NSF 07-521: Engineering Research Centers (ERC)

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Program Solicitation NSF 07-521

Replaces Document(s):
NSF 04-570

 

National Science Foundation Directorate for Engineering      Engineering Education and Centers

 

Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time): 

February 02, 2007

Preliminary Proposal Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time): 

May 03, 2007

Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):

December 10, 2007

Invited Full Proposals

Revision Notes

Summary Of Program Requirements

General Information

Program Title: 

Synopsis of Program:

Cognizant Program Officer(s):

• Lynn Preston, Leader of the Engineering Research Centers Program and Deputy Division Director (Centers), 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-5358, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: lpreston@nsf.gov

• Deborah Jackson, Program Director, 585N, telephone: 703-292-7499, fax: 703-292-9051, email: djackson@nsf.gov

• Barbara Kenny, Program Director, 585, telephone: (703) 292-4667, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: bkenny@nsf.gov

• Bruce Kramer, Program Director, 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-5348, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: bkramer@nsf.gov

• Vilas Mujumdar, Program Director, 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-7262, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: vmujumda@nsf.gov

• Sohi Rastegar, Program Director, 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-5379, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: srastega@nsf.gov

• Mary Poats, Program Manager, 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-5357, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: mpoats@nsf.gov

• Win Aung, Program Director, 585N, telephone: 703-292-5341, fax: 703-292-9051, email: waung@nsf.gov

• Darlene Suggs, Senior Program Assistant, 585N, telephone: 703-292-5361, fax: 703-292-9051, email: dsuggs@nsf.gov

Applicable Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s):

• 47.041 --- Engineering

Award Information

Anticipated Type of Award:  Cooperative Agreement

Estimated Number of Awards:    5  

Anticipated Funding Amount:   $16,250,000  is expected to be available to support five new Gen-3 ERCs in FY 2008 with year one start-up budgets of up to $3,250,000. Out years funding for each award is anticipated to be up to $3,500,000 (year 2), $3,750,000 (year 3), $4,000,000 (year 4), and $4,000,000 (year 5) subject to performance and the availability of funds. This level may be enhanced through supplements in years two through five as described in Section II.C, subject to performance. The actual number of centers funded will depend on the scale and scope of the proposed centers, the availability of funds, and the quality of the proposals submitted.

Eligibility Information

Organization Limit: 

Proposals may only be submitted by the following:

• Only U.S. academic institutions with undergraduate, masters, and doctoral engineering programs of sufficient depth and breadth appropriate to support the vision may submit proposals as the lead institution. Proposals must be submitted by the lead institution with subaward budgets for partner domestic academic institutions. Separately submitted collaborative proposals are not acceptable and will be returned without review.

PI Limit: 

The center director must be a tenured faculty member at the lead institution in an engineering department or may hold a joint appointment in an engineering department.  The director's doctoral degree must be in engineering or an associated field of science; if the latter, she/he must have substantial career experience in engineering and a joint appointment in an engineering department.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: 

None Specified

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI: 

None Specified

Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

• Letters of Intent: Submission of Letters of Intent is required. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

• Preliminary Proposals: Submission of Preliminary Proposals is required. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

• Full Proposals:

  • Full Proposals submitted via FastLane: NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide, Part I: Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) Guidelines apply. The complete text of the GPG is available electronically on the NSF website at: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg.

  • 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: https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/docs/grantsgovguide.pdf)

B. Budgetary Information

• Cost Sharing Requirements: Cost Sharing is not required under this solicitation.

• Indirect Cost (F&A) Limitations:  Not Applicable

• Other Budgetary Limitations: Other budgetary limitations apply. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

C. Due Dates

• Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time): 

  February 02, 2007

• Preliminary Proposal Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):

  May 03, 2007

• Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):

  December 10, 2007

  Invited Full Proposals

Proposal Review Information Criteria

Merit Review Criteria:   National Science Board approved criteria. Additional merit review considerations apply. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

Award Administration Information

Award Conditions:   Standard NSF award conditions apply.

Reporting Requirements:   Additional reporting requirements apply. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

Agency Contacts

Other Information

I. Introduction

II. Program Description

III. Award Information

IV. Eligibility Information

Organization Limit: 

Proposals may only be submitted by the following:

• Only U.S. academic institutions with undergraduate, masters, and doctoral engineering programs of sufficient depth and breadth appropriate to support the vision may submit proposals as the lead institution. Proposals must be submitted by the lead institution with subaward budgets for partner domestic academic institutions. Separately submitted collaborative proposals are not acceptable and will be returned without review.

