PROJECT DIRECTORS

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PROJECT DIRECTORSPROJECT ADMINISTRATORSMEETING
May 10, 2006100-500 pm DoubleTree
HotelNashville, Tennessee

• Dr. Sherry O. FarwellHead of NSF EPSCoR Office

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AGENDA FOR PD/PA MEETING

• Welcome (100 pm)
• ACI NSF (105-115 pm)
• EPSCoR 2020
• New NSF Funding Opportunities (115-135 pm)
• EPSCoR Responses
• Proactive Outreach
• Collaborations
• NSF Evaluation (135-145 pm)
• Agency Perspective
• EPSCoR Evaluation Steering Committee Report
• COV Recommendation (145-200 pm)
• A. Project Monitoring via Reverse
  Site Visits

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AGENDA (continued)

• VI. EPSCoR News (200-230 pm)
• RII Solicitation
• PIO Workshops
• PA Meeting Plan
• National Conference Plan
• VII. Break (230-245 pm)
• VIII. PD Session (245-430 pm)
• IX. PD Report To NSF (430-445 pm)
• X. Discussion Wrap-Up (445-500 pm)
• XI. Adjourn (500 pm)

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INTRODUCTION
Dont Look Back, Something Might Be Gaining On
You. Leroy Satchel Paige(June 1948)
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RECENT STIMULI FOR CHANGES IN NATIONAL SE
ENTERPRISE
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American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI)
Protecting Americas Competitive Edge (PACE)

• GOALS
• Increase Federal investment in critical research
• Ensure that the U.S. continues to lead the world
  in opportunity and innovation
• Provide U.S. children with a strong STEM
  foundation
• FY 2007 FUNDING 910 million (9.3 above FY
  2006) for
• NSF, DoE/OS, NIST
• ACI/PACE plan to double investments in
  innovation-enabling SE research

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INVITATION FOR EPSCoR PARTICIPATION

• National Academies Convocation
•  "Rising Above the Gathering Storm  Energizing
  Employing Regions, States, Cities for a
  Brighter Economic Future
• National Academies Building
• Washington, DC on Sept. 12, 2006

Focus  Research, STEM Education, Innovation
Environments Purpose  Convene Leaders Of
Academic, Industry, Research, Government From
All States To Discuss National Proposals For
Responding To Competitiveness Challenges Their
Implications For States Regions.
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HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRS ADVICE TO
DIRECTOR BEMENT

• Think big and different
• New ideas that DO NOT simply make a minor change
  or difference in RD
• Transformative for NSF as well as its SE funding
  programs
• What completely new investment programs would you
  build?

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• Dr. Kathie Olsen
• Deputy Director
• Chief Operating Officer
• National Science Foundation

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EPSCoR 2020 PLANNING PROCESS

• Concept Developed In Partnership With Dr. Kathie
  Olsen
• Employ One Or More Community-Based Workshops
  During CY 2006 To Obtain Input On EPSCoR 2020
  Vision Plan
• Workshop Participants Should Include Diversity Of
  Representatives From EPSCoR non-EPSCoR
  Jurisdictions 
• Pending Proposal from USC-RF To Organize Initial
  Workshop In Washington, DC On June 15/16, 2006
• For Further Information About Plans For June
  15/16 Workshop, Contact Either Dr. Jerry Odom
  (USC) or Dr. Nat Pitts (NSF-OIA)

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NSFs ROLE IN ACIFUNDING SCIENCE ACROSS
BOUNDARIES
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Discovery increasingly requires the expertise of
individuals from different disciplines and with
diverse perspectives, working together, to
accommodate the extraordinary complexity of
todays science and engineering challenges.
Cooperation is often essential to meeting the
grand scientific challenges of our era. Dr.
Arden Bement, 2006
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EPSCoR OPPORTUNITY REPORT

• Dr. Jim Gosz - Senior Program Director Reporter

• NSF Funding Priorities Programs In FY 2007
• Related Opportunities For EPSCoR Collaborations
• Proposed Partnership Plan For Proactive
  Outreach Program

