Varun Chandola: Good afternoon, everyone. We'll
Varun Chandola: just wait for another couple of minutes, just to make sure that the attendees join, and I still see the numbers
Varun Chandola: rising. So
Varun Chandola: let's wait for a couple more minutes.
Varun Chandola: Alright, I think the numbers seem to be stabilizing now, so we can get started
Varun Chandola: so welcome everyone. This is the program webinar for cyber infrastructure for sustained scientific innovation. Cssi, we are talking about the upcoming
Varun Chandola: program deadline of December. Second, the solicitation is Nsf.
Varun Chandola: 2, 2, hyphen, 6, 3, 2,
Varun Chandola: and so thanks for joining us. My name is Varun Chandul. I'm a program officer in the office of advanced cyber infrastructure
Varun Chandola: within size at Nsf. And I, along with my colleagues, are
Varun Chandola: here to talk to you about Cssi and answer your questions. I'm happy to say that I'm joined by several of my oac colleagues who will be sort of co-presenting or at least when when my colleague will be co-presenting with me the set of slides that we have put together, and others are here to answer any questions that you might have.
Varun Chandola: So with that, let's get started. And I should note that you can
Varun Chandola: feel free to answer, put in any questions that you might have about the program or anything.
Varun Chandola: As you prepare your presentation, all your proposals for for this solicitation
Varun Chandola: in using the Q. And a. Of
Varun Chandola: feature of Zoom, and we'll be monitoring that. And we might answer some of your questions as the presentation goes. But we might leave some of the questions that might be relevant to the general audience. For the last part of this presentation. So the outline of this webinar is that myself and my colleague Benwen will give you a description of the program and provide you with an overview of the solicitation itself.
Varun Chandola: And then we'll and we'll we'll take maybe 30 to 35 min for that, and then leave an hour
Varun Chandola: of time for for questions that we might have. As you know, Edgar noted in the in the chat. This is
Varun Chandola: oh, you know you you are in a listen, only mode, but you can submit your questions anytime using the QA feature.
Varun Chandola: We are talking about the one particular solicitation, which is 22, 6, 32. The next, or the upcoming deadline is December second.
Varun Chandola: So on this slide you see on the on the right right hand side the QR. Code and the link for that solicitation. If you have not already seen that.
Varun Chandola: So what is the Cssi program? So this is a unique program in some sense, at Nsf, this is not
Varun Chandola: like some of the other Re core research programs that you might be more familiar with.
Varun Chandola: This is a program that is led by Oac. But we work with almost all of the divisions, 16 other divisions across Nsf. Across the 7 direct rates at Nsf. So this is an Nsf. Wide opportunity, and we fund development and deployment of software and data cyber infrastructure.
Varun Chandola: And I'm going to refer to this as Ci from here on. But the focus of this program is to invest in development of different different types of Ci
Varun Chandola: which supports scientific innovation and discovery across different scientific disciplines. Right? So, as I said, this is a cross directed opportunity. And because every division and the scientific community that they support have needs for robust data and software Ci.
Varun Chandola: and that is why this program is there? It's been there for several years now. It is. One of the reasons we have it as a more Nsf. Wide activity is that while it supports these different disciplines, but at the same time we understand that there are a lot of common aspects of Ci and having a joint program sort of allows pis to benefit from each other and at the same time,
Varun Chandola: through Oac, we make sure that the development follows accepted data management and software development practices.
Varun Chandola: So before you start thinking of a Cssi proposal, there are certain things that we we ask you to sort of. Ask yourself, and then also highlight it in the proposals as well. So the 1st thing you need to understand or ask answer is is the basic research leading to the development of the Ci already done. So. As I said, this is a invest. This is an infrastructure program, which means that
Varun Chandola: we do not fund any research that is needed before the development of that infrastructure can start right for those we have other programs here, we expect that the primary focus is on building the cyber infrastructure and then providing it to the community for them to use.
Varun Chandola: The other important aspect is, who are you building this for? Right? If you look at the solicitation this is highlighted in many places that this is to support one or more
Varun Chandola: clearly identified research community. So in your proposal you need to. You need to identify that this is not something that you're building for your own research group. This is not something that you're building for a local institution or a region. This is for a broad research community that falls within the
Varun Chandola: purview of Nsf.
Varun Chandola: And the 3rd important thing is, is there a demonstrated need in that community? This is something that we emphasize again at the solicitation as well as in all of our communications. What we do not encourage are the types of proposals that that are more of the form of. We'll build it, and they will come
Varun Chandola: in your proposal. You need to provide a clear need of. Why, this is an important thing for the community that you're targeting in this proposal. Right? And there are different ways to show the or demonstrate the need
Varun Chandola: but it has to be there and clearly outlined in the proposal.
Varun Chandola: So
Varun Chandola: the kind of aspects that we look for in a competitive Cssi proposal are listed here. These are also present in the
Varun Chandola: in the solicitation, and these also sort of map to the solicitation specific criteria that I'll talk about later. But the things that we look for are it has to be science. Driven. As I said, you have to clearly identify the community that this will benefit.
Varun Chandola: You have to clearly identify the types of scientific questions and advances that this will enable right, it has to be innovative, which means that this is something that is absent from the cyber infrastructure ecosystem right now. And so that's the kind of innovation that we're looking for. It has to be collaborative. Clearly, many of these proposals will sort of, you know, entail working closely with
Varun Chandola: the scientific community that this is being built for. So we want to see clear plans of how you will collaborate with them. How will this activity foster partnerships and community development
Varun Chandola: should be leveraged, which means that it should build on existing investments that have been made from Nsf and other funding agencies. Obviously, we do not want you to build everything from scratch. So anything that builds on top of
Varun Chandola: existing investments is a strength.
