-2 Program supports the implementation of unique and compelling RI projects. Mid-scale RI-2 projects may include any combination of equipment, instrumentation, cyberinfrastructure, broadly used large-scale data sets, and the commissioning and/or personnel needed to successfully complete the project. Mid-scale RI-2 projects should fill a research community-defined scientific need, or address an identified national research priority, that enables current and next-generation U.S. researchers and a diverse STEM workforce to remain competitive in a global research environment. Mid-scale RI-2 projects will directly enable advances in any of the research domains supported by NSF, including STEM education research, and translational research. Projects may also include upgrades to existing research infrastructure. The total cost for Mid-scale RI-2 projects ranges from $20 million to below the threshold for a Major FacilityProject, currently $100 million. Preliminary and full proposals to the Mid-scale RI-2 Program with total project costs outside this solicitation's budgetary limits will be returned without review. The Mid-scale RI-2 Program emphasizes projects that have strong scientific merit, respond to an identified need of the research community, demonstrate technical and project management readiness for implementation, include a well-developed plan for student trainingin all activities leading to and including the implementation of the mid-scale research infrastructure, and involve a diverse workforce in mid-scale research infrastructure development, and/or associated data management. Training of students in design and implementation of the research infrastructure is essential. The Mid-scale RI-2 Program seeks to broaden the representation of PIs and institutions in its award portfolio, including a geographically diverse set of institutions (especially those in EPSCoR jurisdictions). PIs who are women, early-career researchers, members of groups that are underrepresented in STEM, and persons with disabilities are especially encouraged to apply. To improve participation in science and engineering research for persons with disabilities, Mid-scale RI-2 encourages PIs to incorporate accessibility as part of a Mid-scale RI-2 project. Please consult NSF’s Research Infrastructure Guide (RIG) NSF 21-107, (formerly the Major Facilities Guide) for definitions of certain terms used in this solicitation, such as the Project Execution Plan (PEP). Section 5 of the RIG provides guidance specific to Mid-scale Research Infrastructure Projects, including references to other parts of the RIG, as needed. Note that the PEP should be appropriately scaled for the complexity of the project and may not require all of the elements described in the RIG, Section 4. Project teams are strongly encouraged to include professional project management expertise at the earliest stages of proposal development. Mid-scale RI-2 will consider only the implementation (typically construction or acquisition) stage of a project, including a limited degree offinal development or necessary production design immediately preparatory to implementation. It is thus intended that Mid-scale RI-2 will support projects in well-developed states of project management and technical readiness for implementation, i.e., those that have already matured through previous developmental investments. Accordingly, Mid-scale RI-2 does not support pre-implementation (early-stage design or development) activities. Mid-scale RI-2 also does not support post-implementation research, operations or maintenance, the anticipated source(s) of support for which are expected to be discussed in the proposal. Note:Research infrastructure and instrumentation in the range just above the current Major Research Instrumentation Program threshold and below the Mid-scale RI-2 threshold is the subject of the Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-1 solicitation (NSF 22-637).

The NSF CISE Directorate supports research and education projects that develop new knowledge in all aspects of computing, communications, and information science and engineering, as well as advanced cyberinfrastructure, through the following core programs: Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF): Algorithmic Foundations (AF) program; Communications and Information Foundations (CIF) program; Foundations of Emerging Technologies (FET) program; and Software and Hardware Foundations (SHF) program. Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS): Computer Systems Research (CSR) program; and Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) program. Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS): Human-Centered Computing (HCC) program; Information Integration and Informatics (III) program; and Robust Intelligence (RI) program. Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC): OAC Core Research (OAC Core) program; Proposers are invited to submit proposals in several project classes, which are defined as follows: Small Projects -- up to $600,000 total budget with durations up to three years: projects in this class may be submitted to CCF, CNS, and IIS only; Medium Projects -- $600,001 to $1,200,000 total budget with durations up to four years: projects in this class may be submitted to CCF, CNS, and IIS only; and OAC Core Projects -- up to $600,000 total budget with durations up to three years: projects in this class may be submitted to OAC only. A more complete description of these project classes can be found in SectionII. Program Descriptionof this document.