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Jim Collins, Biological Sciences AD
the key (to understanding biological problems)
is an integrative approachintersection of
biology and the social sciencesof biology and
physics,of biology and mathematicsof biology
and the geological sciencesof biology and
education, biology and engineering, biology and
humanities. We need to push forward on the edges
in some of these interdisciplinary
areas. BioScience 56108
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BIO Budget Request by Division
Note Totals may not add due to rounding
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BIO FY 2007 Budget Priorities

• Advancing the Frontier
• Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research
  program (FIBR) (5.0 million)
• Plant Genome Research Program (2.5 million)
• Long-Term Ecological Research program (1.2
  million)
• New Theoretical Biology program (3.6 million)
• New Biology and Society program (0.5 million)

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The goal of the FIBR Program is to support
research that

• Identifies a major, unanswered or understudied
  question in biology
• Engages integrative researchers utilizing an
  effective range of concepts and tools from all
  areas of science and engineering
• Is not limited by conceptual, disciplinary or
  organizational boundaries
• Integrates education and research, providing
  young scientists with training in a strong,
  interdisciplinary environment
• Involves effective partnering with minority
  serving and primarily undergraduate institutions
• Awards Up to 5 million over 5 years
• New FIBR solicitation in 2008

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Ecology of Infectious Diseases (EID)

• Joint NSF and NIH initiative
• How large-scale environmental events alter the
  risks of emergence of viral, parasitic, or
  bacterial diseases

• Any environment (marine, terrestrial,
  freshwater, organismal)

2008 NSF/NIH Neurobiology effort
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Environmental Observing Systems (EOS)
Proposed new large infrastructure support and
tools for the environmental sciences in various
development stages

• NEON
• EarthScope
• CLEANER, CUAHSI

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Margaret Leinen, Geosciences AD
Major NSF programs (e.g., observing systems)
create a vastly enriched context for individual
scientists, teams, and multi-institutional
science efforts. They serve as attractors for
other scientific and education efforts
(including other agency efforts).
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NEON is designed as a research platform to
advance ecological theory and provide a
fundamental understanding of the earths life
support system on which we all depend.
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EPSCoR Jurisdictions
overlaid with NEON Climate Domains
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WATERS Network MISSION STATEMENT
A bold initiative in NSFs Engineering and
Geosciences Directorates
To transform understanding of the Earths water
and related cycles across spatial and temporal
scales to enable forecasting of critical
water-related processes that affect and are
affected by human activities and develop
scientific and engineering tools to enable
more effective adaptive management of
large-scale, human-impacted environments.
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The Idea
The WATERS Network will 1. Consist of
(a) teams of investigators studying
human-stressed landscapes, with an emphasis
on water problems and questions (b) a
national network of interacting field sites
(c) specialized support personnel, facilities,
and technology and (d) integrative
cyberinfrastructure to provide a shared-use
network as the framework for
collaborative analysis 2. Transform
environmental engineering and hydrologic science
research and education by (i) providing
advanced sensor systems for data collection and
state-of- the-art informatics tools for data
mining, analysis, visualization, and
modeling of large-scale environmental issues and
(ii) engaging academics and others in
collaborative, interdisciplinary
studies of real-world problems 3. Enable more
effective adaptive management of
human-dominated, environments based on
observation, experimentation, modeling,
engineering analysis, and design
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OVERARCHING QUESTION

• How do changes in human populations and their
  behavior, climate variation, altered
  biogeochemical cycles, and biotic structure
  interact to affect ecosystem structure and
  function and their services to society?
• Changes in human population density
• Redistribution of population nationally and
  locally
• Increased availability and distribution of
  limiting resources
• Altered biotic composition and structure
• Increased variability in environmental drivers
  (e.g. climate, sea level rise)