PI Limit:

The center director must be a tenured faculty member at the lead institution in an engineering department or may hold a joint appointment in an engineering department.  The director's doctoral degree must be in engineering or an associated field of science; if the latter, she/he must have substantial career experience in engineering and a joint appointment in an engineering department.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: 

None Specified

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI: 

None Specified

Additional Eligibility Info:

Organizational Limit:

Only U.S. academic institutions with undergraduate, masters, and doctoral engineering programs of sufficient depth and breadth appropriate to support the vision may submit proposals as the lead institution.  As a multi-university effort, the lead and partner institutions share the responsibility for the ERC. The other university partner institutions must have graduate or undergraduate engineering programs or both. At least one of these academic partners will be a university or college that serves students predominantly underrepresented in engineering. These partners also must include a few middle and high schools commited to long-term sustained partnerships to bring engineering concepts into the classroom and engage talented older pre-college students in the ERC's research programs as Young Scholars in order to raise the enrollment and diversity of domestic students in engineering and science degree program. The partners must also include an organization devoted to speeding entrepreneurship or innovation as discussed above. Full proposals must include letters from firms/agencies indicating that they are committed to the ERC's industrial/practitioner partnership program. Proposals may include a foreign university as a long-term partner in research and education.

Only universities able to provide headquarters space for the proposed ERC may submit preliminary and invited full proposals as the lead institution. This headquarters should provide space for the administrative staff, the director, the deputy director, and physical and virtual conferencing.  It may also provide space for facilities to support the ERC’s research needs.

Preliminary and invited full proposals that do not comply with these requirements will be returned without review.

There is no restriction on the number of proposals that may be submitted by a lead institution and there is no restriction on the number of proposals in which a partner institution is involved. Since there will be no institution with two fully operational ERCs by FY 2007, all eligible institutions may submit proposals under this solicitation.

PI Eligibility Limit:

The center director must be a tenured faculty member in an engineering department at the lead institution. The director's doctoral degree must be in engineering or an associated field of science; if the latter, she/he must have substantial career experience in engineering and a joint appointment in an engineering department.

Current Involvement in Ongoing or Graduated NSF-funded Centers

Proposing teams involving key faculty who are members of ERCs or other NSF-funded centers that have graduated or are within two years of graduation by the time the award is made are eligible to submit proposals to establish new ERCs.  However, it is imperative that the proposed ERC demonstrate a substantially new vision, research, and education and there be substantial value added over all aspects of the prior Center's work to justify an NSF investment.

Proposals substantially duplicating the research scope of ongoing ERCs or other major federally funded centers will not be supported. 

V. Proposal Preparation And Submission Instructions

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

Letters of Intent(required):

A one to two-page letter of intent is required to facilitate the NSF review process. The letter should be submitted via FastLane no later than the date specified in this solicitation. The subject heading of the email will include a brief title of the ERC and the name of the lead institution. Each letter must include the following:

1. Name of the proposed ERC, the names and locations of the lead university and the partner institutions.
2. Brief statements of the vision and goals of the ERC, its research program including research thrust titles and goals, and its university and pre-college education, diversity, and industrial collaboration/technology transfer programs, all at a sufficient level of detail to understand the proposed ERC.
3. Names of the director, deputy director, thrust leaders, education program director, and other key faculty including their departmental and institutional affiliations.

Letter of Intent Preparation Instructions:

When submitting a Letter of Intent through FastLane in response to this Program Solicitation please note the conditions outlined below:

• Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) Submission is not required when submitting Letters of Intent
• TITLES OF RESEARCH THRUSTS is required when submitting Letters of Intent
• EMAIL ADDRESS OF THE PI is required when submitting Letters of Intent
• Submission of multiple Letters of Intent is allowed

Preliminary Proposals (required): Preliminary proposals are required and must be submitted via the NSF FastLane system, even if full proposals will be submitted via Grants.gov.  

Preliminary proposals are required.  Follow the full proposal instructions where the differences between the preliminary and full proposals are articulated. 

