December 12, 2019

Dear Colleague:

One of NSF's Ten Big Ideas, Harnessing the Data Revolution, aims to enable new modes of data-driven discovery that will allow new fundamental questions to be asked and answered at the frontiers of science and engineering. The Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) of the Engineering Directorate seeks to engage the communities of CMMI in these activities through innovation, collaboration and learning.

With this Dear Colleague Letter, CMMI invites current grantees to request supplemental funds to expand the breadth of their current activities through exploration and implementation of Data Science approaches. This may include the addition of a new collaborator, student, or postdoctoral researcher; expansion of the activities of currently funded awards to include new data-driven approaches to address the current award scope; additional training of participants in Data Science methods; community-building activities to enhance current research programs; or other approaches and activities that expand the impact of current CMMI awards through Data Science approaches and techniques. This supplemental funding opportunity is intended to introduce new Data Science approaches to current activities and is not intended for data collection, curation or infrastructure development unless those activities are part of the development and deployment of new data-driven analysis or techniques.

To be considered, supplemental funding requests must significantly enhance currently funded CMMI awards while incorporating data-driven approaches into the research activities. Activities should promote multidisciplinary research, learning and/or collaboration and supplemental funding requests must state explicitly how the proposed work enhances the impact of the original award. The end date of the original award must be at least 90 days after the submission of the supplemental funding request.

Supplements will be considered for active awards in CMMI Core Programs and for awards made under certain program solicitations, including CAREER awards. Submission of supplemental funding requests will be accepted any time. Proposed budget requests may not exceed 20% of the original award budget amount and are not anticipated to exceed $70,000.

Interested PIs should contact the cognizant Program Officer for the active award they seek to supplement prior to submission of the supplemental funding request. For further information, PIs may also contact Alexis Lewis, ENG/CMMI, alewis@nsf.gov.

Sincerely,

Dawn Tilbury
Assistant Director for Engineering