Varun Chandola: But
Varun Chandola: I should also note that you have to make a clear a distinction between what is already there and what
Varun Chandola: what is the new part that you're building has to be strategic. You have to have strategic plans for how you will measure the progress of the infrastructure development. How will you share the results? How will you track the adoption and the community engagement?
Varun Chandola: And finally, it has to be sustained. As you might have noted, sustainability is part of the name of the program, and the reason for that is that we want to make sure that these
Varun Chandola: the Ci is developed with clear plans of how this will be sustained beyond the years of funding. Clearly we want these efforts to have long term impact on the scientific community. The Cssi investment will be for limited time. But we want to make sure that you have plans of
Varun Chandola: how you will ensure that this gets sustained
Varun Chandola: the way these proposals are reviewed as a standard Nsf medit review process. Right? So we typically, have panels that we set up to to look at these proposals, and the reviewers will will assess every proposal based on 3 different review criteria
Varun Chandola: usually the panels are a mix of cyber infrastructure development experts as well as experts from the community that this is intended to serve. So they often focus on the scientific impact and then innovation on in that community, whereas the Ci expert would look at the plans and how you
Varun Chandola: plan to engage the community, and so on. Right?
Varun Chandola: In terms of the review criteria, the 1st 2 intellectual merit and broader impacts. They are part of the standard Nsf review criteria. So if you have submitted an Nsf proposal before, I'm sure you're aware of these. But I will definitely talk a little bit more about that. The thing that I want to focus more on our Cssi specific review criteria. So
Varun Chandola: we expect that in your proposal you have clear sections for each one of these and subsections for the subcriteria that I'll talk later.
Varun Chandola: So that it's easy for for the reviewers and us to look at how how the proposal is responsive to each of these?
Varun Chandola: So in terms of intellectual merit, we we see, we expect that you are outlining what is the importance of this activity to advance knowledge and understanding in in the, in one or more scientific areas as well as across the general scientific enterprise.
Varun Chandola: this should be creative and original, and that is where the innovative aspect comes. And I'll talk more about it in the next slide. The activity should be well thought out, well reasoned, organized, and based on sound rationale, there should be clear mechanisms to assess success. The the Pi team should be qualified to conduct the or to.
Varun Chandola: you know, develop this, the Ci.
Varun Chandola: and you should have access to the right resources that you need for to to do this.
Varun Chandola: On the innovation side. I should
Varun Chandola: clarify that. If you remember in the beginning, I said, we do not fund any research, which means that we are not expecting any research innovation here, right as part of the proposed work. What we are expecting is that this infrastructure will enable research innovation in the identified areas. Right? So what you want to clarify or emphasize is what are the new capabilities that this Ci will bring in for its target community?
Varun Chandola: in terms of the Ci development, we expect that you are using the best practices. And you know, software development and data infrastructure development. But you can also include plans to integrate, integrate innovative
Varun Chandola: methodologies for Ci development as well as community engagement and other aspects of the
Varun Chandola: of the proposal.
Varun Chandola: we also encourage you to identify, or, you know, include plans to tackle disruptive changes in the underlying needs of the community, adaptability to new technologies and adaptability to changing requirements
Varun Chandola: and looking at new concerns, such as privacy, trust, reproducibility, support for machine learning, artificial intelligence, looking at energy efficiency, and so on. So these are all things that you could look at as well when you are focusing on the innovative aspect.
Varun Chandola: broader impacts is an equally important aspect of any Cssi proposal. We want to make sure that you have plans, and when we say plans, we want to see well formulated substantive activities for each one of them. We want to see how this will impact the scientific community. And how will it impact the society in general?
Varun Chandola: We also want to see how you will engage with the community for broad dissemination of these tools
Varun Chandola: and the outcomes. And how will you integrate the outcomes of this research into teaching, training and learning with a focus on broadening participation of underrepresented groups and computing and of creating a diverse workforce.
Varun Chandola: Now we come to the Cssi specific review criteria. We have organized these into 3 buckets. One is on the on the motivation and impact. One is on the plans for the development of cyber infrastructure, and one is on the measurable outcomes, and within that, in all we have 8 different review criteria, and I strongly encourage you to have to dedicate separate subsections or paragraphs
Varun Chandola: for each one of them. So it is easy to see how your proposal is responsive to these. Right? So, as I said earlier, we look for the science driven aspect.
Varun Chandola: you should clearly
Varun Chandola: tell us.
Varun Chandola: what signs new signs will it enable? And how will it enable it right? So oftentimes that connection
Varun Chandola: is not very well articulated, and becomes challenging for us and the reviewers to see how it will actually enable the science that you promised that it will enable. I already talked about the innovation. And again, to emphasize the innovation should be in some ways that
Varun Chandola: something like this is not available to the community right now.
Varun Chandola: the plans should be clearly laid out. What kind of project development
Varun Chandola: plans you have? How are you building on existing capabilities. How are you fostering collaborations among stakeholders?
Varun Chandola: We also look for clear plans of what would be delivered.
Varun Chandola: How will you measure the you know adoption of this in the community. And what are your plans for sustainability? So those all come within the measurable outcomes.
Varun Chandola: So in terms of the the size of awards. The Cssi program. lets you request for 3 different classes of awards. So one, the smallest one is elements. So these are
Varun Chandola: our small awards that can go up to 600 k. Total
Varun Chandola: and for up to 3 years. And this is where we look for small groups that are coming together to create
Varun Chandola: robust ci components for addressing demonstrated need in one or more areas of science and engineering
Varun Chandola: our larger awards are what we call framework implementations, where we expect large
Varun Chandola: interdisciplinary teams that are organized around the development of a large or or a robust cyber infrastructure that again, targets, one or more areas of science and engineering.
