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Title: Dear Colleague Letter: Cyberinfrastructure Framework in 
       Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Date: 10/31/11

   NSF 12-003

Dear Colleague Letter: Cyberinfrastructure Framework in Mathematical and
Physical Sciences

   The Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) Directorate at NSF is
   committed to supporting the research, infrastructure, and workforce
   needs of its communities. One aspect of increasing importance is the
   volume and complexity of data generated across the scientific
   disciplines supported by MPS. As part of a multi-faceted approach to
   addressing this challenge, MPS in partnership with the Office of
   Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) would like to draw your attention to a
   long-term strategic NSF-wide initiative, Cyberinfrastructure Framework
   for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21). This initiative
   supports building the integrated, interdisciplinary,
   cyberinfrastructure necessary to support complex science and
   engineering research, developing a broad range of computational and
   data-enabled science and engineering activities, and assisting and
   encouraging the careers of computational and data-enabled scientists
   and engineers. While NSF already provides support for some integrative
   cyberinfrastructure projects, such as Extreme Science and Engineering
   Discovery Environment (XSEDE) or the Open Science Grid (OSG), CIF21
   will enable NSF, and MPS in particular, to address the dynamic needs
   of the MPS communities in a systematic and strategic way, potentially
   building on ongoing projects.

   In FY2012, MPS plans to support CIF21 programs within the scope of its
   normal programmatic and multidisciplinary activities. Therefore, we
   are encouraging individuals, as well as teams of investigators, with
   CIF21-related projects to submit their proposals to already existing
   programs in MPS and OCI. Proposals funded in FY2012 will be in
   partnership with OCI and will serve as a basis for future investments
   in research and infrastructure. It is anticipated that through such
   activities there will be not only advances in frontier research, but
   also to the development of a more comprehensive, integrated,
   sustainable and secure cyberinfrastructure that will in turn support
   increasingly complex scientific research. To further establish the
   foundation and to plan for the future, we also encourage proposals for
   workshops that will identify the grand challenges that arise with
   large data sets and the science enabled by them.

   If you have any questions about your proposal, suitability of a
   workshop topic or concept, or about CIF21 in general, please email
   your question to [1]cif21mps@nsf.gov, and a program officer from the
   relevant division will respond. We also plan a webinar to explore
   ideas for proposals in more depth on December 7, 2011. MPS and OCI
   look forward to supporting your proposals and to produce a more
   comprehensive and unified approach to the investment strategy in CIF21
   related research, infrastructure and workforce development.

   Signed

   Edward Seidel  Assistant Director
   Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences 

   Alan Blatecky
   Director
   Office of Cyberinfrastructure

References

   1. mailto:cif21mps@nsf.gov