December, 2013

Dear Colleague:

In response to recommendations by the NSF Advisory Committee for Geoscience set forth in their report, GEO Vision (2009), the Directorate for Geosciences initiated the program, Frontiers of Earth Systems Dynamics (FESD) in FY 2010. Its goals were to foster an interdisciplinary and multi-scale understanding of the interplay among and within the sub-systems at work on Earth and to catalyze research in geoscience areas poised for major advances. Specifically, the focus was to explore the coupling among different aspects of the Earth's component systems over a range of temporal and spatial scales. FESD projects will ultimately advance our understanding of first-order questions at the frontiers of the geosciences. Domains for research include the Earth's core and mantle, the terrestrial, marine, atmospheric, and geo-space systems and the linkages among these various parts of the planet as well as connections to solar processes.

The original plan was to hold three rounds of competition. Solicitations were issued in FY 2010 and FY 2012 and a number of cutting edge projects were funded. See, for example, the press release on the most recent FESD awards.

Due to the uncertainty of future funding levels, GEO has revisited its budgetary plans. As a result, GEO will not be holding the third round of competition for the FESD program in FY 2015 as originally planned and at this time, GEO does not expect to hold any future FESD competitions. GEO regrets that this decision impacts many in our community who have invested time and other resources in building teams and projects for submission to the expected solicitation.

Sincerely,

Roger Wakimoto
Assistant Director for Geosciences