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Using the Rules of Life to Address Societal Challenges (URoL:ASC) will support use-inspired research that builds on knowledge from previous investments in the NSF “Big Ideas”, including in the Understanding the Rules of Life program. The Big Ideas were designed to position the Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergent research (see details here). The goal of the Understanding the Rules of Life Big Idea was to develop predictive understanding of how key properties of living systems emerge from interactions of factors such as genomes, phenotypes, and evolving environments. Examples of projects that have examined some of these rules can be found here. Following from the fundamental principles revealed from these and related projects, an important goal of the current solicitation is to use the predictive capability of rules of life to address some of the greatest challenges we currently face as a society. Through use-inspired research using convergent, multidisciplinary approaches, URoL:ASC seeks to apply lessons learned from studying rules of life across a broad array of living systems to tackle pressing societal concerns. These concerns include but are not limited to: climate change and associated risks, including geohazards, extreme events, and loss of biodiversity; environmental degradation, including impacts on land and water resources; inequalities in availability of and access to essential natural assets; lack of sustainability, including for food, energy, and waste production; and threats from pandemic disease, among others. This solicitation differs in key respects from previous solicitations associated with the Understanding the Rules of Life Big Idea. First, rather than a focus on discovering rules of life, here we seek ideas about how such rules might be used for societal benefit. Second, underscoring this shift in focus, proposals should begin with a description of the expected outcomes of the research, e.g., the broader impacts, followed by details on the intellectual underpinnings of the convergent research plan. Third, proposers must adopt a co-production strategy that involves both producers and users of the research outcomes in all phases of the research[1] [2], e.g., in the design, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of the research impacts (see NSF Strategic Plan). Fourth, projects must integrate innovative education and training activities aimed at fostering convergent research. Fifth, projects should actively promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in all activities by involving members of underrepresented groups, such as the Missing Millions (see National Science Board Vision 2030 Report) and including women and members of groups who are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as PIs, co-PIs, postdoctoral researchers, students, and other personnel. Participation is encouraged from PIs or co-PIs from a broad range of institutions, including (see below) predominantly undergraduate institutions (PUIs), minority-serving Institutions (MSIs) that are not among the nation’s most research-intensive institutions, other institutions classified in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as R2, D/PU, or M1-3, and institutions in jurisdictions eligible for the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). As in previous Big Idea solicitations, this new activity, URoL:ASC, is a cross-directorate NSF program. Proposals in response to this solicitation must be submitted to the Emerging Frontiers (EF) Division in the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO). Review will be managed by a multidisciplinary, cross-directorate team of program officers. [1] Djenontin, I.N.S., Meadow, A.M. The art of co-production of knowledge in environmental sciences and management: lessons from international practice. Environmental Management 61: 885 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-018-1028-3 [2] Iwaniec, D.M. et al., The co-production of sustainable future scenarios. Landscape and Urban Planning 197: 103744 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103744

In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) unveiled a set of "Big Ideas," 10 bold, long-term research and process ideas that identify areas for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering (see https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/big_ideas/index.jsp). The Big Ideas represent unique opportunities to position our Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergence research. As such, when responding to this solicitation, even though proposals must be submitted to the Division of Emerging Frontiers in the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO/EF), once received, the proposals will be managed by a cross-disciplinary team of NSF Program Directors. TheUnderstanding the Rules of Life: Predicting Phenotype"Big Idea" is based on developing a predictive understanding of how key properties of living systems emerge from interactions of factors such as genomes, phenotypes, and evolving environments.Ideally, the predictive capability of the Rules of Life explored byprojects supported by the programwill enable us to address some of the greatest challenges we currently face in understanding the living world.This Understanding the Rules of Life: Emergent Networks (URoL:EN) solicitation is a cross-directorate program of NSF that aims to develop a predictive understanding of how key properties of living systems emerge from interactions of factors such as genomes, phenotypes, and environments and how emerging networks of organismal, natural, social, and/orhuman-engineered systems respond to or influence evolving environments.Successful projects of the URoL:EN program are expected to use convergent approaches that explore emergent network properties of living systems across various levels of organizational scale and, ultimately, to contribute to understanding the rules of life through new theories and reliable predictions about the impact of specific environmental changes on behaviors of complex living systems, or engineerable interventions and technologies based on a rule of life to address associated outcomes for societal benefit. Projects that advance all of the different fields of science represented in the project and that represent different NSF Directorates are strongly encouraged. Using such convergent approaches, proposals must: Identify a rule(s) of life around which the proposed research is oriented or to which the research is applied. Include a compelling convergent research plan with deep integration across disciplines. Involve a basic, or fundamental, research approach to investigate a new understanding of emergent networks of interactions between organisms and Earth, human, natural, and/or human-engineered systems in evolving environments. The convergent scope of URoL:EN projects also provides unique STEM education and outreach possibilities to train the next generation of scientists in a diversity of approaches and to engage society more generally. Hence, the URoL:EN program encourages research projects that integrate training and outreach activities in their research plan, provide convergent training opportunities for researchers and students, develop novel teaching modules, and broaden participation of under-represented groups in science. The URoL:EN Program will support projects with a total budget of up to $3,000,000 and an award duration of up to 5 years.

The Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) in the Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is partnering with The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc. (CASIS) to solicit research projects in the general field of fluid dynamics, particulate and multiphase processes, combustion and fire systems,thermal transport processes, and nanoscale interactionsthat can utilize the International Space Station (ISS) National Lab to conduct research that will benefit life on Earth. Onlyentities that qualify as "U.S. Persons" under 22 U.S. Code §6010, includingacademic investigators, non-profit independent research laboratories and academic-commercial teams are eligible to apply.

This program seeks to prepare, nurture, and grow the national scientific research workforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) to enable and potentially transform fundamental science and engineering (S&E) research and education and contribute to the Nation's overall economic competitiveness and security. The goals of this solicitation are to (i) ensure broad adoption of CI tools, methods, and resources by the research community in order to catalyze major research advances and to enhance researchers’ abilities to lead the development of new CI, and (ii) integrate core literacy and discipline-appropriate advanced skills in advanced CI as well as computational and data-driven methods for advancing fundamental research, into the Nation’s undergraduate and graduate educational curriculum/instructional materials. Proposals responding to this solicitation may target one or both of the two solicitation goals. For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the set of resources, tools, methods, and services for advanced computation, large-scale data handling and analytics, and networking and security for large-scale systems that collectively enable potentially transformative fundamental S&E research and education. This solicitation calls for innovative, scalable training, education, and curriculum/instructional materials—targeting one or more of the solicitation goals—to address emerging needs and unresolved bottlenecks in the S&E research workforce development, from the postsecondary level to active researchers to CI professionals. The funded activities, spanning targeted, multidisciplinary communities, should lead to transformative changes in the state of research workforce preparedness for advanced CI-enabled research in the short- and long-term. This solicitation also seeks to broaden CI access and adoption by (i) increasing the adoption of advanced CI and computational and data-driven methods to a broader range of S&E disciplines and institutions and (ii) effectively utilizing the capabilities of individuals from a diverse set of underrepresented groups. Proposals from, and in partnership with, the aforementioned communities are especially encouraged. There are two project classes as defined below: Pilot Projects: up to $300,000 total budget with durations up to two years; and Implementation Projects: Small (with total budgets of up to $500,000) or Medium (with total budgets of up to $1,000,000) for durations of up to four years. Section II. Program Description provides a more complete description of the project classes. Section V.A. Proposal Preparation Instructions describes the proposal elements required for the various project classes in order to address the suitable set of solicitation-specific review criteria. The CyberTraining program is led by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and has participation from other NSF directorates/divisions, as described in Section II. Program Description, Programmatic Areas of Interest. Not all directorates/divisions are participating at the same level, and some have specific research and education priorities. The appropriate contact for the CyberTraining program in any directorate/division is the Cognizant Program Officer (PO) for the respective directorate/division/office/program listed below. All projects are expected to clearly articulate how they will address important community needs, provide resources that will be widely available to and usable by the research community, and broaden participation from underrepresented groups.Prospective principal investigators (PIs) are strongly encouraged to contact the Cognizant Program Officers in CISE/OAC and in the participating directorate/division relevant to the proposal to ascertain whether the focus and budget of their proposed activities are appropriate for this solicitation. Such consultations should be completed at least one month in advance of the submission deadline. PIs should include the names of the Cognizant Program Officers consulted in a Single Copy Document as described in Section V.A. Proposal Preparation Instructions. The intent of the CyberTraining program is to encourage collaboration between CI and S&E domain disciplines. (For this purpose, units of CISE other than OAC are considered domain disciplines.) To ensure relevance to community needs and to facilitate adoption, those proposals of interest to one or more domain divisions must include at least one PI/co-PI with expertise relevant to the targeted research discipline. All proposals shall include at least one PI/co-PI with expertise relevant to OAC. Prospective PIs contemplating submissions that primarily target communities relevant to directorates/divisions that are not participating in this solicitation are directed to instead explore the education and workforce development programs of the respective directorates/divisions.

