Responding to the challenges posed by climate change is a major societal challenge facing the nation and world. The Directorate for Geosciences’ (GEO) activities center Foundation efforts to support the production of new knowledge that can lead to a more sustainable planet.

In response, GEO released a series of Dear Colleague Letters (DCLs) highlighting priority research areas and encouraging submission of proposals in these areas of interest. These GEO-initiated, yet highly cross-disciplinary priority research areas, recognize the critical importance of geoscience research in creating and sustaining a high-tech, renewable, clean energy-driven world and in addressing the rapid changes taking place in the environment due to changing climate, population increases and economic development.

The RISE Global Climate Challenges Incubator addresses climate and global change issues through convergent, interdisciplinary and equitable research approaches. A suite of international and national programs support progress in critical areas:

1. Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems (DISES) supports research projects that advance basic scientific understanding of integrated socio-environmental systems and the complex interactions (dynamics, processes, and feedbacks) within and among the environmental (biological, physical and chemical) and human ("socio", economic, social, political, or behavioral) components of such a system.
2. Coastlines and People (CoPe) research works to understand coastal systems and tackle coastal hazards. No upcoming solicitations. See 2022 CoPe awards.
3. Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) tackles convergent scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic, which are needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. See Dear Colleague Letter 23-088.
4. The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), [link to ] mandated by Congress, coordinates federal research and investments in understanding the forces shaping the global environment, both human and natural, and their impacts on society. USGCRP facilitates collaboration and cooperation across its 14 federal member agencies, including NSF, to advance understanding of the changing Earth system and maximize efficiencies in federal global change research.
5. The Belmont Forum, an international partnership, mobilizes funding of environmental change research and accelerates its delivery to remove critical barriers to sustainability.
6. Building a Resilient Planet responds to the challenges posed by climate change, a major societal challenge facing the nation and world. A series of Dear Colleague Letters (DCLs) highlights priority research areas and encourages submission of proposals in these areas of interest.