Full Proposal Preparation Instructions:  Proposers may opt to submit proposals in response to this Program Solicitation via Grants.gov or via the NSF FastLane system.

• Full proposals submitted via FastLane: Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the general guidelines contained in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG). The complete text of the GPG is available electronically on the NSF website at: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg. Paper copies of the GPG may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov. Proposers are reminded to identify this program solicitation number in the program solicitation block on the NSF Cover Sheet For Proposal to the National Science Foundation. Compliance with this requirement is critical to determining the relevant proposal processing guidelines. Failure to submit this information may delay processing.

• Full proposals submitted via Grants.gov: Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation via Grants.gov should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide: A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF Applications via Grants.gov. The complete text of the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov website and on the NSF website at: (https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/docs/grantsgovguide.pdf). To obtain copies of the Application Guide and Application Forms Package, click on the Apply tab on the Grants.gov site, then click on the Apply Step 1: Download a Grant Application Package and Application Instructions link and enter the funding opportunity number, (the program solicitation number without the NSF prefix) and press the Download Package button. Paper copies of the Grants.gov Application Guide also may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov.

The text of the project description of the preliminary and the invited full proposals must be single-spaced in 12-point type. Tables and lists in the project description may be in smaller but readable type. Supplementary materials may also be in smaller but readable type. Both will include the items listed below in the order indicated. As a multi-university ERC, the preliminary proposal and any invited full proposal must be submitted as an integrated proposal by the lead institution, with proposed sub awards to the other partner institutions. Separate preliminary and full proposals from each partner will not be accepted.

The required format for preliminary and invited full proposals is indicated below. Sections required in the full proposal but not in the preliminary proposal are noted. The preliminary proposal must include the information requested in brief but to be successful, there must be clear statements of goals and clear statements of how these goals will be addressed. The invited full proposal would have a fuller explication of goals and methods.

1. Cover Sheet. For planning purposes, August 1, 2008 should be shown as the start date. The proposed Center Director must be shown as the Principal Investigator.

2. Project Summary (one page). The summary should be written in the third person and should make a compelling case for the ERC. The summary should be informative to persons working in the same or related fields and, insofar as possible, understandable to a scientifically or technically literate lay reader. Include the ERC's name, the Director's name, and the lead institution's name, and the names of the core partner institutions at the top of the page. Write a clear description of the ERC, stating its vision and goals, the transforming nature of the systems technology, the fundamental barriers in the way, and its impact on innovation. Under the headings Intellectual Merit and Broader Impact as relevant, provide highlights of the proposed research, education, pre-college outreach, innovation strategy, diversity, industrial collaboration and technology transfer goals and strategies. Briefly indicate the unique opportunities that the Center will provide and its interdisciplinary composition. A preliminary proposal or invited full proposal that does not include titled sections (Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts) referencing the NSF review criteria and specific reference to how the proposal will address these criteria will be returned without review.

3. Table of Contents will be generated automatically by FastLane or Grants.gov.

4. Project Description The project description must contain sections 4.a-4.g and is limited to 25 pages for preliminary proposals and 40 pages for full proposals, including all figures, tables, and charts. These page limits are extended by the length of the list of participants, advisors, and supporters (section 4.a). The project description should be prepared with reference to the review criteria and the guidance provided in this and the preceding sections of this solicitation. The intellectual merit and broader impacts of the ERC must be addressed and described as an integral part of the narrative.

The project description will not include the normally required separate section on prior NSF support, as this information will be integrated into the discussion of the state of the art.

The configuration of partner institutions may not change after submission of the invited full proposal.

Start the project description with the list of participants, Scientific Advisory Board members, and industrial/practitioner partners, detailed in section 4.a. NSF will extend the page limits above by the number of pages taken up by this list. For example, a three-page list extends the page limit for the narrative for a preliminary proposal to 28 pages and for a full proposal to 43 pages. These page limits include other lists, charts, figures, and tables required as a part of the narrative and others the proposers wish to include. If the project description section exceeds these extended page limits, the preliminary or full proposal will be returned without review.