Varun Chandola: One of the key differences between this and elements is that here we also expect clear plans of building and sustaining the community. That
Varun Chandola: sort of benefits from this in the elements proposals. We expect that you're building something, and you're making it available to the community. Here we want to see more detailed plans of how that community will be engaged. How will you train them? You know. Oftentimes there are workshop or tutorials that will be developed so that
Varun Chandola: the community really knows how to use this and and sort of, you know, also works towards contributing to this, which helps in the sustainability aspect as well. So these are larger awards you can request up to 5 million for up to 5 years
Varun Chandola: the 3rd track, relatively new. It's called transition to sustainability. Now, this is where we expect that you start with a an established cyber infrastructure and propose to execute a well-defined sustainability plan, so that this
Varun Chandola: cyber infrastructure could be made sustainable after those 2 years. So this gives you one chance to take something that's already being used by the community, and then set up mechanisms so that then it can go forward and be sustained by the community or through other other plans. Right? And I'll I'll expand more on this. Here you can request up to a million dollars for up to 2 years
Varun Chandola: the goal here is not. Now I'm talking about the transition to sustainability class the goal here is not to to support the daily operations of of a project. Instead, this is focused on, or what we look for are or is a well-defined sustainability plan. So that and what you need to convince us, and the reviewers is that
Varun Chandola: after this plan is set in place.
Varun Chandola: this will ensure sustainability of that Ci over the long term, and this could be done in many ways. We do not necessarily mandate 1, 1 or 2 ways to do that.
Varun Chandola: You could. You could think about diversifying funding resources. You can think about creating an open source. Consortium create other avenues of support. Right? So all of these are allowed, and and others as well. So we we look forward to your ideas there.
Varun Chandola: What we look for in in a competitive proposal is that, it's focused on a well developed
Varun Chandola: existing Ci with an established user community.
Varun Chandola: And you should also show that it has had an impact on on one or more areas of science and engineering.
Varun Chandola: And then we look for a well-defined, long-term sustainability plan with clear metrics of success.
Varun Chandola: As I said, there are different ways. You can sort of work on on this particular aspect. So this could include activities such as engaging with community more developing training, material documentation, technical support improving the code quality, such scalability, accessibility, and any other activity that you think would achieve the long term sustainability.
Varun Chandola: I should also note that.
Varun Chandola: as I said, this should be focused on an existing Ci. But it should. It doesn't have to be funded out of Cssi. So this could be something that was developed as part of a different effort. But here the focus is on the sustainability.
Varun Chandola: So, as I said earlier, this is a cross directed opportunity. Here I have listed the 17 different divisions across 7 directorates that
Varun Chandola: are part of this solicitation. And essentially what this means is that what you propose should be aligned with the priorities of one or more of these divisions, and we expect that you clearly identify
Varun Chandola: how you are aligned with the target divisions. And how are you aligned with the divisional priorities? So if you look at the solicitation under the programmatic areas of interest, we every division has
Varun Chandola: has provided their divisional priorities. So we strongly encourage you to look at that. And then we also strongly encourage you to contact us
Varun Chandola: And contact the cognizant program officers from the divisions that you know you, that your idea is aligned with? To make sure that what you're proposing is indeed aligned with
Varun Chandola: with those divisions so that this is so you can send us an email with a with a white paper, and maybe also help us identify the right right area, and then we'll be happy to connect you with with the right program officers for their feedback.
Varun Chandola: This year. We are also, you know, highlighting areas of interest that includes development of data or data science related cyber infrastructure
Varun Chandola: that enables research in different areas of science and engineering, including AI powered research and other areas that rely on robust data. Ci.
Varun Chandola: so with this I will hand it over to my colleague Benwen, who will take you through the different required documents and aspects of the proposal. So when, when, whenever you're dead.
Wen-Wen Tung: Yes, thank you. Varun everyone. I'm wen wen tong and as a Pd. Varun's colleague in the office over the Van Cyber infrastructure.
Wen-Wen Tung: So in terms of the eligibility criteria for the Cssi program, they are as follows.
Wen-Wen Tung: so proposals may only be submitted by universities and colleges, nonprofit non-academic
Wen-Wen Tung: organizations
Wen-Wen Tung: and Nsf sponsored Federally funded research and development centers, Ffrdcs provided that they are not
Wen-Wen Tung: including costs for which Federal funds have already been awarded or are expected to be awarded.
Wen-Wen Tung: and the number of proposals per principal investigator, called principal investigator or senior personnel, is limited to one
Wen-Wen Tung: individual, may participate in a proposal as a principal investigator, copi, or other senior personnel.
Wen-Wen Tung: In at most, one proposal for a given deadline. In the event that any individual exceeds this limit, any proposal submitted to this solicitation with this individual listed as pi copi, or senior personnel, after the 1st proposal is received at Nsf. Will be returned without review.
Wen-Wen Tung: So start early, plan carefully. No exceptions will be made
Wen-Wen Tung: next slide, please.
Wen-Wen Tung: So innovating and migrating proposal, preparation and summation capabilities from fastlink to research.gov is part of the ongoing Nsf information technology modernization efforts
Wen-Wen Tung: in support of these efforts, research proposals submitted in response to this program, solicitation must be prepared and submitted via research.gov.
Wen-Wen Tung: or by grants.gov. And may not be prepared or submitted by Fastlane.
Wen-Wen Tung: The Nsf. Proposal and award process is detailed in the Popg 24, one.