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Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems
(CNH) This topical area focuses on the complex
interactions among human and natural systems at
diverse spatial, temporal, and organizational
scales. To be competitive for support, teams of
investigators drawn from natural, social, and
mathematical sciences, engineering, and education
must examine the dynamics of appropriate natural
and human systems as well as the interactions
that link those human and natural systems.
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Directorate for Geosciences
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Carbon and Water in Earth Systems
This solicitation invites proposals aimed at
closing significant gaps in our understanding of
the complex relationships between and within the
global water and carbon cycles. In particular, we
seek proposals that cross the interfaces of land,
atmosphere and oceans. Proposals should span
traditional interdisciplinary boundaries

• Estimated Number of Awards 14 to 25
• Anticipated Funding Amount 32,000,000 pending
  availability of funds.

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Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles (CBC)
Intersections of the hydrological and ecological
sciences, for example, climate alteration by
terrestrial vegetation, ecosystem and
hydrological functions of riparian zones,
hydrological controls on aquatic ecosystems, and
ecosystem vulnerability and resilience to extreme
hydrological events.           The effect of
soil physical and chemical properties on
rhizosphere functioning, alteration of the
rhizosphere by changes in land use, and the
responses of soil processes to global
change.           Innovative investigations into
the coupling of chemical and physical processes
or the kinetics and mechanisms of complex
chemical reaction pathways important to achieving
a quantitative, mechanistic understanding of a
biogeochemical system.
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Proposals may be submitted by single
investigators or by teams, but must be highly
interdisciplinary. Proposals may be submitted for
projects up to 5-year duration. No project will
be supported for more than 2 million.
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New 2008 program focused on integrative modeling
efforts among researchers in water cycle
science hydrologic science watershed
science 8 million
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• Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation
  (EFRI)
• Biology in Engineering
• Complexity in Engineered and Natural systems
• Critical Infrastructure Systems
• Manufacturing Frontiers
• New Frontiers in Nanotechnology
• programs coming with the 2007 funding request

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Math and Physical Sciences Funding
Increase (M)
Astronomical Sciences 15.46 7.7 Chemistry 10
.32 5.7 Materials Research 14.54 6.0 Mathemat
ical Sciences 6.44 3.2 Physics 15.37 6.6
Multidisciplinary Activities 2.72 9.2
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• Cyberinfrastructure is ever-increasing (Bement,
  Apr. 2006)
• Data mining
• Big iron
• Networking
• Large sensor arrays
• Observing systems

600 M for CI NSF-wide in 2007 request 180 M
(43.5 increase) in the new Office of
Cyberinfrastructure (OCI)
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NSF EPSCoR PROGRAM
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• NSF/EPSCoR In-Outreach efforts
• Increase NSF staff member visits to jurisdictions
  to inform administrators, scientists,
  jurisdiction leaders, students and the general
  public about NSF programs, priorities, policies,
  and procedures, and educate NSF about successes
  in EPSCoR
• Internal efforts to educate NSF staff about the
  resources, capabilities and potential in EPSCoR
  jurisdictions (in-reach!)
• Work with coordinators in each of the NSF
  Directorates and Programs in identifying and
  initiating contacts with NSF staff who can best
  respond to specific requests related to NSF
  programs
• Cooperate with OLPA in NSF Day events held in
  EPSCoR jurisdictions
• Work with jurisdictions on potential workshops of
  relevance to regions and the nation, including
  other NSF Directorate support

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EPSCoR Workshops Discussion Topic

• Increase communication and opportunities between
  and among jurisdictions and the NSF EPSCoR Office
  on SE strengths and needs. These topics can be
  the basis for funded workshops.
• Develop leadership in jurisdictions to identify
  and organize SE workshops of value to
  jurisdictions, regions, and the nation. These
  workshops can range from SE issues to management
  needs for large or complex programs. Proposals
  requesting workshop funding can come from the
  jurisdictions