(4.a) List of Academic and other Participants, Scientific Advisory Board, and Industrial and Practitioner Members. List (1) the academic and other partners carrying out the research, education, innovation/technology transfer functions of the ERC, (2) nominated members of its Scientific Advisory Board for the preliminary proposal and nominated and committed for the full proposal, and (3) the firms and agencies contacted to be partners in the preliminary proposal and committed to be partners in the full proposal. A sample table is provided below and proposers are free to improve upon the table format for clarity and ease of reading. The font may be smaller than 12 point but must be easily readable. NSF will use these lists to determine whether potential reviewers have conflicts-of-interest and as a reference for the staffing and industrial participation in the proposed ERC. Insert the table at the beginning of the project description.

Title of the ERC
Lead Institution	Name	City	State
Other Partner Institutions, 1 row each	Name	City	State/Country
Leadership Team
Director	Name	Department	Institution
Deputy Director	Name	Department	Institution
Education Program Director	Name	Department	Institution
Pre-college Education Program Director	Name	Department	Institution
Industrial Collaboration and Innovation Director	Name, if known	Staff	Lead Institution
Administrative Director	Name, if known	Staff	Lead Institution
Thrusts - List each thrust separately.
Name of Thrust
Thrust Leader	Name	Department	Institution
Faculty Members in the Thrust (1 row per person)	Name	Department	Institution
Non-Faculty Investigators	Name	Department	Institution/ Agency/firm, etc.
Other Partners Carrying Out ERC's Mission
Pre-College Institutions	Name (indicate middle or high school)	City and State/
Innovation Partners	Name of Organization	City and State/
Advisors
Preliminary Proposal: Scientific Advisory Board Members (Nominated)	Name	Department/ Division	Institution
Full Proposal: Scientific Advisory Board Members (Nominated and Committed)	Name	Department/ Division	Institution
Industrial Partners
Preliminary Proposal: List separately the firms/agencies or practitioner organizations, etc. contacted to be partners and those already committed	Name of the Firm/ Agency	Sector/Function	-
Full Proposal: List separately only the firms/agencies or practitioner organizations committed to be partners	Name of the Firm/ Agency	Sector/Function	-

In addition to the FastLane or Grants.gov instructions, the proposer must send the following two documents via email. After receipt of the proposal number from FastLane or Grants.gov, send an email to ercintent@nsf.gov. The subject heading of the email should note the proposal number and the lead institution. Attach the following documents to it:

1. The table of participants and partners inserted into an Excel spreadsheet available on the ERC Program's Website (http://erc-assoc.org). This table will be used by NSF to check for conflicts of interest in assembling the review community. Remember to email this table to ercintent@nsf.gov; do not submit it through FastLane or Grants.gov.

2. Power Point Slides: one slide summarizing the vision of the ERC and another showing the ERC's 3-plane strategic planing chart. These will be used during the review process. Remember to email these documents to ercintent@nsf.gov; do not submit the slides through FastLane or Grants.gov.

The following sections should be prepared with reference to the guidance in Section II above and the review criteria.

(4.b) Vision and Rationale for the ERC. State the vision of the ERC, position the proposed ERC in the state of the art, and provide a rationale for value added by the creation of the ERC.

(4.c) Strategic Research Plan and Research Program. Given the ERC's engineered system vision and strategy for innovation, present the ERC's strategic research plan, including its deliverables, the major fundamental and technological barriers in the way of achieving them, and the major research goals. Provide a graphical depiction of the strategic plan using the ERC Program's 3-Plane Strategic Planning Chart. Describe how the ERC's research program will be structured into thrusts or groups of projects and the role of small firms, test beds, and partnerships with entities designed to speed innovation in achieving the vision. Provide a milestone chart or "road map" depicting the timing of the key research topics and their interdependencies, the test beds, and deliverables of the ERC over a ten-year period, with greater detail for years one through five.

For each thrust area, provide the following information as a minimum. At the start of each thrust's narrative, provide a small table listing the faculty participants by name, their departments, and institutions. Discuss the goals and objectives of the thrust vis-?-vis the goals of the ERC. Position the research proposed for the thrust in the state of the art and discuss its role in the ERC's three-plane strategic plan. Provide information on projected fundamental knowledge and technology deliverables, and the specific fundamental knowledge and other barriers the thrust will address in the context of the ERC's strategic plan. Provide specific examples of key research projects in sufficient detail for the reviewers to judge how the work will be done and methodologies to be used. Discuss the integration of projects within the thrust and the interdependencies among the thrusts. Discuss the cross-disciplinary mix needed to achieve the thrust's goals. Discuss when and how small firms will be involved in translational research to speed innovation.

