Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation - S2I2  (SI2-S2I2)  

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PROGRAM GUIDELINES

Solicitation  13-511

Important Notice to Proposers

A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), NSF 13-1, was issued on October 4, 2012 and is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 14, 2013. Please be advised that, depending on the specified due date, the guidelines contained in NSF 13-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to this funding opportunity.

Please be aware that significant changes have been made to the PAPPG to implement revised merit review criteria based on the National Science Board (NSB) report, National Science Foundation's Merit Review Criteria: Review and Revisions. While the two merit review criteria remain unchanged (Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts), guidance has been provided to clarify and improve the function of the criteria. Changes will affect the project summary and project description sections of proposals. Annual and final reports also will be affected.

A by-chapter summary of this and other significant changes is provided at the beginning of both the Grant Proposal Guide and the Award & Administration Guide.

SYNOPSIS

NSF's vision of a Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21^st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21) identifies advancing new computational infrastructure as a priority for driving innovation in science and engineering. Software is an integral enabler of computation, experiment and theory and a central component of the new computational infrastructure. Scientific discovery and innovation are advancing along fundamentally new pathways opened by the development of increasingly sophisticated software. Software is also directly responsible for increased scientific productivity and significant enhancement of researchers' capabilities. In order to nurture, accelerate and sustain this critical mode of scientific progress, NSF has established the Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SI²) program (http://www.nsf.gov/si2/), with the overarching goal of transforming innovations in research and education into sustained software resources that are an integral part of the cyberinfrastructure. SI² is a long-term investment focused on catalyzing new thinking, paradigms, and practices in developing and using software to understand natural, human, and engineered systems. It is NSF's expectation that the SI² investment will result in robust, reliable, usable and sustainable software infrastructure that is critical to the CIF21 vision and will transform science and engineering while contributing to the education of next generation researchers and creators of future cyberinfrastructure. Education at all levels will play an important role in integrating such a dynamic cyberinfrastructure into the fabric of how science and engineering is done.

The SI² program includes three classes of awards:

1. Scientific Software Elements (SSE): SSE awards target small groups that will create and deploy robust software elements for which there is a demonstrated need that will advance one or more significant areas of science and engineering.

2. Scientific Software Integration (SSI): SSI awards target larger, interdisciplinary teams organized around the development and application of common software infrastructure aimed at solving common research problems. SSI awards will result in sustainable community software frameworks serving a diverse community.

3. Scientific Software Innovation Institutes (S2I2): S2I2 awards will focus on the establishment of long-term hubs of excellence in software infrastructure and technologies that will serve a research community of substantial size and disciplinary breadth.

This solicitation is focused on the Scientific Software Innovation Institutes (S2I2) class of awards. Two subclasses of awards are planned for the S2I2 part of this program: Conceptualization Awards, which are planning awards aimed at organizing an interdisciplinary community and understanding their software requirements and challenges, and Implementation Awards, which will be made to implement community plans for software infrastructure, such as those developed by the conceptualization awards. In FY13, the only S2I2 Awards that will be made will be Conceptualization Awards.

Please refer to (i)A Vision and Strategy for Software for Science, Engineering, and Education (NSF 12-113) and (ii)Implementation of NSF Software Vision (http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504817) for further information about NSF's vision for software as part of cyberinfrastructure and the programs that support this vision.

Successful proposals must reflect the quality, commitment, and planning that will be needed to lead to full Implementation awards.

The Office of Cyberinfrastructure would be particularly interested in proposals that address the set of broad issues related to general SI² software, including sustainability, software lifecycle/ecosystem, governance, verification & validation, reproducibility, etc.

The Biological Sciences Directorate would be particularly interested in proposals that that focus on high priority research problems and that will significantly leverage existing investments in ways that transform the infrastructure in support of BIO and BIO-related research. For further information about BIO's interests in S2I2 see the Dear Colleague Letter of November 22, 2011 (NSF-12-019).

The Engineering Directorate would be particularly interested in partnerships with the goal for open-access software integrating major interdisciplinary advances of significant  impact to the engineering community.

The MPS/Astronomy Division will consider supporting proposals that would have a clearly demonstrated impact on a significant portion of the astronomy research community.

The MPS/Materials Research Division would be particularly interested in proposals that advance priorities in the Materials Genome Initiative.

The MPS/Division of Mathematical Sciences would be particularly interested in proposals that include the creation, development, and application of new mathematical and statistical theories and tools.

The MPS/Physics Division will consider proposals that will significantly advance fundamental research in Physics.

Please note that successful proposals will demonstrate clear and compelling science-driven goals that are responsive to research priorities identified across and within participating units. It is strongly recommended that prospective PIs contact program officers from the list of Cognizant Program Officers to ascertain that the scientific focus of the proposed work is appropriate for this solicitation.

Proposals submitted to NSF in response to this solicitation must have a clear relevance to the overall SI² program and should be responsive to this solicitation and its review criteria. Proposals that are not relevant or not responsive to the solicitation will not be considered for funding and will be returned without review. 

Proposals must also be in areas not covered by previous S2I2 awards. (For a list of previous awards, see Implementation of NSF Software Vision [http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504817].) Participants who are interested in areas already covered should contact the relevant current S2I2 team(s) to participate in those ongoing conceptualization activities.

RELATED PROGRAMS

Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation - S2I2

Strategic Technologies for CyberInfrastructure

RELATED URLS

A Vision and Strategy for Software for Science, Engineering, and Education

Implementation of NSF Software Vision

Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastucture (ACCI) Task Forces

What Has Been Funded (Recent Awards Made Through This Program, with Abstracts)

Map of Recent Awards Made Through This Program