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. Conferences Proposals for conferences, workshops, summer/winter schools, and similar activities must be submitted through the program solicitation "Conferences and Workshops in the Mathematical Sciences" (link below) and list Topology as the program of interest. Principal Investigators should carefully read the solicitation and relevant sections of the PAPPG to obtain important information regarding the substance of such proposals and note the additional requirements for travel support requests for international events. For these types of proposals with budgets not exceeding $50,000, which in accordance with NSF policy can be reviewed internally at NSF, the following target dates are in effect: For events that will take place between March and August in a given year, proposals should be submitted in September of the previous year. For events that will occur between September in a given year and the last day of February in the following year, the proposal should be submitted in April prior. Proposals with budget requests that exceed $50,000 are likely to require external review, and hence are subject to longer processing time. These should be submitted roughly seven months before the event is scheduled to take place.

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 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 United States is made up of regional systems comprising interdependent urban and rural systems and every community category between urban and rural. Urban systems are dependent on rural systems for the provisioning of food, energy, water, and other materials and natural resources, while rural systems are dependent on urban systems for markets, manufactured goods, and medical resources. These systems are also connected by ecological processes that both influence and are influenced by human behavior. The vital interconnection of urban-rural systems underscores the critical need for the advancement of sustainable regional systems (SRS). The goal of this solicitation is to fund convergent research and education that will advance sustainable regional systems science, engineering, and education to facilitate the transformation of current regional systems to enhance sustainability. To further the advancement of SRS science, engineering, and education, NSF will support Full Scale proposals and Planning Grant proposals for Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks (SRS RNs). Sustainable regional systems are connected urban and rural systems that are transforming their structures and processes collaboratively with the goal of measurably and equitably advancing the well-being of people and the planet. The purpose of the SRS RNs competition is to develop and support interdisciplinary, multi-organizational teams of investigators and stakeholders working collaboratively to produce cutting-edge convergent research, education, and outreach that addresses grand challenges in sustainable regional systems. SRS RNs will study multiscale regional systems to further SRS science, engineering, and education. Key elements will include new data, methods, and models to understand interactions between natural, human-built, and social systems; improved understanding of interdependencies, mutual benefits, and trade-offs of different wellbeing outcomes for humans and the environment; new and generalizable theories of change relevant to SRS;theco-production of knowledge; andexploration of conceptsof social equity in sustainable regional systems across spatial and temporal scales. SRS RN outcomes will have the potential to inform societal actions for sustainability across urban systems and the connected rural communities that make up regional systems. Subject to availability of funds and quality of proposals, this SRS RN solicitation will support projects in the following categories: SRS RNsFull Scale Awards (Track 1). These awards will supportfundamental convergent research, education, and outreach that addressesengineering, environmental (biology, chemistry - including sensing, chemical analytics, and recyclable plastics, atmospheric sciences, hydrology, geology), computer anddata sciences, and social and behavioral sciences ofsustainable regional systems in partnerships thatmay embrace universities, colleges, practitioners, non-profit organizations, local governments, industry, and community groups. The award size is up to $15 million totalwith a duration of 5 years. SRS RNs PlanningGrants (Track 2). These awards are for capacity building to prepareproject teams to propose future well-developed SRS RN Full Scale (Track 1) proposals. Each of these Track 2 awards will provide support fora period of one year and may be requested at a level not to exceed$150,000 for the total budget. SRS RNs will conduct innovative and pioneering fundamental research and education that is of a scale and complexity that would not be possible within a single organization, center, or through the normal collaborative modes of NSF research support in core programs.