HBCU-UP provides awardsto strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).Support is available through thefollowing tracks: Targeted Infusion Projects (TIP), which provide support to achieve a short-term, well-defined goal for enhancing and innovating undergraduate STEM education at an HBCU. Research on Broadening Participation in STEMprojects (BPR), which provide support for researchthat seeks to create and study new theory-driven models and innovations related to the participation and success of underrepresented groups in STEM undergraduate education, especially African Americans. Research Initiation Awards (RIA), which provide support for STEM faculty with no prior or recent research funding to pursue research at the home institution, another research-intensive institution, an NSF-funded research center, or a national laboratory. Implementation Projects (IMP), which provide support to design, implement, study, and assess comprehensive institutional efforts for increasing the number of students receiving undergraduate degrees in STEM and enhancing their preparation by strengthening STEM education and research. Broadening Participation Research Centers (BPRC),which provide support to create centers that conduct research on STEM education and broadening participation and build the intellectual infrastructure to facilitate the creation, integration, and transfer of new knowledge. Other Funding Opportunities include EArly-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), Rapid Response Research (RAPID), conference, and planning grants.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are interested in proposals that will propel our understanding of the biomedical research enterprise by drawing from the scientific expertise of the science of science policy research community. NSF promotes the progress of science by maintaining the general health of research and education across all fields of science and engineering. The Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate within NSF supports basic research on people and society. The SBE sciences focus on human behavior and social organizations; how social, economic, political, cultural and environmental forces affect the lives of people from birth to old age; and how people in turn shape those forces. SBE's Science of Science: Discovery, Communication and Impact Program (SoS:DCI) supports research designed to advance the scientific basis of science and innovation policy. The NIH is the U.S. federal agency charged with supporting biomedical research in the U.S.The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) within the NIH supports basic biomedical research that increases understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Both NSF and NIH believe that there are opportunities and needs for building and supporting research projects with a focus on the scientific research enterprise. The two agencies also recognize that when programmatic goals are compatible, coordinated management and funding of a research program can have a positive synergistic effect on the level and scope of research and can leverage the investments of both agencies. Therefore, NIGMS and SBE are partnering to enable collaboration in research between theSoS:DCI program and NIGMS. This partnership will result in a portfolio of high-quality research to provide scientific analysis of important aspects of the biomedical research enterprise and efforts to foster a diverse, innovative, productive and efficient scientific workforce, from which future scientific leaders will emerge. Prospective investigators are strongly encouraged to discuss theirproposals with the program officers before submission to determine project relevance to the priorities of both SBE and NIGMS. Specific questions pertaining to this solicitation can also be directed to the SBE and NIGMS program officers.

The Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program aims to harness the power of open-source development for the creation of new technology solutions to problems of national and societal importance.Many NSF-funded projects result in publicly accessible, modifiable, and distributable open-source products, including software, hardware, models, specifications, programming languages, or data platforms, that catalyze further innovation. In some cases, an open-source product that shows potential for wide adoption forms the basis for a self-sustaining open-source ecosystem (OSE) that comprises a leadership team; a managing organization with a well-defined governance structure and distributed development model; a cohesive community of external intellectual content developers; and a broad base of users across academia, industry, and government. The overarching vision of POSE is that proactive and intentional formation of managing organizations will ensure a broader and more diverse adoption of open-source products; increased coordination of external intellectual content developer contributions; and a more focused route to technologies with broad societal impact. Toward this end, the POSE program supports the formation of new OSE managing organizations based on an existing open-source product or class of products, whereby each organization is responsible for the creation and management of processes and infrastructure needed for the efficient and secure development and maintenance of an OSE. POSE constitutes a new pathway to translate scientific innovations, akin to the Lab-to-Market Platform that NSF has pioneered over many decades. Whereas programs like the NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™), Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) and Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR and STTR) represent an integrated set of programs to provide researchers with the capacity to transform their fundamental research into deep technology ventures, POSE is specifically focused on another translational pathway–supporting the transition from open-source research artifacts to OSEs. Importantly, the POSE program is not intended to fund the development of open-source products, including tools and artifacts. The POSE program is also not intended to fund existing well-resourced, open-source communities or ecosystems. Instead, the program aims to support new managing organizations to catalyze distributed, community-driven development and growth of new OSEs. The expected outcomes of thePOSE program are to grow the community of researchers and innovators who develop and contribute to OSE efforts, and to enable pathways for the safe and secure development of OSEsthat have broad societal impacts. OSEs can stem from any areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) research and development. This solicitation seeks two types of proposals, allowing teams to propose specific activities to scope and plan the establishment of an OSE (Phase I), and to establish a sustainable OSE based on a robust open-source product that shows promise in the ability to both meet anemergent societal or national need and build a community to help develop it (Phase II). Phase I: OSE Scoping and Planning Proposals Phase I projects are for open-source research products with a small community of external users though the product may not necessarily have external content developers. The objectives of Phase I projects are to: (1) enable scoping activities that will inform the transition of promising research products that are already available in open-source formats into sustainable and robust OSEs that will have broad societal impacts, and (2) provide training to teams interested in building such an OSE. Each Phase I proposal must describe the current context and, to the extent known at the time of the Phase I proposal, the long-term vision and potential impact of the proposed OSE. The proposals shouldalso includespecific scoping activities that will informplansfor ecosystem discovery; organizational and governance structure; continuous development, integration, and deployment of the open-source product(s); and community building for users and intellectual content developers. Phase I scoping activities are intended to help teams determine (a) whether their open-source product is suitable and ready to be transitioned into an OSE; (b) whether there is a user base that is ready to serve as early adopters; and (c) whether there is a distributed intellectual content developer community that can help develop and maintain the core product going forward. Phase I proposals are limited to a total budget of $300,000 with durations of up to one year. The Project Description can be up to 7 pages for Phase I proposals. Please note that the Phase I proposals described in this solicitation are a solicitation-specific project category and are separate and distinct from the Planning type of proposal described in Chapter II.F.1 of the PAPPG. When preparing a Phase I proposal in response to this solicitation, the "Research" type of proposal should be selected. Phase II: Establishment and Expansion Proposals Phase II projects are for open-source research products with a small community of external users and external content developers. The objective of Phase II projects is to support the transition of a promising open-source product into a sustainable and robust OSE. Phase II proposals are expected to have conducted the scoping activities (not necessarily via a Phase I award) needed to develop a detailed project plan to support the community-driven distributed development and deployment of successful open-source tools into operational environments. The proposals must include a community outreach plan that outlines activities to engage the intended intellectual content developer community that will further develop and maintain the technology and identifies user communities and/or organizations that will serve as early adopters of the technology. Each Phase II proposal must describe the current context and the long-term vision and impact of the proposed OSE. The proposal should also include awell-developed, cohesive plan for building an OSE, including ecosystem establishment/growth, organizational and governance structure, a framework for continuous development, integration, and deployment of the technology, methods for evaluating the OSE’s effectiveness, and activities to ensure security and privacy, build the community, and sustain the ecosystem. Phase II proposals are limited to a total budget of $1,500,000 with durations of up to two years. The Project Description can be up to 15 pages for Phase II proposals. Phase I awardees are not obligated to submit Phase II proposals in the future. An NSF POSE Phase I award is not required for the submission of a Phase II proposal.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) invites investigators at U.S. organizations to submit proposals to the Arctic Sciences Section in the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) within the Geosciences Directorate, to conduct research about the Arctic region. The goal of this solicitation is to attract research proposals that advance a fundamental, process, and/or systems-level understanding of the Arctic's rapidly changing natural environment, social and cultural systems, and, where appropriate, to improve our capacity to project future change. The Arctic Sciences Section supports research focused on the Arctic region and its connectivity with lower latitudes. The scientific scope is aligned with, but not limited to, research priorities outlined in theInteragency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC)five-year plan. The Arctic Sciences Section coordinates with programs across NSF and with other federal and international partners to co-review and co-fund Arctic-related proposals as appropriate. The Arctic Sciences Section also maintains Arctic logistical infrastructure and field support capabilities that are available to enable research.