Wen-Wen Tung: and we have the link provided here.
Wen-Wen Tung: Next slide, please.
Wen-Wen Tung: So we provide more detail here with regard to the components. In preparing the proposal.
Wen-Wen Tung: With respect to the cover sheet
Wen-Wen Tung: for the Nsf. Unit consideration, the division section should automatically be selected
Wen-Wen Tung: on the drop-down list as the programs to consider the proposal. Select software Institutes
Wen-Wen Tung: as the program. It must be the only option
Wen-Wen Tung: for the proposal title provide a show information title for the proposed project
Wen-Wen Tung: to assist Nsf. Staff. Insulting proposals for review proposal title should be
Wen-Wen Tung: beginning with elements.
Wen-Wen Tung: frameworks, or sustainability.
Wen-Wen Tung: followed by the proposal title.
Wen-Wen Tung: and we have examples listed here noted the column separating the elements framework, or certain identity with your proposal title
Wen-Wen Tung: next slide, please.
Wen-Wen Tung: In addition to the guidance specified in the Pubg, the project description should address
Wen-Wen Tung: project, motivation and impact, whether it's science driven plus innovation.
Wen-Wen Tung: Several infrastructure plans, including project plans and system and process
Wen-Wen Tung: architecture building on existing recognized capabilities, close collaboration among stakeholders
Wen-Wen Tung: and measurable outcomes, including deliverables, sustained and sustainable impacts and metrics.
Wen-Wen Tung: The project must explicitly discuss to which directorates divisions or offices. The proposal is aligned.
Wen-Wen Tung: If Pi and Co-pis have received prior Cssi funding, including through programs that preceded Cssi.
Wen-Wen Tung: the proposal should briefly discuss what software data services resulted from their prior support
Wen-Wen Tung: as well as significant outcomes and impacts.
Wen-Wen Tung: This can be done as part of the results from prior Nsf support section. If appropriate
Wen-Wen Tung: next slide, please.
Wen-Wen Tung: So here we talk about supplementary documents to be included in the proposal.
Wen-Wen Tung: These documents are specific to Cssi, and in addition to the ones already required for all proposals submitted to Nsf.
Wen-Wen Tung: The proposal may include the following documents, first, st
Wen-Wen Tung: delivery, mechanism and community usage metrics.
Wen-Wen Tung: all proposals must submit this in 2 page limit
Wen-Wen Tung: 100 personnel and partner institutions.
Wen-Wen Tung: management and coordination plan
Wen-Wen Tung: in 3 page limit. And this is for firmware proposal only.
Wen-Wen Tung: and mentoring plan. If supporting Postdoc
Wen-Wen Tung: or graduate students
Wen-Wen Tung: and Ci professional Mentoring and or development Plan.
Wen-Wen Tung: And if requesting funding to support this is required.
Wen-Wen Tung: a Ci professional
Wen-Wen Tung: support mentoring and Development plan will be included and within 2 page limit.
Wen-Wen Tung: And if appropriate high throughput computing resources, that is, if you request Htc resources through partnership, to advance throughput computing path.
Wen-Wen Tung: This is for 2 Kg. Limit
Wen-Wen Tung: and
Wen-Wen Tung: cloud computing resources.
Wen-Wen Tung: If requesting cloud resources through Cloud Bank, it's in 2 page.
Wen-Wen Tung: and lastly, letters of collaboration. If any
Wen-Wen Tung: next page please.
Wen-Wen Tung: This slide explains the community usage metrics.
Wen-Wen Tung: Success of the project must be articulated through sound mechanisms that assess the development and delivery of the services and capabilities to be delivered by the project
Wen-Wen Tung: as well as the community adoption, usage, or other type of engagement.
Wen-Wen Tung: This assessment must be based on first, st quantifiable metrics to measure the community adoption, usage, or other type of engagement.
Wen-Wen Tung: Please include these metrics in the in terms of the targets or milestones for each year of the award.
Wen-Wen Tung: Then the metrics should also be appropriate for the program specific areas targeted by the project as well as the proposed type of cyber infrastructure to be developed
Wen-Wen Tung: last.
Wen-Wen Tung: the viability of the mechanisms employed for collecting the metrics should be described.
Wen-Wen Tung: Next slide, please
Wen-Wen Tung: this slide. Talk about the Ci professional mentoring and all development plan.
Wen-Wen Tung: so Ci professionals are.
Wen-Wen Tung: the professional staff will develop, deploy, manage, and support effective use of the Ci.
Wen-Wen Tung: for example, research software engineers, programmers, it professionals, data, scientists, system administrators, ci facilitators.
Wen-Wen Tung: etc.
Wen-Wen Tung: The document must describe the mentoring and or professional development activities that will be provided for such individuals
Wen-Wen Tung: in more. In no more than 2 pages
Wen-Wen Tung: the planned activities must be described that are targeted especially for ci professionals supported by the project, regardless of whether they reside at the submitting organization.
Wen-Wen Tung: any subrecipient organization, or any organization participating
Wen-Wen Tung: in a simultaneously submitted collaborative proposal.
Wen-Wen Tung: Opposers are advised that Ci. Professional mentoring or professional development must not be used to circumvent the 15 Page project description, limitation.
Wen-Wen Tung: the mentoring and professional development activities provided to Ci professional supported on the project will be evaluated under the broader impacts. Review criteria.
Wen-Wen Tung: Examples of mentoring and professional development activities include but not limited to
Wen-Wen Tung: training in preparation of grant proposals, publications and presentations.
Wen-Wen Tung: guidance on finding opportunities for professional training and career advancement.
