New NSF Funding Opportunity — EPSCoR RII Track-2

With the potential growth of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) funding in FY 09, the NSF EPSCoR Office has indicated it intends to develop a new Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII)-like program to enhance the infrastructure of EPSCoR states called RII Track-2. The NSF EPSCoR Office is working on a solicitation in partnership with Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) with a target release time (if the program is implemented) of the end of July 2008. The program will provide funding for consortia of EPSCoR jurisdictions (i.e., states) to enhance cyberinfrastructure focused on a thematic, regional, or a programmatic need.  In other words, these partnerships can take a number of different forms, emphasizing research based on geographical regions, common science topics, common problem or disciplinary themes, or common technological platforms, with an overarching theme of innovation-enabling cyberinfrastructure.

Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi have formed an alliance based on regional research strengths and interests.  These efforts were initiated in large part due to the Post-Katrina forums “Science Recovery and Discovery: The Role of Higher Education in Securing a Sustainable Future ,” held in New Orleans in April, 2006 and “Gulf States Alliance:  Network Science and Recovery,” held in Biloxi in August, 2007.  The Vice Presidents/Chancellors for Research and the EPSCoR Committees from the three states have held a series of meetings and discussions to map out a strategy to solidify this partnership and identify ways to respond to this potential opportunity.

Links provided below will open a solicitation (in either MS Word or PDF) for brief white papers from teams of investigators outlining existing or planned research projects with emphasis on the use of innovation-enabling cyberinfrastructure that include a consortium of researchers from Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. The resulting white papers will be used to determine possible themes for a single multi-state proposal to be submitted in response to an anticipated NSF EPSCoR solicitation for the Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-2 program. White papers are due on June 19, 2008. This solicitation is also being distributed in Alabama and Louisiana by the statewide EPSCoR offices in those jurisdictions.

If you have questions, please contact Mickey McLaurin (7482 or mclaurin@olemiss.edu) in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

EPSCoR RII Track-2 Call for White Papers {PDF} {DOC}