The GEO Innovation Hub (GEO iHub)
Helping geoscientists know about, participate in, and be successful in NSF and GEO funding opportunities, programs, and competitions focused on:
- Use-inspired and translational research.
- Innovation and innovation ecosystems.
- Fundamental research-based, productive engagement with the private sector.
- Commercialization of NSF-funded research results.
- Convergent, interdisciplinary research that addresses pressing societal and/or economic issues.
- Projects helping to solve community-identified needs via deep community engagement that results in increased community resilience.
Also, the latest GEO-relevant updates from the new NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate: Overview of the NSF TIP Directorate (Adobe Acrobat).
Synopsis
The GEO Innovation Hub was initiated in 2019 to accelerate geoscientists into the rapidly expanding funding opportunity space and arena of innovation and use-inspired science. Its creation coincides with increased NSF and national spending and focus on solving big, wicked problems facing society and geo/environmental-based sectors of the economy.
The GEO iHub is not a Program, it’s a consolidator and information resource for all GEO-relevant opportunities at NSF in the innovation and use-inspired space where quickly translating research results to the public and the economy is a major goal. Programs covered by the iHub reside in the new TIP (Technology, Innovation, and Partnership) Directorate, the Directorate for Engineering, and the Directorate for Computer and Information Science. Regardless of home, the opportunities within the GEO Innovation Hub welcome and strongly encourage proposals from and participation by geoscientists. The role of the GEO Innovation Hub is to provide a one-stop-shop for all such opportunities and provide information to geoscientists on how these opportunities work; critical elements PIs need to pay attention to in their proposals; how proposals are evaluated, and how decisions are made.
Programs in the GEO Innovation Hub cluster into three distinct categories:
- Funding for GEO-faculty and students to work with private sector parties
- Projects to solve real world, societal/technological problems with a convergent multi-stakeholder approach
- Translating research results to society and the economy – becoming a geo-entrepreneur
Each has a number of associated programs/opportunities. Click program links above for more information.
GEO iHub Point of Contact: Barbara Ransom, Office of the Assistant Director for Geosciences, bransom@nsf.gov, 703.292.7792
Upcoming Events
Office Hours for New NSF CIVIC Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) Funding Opportunity
The Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC), a research and action competition driven by community priorities, solicitation is now available: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/civic-innovation-challenge-civic/nsf24-534/solicitation.
The Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) is designed to build a more cohesive research-to-innovation pipeline and to foster a collaborative spirit between communities and researchers.
A CIVIC project should address community-challenges identified via a tight collaboration between civic and academic partners, with the goal of achieving concrete impacts in communities.
Get up to $1M to bring together a science team and a U.S. community impacted by climate change for one year to co-design and implement of a pilot solution that has the potential to be sustainable after the end of NSF funding as well as the potential to be scalable to other communities with a similar problem.
The CIVIC program comprises two stages: Stage 1 Planning Grants and Stage 2 Full Awards.
- Stage 1. Planning Grants (PGs). Projects funded in this design stage will provide support for a period of six months with a budget not to exceed $75,000.
- Stage 2. Full Awards (FAs). Projects funded in this stage will provide support for a period of 12 months with a budget not to exceed $1,000,000.
NSF program experts invite you to virtual office hours to answer questions about the solicitation and to learn more about what successful proposals look like. Have your questions ready.
Join Upcoming GEO Innovation Hub (iHub) Virtual Office Hours
Topic: CIVIC Solicitation
Date and Time: Feb 8, 2024, at 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join ZoomGov Meeting
https://nsf.zoomgov.com/j/1606656714?pwd=NTF6MkVnVnhZLzFyb0xibzU2ZUxwdz09
Meeting ID: 160 665 6714
Passcode: 052934
Topic: CIVIC Solicitation
Date and Time: Feb 8, 2024, at 3:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join ZoomGov Meeting
https://nsf.zoomgov.com/j/1607002584?pwd=amhmcU9XOGJyUWZ6SkRhZVpRM2VEdz09
Meeting ID: 160 700 2584
Passcode: 339085
Topic: CIVIC Solicitation, 2/15 at 3pm
Date and Time: Feb 15, 2024, at 3:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join ZoomGov Meeting
https://nsf.zoomgov.com/j/1600187846?pwd=dHE5K04rSUNyN0ZVcHdGc0JBU2ZPdz09
Meeting ID: 160 018 7846
Passcode: 028637