August 24, 2023

Dear Colleague:

The recent memo titled "Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research," also referred to as the Nelson Memo¹, issued by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), has provided policy guidance to federal agencies on public access requirements for federally funded research. The need for a better, innovative data and research infrastructure that embraces open science principles to serve the interconnected scientific communities has never been as urgent.

Through this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) is calling for workshop proposals² focused on identifying critical needs for innovations in open science for data infrastructure that can serve the research community at a national-needs level, and have the potential to significantly advance research in atmospheric and geospace sciences, ensuring their research outputs, broadly defined, in compliance with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reproducible) principles. The workshop proposals will provide the AGS community an opportunity to come together to discuss needs, best practices, and resources necessary to build a data infrastructure through which open and equitable research can be achieved.

Suggested budgets for workshop proposals in response to this DCL are up to $50,000. Under exceptional circumstances, budgets exceeding $50,000 and under $100,000 may be supported. Please contact a cognizant program director for any questions. The format of the workshop can either be in-person, virtual, or hybrid. The workshop should involve participants from diverse backgrounds to demonstrate community need and buy-in. In addition, the workshop should retain the in-depth interactions characteristic of a conference rather than emphasizing the formal presentations of a symposium. Workshop outputs will include a written public-access report, posted on the workshop webpage no later than three months after the completion of the workshop. This report should include gap analysis and recommendations summarizing the conclusions arrived at by the workshop participants and addressing the identified gap in data infrastructure.

NSF welcomes proposals that include efforts to broaden participation of the full spectrum of diverse talents in STEM. Proposers are required to have a policy or code-of-conduct to ensure a harassment-free environment whenever science is conducted (see the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) Chapter XI.A.1.g).

Proposals submitted in response to this DCL should be prepared and submitted following the guidance for Conference proposals contained in PAPPG Chapter II.F.9.

Prior to submission of a workshop proposal, it is required that interested Principal Investigators (PIs) submit a Concept Outline via email to one of the NSF Program Directors listed below. If the Concept Outline meets the suitability in responding to this DCL, PIs will receive an email specifying approval to submit a workshop proposal to an appropriate program. The full proposal must include a copy of the approval-to-submit email as a supplementary document. The outline should include a list of the co-PIs and organizers of key portions of the workshop and offer a plan to ensure broad community engagement in the workshop, as well as plans for the creation and dissemination of the written report. The title of the proposal should begin with " Innovations in Open Science (IOS) Planning Workshop:"

POINTS OF CONTACT

Dr. Tai-Yin Huang, thuang@nsf.gov (Geospace Science, AGS)

Dr. Chungu Lu, CLU@nsf.gov (Atmospheric Science, AGS)

Dr. Benjamin Brown-Steiner, bebrowns@nsf.gov (Atmospheric Science, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Facilities, AGS)

Sincerely,

Alexandra R. Isern
Assistant Director
Directorate for Geosciences

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References:

¹ The Nelson Memo, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf.

² Also referred to as conferences in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) Chapter II.F.9.