(4.d) University and Pre-college Education Programs. Given the guidance in Section II, University Education, provide the desired characteristics of the ERC's graduates, the strategy to achieve them, and the implementation and assessment plans to determine progress and impact. The educational program should encompass all the partner academic institutions and should take advantage of available cyberinfrastructure for cross-institution educational impact.

Given the guidance in Section II, Pre-college Education, describe the ERC's pre-college education program goals, its strategy, its metrics for success and its assessment plan. Discuss the role of the ERC's faculty and students and the pre-college institutions administrators, teachers, and students in the program.

(4.e) Industrial Collaboration and Innovation. Given the guidance in Section II, for industrial/practitioner collaboration and innovation, provide the ERC's goals and strategies to address these challenges. For the preliminary and full proposals, discuss the general terms of the ERC's membership agreement and intellectual property policy.

Preliminary and invited full proposals must include supplemental documents letter(s) from partner organizations or programs, etc. devoted to entrepreneurship, nurturing start-up firms to speed innovation, etc.

Preliminary proposals also may include in supplemental documents up to ten letters from firms and/or other organizations that involve practitioners, such as state and local infrastructure agencies, committed to membership in the ERC's Industrial/Practitioner Partnership if an award is made. Full proposals will include letters from all firms/organizations committed to partnership. Neither proposal will include letters from those only interested in partnership.

(4.f) Infrastructure.

Institutional Configuration, Team, Diversity, and Administration Partnership

Justify the institutional configuration given the vision. Discuss the role of the ERC in the strategic plans of the lead and partner institutions. If a foreign university(ies) is/are partners in the ERC, discuss how that partnership will be administered.

Discuss the composition and roles of the leadership team, including the Director, Deputy Director, Research Thrust Leaders, Education and Educational Outreach Program Directors, Industrial Collaboration and Innovation Director, Administrative Director, and Student Leadership Council. Provide summary information in the form of a pie chart indicating the disciplinary composition of the faculty team, based on their departmental affiliations or degrees, as appropriate for each person.

Provide the ERC's 10-year diversity strategic plan, including goals, milestones, and, intended actions for success in building diverse leadership, faculty, graduate and undergraduate student teams and diverse cadres of ERC graduates. Plans may not include quantitative targets; however, upon award, annual reports will include information on impacts benchmarked against engineering-wide averages.

Provide a table of the current diversity of the leadership team and faculty U.S. citizens and permanent residents of the proposed ERC using the following sample format.

ERC Name	Total #*	Male	Female	African American	Native American, Pacific islander	Hispanic American	Persons with Disabilities
Leadership Team	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
Faculty Total	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
Total	.	.	.	.	.	.	.

* It is understood that the total will equal the total of males and females and the totals for racial and ethnic minorities and disabled will be larger than that total due to double counting. A person with a disability is one with one or more impairment that affects substantially one or more activities of daily living that is/are not completely correctable with assistive devices.

The data provided in this table will be the diversity of the leadership team and faculty who have been identified to participate in the ERC during years one through five from the lead and the university-level domestic partner institutions. These data must include the number of men and the number of women (U.S. citizens and permanent residents) and the number of U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are members of racial groups underrepresented in engineering (African American, Pacific Islander, Native American, Alaskan Native), ethnic groups underrepresented in engineering (Hispanic American), and persons with disabilities who are involved in the ERC's research and curriculum development efforts. Since it is not clear at the proposal stage which students will be involved, please do not include students. Do not include non-tenured-track faculty, research staff, post-doctoral students, technicians, or office staff. Do not include pre-college teachers or students.

Discuss the commitment of the partner institutions to the goals of the proposed ERC and how they will assure their policies and practices support the center in achieving its goals.

Organizational Structure and Management System

Describe the proposed organizational structure including information on how the members from participating universities and pre-college institutions will be developed into an integrated team. Include an organization chart for the ERC. Discuss the roles of the Council of Deans in coordinating the partner institutions, the lead university policy boards, the Student Leadership Council, the Scientific Advisory Board and the Industrial Advisory Board. Describe how projects will be selected and evaluated and who will be responsible for integration of projects to achieve the ERC's deliverables.

