Physics at the Information Frontier  (PIF)

CONTACTS

PROGRAM GUIDELINES

Apply to PD 12-7553 as follows:

For full proposals submitted via FastLane: standard Grant Proposal Guidelines apply.
For full proposals submitted via Grants.gov: NSF Grants.gov Application Guide; A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF Applications via Grants.gov Guidelines apply (Note: The NSF Grants.gov Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov website and on the NSF website at: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=grantsgovguide)

Important Notice to Proposers

A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), NSF 13-1, was issued on October 4, 2012 and is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 14, 2013. Please be advised that, depending on the specified due date, the guidelines contained in NSF 13-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to this funding opportunity.

Please be aware that significant changes have been made to the PAPPG to implement revised merit review criteria based on the National Science Board (NSB) report, National Science Foundation's Merit Review Criteria: Review and Revisions. While the two merit review criteria remain unchanged (Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts), guidance has been provided to clarify and improve the function of the criteria. Changes will affect the project summary and project description sections of proposals. Annual and final reports also will be affected.

A by-chapter summary of this and other significant changes is provided at the beginning of both the Grant Proposal Guide and the Award & Administration Guide.

DUE DATES

Full Proposal Target Date:  November 29, 2013

Last Friday in November, Annually Thereafter

SYNOPSIS

PIF includes support for data-enabled science, community research networks, and new computational infrastructure as well as for next-generation computing. It focuses on cyber-infrastructure for the disciplines supported by the Physics Division but also recognizes and fosters the broader impacts on other disciplines and on more general cyber-infrastructure.

This program (PIF) is intended to provide support for physics proposals in three subareas: 1) computational physics, 2) information or data intensive physics, and 3) quantum information science and revolutionary computing.

The computational physics subarea emphasizes infrastructure for high performance computing in physics requiring significant long-term code or tool development, and/or medium to large community research networks involving physicists or physicists interacting with applied mathematicians and computer scientists.

Priority criteria include (1) intellectual merit covered by sub-fields of physics within the purview of the Division of Physics: atomic, molecular, optical, plasma, elementary particle, nuclear, astro-, gravitational, and biological physics; (2) proposals that, in addition to compelling scientific goals, have a computational advance or new enabling capability.  Proposals can include either innovation in computing such as (but not limited to) algorithm development or use of new architecture or provide improvement to community codes or cyberinfrastructure.

Information or data intensive physics seeks proposals to develop rapid, secure, and efficient access to physics data stores on exabyte scales via heterogeneous and distributed computing resources and networks of varying capability and reliability and to develop internally consistent approaches to the usage of common resources required by large community research networks and multiple collaborations and serving virtual science organizations on a global scale.

Examples include provision of data services, including providing reliable digital preservation, access, integration, and curation capabilities associated with data from Physics Division experimental facilities and the tools and data handling to maximize the scientific payoff from the data.

Priority will be given to proposals that develop tools that can serve a broad community within physics or reach out to other communities in need of rapid, secure access to large data stores or that bring dramatic new capabilities to a specific sub-area of physics.

Quantum information and revolutionary computing supports theoretical and experimental proposals that explore applications of quantum mechanics to new computing paradigms for physics or that foster interactions between physical, mathematical, and computer scientists that push the frontiers of quantum-based information, transmission, and manipulation.

Priority will be given to proposals that utilize the tools of modern physics to foster new approaches to our understanding of quantum computation, quantum cryptography, and/or quantum communication.

Proposals that cross Divisional lines are welcome, but the Physics Division encourages the PI to request a co-review by mentioning the other divisional program on the cover sheet. This ensures a co-review and the participation of the other program in the review process. Proposals must address broader impacts and may include an educational component.

THIS PROGRAM IS PART OF

EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS: Funding Opportunities

THEORETICAL PHYSICS: Funding Opportunities

What Has Been Funded (Recent Awards Made Through This Program, with Abstracts)

Map of Recent Awards Made Through This Program

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