Wen-Wen Tung: guidance on effectively collaborating with researchers across multiple science engineering disciplines
Wen-Wen Tung: providing information on and trending in responsible professional practices.
Wen-Wen Tung: Next slide, please.
Wen-Wen Tung: If requesting the high throughput computing resources
Wen-Wen Tung: include a description of the requests not to exceed 2 pager limit as a supplementary document that includes
Wen-Wen Tung: the anticipated total Htc. Resources required with yearly breakdown.
Wen-Wen Tung: a technical description and justification of the request, including
Wen-Wen Tung: the expected number of self-content tasks per ensemble
Wen-Wen Tung: the resource requirements for each task type. In the ensemble.
Wen-Wen Tung: the expected number of ensembles.
Wen-Wen Tung: the expected input and output data requirements for each task type
Wen-Wen Tung: and the expected number and size of shared input files within an ensemble
Wen-Wen Tung: and proposals should include the Htc access
Wen-Wen Tung: in one word, without space as a keyword on the project. Summary page at the end of the overview section before the section on Intellectual Merits.
Wen-Wen Tung: Next slide, please
Wen-Wen Tung: for proposals. I see cloud, bank, or cloud resources through Cloud Bank. Only
Wen-Wen Tung: a description of the request with a two-page limit is required.
Wen-Wen Tung: The description must include the anticipated total cost of computing resources with yearly breakdown
Wen-Wen Tung: which public cloud providers will be used, and a technical description and justification of the request, along with how the cost was estimated.
Wen-Wen Tung: and again, proposal should include cloud access one way without a space.
Wen-Wen Tung: a secured on the project, summary page at the end of overview section before intellectual merits.
Wen-Wen Tung: Next slide, please.
Wen-Wen Tung: So here is more on the budgeting the cloud computing resources.
Wen-Wen Tung: The Nsf budget should not include any such costs
Wen-Wen Tung: for accessing public cloud, computing resources like Cloud Bank.
Wen-Wen Tung: The total cost of the project, including these cloud computing resource requests from Cloud Bank, may not exceed the budget limit described in this solicitation.
Wen-Wen Tung: For example, consider a proposal submitted to the element class which has a total proposal budget limit of 600 k.
Wen-Wen Tung: If a pi wishes to request 20 k. In cloud computing resources to Cloud Bank.
Wen-Wen Tung: then their proposal should request as part of the proposal budget no more than 5 80 K.
Wen-Wen Tung: The remaining 20 k. For cloud computing resources should be specified in the supplementary document.
Wen-Wen Tung: and if a proposal is a collaborative project with 2 pis from 2 different organization.
Wen-Wen Tung: then each pi may request cloud computing resources separately through independent, supplementary document. As long as the total budget on the budget on the budget justification page plus
Wen-Wen Tung: the supplementary documents
Wen-Wen Tung: does not exceed 600 k. Together.
Wen-Wen Tung: Next slide, please.
Wen-Wen Tung: So this slide shows a wide range of Nsf funded resources available for Cssi community
Wen-Wen Tung: ranging from advanced computing Ci services and community and workforce development networks
Wen-Wen Tung: that the Pis can include in their proposal.
Wen-Wen Tung: Next page, please.
Wen-Wen Tung: This slide expresses Nsf's interest in receiving proposals led by Pis from Epscorp jurisdiction.
Wen-Wen Tung: And that includes Csi Cssi program
Wen-Wen Tung: next slide, please.
Wen-Wen Tung: And this slide provides the information for getting access to the cyber infrastructure. Ecosystem
Wen-Wen Tung: supported by inertive
Wen-Wen Tung: and for each resource please start with their landing page so that include access.
Wen-Wen Tung: Frontera Cloud left
Wen-Wen Tung: camellia and Naopilot allocations
Wen-Wen Tung: next slide, please
Wen-Wen Tung: some final notes. So all proposals to the solicitation have the same deadline. It's December second, 2024.
Wen-Wen Tung: This is
Wen-Wen Tung: a change from the solicitation, because the December 1st deadline on the solicitation carrying from previous year falls on a Sunday. So the deadline is December second, which is a Monday.
Wen-Wen Tung: After this, webinar, we will send out a survey to recruit Cssi review panelists, and the QR. Code is shown here. Please help widely announced to your research network and communities of this, this recruiting, this solicitation.
Wen-Wen Tung: and we expect to the review process to take place in early 2024 and anticipate making announcements of awards. In the spring of 2024,
Wen-Wen Tung: next slide, please.
Wen-Wen Tung: as a reminder.
Wen-Wen Tung: we invite your questions via the Q. And a features. Immediately to follow after the webinar.
Wen-Wen Tung: And once this webinar completes, you can continue sending questions by the email shown here. Cssi queries@nsf.gov.
Wen-Wen Tung: And also we would like to raise your awareness that multi-factor authentication is required to sign into research.gov. Effective. On October 27, th 2024. So please allow yourself sufficient time to familiarize with this new system
Wen-Wen Tung: so valung. I'm giving this back to you.
Varun Chandola: Thank you very much.
Varun Chandola: Thank you very much. So this concludes the
Varun Chandola: the the presentation part of this webinar, I should again maybe, emphasize this need for panelists. So if you didn't get a chance to record this QR code or this link to the Panelist survey.
Varun Chandola: We? We look for your your you know.
Varun Chandola: involvement in in our panels. There is no better way to understand a a program that is, you know, complex like Cssi than just serving on one of the upcoming panels. So we we appreciate your your contributions there. So with that, I'm going to stop you know, on this part, but I should also note that these slides will be made available to you along with the recording, as Edgar had noted in the in the chat
Varun Chandola: and in these slides, at the end you will see a set of these commonly asked questions that might be useful for you to understand some of the details of the program related to eligibility number of proposals you can be on.
