Congress passed a spending bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 – the current fiscal year – providing the National Science Foundation (NSF) approximately $8.1 billion, a 4% increase compared to FY 2018. The President’s FY 2020 Budget Request proposes $7.066 billion for NSF – a 12% decrease with respect to the FY 2019 Congressional Appropriations. See the NSF press release.

Celebrate #EarthDay 🌎 with Steve 🐧! Watch the new trailer for Disneynature’s Penguins, coming to theaters Earth Day 2019. The National Science Foundation manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, which coordinates all U.S. scientific research (including NSF penguin research!) on the southernmost continent and in the Southern Ocean. WATCH A LIVE WEBCAM ON PENGUINS, COURTESY OF NSF’S ANTARCTIC PROGRAM! @NSF_OPP #Antarctica

NSF Earth Sciences Program Staff Visits West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown. Almost 70 years ago, WVU was awarded one of NSF’s first Earth Sciences grants. Read about the anniversary award and the interactions between Earth Sciences program staff and more than 40 WVU researchers and students.

The NSF Prediction of and Resilience against Extreme Events (PREEVENTS) Program Solicitation NSF 16-562 has been archived. The program will not accept additional proposals. Active awards will continue. Contact Division of Earth Sciences Program Director, Justin Lawrence, with PREEVENTS questions. Send the Earth Sciences Communications Team pictures and highlights from your PREEVENTS research!

ICYMI: CORES! The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) leads NSF’s Catalyzing Opportunities for Research in the Earth Sciences (CORES) study. NASEM thanks the community for the 300 responses from more than 200 institutions during the recent comment period. The CORES Workshop on Management Models for Future Seismological and Geodetic Facilities will be held May 13-14 in Chicago, IL. Plenary sessions will be available via webinar. To view online, please register.

EarthScope celebrates top ten scientific discoveries and 15 years of geoscience accomplishments at the nation’s capital! Learn how Earth Sciences-funded researchers turned background noise into seismic signals and created real-time tsunami warnings from GPS stations. RSVP to the symposium and reception by May 10. @NSF_GEO @EarthScopeInfo @UNAVCO @IRIS_EPO

Geoinformatics Is Back! Check out Earth Sciences Program Solicitation NSF 19-561. Program Directors Steve Whitmeyer and Kevin Johnson will soon hold geoinformatics webinars to discuss the solicitation and answer questions. Dates and times will be posted on Earth Sciences Announcements.

We Got Talent! Earth Sciences welcomes Hydrologic Sciences Program Director Ingrid Padilla and Program Specialist Intern Donnisha Peacock.

We want you too! See the Dear Colleague Letter requesting applications for temporary program directors.

Seven Earth Sciences projects will help ensure access to geochronology infrastructure. The Eos project update, "A Deeper Investment for Deep Time Science", features seven laboratories, which “will help address the community’s need for a diverse and inclusive portfolio of resources.” The laboratories were funded through the geochronology-themed FY 2017 competition of the NSF Earth Sciences Laboratory Technician Support Program Solicitation NSF 17-504.

Killer Clay Among NSF’s Most Popular Stories of 2018! Geobiology and Low-Temperature Geochemistry-funded researchers found that Oregon blue clay may help fight disease-causing bacteria in wounds. Researchers found that the clay has antibacterial properties including effects against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). NSF’s Discovery Files podcast is available through iTunes or you can add the RSS feed to your podcast receiver. Send us your idea for a Discovery File story!

The NSF National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) report NSF 19-304: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering indicates that, while underrepresented groups have generally increased their representation in science and engineering, they continue to be underrepresented in most fields. Learn more.

New Publications:
19-001- Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG)
19-038- Dear Colleague Letter: Supporting the Re-Entry of Women and Women Veterans in the STEM Workforce through NSF INCLUDES
19-053- Dear Colleague Letter: Research on Sexual Harassment and Other Forms of Harassment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Contexts
19-568- Program Solicitation: Antarctic Artists and Writers Program (AAW)
19-574- Program Solicitation: Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (AGS-PRF) 🌎

Approaching Proposal Deadlines:
4/17: 17-516- Preliminary Proposal- Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers Program (IUCRC)
5/7: 19-549- Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR): Institutes for Data-Intensive Research in Science and Engineering - Frameworks (I-DIRSE-FW)
5/8: 19-551- Growing Convergence Research (GCR)
5/13: 18-599- Understanding the Rules of Life: Building a Synthetic Cell
5/15: 19-552- Letter of Intent- ADVANCE: Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions: Adaptation and Partnership
5/15: 19-556- Signals in the Soil (SitS) 🌎
5/22: 19-552- ADVANCE: Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions: Adaptation and Partnership
6/3: 19-552- ADVANCE: Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions: Catalyst proposals
6/13: 19-554- Small Business Innovation Research Program Phase I (SBIR)
6/13: 19-555- Small Business Technology Transfer Program Phase I (STTR)
6/19: 19-543- Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR): Institutes for Data-Intensive Research in Science and Engineering - Ideas Labs (I-DIRSE-IL)
6/19: 17-516- Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers Program (IUCRC)
9/11: 18-565- NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowships (EAR-PF) 🌎
🌎 May be of particular interest to Earth Sciences researchers.
Click here for a full list of upcoming NSF proposal due dates.