Headquarters and Equipment Infrastructure

Briefly discuss the laboratories, shared facilities and equipment for the ERC, referring the reader to the required section on Facilities and Equipment in the FastLane proposal template for more detail. Discuss those that will be shared by members of the ERC team. Distinguish between equipment and facilities that are already available and any that will be acquired by the Center. Invited full proposals only will include a description of headquarters space, its size, and functionality. Discuss how the facilities and equipment of the ERC and the Cyberinfrastructure will be used to form a collaborative team with shared resources and information.

5. References Cited. Section not to exceed five pages.

6. Biographical Sketches (two-page limit per person). The basic guidelines for biographical material apply. Biographical sketches are required of all the key participants (e.g., the Director, Deputy Director, Education Director, Educational Outreach Director (if known), Industrial Collaboration and Innovation Director (if known), the Research Thrust Leaders, and other faculty expected to receive more than $80,000 in year one from the ERC. For faculty, publications listed should be highly relevant to the proposal.

7. Budgetary Information. The preliminary and invited full proposals will include a budget for each of the five years proposed. FastLane or Grants.gov will automatically provide a cumulative budget. Preliminary proposals should not include any subcontracts, however enter the anticipated total level of subcontract support on line G5, Subawards and provide a budget justification or the planned levels for subcontracts to the partners. Full proposals require the inclusion of separate budgets for subcontracts for the partner institutions at any level.

In the budget justification section of the preliminary and invited full, provide as a pie chart or a table the planned distribution of funds in year one among the lead and partner institutions.

Cost sharing is not required by NSF.

If the information provided exceeds the budget justification limit, place the remaining information in Supplementary Documents and direct the reader to their location.

8. Current and Pending Support. Include only for the Director, Deputy Director, and Research Thrust Leaders, and other faculty expected to receive more than $80,000 in year 1 from the ERC.

9. Facilities, Equipment, Resources, and Headquarters Supplementary information to support text in the proposal.

10. Reviewer Information. Use FastLane or Grants.gov to enter a "List of Suggested Reviewers," if desired.

11. Supplementary Documents. The following items must be provided as supplemental documents. For Grants.gov users, supplementary documents should be attached in Field 11 of the R&R Other Project Information Form

Preliminary Proposals and Invited Full Proposals:

Letters: From the lead institution, provide letters of commitment to the goals of the ERC from the Dean of Engineering and higher-level university officials authorized to commit the lead institution to the goals of the ERC. Similar letters from similar individuals should be included from the other partner institutions. In the preliminary proposal, include up to ten letters from firms or agencies committed to partnership and for the invited full proposal, include letters from all firms or agencies committed to partnership. The letters as they appear in the proposal should be addressed to Ms. Lynn Preston, Leader of the ERC Program, Division of Engineering Education and Centers, Suite 585, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22230. All letters must be placed in the Supplementary Documents section of the FastLane or Grants.gov proposal and submitted electronically, as part of the proposal. However, please instruct the authors of these letters not to mail, email, or fax copies to the NSF.

SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENTS

Topic	Preliminary Proposal	Invited Full Proposal
Proposal Requirements
Commitment of academic and industrial funds	No	No
Commitment from Foreign Partner University(ies), if included	Yes	Yes
Identification of participating faculty members from the lead and university-level partner institutions	Years 1-5	Years 1-5
Names of participating Pre-college Institutions	Yes	Yes
Names of Pre-college Teachers	No	No
Name of participating program devoted to entrepreneurship, stimulating innovation, etc.	Yes	Yes
Names and affiliations of industry/agency or practitioner organization personnel committed to partnership in the ERC	Yes	Yes
Submission Requirements
List of Participants in NSF's Excel spreadsheet and 2 PowerPoint slides on vision and strategic plan emailed to ercintent@nsf.gov	Yes	Yes
Notice of Intent submitted through FastLane	Yes	No
Mode of Submission of Proposal	Submission in FastLane	Submission in FastLane or Grants.gov, only by Invitation
Format
Information About PI	Yes	Yes
NSF Cover Sheet	Yes	Yes
FastLane or Grants.gov Submission of Cover Sheet	FastLane only	Either
Table of Contents	Yes	Yes
Project Summary with Reference to Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts	Yes	Yes
List of Participants and partners, at the start of the project description	Yes	Yes
Project Description	25 pages, including charts, etc., but extended by the size of the list of participants/partners	40 pages, including charts, etc., but extended by the size of the list of participants/partners
Letters:
Letters from required institutional partners committing to ERC	Yes	Yes
Letter from Lead Institution committing to HQ space	Yes	Yes
Letters of Commitment to partnership from Industry/Practitioners	Up to 10	All
Budgetary Information
Separate budgets for years 1-5	Yes	Yes
Cumulative budget for years 1-5	Generated by FastLane	Generated by FastLane or Grants.gov
Allocation of Funds by Institution (Year 1 only)	No	Yes
Justification for Secretarial & Admin. Support	No	Yes

