nsf9310 - NSF 93-10 GRAND CHALLENGE APPLICATIONS GROUPS (fwd)

[Peter Arzberger]

Title  : NSF 93-10 GRAND CHALLENGE APPLICATIONS GROUPS
Type   : Program Guideline
NSF Org: CISE / ASC
Date   : February 3, 1993
File   : nsf9310


GRAND CHALLENGE APPLICATIONS GROUPS                                 

Fiscal Year 1993

Program Announcement

a component of the U.S. High Performance Computing and Communications
Program

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


The National Science Foundation (NSF) announces opportunities for
group oriented research for Fiscal Year 1993 in connection with the U.S.
High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Program.  Six to eight
proposals are expected to receive funding as Grand Challenge Application
Groups as a result of the opportunities described in this announcement. 
Seven awards were made under this activity in Fiscal Year 1992.

Activities supported under this announcement are expected to achieve
significant progress on (1) fundamental problems in science and engineering
whose solution could be advanced by applying high performance computing
techniques and resources, and (2) enabling technologies which facilitate
those advances.  In addition, it is anticipated that these activities will
generate significant new research in mathematics, computer science,
engineering and other scientific disciplines.  This HPCC activity will
provide funding for multidisciplinary groups of scientists, engineers,
mathematicians and computer scientists to apply emerging high performance
computing and communications systems to advance the solution of diverse
science and engineering problems.  The emphasis will be on support for
groups requiring HPCC capabilities, where such focused, cross disciplinary
support is generally unavailable or difficult to obtain.  Any area of
science and engineering supported by NSF is eligible for funding under this
solicitation.

Grand Challenge Applications Groups are expected to employ testbed systems
exploiting new and emerging computer and communications architectures to
prepare the groundwork for the HPCC goal of sustained teraflop computing on
important application problems by the mid 1990's.  Projects funded through
this effort will focus on the fusion of disciplinary research with emerging
high performance computing environments and architectures, within the
framework of the HPCC program goals.  It is anticipated that projects will
include aspects of design of models, algorithms and software, as well as
problem solving environments, to fully realize the potential of parallel,
distributed and heterogeneous computing systems on Grand Challenge
Application problems and enabling technologies.

These opportunities for support have been created through the cooperation
of disciplinary sub-activities within NSF and other federal agencies
participating in the HPCC program.  This Federal interagency HPCC program
seeks to expand U.S. technological leadership, speed the pace of
innovation, and spur gains in U.S. productivity and competitiveness through
advances in high performance computing and communications.  The program
responds to the opportunities for advances inherent in the use of advanced
computer models incorporating the basic science of parallel processing and
the improved productivity derived by the interaction of people who are
spatially separated sharing networked access to information processing and
computing resources. 

Additional information on NSF HPCC activities in conjunction with the
interagency HPCC effort can be obtained from the NSF HPCC Coordinators
listed as contacts in this document.

Supported Activities

Proposers are encouraged to provide innovative, collaborative approaches to
formulating solutions to Grand Challenge problems.  Among the activities
that are appropriate for support include: research time for individual
investigators, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, HPCC equipment,
testbed development, access to high performance computing systems,
networking and communications, supplemental HPCC educational activities,
and salary for technical support personnel.

Criteria for Review

All proposals to NSF are subject to the review criteria described in the
NSF brochure, Grants for Research and Education in Science and Engineering 
(GRESE), NSF 92-89.  Single copies of this brochure are available at no
cost from the NSF Forms and Publications Unit, (202) 357-7861, or via
e-mail (Bitnet: pubs at nsf or Internet: pubs at note.nsf.gov).  The review
criteria in GRESE deal with: quality of scientific effort proposed;
competence of investigators; relevance of research; and impact on
infrastructure.  

Proposals for Grand Challenge Applications Groups will also be subject to
specific criteria that reflect the objectives of the interagency HPCC
program:

 	potential for impact in a critical area of science and engineering;

 	creating significant interaction between focused scientific and
	engineering applications and computational activities that has
	broad implications in high performance computational activities
	beyond the specific scientific or engineering problem area or
	discipline being studied; 

 	development of new computational techniques for high performance systems
	with potential benefit for the broader scientific community;

 	record of accomplishment and potential for advancing frontiers of high
	performance parallel, distributed or heterogeneous computing 
	environments;

 	extent to which the research proposed provides a testbed for the
	deployment of new high performance computing and communications
	systems; 

 	educational activities to increase the research participation and
	training of students and researchers.

Reviewers will also consider the extent of involvement of women and
minorities at all levels of the groups; innovative partnerships with
national laboratories and private industry; and  institutional
participation and budgetary levels.

Proposal Submission, Review and Award Processes

Review of proposals will be coordinated across the Foundation, across all
programs related to the proposed project.  Proposals reviewed under this
solicitation that overlap other inter-agency or NSF initiatives such as
Global Change or Advanced Materials and Processing, will be referred to
these activities for joint consideration.  

A combination of mail, panel, and site visit review may be used as needed. 
Awards are planned to be jointly funded between the programs involved, and
coordinated among Federal inter-agency HPCC programs.

Awards are planned to be in the range of $300,000 to $800,000 per year for
a period of three to five years, but there are no firm restrictions on size
or duration.  The number and size of awards will be based on the quality
and potential impact of the proposals reviewed, and the availability of
funds.

Preproposals

Preproposals will be used  to facilitate planning by NSF and to minimize
work on potential proposals that are inappropriate or less likely to be
competitive.  Proposers interested in submitting a formal proposal must
submit 12 copies of a preproposal by March 15, 1993 to:

HPCC/GCAG Coordinator 
NSF, Room 417
1800 G Street, N.W. 
Washington D.C.  20550

The preproposal must contain the following information in the order
indicated:  

	1 Page 	Title of group activity
		List of PI and Co-PI's with departmental and institutional 
			affiliations
		Mailing and e-mail addresses, phone and FAX numbers, of PI only
		Abstract

	3-4 Pages	Outline of project plan
			Evidence of multidisciplinary interactions

	1 Page 	Estimated first year budget (not binding on final proposal)

	1 Page 	List of individuals with whom the PI or Co-PI's have had a close
		working relationship in the last 48 months

	Following	Biographical sketch as per GRESE with a limitation 
	 Pages		of 2 pages per PI and Co-PI's

Since preproposals are not formal proposals, participant or institutional
agreements are not nece