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• COLLABORATION DISCUSSION TOPIC
• ADDING CAPABILITY THROUGH INCREASED FUNDING,
  DEMONSTRATING THE ROLE EPSCoR CAN PLAY IN ACI AND
  IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROGRAMS BEING DEVELOPED AT
  NSF
• Focused Scientific Themes of Regional Relevance
  National Importance
• Utilizes Entire Gamut of Jurisdictions Talent
  Infrastructure for Thematic Research in Areas of
  Physical Sciences and Engineering
• Catalyze Formation Of Quality Research
  Collaborations/Collaboratories
• Expands Talent Infrastructure Base Via
  Intra/Inter-Jurisdiction Partnerships
• Uses Cyber-Infrastructure
• Integrates RE and Diversity

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AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS INITIATIVE (ACI)

• Four major elements
• Double the Federal investment in basic research
  programs in the physical sciences and engineering
  at NSF, Energy and NIST over 10 years
• Make the Research and Development tax credit
  permanent
• Invest 380 million in new Federal support for
  K-12 programs to improve the quality of math,
  science, and technological education at the
  Department of Education
• Evaluate STEM programs across Federal Agencies to
  determine which are effective in meeting their
  stated goals

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EPSCoR CE-PART

• PurposeIdentify Program's Strengths/Weaknesses
  Inform OMB Funding Decision NSF Priorities 
•  
• CE Elements (Ideas)
• EPSCoR, SBIR/STTR, CREST, I/UCRC, RUI/ROA
•  
• Format
• Answers to 30 Questions (Purpose, Planning,
  Management, Results)  Propose Metrics For Future
  Reporting
•  
• Schedule
• Dec-Mar Team Meetings and Prepare Draft
  Document
• April Meet with BFA  OMB Examiner to Review
  Responses
• May Final Draft to NSF SMART For Review
• June Official Document to OMB for
  Review/Rating
• Sept Rating Used In OMB/NSF FY-08 Budget
  Request 

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FURTHER EVALUATION EMPHASIS AT NSF

• ONGOING GPRA PART WITH NEW INITIATIVE VIA NSF
  FY-2007 BUDGET REQUEST THAT STATES AGENCY WILL
• "RELIABLY EVALUATE RETURNS RECEIVED FROM PAST RD
  INVESTMENTS AND FORECAST LIKELY RETURNS FROM
  FUTURE INVESTMENTS.
• AS NOTED IN SCIENCE (APRIL 21, 2006, P. 347)
  ARTICLE ENTITLED "NSF BEGINS A PUSH TO MEASURE
  SOCIETAL IMPACTS OF RESEARCH" 
• THE WHITE HOUSE IS ALSO FORMING AN INTERAGENCY
  TASK FORCE TO OVERSEE THE EVALUATION INITIATIVE.

•  

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Doubling the budget will be based on yearly
evidence of improving each year. Next years
money depends on showing that or how we have done
more than last year.
Dr. Arden BementEHRAC Meeting, May 2006
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EPSCoR Evaluation Steering Committee

• Paul Hill (Chair)
• Steve Borleske
• Fred Choobineh
• Barbara Kimball
• Jeanne Shreeve
• Brad Weiner

• Doug MacTaggart
• Rose Shaw
• Norman Webb

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2005 COV RECOMMENDATIONS OFFICE RESPONSES

• ASSESSMENT OF LARGE RII-TYPE PROPOSAL WILL BE
  MORE RIGEROUS VIA COMBINATION OF AD HOC PANEL
  REVIEWS.
• USE OF REVERSE SITE VISITS DURING MIDDLE YEAR OF
  RII
• AWARDS AS PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOL.
•  
• OFFICE WILL WORK WITH JURISDICTIONS TO INCREASE
  OVERALL CAPACITY FOR PROGRAM/PROJECT EVALUATION
  USING EVIDENCE-BASED OUTPUTS OUTCOMES.
• OFFICE WILL INITIATE NEW PROGRAMMATIC
  OPPORTUNITIES FOR CAPABILITY ENHANCEMENT
  RELATED JURSIDICTIONAL COMPETITIVENESS.

