NSF Centers for Innovation and Community Engagement in Solid Earth Geohazards

NSF Centers for Innovation and Community Engagement in Solid Earth Geohazards

Please see the full solicitation for complete information about the funding opportunity. Below is a summary assembled by the Research & Innovation Office (RIO).  

Program Summary

The Centers for Innovation and Community Engagement in Solid Earth Geohazards program supports university-based centers to advance research on the fundamental solid Earth processes that underpin natural hazards. Centers will catalyze, coordinate, and produce transformative research, lead innovation, and enable convergent approaches for systems-level insights that require the collective efforts of a large group of individuals.

Centers focus on addressing major, fundamental science challenges for understanding solid Earth geohazards, primarily those related to faulting, volcanoes, mass movements, and other dynamic processes. In particular, the Centers will advance understanding in one or more of the priorities outlined in the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine decadal survey report The Earth in Time, including; What is an earthquake? What drives volcanism? What are the causes and consequences of topographic change? and How can Earth science research reduce the risk and toll of geohazards?

Centers will also foster different dimensions of community engagement to meaningfully improve the national welfare. Flagship community engagement activities will take bold and creative action to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in the geoscience workforce and expand the impact of fundamental research in solid Earth geohazards to inform and prepare a broader community. Centers will establish partnerships to enable public outreach, hazard mitigation and other community engagement activities.

In 2024, the Program competition will support Center Operation awards intended to support the operation of a fully developed center addressing topics focusing on the fundamental processes that create solid Earth geohazards, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and/or other solid Earth or tectonic processes.

Deadlines

CU Internal Deadline: 11:59pm MST February 5, 2024

Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline: 5:00pm MST March 15, 2024

Internal Application Requirements (all in PDF format)

• Project Description (3 pages maximum): 1) Describe proposed Center activities, in sufficient detail for reviewers to be able to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed work and its potential for transformative impact. The scope of the Center should be broken into high-level Major Activities, which will provide the framework for aligning the proposed scope with realistic budgets and timelines for achieving Center goals. For each proposed MA that involves a research thrust, provide a concise description of the long-term research goals and intellectual focus, and describe the planned research activities in sufficient detail to enable assessment of their scientific merit and significance. 2) Describe the shared facilities and infrastructure, including cyberinfrastructure, to be established. 3) Describe any proposed partnerships, interactions, and collaborations with other institutions and sectors, including other federal agencies, national laboratories and industry. 4) Describe the plans for administration of the Center including personnel roles.
• PI Curriculum Vitae
• Budget Overview (1 page maximum): A basic budget outlining project costs is sufficient; detailed OCG budgets are not required.

To access the online application, visit: https://cuboulderovcr.secure-platform.com/a/solicitations/6937/home

Eligibility

Any one individual may be the Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI for only one Center Operation proposal. Individuals may be listed as participating Other Senior/Key Personnel on more than one proposal.

Limited Submission Guidelines

Only one proposal is allowed.

Award Information

Two new Center Operation awards, up to $3,000,000 per year for up to 5 years, are anticipated.

Review Criteria

In addition to the NSF Merit Review Criteria, reviewers of these proposals will be asked to consider the following:

• How well does the proposal articulate the vision of the future Center to advance innovative and transformative research that is ambitious in scope?
• How strong is the Center's vision for developing community engagement activities that train the next generation of researchers and have potential for broadening participation of underrepresented groups?
• How well does the proposal articulate a management plan that describes how the Center's goals and activities will be accomplished and assessed, including the leadership structure of the Center, how decisions will be made, the roles of any internal committees, and the role of partnerships in the center?
• How well does the proposal align the proposed scope with realistic budgets and timelines for achieving those goals, and does the proposal identify important milestones within the timeline of the award period that progress to the accomplishment of the Center's goals?
• How well does the Center infrastructure plan describe how shared facilities, infrastructure, and cyberinfrastructure will be developed and managed using modern standards and for use by the broader community?