Varun Chandola: I think, when man had already touched upon many of these. But please take a look at these as well. These are part of the slides. I'm not going to go through these here. But certainly there are. There's a lot of interesting information here. With that, I'm going to switch to the Q. And a part.
Varun Chandola: I'll leave these slides up here, so that you know, if if you have to refer to this QA. Slides, or some other slides of the presentation to answer your questions we can move to those. So I'm gonna stop presenting. But
Varun Chandola: and then sort of start looking at the the Q. And A.
Varun Chandola: box to see if there are any questions that we can start answering. I know many of my colleagues have already answered several of your questions. So thank you very much for your for your questions. And hopefully, these answers are useful. But I'm gonna then start you know, looking at these questions, and I'll invite my other colleagues to also jump in, if there are any questions that they would like to answer.
Varun Chandola: But let me start from the top on the box that I have, and we can just go down that list
Varun Chandola: to see if we can provide you with some good responses.
Varun Chandola: So the question that I have here is, I already sent us research Summary, but did not describe
Varun Chandola: how the project will address solicitation, specific review criteria, or the divisions to which the project aligns. Is it advisable to add these details and reach out to Cssi queries again. So I think
Varun Chandola: a concept outline or a white paper is not a requirement. However, it is encouraged so that you can get some feedback from us. If you have already sent something, and you've received word feedback.
Varun Chandola: You can now start sort of working on on the full proposal, unless
Varun Chandola: you, you need some additional feedback, and we'll be happy to provide that. We expect that the solicitation, specific review criteria and the target division. These are clearly emphasized in the proposal. But if you do want us to look at these again feel free to send it to us, we'll be happy to respond.
Varun Chandola: The next question. So I'm going to just
Varun Chandola: just say that this is done.
Varun Chandola: I think the next one my colleague Sheik is answering. So I'm going to move to the next one.
Varun Chandola: Which is, is there a mechanism in your user account on research.gov or Gov brand.gov for different people to have their own account, and share a proposal in such a way that they can write to them. If not, then that will actively interfere with us proposed by giving our login and password to a proposal development offices. So this is something that you can look at the pabg that was listed in one of the slides to get more details about how this is done.
Varun Chandola: Typically, we expect that you work with the sponsored research office in your at your institution for the submission of these proposals. And I'm I believe there are mechanisms that your institution should have
Varun Chandola: so that you can interact with them. So I'll I'll you know. I'll be happy to answer more questions. Offline. You can send me an email if you have more more questions on this. But again, I would strongly encourage you to reach out to your sponsored office and see what what is the proper mechanism that your institution has set up.
Varun Chandola: The next question is, what kind of feedback can you give us if we were to submit a short white paper description? So that's a good question, I think what we are looking for is a short description of what you are planning to build. What kind of research question which community is this targeted for? And what kind of scientific advances will this enable?
Varun Chandola: We would also appreciate if you could include, why this is innovative. In a you know, in in the sense that why is why are the existing solutions not appropriate for for answering? For
Varun Chandola: you know for doing what? What? What you plan the Ci to do? So if you can. Provide those details in within a 1 page and deadline, I think that will be great
Varun Chandola: one page limit, and we'll be happy to provide feedback on that.
Varun Chandola: There's a question about how 4 research communities that should be targeted by the project defined by Nsf. And I think this let me go back to slide number 4, which this sort of is connected to.
Varun Chandola: and
Varun Chandola: so I let me just
Varun Chandola: clarify this. And I apologize if this confused some of you. But
Varun Chandola: what we are looking for here is, which community is this? Will this benefit? Right? So we are not. I don't think we listed any 4 communities here. What I will want. What in this slide. What you see here is that we we expect that what you're developing is not just for your research group or not, just for your
Varun Chandola: home institution, but for a large research community that that Nsf serves. So I would encourage you to look at the solicitation where we list. The divisional priorities that should help you understand what? What are the areas that different divisions are interested in supporting, and that should help you also.
Varun Chandola: So you know, position your proposal. According to those.
Varun Chandola: So let me know if you have follow up questions on that. But let me move to
Varun Chandola: the next one that is not being answered by someone. So are for profit companies considered as part of community. So that's again, another good question. So we
Varun Chandola: we fund Ci, that benefits a research community. That research community could be part of academic
Varun Chandola: organizations could be part of nonprofit or could be part of for profit.
Varun Chandola: I think as long as what they are doing is, you know, you're part of the the science and research enterprise that Nsf supports. I think we, we reconsider all of them as part of the community. But again, I would emphasize that you should clearly identify who that community
Varun Chandola: and the other maybe. addition to that would be that
Varun Chandola: in Cssi as part of the sustainability. We strongly encourage that you engage with the community, and we hope that the community sort of comes together to sustain the the Ci. As well, moving forward, you know, beyond the years of funding, so that needs to be taken into account as well.
Varun Chandola: Let me answer I think Marlin is already answering one question, so as of now I do not see any open questions. But please we would like to hear more. So
Varun Chandola: keep adding any questions that you might have. So here I see, one more
Varun Chandola: would building a service that you charge, for after the lifetime of the grant be suitable for sustainability. So again, as I said earlier, we do not mandate any one or one way to do it. So anything that you think is viable is a viable plan.
Varun Chandola: including, you know, a subscription service, anything that thing. You you can argue would.
Varun Chandola: and, you know.
Varun Chandola: sustain the Ci after years of funding
Varun Chandola: while also benefiting the research community.
Varun Chandola: I think that that is, you know, part of a
Varun Chandola: of the plan, so that should be acceptable. But again, you have to
Varun Chandola: provide clear plans of how it would still be of benefit to the research community.