NSF seeks to establish a Synthesis Center for Molecular and Cellular Sciences (SCMCS) that will advance our ability to explain and predict complex molecular and cellular phenomena through innovative synthesis and integration of available biological data and related scientific knowledge. The Center will provide the vision, infrastructure, and expertise to support communities in drawing together information, including data, methods, conceptual frameworks, theories, and models that are currently dispersed across different scientific domains, in order to address compelling, multi-scale questions and open new avenues of inquiry in the molecular and cellular biosciences. To accomplish this vision, the Center will adopt open science principles and team science approaches that enable data sharing and effective, inclusive collaborations among researchers across biological, chemical, computational, mathematical, and physical sciences and engineering disciplines. In addition to supporting information synthesis to enable research, the Center will develop training programs that empower new generations of researchers to solve challenging problems using data-intensive, cross-disciplinary, and collaborative science. The Center is also expected to serve as an exemplar in engaging diverse scientists from different types of institutions and across disciplinary, demographic, and geographic lines. By creating a rich environment for researchers to share and create new knowledge, the Center will help catalyze a revolution in understanding the molecular and cellular underpinnings of life. In doing so, the Center will shape the future of many scientific fields and have a profound impact on the progress of science and society.

The Archaeology Program supports anthropologically relevant archaeological research to increase understanding of past behaviors. This means that the value of the proposed research can be justified within an anthropological context. It is the responsibility of the investigator to explain convincingly why the focus of their research is significant and has the potential to contribute to anthropological knowledge. The program sets no priorities by either geographic region or time period. It also has no priorities in regard to theoretical orientation or question. While the program, in order to encourage innovative research, neither limits nor defines specific categories of research, most proposals either request funds for field research or the analysis of archaeological material through multiple approaches.

The U.S. National Science Foundation seeks to build research capacity and infrastructure to address complex and compounding national and global crises whose solutions require a human-centered approach. To help generate effective and long-lasting solutions that benefit the entire U.S. public, NSF is providing this funding opportunity to inform possible future Centers for Research and Innovation in Science, the Environment and Society (CRISES). The envisioned centers will catalyze new research and research-based innovations to address seemingly intractable problems that confront our society. They will develop evidence-based solutions that address fundamental quality-of-life issues, such as those involving the environment, extreme weather and sustainability; workforce and the economy; equity and access to opportunities; and well-being. CRISES supports planning, conference and EAGER proposals to catalyze ideas that will potentially inform or serve as the basis for a larger, center-scale program. This opportunity supports researchers in the social, behavioral and economic sciences who use empirical methods to grapple with crises that impact individuals, families, organizations, regions, nations or our entire planet. The Centers for Research in Science, the Environment and Society initiative invites proposals to take the first steps toward developing large-scale interdisciplinary research activities that will address today’s crises and ultimately enhance people’s quality of life. NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate supports research to understand the social and behavioral aspects of our rapidly changing world and how these issues are affected by our social, economic and natural environments. Fundamental and use-inspired research supported by the directorate advances our understanding of people, organizations and society, while revealing emerging opportunities to address challenges affecting our ability to live healthy and productive lives.