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Dear Colleague Letter

NSF GEO Notification of Funding Opportunity between U.S. and Israeli Geoscientists under the National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) Collaborative Research Opportunities

Invites proposals for U.S.–Israel geoscience research collaborations.
Invites proposals for U.S.–Israel geoscience research collaborations.

Dear Colleagues:

SCOPE

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Research Cooperation. The MOU provides an overarching framework to encourage collaboration between U.S. and Israeli research communities and sets out the principles by which jointly supported activities might be developed. The MOU provides for an international collaboration arrangement whereby U.S. researchers may receive funding from the NSF and Israeli researchers may receive funding from the BSF.

The goal of this U.S.-Israel collaborative research opportunity is to help reduce barriers for collaborative projects between U.S. and Israeli scientists. Through a lead agency model, NSF and BSF allow U.S. and Israeli researchers to submit collaborative proposals that will undergo a single review process at NSF, which acts as the lead agency. The NSF Directorate of Geosciences (GEO) Divisions of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (EAR, OCE, and AGS, respectively) and their constituent programs participate in this opportunity. All participating Israeli institutions of higher learning are listed in NSF 20-094. Those of particular interest to the geosciences include:

  • Bar Ilan University
  • Ben Gurion University
  • Hebrew University
  • Rupin Academic Center
  • Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
  • Tel Aviv University
  • University of Haifa
  • Weizmann Institute of Science

The NSF Directorate of Geosciences brings this opportunity to the attention of U.S. scientists to encourage their participation and to expand U.S.-Israeli geoscience international scientific endeavors.

The collaborative opportunity described in this Dear Colleague Letter is a multi-year effort and remains in effect until this Dear Colleague Letter is archived.

Proposals responding to this opportunity should be submitted to the GEO core program that best fits the science proposed. U.S. PIs are encouraged to contact the cognizant program officer of the program for which their proposal is intended to ensure that scope of the collaborative project and proposed U.S. budget are within the purview of the program.

GEO core programs no longer have submission deadlines; therefore, proposals may be submitted at any time.

Israeli researchers are invited to read the BSF solicitations. The BSF website indicates the funding limits for the Israeli partners in an NSF-BSF collaborative proposal. BSF support for the Israelis will be for the duration approved by NSF for the U.S. grantee. Israeli researchers may be part of only one GEO submission at any given time and may have only two active NSF/GEO-BSF grants at any given time. Limits for U.S. researchers on the number of proposals to any given program are specified in the description of the GEO program to which the proposal is to be submitted.

Proposals are expected to adhere to the areas of science, funding limits, and grant durations for the NSF participating programs and BSF program from which funding is sought. Proposals must represent an integrated collaborative effort and must discuss the contributions from parties of each country and how research activities and results from the participating PIs will be integrated.

Instructions for the preparation and submission of proposals that must be followed for consideration by NSF GEO programs as well as a description of the merit review process and award/decline decisions of NSF-BSF collaborative research proposals are discussed in NSF 20-094. Proposal titles shall include the prefix "NSF-BSF."

Proposers are advised that all documents submitted to NSF or BSF may be shared with the other agency to facilitate and implement the two-way agency activities.

POST AWARD CONSIDERATIONS

Awardees will be required to acknowledge both NSF and BSF support in any and all research products (presentations, reports, publications etc.) that result from an award. Requests for changes in awards (for example, for changes in scope) will be discussed by NSF and BSF before a joint decision is made.

Sincerely,

Dr. Alexandra R. Isern
Assistant Director
Directorate of Geosciences

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