In December 2018, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Board and Council unanimously adopted a new AGU Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Plan with five primary goals. The overarching vision of the plan is that diversity and inclusion are recognized and celebrated as being essential for the success of AGU, its members, and the global Earth and space science enterprise. AGU’s Jill Karsten recently visited NSF and discussed the plan with Geosciences leadership and staff.

“The number of women in geoscience faculty positions at four-year institutions continues to slowly increase from 17% in 2015 to 20% in 2017,” reports American Geosciences Institute (AGI). The Percentage of Female Faculty Working within Geoscience Research Fields (AGI Currents #136) reports the highest percentages of women in Earth Science Education (46%), General Earth Sciences (32%), and Geoscience and Society (29%). See the report’s chart for percentages of faculty by gender for fifteen geoscience research fields.

Minority-serving colleges and universities are positioned to serve as a greater resource for meeting U.S. STEM workforce needs, reports NASEM. The new consensus study, Minority Serving Institutions: America’s Underutilized Resource for Strengthening the STEM Workforce, examines the nation’s minority serving institutions (MSIs) and identifies promising programs and effective strategies that have the highest potential return on investment for the nation by increasing the quantity and quality MSI STEM graduates.

Advancing Earth Science Worldwide! Join the NSF Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE) and Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) at the Seismological Society of America Annual Meeting in Seattle, April 23-26. More than 15 UNAVCO staff are represented in the technical sessions as presenters and co-authors. See IRIS researchers, too!

Important Deadlines & Dates for Events Supported by NSF Earth Sciences
4/19: #SciEngage Virtual Discussion: NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning, virtual.
4/19: Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) Instrumentation Discovery Travel Grants Application Deadline.
5/13-16: CUAHSI Master Class: Food, Energy and Water systems in a Global Economy, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ. Extended registration deadline: 4/30.
5/16-17: 2019 Shale Network Workshop, State College, PA. Abstract deadline: 4/12.
5/29-30: CUAHSI Short Course: Integrated Simulation of Watershed Systems Using ParFlow, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO. New extended registration deadline: 4/30.
6/1-2: Gordon Research Seminar: Interior of the Earth: Tectonic Regimes and Their Manifestation on Terrestrial Planets, Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA. Application deadline: 5/4.
6/2-7: Gordon Research Conference: Interior of the Earth: Processes and Outcomes of Material Recycling Between Earth's Surface and Interior, Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA. Application deadline: 5/5.
6/12-14: 2019 EarthCube Annual Meeting: Science in Action, Hilton Denver City Center, Denver, CO. Abstract deadline: 4/19. Registration deadlines: Early-bird until 5/1, On-site available.
6/23-28: Gordon Research Conference: Catchment Science: Interactions of Hydrology, Biology and Geochemistry: Transcending the Uniqueness of Place in the Age of Big Data, Proctor Academy, Andover, NH. Application deadline: 5/26.
7/29-31: 2019 CUAHSI Hydroinformatics Conference, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Abstract deadline: 4/19. Registration deadlines: Early-bird until 6/15, Regular 7/15.
8/2-5: 2019 Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences (COMPRES) Annual Meeting, Big Sky Resort, Big Sky, MT. Registration open.
8/7-9: CUAHSI Training Workshop: Open Source Urban Hydrology Sensor Bootcamp, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Registration deadlines: Early-bird until 5/15, Regular 5/31.

Save the Dates! Important Events Coming Soon!
5/2-3: AAAS Forum on Science & Technology Policy, AAAS Headquarters, Washington, DC. Registration deadline: 4/28.
5/14: NASEM Workshop: Environmental Legacies and Produced Water Related to Oil and Gas Production, Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, Midland, TX; or virtually.
5/19-22: American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) 2019 Annual Convention & Exhibition (ACE), Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, TX. Registration: Early-bird until 4/18, On-site available.
5/28-31: NovCare 2019 - Sixth International Conference: Novel Methods for Subsurface Characterization and Monitoring: From Theory to Practice, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. On-site registration available.
6/9-13: Geobiology 2019: 2nd Geobiology Society Conference, Banff Conference Center, Banff, Canada. Registration deadline: 4/30.
6/11-13: AGU-SEG Airborne Geophysics Workshop, Florida Atlantic University - Davie Campus, Davie, FL. Registration deadline: 5/8.
6/23-27: 11th North American Paleontological Convention, University of California, Riverside, CA. Registration deadline: 5/15.
6/24-27: Quantitative Microanalysis 2019, Microanalysis Society (MAS) Topical Conference, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Abstract deadlines: talks 5/15, posters 6/1.
6/24-28: AbSciCon 2019, Bellevue, WA. Registration deadlines: Early-bird until 5/15, Regular 5/16-6/22, On-site available.
7/8-18: 27th IUGG General Assembly 2019, Palais des congrès Montréal, Québec, Canada. Registration deadline: Regular 4/10-7/7, On-site available.
8/18-23: Goldschmidt 2019, Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Registration: Early-bird until 6/18, Regular 7/18, On-site available.
8/26-29: AGU Chapman Conference: Understanding Carbon Climate Feedbacks, Scripps Seaside Forum Auditorium, La Jolla, CA. Abstract deadline: 5/8.