The overarching goal of this solicitation is to democratize access to NSF’s advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) ecosystem and ensure fair and equitable access to resources, services, and expertise by strengthening how Cyberinfrastructure Professionals (CIP) function in this ecosystem. It aims to achieve this by (1) deepening the integration of CIPs into the research enterprise, and (2) fostering innovative and scalable education, training, and development of instructional materials, to address emerging needs and unresolved bottlenecks in CIP workforce development. Specifically, this solicitation seeks to nurture, grow and recognize the national CIP[1] workforce that is essential forcreating, utilizing andsupportingadvanced CI to enable and potentially transform fundamental science and engineering (S&E) research and education and contribute to the Nation's overall economic competitiveness and security. Together, the principal investigators (PIs), technology platforms, tools, and expert CIP workforce supported by this solicitation operate as an interdependent ecosystem wherein S&E research and education thrive. This solicitation willsupport NSF’s advanced CI ecosystem with a scalable, agile, diverse, and sustainable network of CIPs that can ensurebroad adoptionof advanced CI resources and expert services including platforms, tools, methods, software, data, and networks for research communities, to catalyze major research advances, and to enhance researchers' abilities to lead the development of new CI. The SCIPE program is led by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and has participation from other NSF directorates/divisions, as described in Section II. Program Description,Programmatic Areas of Interest. Not all directorates/divisions are participating at the same level, and some have specific research and education priorities. The appropriate contact for the SCIPE program in any directorate/division is the Cognizant Program Officer (PO) for the respective directorate/division/office/program listed below. All projects are expected to clearly articulate how they address essential community needs, will provide resources that will be widely available to and usable by the research community, and will broaden participation from underrepresented groups.Prospective PIs arestrongly encouragedto contact the Cognizant Program Officers in CISE/OACandin the participating directorate/division relevant to the proposal to ascertain whether the focus and budget of their proposed activities are appropriate for this solicitation.Such consultations should be completed at least one month before the submission deadline. PIs should include the names of the Cognizant Program Officers consulted in a Single Copy Document as described in Section V.A. Proposal Preparation Instructions. The intent of the SCIPE program is to encourage collaboration between CI and S&E domain disciplines. (For this purpose, units of CISE other than OAC are considered domain disciplines.) To ensure relevance to community needs and to facilitate adoption, those proposals of interest to one or more domain divisionsmustinclude at least one PI/co-PI with expertise relevant to the targeted research discipline. All proposals shall include at least one PI/co-PI with expertise pertinent to OAC. Prospective PIs contemplating submissions that primarily target communities relevant to directorates/divisions that are not participating in this solicitation are directed to explore instead the education and workforce development programs of the respective directorates/divisions. [1] 9CI Professionals refers to the community of individuals who provide a broad spectrum of skills and expertise to the scientific and engineering research enterprise by inventing, developing, deploying and/or supporting research CI and CI users. Examples of CI Professionals include CI system administrators, CI research support staff, CI research software engineers, data curators, and CI facilitators, and may also include computational research scientists and engineers who are not in traditional academic paths.See:Transforming Science Through Cyberinfrastructure: NSF’s Blueprint forCyberinfrastructure Learning and Workforce Development,https://www.nsf.gov/cise/oac/vision/blueprint-2019/CI-LWD.pdf.

Strengthening American Infrastructure (SAI) is an NSF program seeking to stimulate human-centered fundamental and potentially transformative research aimed at strengthening America’s infrastructure. Effective infrastructure provides a strong foundation for socioeconomic vitality and broad improvement in quality of life. Strong, reliable and effective infrastructure spurs private-sector innovation, grows the economy, creates jobs, makes public-sector service provision more efficient, strengthens communities, promotes equal opportunity, protects the natural environment, enhances national security and fuels American leadership. Achieving these objectives requires the integration of expertise from across all science and engineering disciplines. SAI focuses on how fundamental knowledge about human reasoning and decision-making, governance, and social and cultural processes enables the building and maintenance of effective infrastructure that improves lives and society and builds on advances in technology and engineering. Successful projects will represent a convergence of expertise in one or more social, behavioral or economic sciences, deeply integrated with other disciplines to support substantial and potentially pathbreaking fundamental research applied to strengthening a specific focal infrastructure. General inquiries regarding this funding opportunity should be sent toNSF-SAI@nsf.gov.