Print

Important information about NSF’s implementation of the revised 2 CFR

NSF Financial Assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements) made on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the applicable set of award conditions, dated October 1, 2024, available on the NSF website. These terms and conditions are consistent with the revised guidance specified in the OMB Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2024.

Important information for proposers

All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the requirements specified in this funding opportunity and in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that is in effect for the relevant due date to which the proposal is being submitted. It is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that the proposal meets these requirements. Submitting a proposal prior to a specified deadline does not negate this requirement.

Archived document

This document has been archived.
Dear Colleague Letter

DMREF proposals to the Division of Mathematical Sciences in fiscal year 2013

DMREF comprises well-coordinated activities involving the Directorates of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Computer & Information Science and Engineering. For further details and participating divisions please see the broadly aimed Dear Colleague Letter about DMREF in fiscal year 2013, posted for example on the MPS web page, NSF 13-025. As described in that Letter, success in the initiative requires a collaborative, synergistic, iterative approach that includes theory, computation, and experiments. This approach is the central principle of MGI. Consequently DMREF proposals may be reviewed jointly with divisions other than the one to which the proposal is submitted. Commonality of aims, of MGI principles, and of submission dates will facilitate joint review where appropriate. This is intended to make it easier for different disciplines to join in achieving the aims of MGI.

DMREF proposals submitted to the Division of Mathematical Sciences must:

  • be submitted within the window 15 January - 15 February 2013, inclusive;
  • be submitted to DMS as the division and to DMREF as the program;
  • deal with problems in the range of issues described in the DMREF Dear Colleague letter, NSF 13-025
  • seek new mathematical or statistical results that will advance the DMREF agenda;
  • describe a research plan that meets the central Materials Genome Initiative principle of closely coupled, iterative interplay among theory, computation, and experiment.

In addition,

  • the title of a DMREF proposal should begin with the word "DMREF."

Proposals that do not seek new mathematical or statistical results may nevertheless fit well with other NSF divisions that are participating in DMREF, and mathematical scientists are strongly encouraged to join any DMREF proposal that makes good use of their expertise. DMS welcomes DMREF proposals from single investigators or from teams of investigators. DMS does not require that team proposals involve at least one expert from each of the areas of theory, computation, and experiment. However, successful proposals to DMS will offer evidence of that close, iterative collaboration among experts that is necessary to meet the central MGI principle on which DMREF is based. Letters of collaboration, which say what the collaborators will do for the proposed project and that affirm the collaborators' participation in the iterative interplay required for DMREF, are appropriate evidence.

In addition to the mathematical and statistical modeling and analysis that occurs in the interactions among experiments, models, and simulations, DMREF topics of special interest to DMS include, but are not limited to:

  • optimization of design in complicated, high-dimensional state spaces;
  • effective data mining methods to uncover relationships between e.g. microstructure and bulk properties, or relationships among composition, processing, and bulk properties;
  • first-principles understanding of materials;
  • and the computational challenges presented not only by multiscale issues, but also by the problem of rapidly resolving differences between theory and simulation in the face of experimental data.

The last example is similar to data assimilation and data fusion problems encountered elsewhere, but here the possibilities offered by better data and closely coupled iteration create new opportunities for theoretical and algorithmic advances, on both the mathematical and statistical sides.

Participants interested in submitting proposals are strongly encouraged to first contact any of the program officers listed in the main DMREF Letter. For DMS, please confer with Michael Steuerwalt (msteuerw@nsf.gov).

Sastry G. Pantula
Division Director
Division of Mathematical Sciences

Organizations

Top