National Science Foundation Solicitation
Navigating the New Arctic (NNA)
Full proposal deadline: 11 February 2020, 5:00 p.m. submitter’s local time
For more information, go to:
https://nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20514/nsf20514.htm
For questions about the solicitation, contact:
NNA Working Group
Email: nna [at] nsf.gov
Phone: 703-292-8030
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announces the release of the new Fiscal Year 2020 solicitation for the Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) NSF Big Idea.
Navigating the New Arctic, one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas, embodies the Foundation's forward-looking response to the profound challenges detailed in the Synopsis above. NNA addresses convergent scientific, engineering, and educational challenges in, and related to, the rapidly changing Arctic. The solutions to these challenges are needed to understand and forecast environmental change; advance economic prosperity; promote human and ecological health; and preserve security for the United States, the circumpolar Arctic region, and the globe.
NNA encourages proposals for projects that leverage partnerships to address fundamental science issues of societal importance and disseminate their results. These may include projects with stakeholders such as state and local governments; other nations and international groups with interests in the Arctic; the private sector; science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) educators and students; and community members. Given the extensive Indigenous presence in the Arctic and the broad local and traditional knowledge Indigenous people have regarding the changing Arctic, NSF encourages direct collaboration with Indigenous residents and local institutions and organizations at all project stages, as appropriate.
NNA strongly encourages projects with components that advance STEM education, public understanding of the changing Arctic to benefit both citizens and policy makers, and workforce development objectives. These efforts may include strengthening STEM education in northern communities specifically and the rest of the nation generally and developing the next generation of Arctic-related researchers. NSF also recognizes the inherently international nature of the Arctic region, and that impacts of Arctic changes span geographic and political boundaries, and encourages proposals that include significant international components.
Major goals of NSF's NNA Big Idea include:
- Improved understanding of Arctic change and its local and global effects that capitalize on innovative and optimized observation infrastructure, advances in understanding of fundamental processes, and new approaches to modeling interactions among the natural environment, built environment, and social systems.
- New and enhanced research communities that are diverse, integrative, and well-positioned to carry out productive research on the interactions or connections between natural and built environments and social systems and how these connections inform our understanding of Arctic change and its local and global effects.
- Research outcomes that inform national security, economic development, and societal well-being, and enable resilient and sustainable Arctic communities.
- Enhanced efforts in formal and informal education that focus on the social, built, and natural impacts of Arctic change on multiple scales and broadly disseminate research outcomes.
This solicitation is the second of what is envisioned to be at least a five-year agency-wide program to support the research and dissemination of new knowledge needed to inform the economy, security, and resilience of the Nation, the larger Arctic region, and the globe with respect to Arctic change. This solicitation calls for fundamental convergence research across the social, natural, environmental, and computing and information sciences, and engineering.
This solicitation has several significant revisions:
- NNA's major goals have been revised and expanded.
- The research foci for Track 1 have been revised and expanded.
- Guidance for Track 2 proposals has been simplified and clarified.
- The solicitation includes a new section entitled "Special Considerations for Collaborations with - Arctic Communities in NNA Proposals" that provides additional guidance related to co-production of knowledge, community engagement, and guidelines for NNA research sites near -Arctic residents.
- The deadline date has been changed to February 11, 2020.
- There is a new limit of three (3) proposals that include any one individual as PI, co-PI, or Senior Personnel.
- The section on Budget Preparation Instructions give more explicit guidance on budgeting for participation in the NNA PI meetings.
- The Additional Solicitation-specific Review Criteria have been refined.
Full proposal deadline: 11 February 2020, 5:00 p.m. submitter’s local time
For Frequently Asked Questions for the this NNA solicitation, go to:
https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20022/nsf20022.jsp?org=DAS
For more information, go to:
https://nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20514/nsf20514.htm
For questions about the solicitation, contact:
NNA Working Group
Email: nna [at] nsf.gov
Phone: 703-292-8030