Research Visioning for Computer and Information Science and Engineering : Future Research Directions for the CISE Community (CISE-RV)

Society's reliance on information, communication, computing and cyberinfrastructure in all aspects of daily life increases more and more each day. Innovations in these areas are now central to how we work, live, learn, communicate, shop, travel, socialize and conduct scientific research – a testament to the tremendous progress in computer and information science and engineering in the last 50 years fueled by strong research breakthroughs in all areas including artificial intelligence, hardware, networking, robotics, software, systems, and theory. The unprecedented growth and reach of information, communication, computing and cyberinfrastructure, and the constantly increasing demand for innovations and novel applications presents new fundamental and translational research challenges that need to be addressed. The information, communication, computing and cyberinfrastructure research community needs to stay ahead of the curve in this constantly evolving landscape.

The National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) seeks to fund a community-driven organization that will identify ambitious new fundamental and translational research directions that align with national and societal priorities and thereby catalyze the computing research community's pursuit of innovative, high-impact research. Specifically, CISE calls on the information, communication, computing and cyberinfrastructure research community to establish a CISE Research Visioning activity (CISE-RV) to facilitate the articulation of compelling long-term research visions and establish multi-directional communication pathways for stakeholders with interest in information, communication, computing and cyberinfrastructure research, including those in academia, industry, government, professional societies, virtual organizations, international entities, and the general public. It is anticipated that through its activities the CISE-RV will strengthen connectivity and increase coordination across these diverse stakeholders and enable rapid and efficient community response to emerging opportunities and areas of national need.

The CISE-RV should have representation from academia, industry, professional societies, and other stakeholders in the CISE fields, and should be inclusive of all disciplines including computer science, computer engineering, information sciences, cyberinfrastructure, and related fields. Through its proposed activities, the CISE-RV should provide the information, communication, computing and cyberinfrastructure research community with a sustainable process for identifying future research challenges and enabling the CISE research community to speak with a unified voice.

NSF anticipates funding a single award for up to five years, with the funding for each year of the award in the range of $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 per year. The CISE-RV in the steady state phase is expected to have a four-year time frame. Proposers that need a startup phase to develop and setup the organizational structure, in addition to the four-year steady state phase, may request up to one year of additional support, thereby requesting up to five years of support. Proposers are encouraged to take into consideration, when developing their proposed budgets, the effort required to start up and maintain steady state, varying annual budget requests accordingly.