Encouraging
Submission
of Proposals
involving
Complexity
and Interacting
Systems
to Programs
in the
Social,
Behavioral
and Economic
Sciences
Directorate
for Social, Behavioral
and Economic Sciences
NSF
08 – 014
November
7, 2007
Dear
Colleague:
Beginning
in FY 2008, the
Directorate of Social,
Behavioral and Economic
Sciences (SBE) will
augment funding
in its regular programs
in order to encourage
submission of proposals
that advance understanding
of complexity and
interacting systems
phenomena in SBE
fields.
In
recent years, SBE
scientists have
found mathematical,
computational, empirical
and other methods
from complexity
and systems thinking
productive for understanding
how and under what
conditions patterns
both emerge from
and feed back into
local interactions,
at levels extending
from the molecular
through the social
to the global and
across multiple
time scales. Often
taking advantage
of agent-based modeling,
neural-network modeling,
and other computer-enabled
modes of discovery,
such studies have
refined understanding
of such properties
as interdependence,
self-organization,
and emergence in
complex SBE systems.
Complexity can sometimes
be understood and
explained in terms
of the interaction
of simple systems.
Topics
might include, but
are not limited
to:
-
Projects
that advance understanding
of emergent phenomena
in behavioral and
social systems, such
as the emergence
of creative breakthroughs
in a scientist or
artist; or of major
structural shifts
in the history of
language; or of skilled
behaviors like walking
or talking; or of
norms in a fictional
online community.
-
Projects
that examine stability
and transformation
in behavioral and
social systems, such
as the political
systems tipping from
stability to instability;
a sudden cascade
of suicidal behavior
in a population of
teenagers; or stability
in the face of strong
perturbations, such
as the resilience
of communities faced
with serious natural
disasters.
-
Projects
examining complex
interdependent, multi-scale
and emergent behavioral,
neural, cognitive,
or social phenomena
by building on, for
example, scaling
analyses; recurrence
quantification; graph-theoretic,
time-series, or symmetry-group
techniques.
-
Advances
in theory and methods
to validate results
from models or simulations
of complex systems.
Prospective
SBE complexity proposals
can involve data
from field, lab
or simulations. Proposals
may, when submitted
through our Science
and Technology Studies
Program, examine
philosophical, sociological,
ethical or policy
implications of
complexity in SBE
fields.
This
is not a special
competition or new
program. Investigators
who wish to have
a proposal considered
in response to this
Dear Colleague Letter,
should include,
as the last sentence
of its Project Summary,
the sentence: “This
proposal is submitted
in response to NSF
08-014.” The
proposal should
be submitted to
an existing SBE
program in compliance
with normal target
dates and/or deadlines.
Such proposals will
be reviewed by means
of the standard
review practices
of those programs.
Investigators
may wish to contact
the Program Director
of the program to
which they expect
to submit in order
to determine if
their proposed idea
is a good fit for
the program. A brief
e-mail note of inquiry
in advance of conversations
is strongly encouraged.
We
look forward to
receiving your proposals.
Sincerely,
David
Lightfoot
Assistant
Director, National
Science Foundation
Social,
Behavioral and Economic
Sciences
Additional
examples of some,
but not all, topics
involving complexity
and interacting
systems in SBE domains
are contained in
the final reports
of two recent SBE-funded
workshops:
Modeling
Social Dynamics,
Oct. 2-6, 2006.
Available online
at:
http://seattle.intel-research.net/MSD/
Behavioral
and Cognitive Dynamical
Systems, August
6-9, 2007. Available
online at:
http://behaviorialcognitivedynamicalsystems.pbwiki.com/
Links
to SBE’s
programs and target
dates, including
Program Director
information, are
available at:
For
the Behavioral and
Cognitive Sciences:
http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=BCS
For
the Social and Economic
Sciences:
http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=SES
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