[ESIP-all] NSF-GEO opportunity for industry-university centers (IUCRC)

[Martin, Raleigh]

Dear Colleagues,

A new NSF-GEO opportunity for Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRCs) may be of interest. Priority areas for new Centers described in the Dear Colleague Letter (DCL NSF 21-102<https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf21102>) are:

-strategic minerals,
-climate change,
-sea level rise,
-water resources,
-earth-sun interactions.

That said, GEO will entertain Center ideas on any topic, as they are building a robust portfolio of industry-university use-inspired research Centers. In a nutshell, these Centers are university based and can be single-Site or multi-Site. They have an industrial advisory board that pays membership fees to be members of the Center. This money is used to support faculty-proposed research projects and supports the students, postdocs working on them, faculty/researcher time, and research costs.  Centers are not contract shops and do not do applied research. Their projects are fundamental in nature, but use-inspired and focused on helping a sector of the economy to overcome hurdles that are preventing that sector from moving forward. The Intellectual Property that comes from Center projects belongs to the university, but is shared among all Center Members. Members can be companies, other government entities, non-profits or other interested parties and viable Center projects must have multiple Members willing to put money in to support any given project. The NSF funding ($150k/yr per Site) goes to support administrative costs of the Center.

Here is the link to the new DCL - www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf21102<http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf21102>.

If you want to know more about the program and how it works, the solicitation is NSF 20-570 (https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20570/nsf20570.htm). Note that there is a short preliminary proposal that will be due in early September and a preliminary proposal is required to submit a full proposal to the December target date. Preliminary proposals are very simple and idea-based and for planning purposes only, so easy to create.

If you have questions or want to know more about the GEO IUCRC program or have any questions or ideas for a potential Center, please contact Barbara Ransom (bransom at nsf.gov<mailto:bransom at nsf.gov>) in the NSF GEO front office.

Kind regards,
Raleigh Martin


-
Raleigh L. Martin, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Program Director
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Directorate for Geosciences (GEO)
Division of Earth Sciences (EAR)
email: ramartin at nsf.gov<mailto:ramartin at nsf.gov>

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