B. Budgetary Information

Cost Sharing:   Cost sharing is not required under this solicitation.

Other Budgetary Limitations:  

Other budgetary limitations apply.  Please see the full program announcement/solicitation for further information.

C. Due Dates

• Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time): 

  February 02, 2007

• Preliminary Proposal Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):

  May 03, 2007

• Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):

  December 10, 2007

  Invited Full Proposals

D. FastLane/Grants.gov Requirements

• For Proposals Submitted Via FastLane:

  Detailed technical instructions regarding the technical aspects of preparation and submission via FastLane are available at: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a1/newstan.htm. For FastLane user support, call the FastLane Help Desk at 1-800-673-6188 or e-mail fastlane@nsf.gov. The FastLane Help Desk answers general technical questions related to the use of the FastLane system. Specific questions related to this program solicitation should be referred to the NSF program staff contact(s) listed in Section VIII of this funding opportunity.

  Submission of Electronically Signed Cover Sheets. The Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must electronically sign the proposal Cover Sheet to submit the required proposal certifications (see Chapter II, Section C of the Grant Proposal Guide for a listing of the certifications). The AOR must provide the required electronic certifications within five working days following the electronic submission of the proposal. Further instructions regarding this process are available on the FastLane Website at: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp.

• For Proposals Submitted Via Grants.gov:

Before using Grants.gov for the first time, each organization must register to create an institutional profile. Once registered, the applicant's organization can then apply for any federal grant on the Grants.gov website. The Grants.gov's Grant Community User Guide is a comprehensive reference document that provides technical information about Grants.gov. Proposers can download the User Guide as a Microsoft Word document or as a PDF document. The Grants.gov User Guide is available at: http://www.grants.gov/CustomerSupport. In addition, the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide provides additional technical guidance regarding preparation of proposals via Grants.gov. For Grants.gov user support, contact the Grants.gov Contact Center at 1-800-518-4726 or by email: support@grants.gov. The Grants.gov Contact Center answers general technical questions related to the use of Grants.gov. Specific questions related to this program solicitation should be referred to the NSF program staff contact(s) listed in Section VIII of this solicitation.

Submitting the Proposal: Once all documents have been completed, the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must submit the application to Grants.gov and verify the desired funding opportunity and agency to which the application is submitted. The AOR must then sign and submit the application to Grants.gov. The completed application will be transferred to the NSF FastLane system for further processing.

VI. NSF Proposal Processing And Review Procedures   

Proposals received by NSF are assigned to the appropriate NSF program where they will be reviewed if they meet NSF proposal preparation requirements. All proposals are carefully reviewed by a scientist, engineer, or educator serving as an NSF Program Officer, and usually by three to ten other persons outside NSF who are experts in the particular fields represented by the proposal. These reviewers are selected by Program Officers charged with the oversight of the review process. Proposers are invited to suggest names of persons they believe are especially well qualified to review the proposal and/or persons they would prefer not review the proposal. These suggestions may serve as one source in the reviewer selection process at the Program Officer's discretion. Submission of such names, however, is optional. Care is taken to ensure that reviewers have no conflicts of interest with the proposal.

A. NSF Merit Review Criteria

All NSF proposals are evaluated through use of the two National Science Board (NSB)-approved merit review criteria: intellectual merit and the broader impacts of the proposed effort. In some instances, however, NSF will employ additional criteria as required to highlight the specific objectives of certain programs and activities.

The two NSB-approved merit review criteria are listed below. The criteria include considerations that help define them. These considerations are suggestions and not all will apply to any given proposal. While proposers must address both merit review criteria, reviewers will be asked to address only those considerations that are relevant to the proposal being considered and for which the reviewer is qualified to make judgements.

