NSF Org:	DMS Division Of Mathematical Sciences
Recipient:	THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Initial Amendment Date:	July 14, 2010
Latest Amendment Date:	September 3, 2014
Award Number:	0969578
Award Instrument:	Continuing Grant
Program Manager:	Joanna Kania-Bartoszynska jkaniaba@nsf.gov  (703)292-4881 DMS  Division Of Mathematical Sciences MPS  Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Start Date:	September 1, 2010
End Date:	August 31, 2016 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$2,895,639.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$3,488,639.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2010 = $684,000.00 FY 2011 = $685,216.00 FY 2012 = $1,279,456.00 FY 2013 = $115,642.00 FY 2014 = $724,325.00
History of Investigator:	Nassif Ghoussoub (Principal Investigator) birs-director@birs.ca Robert Gray (Co-Principal Investigator) Robert Bryant (Co-Principal Investigator) Alice Chang (Co-Principal Investigator) Gunther Uhlmann (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of British Columbia 224-6328 MEMORIAL RD VANCOUVER BC  CA  V6T 1-Z2 (604)822-8595
Sponsor Congressional District:
Primary Place of Performance:	Banff International Research Station 107 Tunnel Mountain Drive Banff  CA
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	SJR5MQHSLWT6
Parent UEI:	SJR5MQHSLWT6
NSF Program(s):	MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES RES INST
Primary Program Source:	01001011DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001112DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001213DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001314DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001415DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	7556
Program Element Code(s):	733300
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.049

ABSTRACT

Established in 2003, the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) is a North American initiative that addresses the imperatives of collaborative research, of cross-disciplinary synergy, and of intense and prolonged interactions between scientists. BIRS is a unique infrastructure that provides a creative environment for the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the mathematical sciences and their vast array of applications.

Unlike any other North American institute, the main mode of operation at BIRS is a series of weekly workshops, each hosting 42 researchers in disciplines in which mathematics, computer science and statistics are used in deep and novel ways. There are 48 such workshops each year. In addition, the Station hosts teams of two to four researchers for periods of two weeks to allow collaborative, distraction-free, research and/or to finish major scientific projects. The setting of the Station has also been ideal for summer schools and graduate summer camps, for hosting focused collaborative research groups, and for promoting university-industry interactions. Every year, the station hosts over 2000 researchers from 400 institutions in more than 30 countries who participate in over 60 different programs.

BIRS represents a new level of development in North American scientific cooperation as it brought together for the very first time: Canada's NSERC, the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Alberta government, and Mexico's National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) in a partnership of this scale, providing new and exciting opportunities for North American Faculty and students giving them access to their international counterparts at the highest levels and across all mathematical disciplines.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Established in 2003, the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) is a North American research infrastructure that addresses the imperatives of collaborative research and cross-disciplinary synergy, by facilitating intense and prolonged interactions among mathematical scientists from around the world. BIRS’ unique infrastructure ensures a creative environment for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and methods within the mathematical sciences and their vast array of applications in science and engineering.

BIRS embraces all aspects of quantitative and analytic research. Its programs span almost every aspect of pure, applied, computational and industrial mathematics, statistics and computer science. Its workshops involve mathematicians, physicists, biologists, engineers, computer scientists, economists and financial analysts. BIRS’ main mode of operation is to competitively select and run weekly workshops, each hosting 42 researchers. Applications are selected on a competitive basis, using the criteria of excellence and relevance, by a scientific panel of experts drawn from across the entire breadth of the mathematical sciences and related areas.  The extraordinary response to the opportunities at BIRS leads to extremely high quality competitions with almost 209 proposed workshops competing for the 48 available weeks.  For the period of year 2011-2015, over 10,000 mathematical scientists from over 53 countries participated in the station’s activities. 

 

 

Last Modified: 10/27/2016
Modified by: Nassif Ghoussoub

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.