Varun Chandola: And at this point I'll also, you know, just check with my colleagues. If they wanted to add anything anything that I might have missed
Varun Chandola: while we wait for more questions.
Varun Chandola: Oh, there's a question here. I think I can answer this. This is, to whom do we send the white paper? So that's a great question. I think, in the final slide we had an email address that you can send your
Varun Chandola: White River tool.
Sylvia Spengler: Cssi queries.
Varun Chandola: Thank you, Sylvia. Yeah, that's the one.
Varun Chandola: Right here.
Varun Chandola: So Cssi queries@nsf.gov, you can send it there.
Varun Chandola: Thank you. Maya.
Sylvia Spengler: So I'd like to add that this is when you look at the. When you look at the solicitation, you will see that there are lots of other pieces besides Oac
Sylvia Spengler: putting money into this.
Sylvia Spengler: a range of directorates, and within the directorates, a range of programs. That's why it's really important that you tell us what programs you think you're targeting.
Sylvia Spengler: The reality is, we have many more very good proposals.
Sylvia Spengler: but
Sylvia Spengler: you need in many instances you need partnerships in order to make a successful project.
Varun Chandola: That's right. Thank you, Sylvia.
Varun Chandola: Let me go to another question. That's here. One of the presenters mentioned software infrastructure as a proposal type, and I didn't.
Varun Chandola: That's where we should specify this. So this is more in the details. When you go into research.gov or grants.gov, you have to specify. Which program are you submitting a proposal for? And that would be Cssi the you know. And you specify the the solicitation number there, and as a follow up on the follow up page, you will also be asked to enter this Nsf. Unit of consideration, and there, I think the only option that comes up is software institutes.
Varun Chandola: So that's the one you should select.
Varun Chandola: Actually.
Varun Chandola: you will wait for more questions, please, feel free to enter any question that you might have. We'll be happy to answer here.
Sylvia Spengler: I, I wanna add, because I, just for another program, have just returned without review several several proposals from people who should know better.
Sylvia Spengler: You should note that the additional
Sylvia Spengler: supplementary documents that are are asked for in this solicitation are required
Sylvia Spengler: required if applicable.
Sylvia Spengler: So, for example, if you don't have a management and coordination plan on a framework document. It is eligible for return without review.
Sylvia Spengler: If you have.
Sylvia Spengler: if you have mentoring or
Sylvia Spengler: mentoring plans or development plans or people
Sylvia Spengler: eligible people in your budget. If those plans aren't there, that's
Sylvia Spengler: that's
Sylvia Spengler: becomes eligible for return without review. Don't put yourself at risk for something like that. Just make sure the pieces are there. Just go down the list, and if you have it, check it and make sure it's there.
Varun Chandola: Excellent point. Thank you, Sylvia. Yeah, I think that's that's very important. Please take a look at the solicitation very carefully. Everything is in there.
Varun Chandola: Make sure that you're providing us with all the documents in the right format and within the right page limit, so that, you know, the proposal is not at risk for return without review.
Sheikh Ghafoor: And just to add what Sylvia said, these are Cssi specific documents, and in general, Nsf has document requirements. For example, data management plan for certain proposal. Bpc plan. So if you go to Pabg, this procedure guide it, it mentions what documents are required, so please provide those.
Sheikh Ghafoor: and these are specific to Cssi, the slide that you are seeing.
Varun Chandola: That's right. Thank you. Thank you. Shake for that clarification.
Varun Chandola: Again, I would. You know, as as we wait for more questions, that you might have, or actually, I see one here.
Varun Chandola: Oh, okay, I think.
Varun Chandola: Let me answer this one. It says, should the proposal description follow the framework of the solicitation.
Varun Chandola: yes. So I think. In fact, as you see on the slide, we have some some you know, sections that we expect that you have.
Varun Chandola: because that helps us.
Varun Chandola: You know, map what you're doing to the solicitation specific criteria. At the same time, we also want you to highlight, the intellectual merits and the broader impact. So you can, you can use the solicitation to to structure your proposal. But the important thing is that
Varun Chandola: the the criteria, the review criteria that these things will be, you know, measured against those should be clearly highlighted. How your proposal is respond responsive to those.
Varun Chandola: And while we wait for more questions, I'll again bring up this slide, which is that
Varun Chandola: as you are preparing these and you're identifying the priority areas. I'll again emphasize that it's a good idea to contact us.
Varun Chandola: We will get you in touch with the cognizant program officers from other divisions that are, you know.
Varun Chandola: connect or align with what you're proposing.
Varun Chandola: and it's important to understand how or to clearly articulate in your proposal how what you're proposing aligns with the divisional priorities that are listed in the solicitation under the programmatic areas of interest.
Varun Chandola: Okay, I don't see any other open questions. Maybe we'll leave this on for
Varun Chandola: few more minutes, so that we can reach to the top of the hour.
Varun Chandola: But you know as as you are.
Varun Chandola: you know. Look, considering this solicitation, please, take a look at the solicit solicitation very carefully. These slides will be made available to you so make sure that the you're using these 2
Varun Chandola: to
Varun Chandola: to use it. There was a question here.
Varun Chandola: For frameworks proposal.
Varun Chandola: Can the budget for a given year be more than 1 million, although the total is still within 5 million. So if you look at the solicitation, at that clearly outlines what are the expectations you have to stay within the annual
Varun Chandola: limits as well. So it's 1 million per year.
Varun Chandola: And so if you're proposing a frameworks proposal for 3 years. Then the maximum you can ask for is 3 million, and the same holds for the elements and transition to sustainability as well.