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EPSCOR 2006 REVERSE SITE VISIT STRATEGY

• Concept and Implementation Plan
• PD discussion requested on need, process for
  implementation, and scheduling of proposed
  efforts.

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CONCEPT

• A component of EPSCoRs oversight, management,
  assistance to awardees, and EPSCoR funding
  promotion strategy consisting of presentations to
  a panel at NSFs headquarters.
• This was a strong recommendation of the EPSCoR
  COV review

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PURPOSE

• To assess programmatic accomplishments and
  progress made by EPSCoR jurisdictions at or near
  the midpoint of their current three-year grant.
• To develop additional evidence of the value of
  the EPSCoR programs and suitability of these
  programs for increased funding under the ACI
  directives

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2006 PARTICIPATING JURISDICTIONS

• Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Montana, Delaware,
  New Mexico, Wyoming, North Dakota, Oklahoma,
  Idaho, South Carolina, Kentucky, U.S. Virgin
  Islands, and Nevada
• Based on mid-term funding status of current RII
  awards (i.e., 2nd-3rd yr of award)

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PROCESS

• A group of up to five representatives from each
  jurisdiction, including PI/PD will visit NSF and
  make a presentation to a panel (time available is
  two hours).
• The presentation will be followed by a discussion
  period of approximately one hour. This will
  allow 2 jurisdictions to present per day (morning
  and afternoon).
• The panel will include outside experts
  representing the broad spectrum of the
  jurisdictions research focus areas, NSF Program
  Directors, and EPSCoR staff.

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PROCESS (CONTINUED)

• The panel will submit a written report to the
  EPSCoR Office, including areas of strength,
  aspects to improve, and recommendations.
• The EPSCoR Office will share the panel report and
  schedule a meeting with the PI and appropriate
  local leadership to discuss findings and
  recommendations for program as well as values to
  be promoted.
• Benefits of the programs will be communicated to
  NSF Directorates, Directors Office, and other
  agencies.

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PRESENTATIONS

• Focus on major project accomplishments according
  to the specified goals and objectives of the
  current award, in addition to the overall goals
  of the jurisdiction.

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PRESENTATION TEMPLATE

• Overview Projects goals objectives, current
  management structure, evaluation plan, and
  demonstrations of successes
• Progress Scientific research, education
  outreach, and broadening participation
• Mid-Point Corrections Barriers and challenges
  faced by the project, identification of
  mid-course corrections
• Action Plan Strategic plan to ensure
  accomplishment of projects goals during
  remaining duration time, technical assistance
  needed, anticipated successes relative to goals
  of jurisdiction

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PROPOSED SCHEDULE FOR GROUPS OF 4 OR 5??

• Group 1 
•   
• Group 2   
• Group 3  
• Each group of 4 or 5 jurisdictions would present
  material during a one-week period (e.g.,
  Tuesday-Thursday). The PDs are requested to
  identify potential weeks for these future efforts.

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AGENDA (continued)

• VI. EPSCoR News (200-230 pm)
• RII Solicitation
• PIO Workshops
• PA Meeting Plan
• National Conference Plan
• VII. Break (230-245 pm)
• VIII. PD Session (245-430 pm)
• IX. PD Report To NSF (430-445 pm)
• X. Discussion Wrap-Up (445-500 pm)
• XI. Adjourn (500 pm)

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FY 2006 RII SOLICITATION

• Very Similar to FY 2005 RII Solicitation
• Currently Under Administrative Review For Pending
  Approval/Release
• Proposals Will Be Due Sept. 28, 2006
• Expecting Eight Proposal Submissions
• Combination of Ad Hoc Panel Reviews

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OTHER EPSCoR EVENTS COMING THIS SUMMER/FALL

• EPSCoR/OLPA PIO WORKSHOPS
• PROJECT ADMINISTRATORS MEETING
•  
• NAT'L EPSCoR CONFERENCE

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