Dear Colleague:

The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI) invites proposals from junior faculty within the community of scientists, engineers, and educators involved with cyberinfrastructure research to apply to the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program (https://www.nsf.gov/career). ACI’s research interests include use-inspired and/or applied multidisciplinary research. Additional context for ACI’s interests in this solicitation can be found in “Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21)” at https://www.nsf.gov/cif21. These proposals are due this year on July 21, 2015 and next year on July 20, 2016.

CAREER is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's (NSF) most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. Such activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from junior faculty members at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.

Within this context, ACI encourages proposals that are either of:

1. primary interest to ACI, or
2. primary interest to another division of NSF, and of secondary interest to ACI.

In both cases, to be of interest to ACI, proposals should promote research, education, and the integration of research and education in projects that:

1. Contribute to exploration, experimentation, development, and/or deployment of comprehensive, integrated, sustainable, and secure cyberinfrastructure at the campus, regional, national, and/or international scale,
2. Have an effective cyberinfrastructure impact with clearly defined benefits across multiple research disciplines, and
3. Build on or complement the existing or upcoming ACI investments, as well as major cyberinfrastructure investments from other NSF divisions.

CAREER proposals that seek ACI support should clearly address these issues within the body of the proposal, and should designate ACI as the primary or secondary program during proposal submission.

Many general questions are answered in the program’s FAQ document, which is available from the CAREER program page (https://www.nsf.gov/career). The FAQ question #34 relates to ACI (https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15057/nsf15057.jsp#b34).

ACI-specific questions regarding the solicitation should be addressed to Sushil Prasad, sprasad@nsf.gov.

Sincerely,

James Kurose,
Assistant Director, CISE