Varun Chandola: I'm looking at a question here, and maybe I can just read it out. This might be specific to a.
Varun Chandola: to a, to a discipline, and I'm not sure if,
Varun Chandola: some of my Geo colleagues are here. But the question is, we are monitoring geophysical phenomena on a daily basis that have impact on other engineering and environmental activities. We are looking forward to building up an online service that can provide an extensive analysis, estimation and future predictions. So if you're building an infrastructure which could be a service
Varun Chandola: that will be made available to the scientific community. And if you can justify the need for that, and if you can clarify. What kind of scientific advances will this enable? Then this should be within scope. But if you, if you want to share one pager with us on the email address that I noted earlier.
Varun Chandola: We'll be happy to give you more detailed feedback on this.
Varun Chandola: Thank you.
Sheikh Ghafoor: So just to add what Varun just said, there has to be a demonstrated need in research communities which advances science. So there may be a need for.
Sheikh Ghafoor: say, general, in a hospital or Marlon's example, firefighter needs some software, and you are developing that. That's not the target. It may be very valuable. But that's not the target of Cssi program. Cssi program is enabling science and engineering research. So the need at the services, whatever you build has to
Sheikh Ghafoor: cater
Sheikh Ghafoor: to some scientific community where there is a need
Sheikh Ghafoor: that enables the science.
Varun Chandola: That's right. Thank you. Shake.
Varun Chandola: There's a question here for the elements proposals. Does the.
Sylvia Spengler: An Nsf funded need funded research.
Sylvia Spengler: This is still in Sf.
Varun Chandola: That's right. Thank you, Sylvia. Yeah. So again, I would. You know.
Varun Chandola: you encourage you to look at the programmatic areas of interest, because, as Sylvia said.
Varun Chandola: and what Sheik mentioned
Varun Chandola: this has to cater to needs of a scientific domain community that is supported by Nsf. Through through our different programs.
Varun Chandola: There's a question here for the elements proposal. Does the proposal need to have a collaborator? Or is is it possible to be a single pi. So there, there is no requirement here.
Varun Chandola: It is based on what expertise
Varun Chandola: the
Varun Chandola: is needed. And how can the and if you can show that the team has the required expertise, so if all of that is one person that's also fine so there are no requirements. But the team should
Varun Chandola: be representative in terms of the type of expertise needed to to be successful here.
Varun Chandola: There's a question here. Answer. Live
Varun Chandola: about can you say a bit more about what you mean by we don't fund research. But then how does the project satisfy IM criteria. That's a very good question. That is why I had that extra slide earlier after the intellectual merit part so so I'll just reiterate what I said earlier, which is that for the Cssi
Varun Chandola: focus is on development of infrastructure. If there are algorithms that need to be developed before the infrastructure is developed. If there are certain methods that you need to do, research on to figure out what works and what doesn't. Those are not within scope for Cssi. In Cssi. We expect that the risk
Varun Chandola: is on the development and the community outreach and the engagement of the community right
Varun Chandola: But coming back to the other question that we have about satisfying. I am criteria. And this is where we we look for the innovativeness in
Varun Chandola: in the need or innovativeness in terms of.
Varun Chandola: is there something like this available to that community right now? So that's the innovativeness we look for. But I I see Sylvia Sand is raising Sylvia. Go ahead.
Sylvia Spengler: Our overall purpose in intellectual merit is to advance knowledge.
Sylvia Spengler: and the idea is that the infrastructure resource of some sort that you're either
Sylvia Spengler: making or making the original the original steps for, or have made into a large activity. That's going to have input from a an expanded community, etc.
Sylvia Spengler: What we're looking for is the ability of what gets made
Sylvia Spengler: to advance knowledge.
Sylvia Spengler: That's our measure of the intellectual merit. And you can look at it in lots of different ways. It can be, you know, within a field or across fields.
Sylvia Spengler: but
Sylvia Spengler: but it doesn't have to be
Sylvia Spengler: and it can be transformative, even if what it is is a resource. All you have to do is think about Pdb. Without which there would be no Nobel prizes this year in chemistry.
Varun Chandola: Thank you, Sylvia. That's a great answer. That that's exactly what
Varun Chandola: what we mean here. And so hopefully, that will help you
Varun Chandola: articulate the the intellectual merits better
Varun Chandola: without, you know.
Varun Chandola: including any any research plan.
Varun Chandola: All right. More questions.
Varun Chandola: And you can see that the number of participants is steadily going down so which could mean that?
Varun Chandola: you know
Varun Chandola: the quest, the question, the
Varun Chandola: question that you had have been answered. But
Varun Chandola: if there are more.
Varun Chandola: I'll again encourage you to reach out to us
Varun Chandola: on the on the email list, and we'll be happy to provide answers. But
Varun Chandola: I think we we can. We can wait for a few more minutes to see if there are any
Varun Chandola: any remaining questions.
Varun Chandola: and my colleagues from Nsf. If you have anything to add.
Varun Chandola: please feel free to jump in.
Sheikh Ghafoor: Thank you for participating and feel free to send email to Nsf, this.
Sheikh Ghafoor: queries. And you have the name of the contact
Sheikh Ghafoor: program officers in the solicitation. So
Sheikh Ghafoor: we are here to serve you. So.
Varun Chandola: That's right. Thank you. Shake
Varun Chandola: alright. So I think at this moment we can close the webinar. Thank you again, all of you, for attending and for your questions. I hope this was useful, and we look forward to more questions from you, and look forward to your submissions for the
Varun Chandola: for for this solicitation, and again, the deadline is December second of this year.
Varun Chandola: Thank you. Bye.