Earth System History

Dear Colleague,

During the past 14 years the Geosciences Directorate has supported a cross-disciplinary program called Earth System History (ESH) that originated under the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Many researchers have submitted proposals to the annual competitions for ESH funds and the resulting research has significantly improved our understanding of Earth’s climate processes. The solicitation for proposals under which the ESH competition has recently been run (NSF 04-597) expires on September 30, 2006. Division Directors, Section Heads and Program Directors in the Divisions of Earth Sciences, Ocean Sciences and Atmospheric Sciences have been discussing how this program might evolve in the coming years. We have been guided by some community input but feel that we are not yet ready to make a decision about the future of ESH. Thus, we have decided to postpone issuing another ESH solicitation for FY 2007.

We will still accept proposals for topics identified in the previous ESH competition during FY 2007 but will not run a separate competition. Instead, proposals should be submitted to the disciplinary program in the appropriate Division that is closest to the main research thrust of the proposed work. It is our anticipation that these programs will be Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology in the Earth Sciences Division, Paleoclimatology in the Atmospheric Sciences Division and Marine Geology and Geophysics in the Ocean Sciences Division. Proposals that are cross disciplinary are still encouraged and Program Officers in the three Divisions will cooperate in the review of such proposals. Information on when proposals should be submitted may be found on the web sites of the three Divisions. To avoid missing relevant submission deadlines, and for other purposes, researchers are strongly encouraged to contact: Dr. Paul Filmer in Earth Sciences (pfilmer@nsf.gov), Dr. Howard Spero in Ocean Sciences (hspero@nsf.gov) or Dr. David Verardo in Atmospheric Sciences (dverardo@nsf.gov) prior to planned submissions.

The Directorate for Geosciences will continue to seek community input for our decision making process. An initial workshop in November 2005 focused on a few relevant cross-cutting science questions and the workshop recommendations are available at http://www.mesh.usc.edu/workshop.htm for community comment. We plan to convene at least one additional workshop to discuss broader aspects of paleoclimate research and the role that NSF should play in it. The workshop will be announced in such a way that the broadest participation by the research community is encouraged, although no dates have yet been chosen.

Sincerely,
 

Margaret Leinen
Assistant Director