NSF staff also will give careful consideration to the following in making funding decisions:

Integrating Diversity into NSF Programs, Projects, and Activities
Broadening opportunities and enabling the participation of all citizens -- women and men, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities -- is essential to the health and vitality of science and engineering. NSF is committed to this principle of diversity and deems it central to the programs, projects, and activities it considers and supports.

Additional Review Criteria:

Additional review criteria for preliminary proposals and invited full proposals are as follows:

Vision and Research

• Proposal effectively defines a transformational engineered system at the cusp of emerging discoveries in science and engineering and emerging opportunities for technological innovation;
• Proposal defines a culture of discovery and innovation with a symbiotic relationship between research, education, innovation, and life-long skill development in a global economy to stimulate innovation and provide students and faculty with a globally-oriented research and education experience;
• Research strategic plan targets critical systems goals and breakthrough fundamental knowledge and technology barriers and defines:
  • High quality cross-disciplinary research program that addresses these barriers through fundamental research and enabling and systems level research and proof-of-concept test beds;
  • Creative role for small firms to carry out translational research within the ERC to speed technology transfer and provide students with an innovation experience;
• Research thrusts propose significant goals, target significant fundamental and technical barriers, use high quality research methodologies that will advance the state of the art, integrate knowledge from other projects and thrusts, and involve a diverse team with the skills and disciplines needed to achieve the goals.

Education

• Education strategy defines an education program that will develop gradutates who are adaptive, creative innovators with the capacity to advance fundamental knowledge and exploit it to create innovations;
• Structured to develop graduates who have the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to be successful in a globally connected, innovation-driven world;
• Effective plans proposed to integrate ERC's cross-discplinary and systems research into courseware and curricula;
• Strategic plan specifies desired characteristics, proposes how education program will impart these to students, and how it will measure and assess progress and impacts through longitudinal data;
• Pre-college outreach programs will develop an effective long-term partnership with a few pre-college institutions (middle and high schools) to bring knowledge of engineering to pre-college classroom, engage a broadly diverse group of students in the ERC’s programs to motivate them to study engineering, and provide a Young Scholars research program for promising high schools students;
• Effective programs and assessment tools for college and pre-college programs based on best practices.

Industrial/Practitioner Partnership to Advance Innovation

• Convincing rationale for the selection of industrial or user partners and means to engage these partners in planning, research, education, and innovation;
• Clear strategy for how small firms will be key players and help speed innovation;
• Strong partnership with organizations and programs dedicated to speeding innovation;
• Representative group of firms/organizations invoving practitioners (state infrastructure agencies for example) committed to membership;
• Active engagement of industry/practitioner organizations through an Industrial/Practitioner Advisory Board;
• Proposed terms of the industrial membership agreement will structure a center-wide program of industrial/practitioner collaboration to support overall ERC goals;
• Intellectual property policy will facilitate collaboration with industry through shared rights for joint work and speed technology transfer.

Infrastructure

• Institutional configuration is appropriate to the goals of the ERC and there is a convincing strategy for cross-institution collaboration in research and education;
• If there is a foreign university partner, it is committed to the goals of the ERC and will be a strong addition to the team;
• Diversity strategic plan evidences strong commitment to diversity at all levels and will result in a very diverse team with a strong impact on the diversity of the engineering workforce through:
  • Including partner institutions serving students underrepresented in engineering to enhance diversity;
  • Leadership, faculty and student teams that are diverse in gender, race, and ethnicity, and includes persons with disabilities;
• University administrators from the lead and partner institutions will join in partnership with the ERC to facilitate and reward its cross-disciplinary configuration, reward cross-disciplinary research and participation in pre-college outreach, support its educational strategy, and deliver on its diversity goals;
• ERC has expertise in all disciplines required to attain its goals, a capable leader and leadership team;
• Organizational structure and management plan effectively organize and integrate the resources of the ERC across the partner institutions to achieve its goals and include strong advisory and project selection/evaluation systems;
• Experimental, computational, and other required equipment, facilities, and laboratory space are in place or proposed to support the research of the center;
• The cyberinfrastructure is effectively used to achieve collaboration and sharing of information;
• Headquarters space is sufficiently large to house the leaders and staff, and support the management, communication, and cross-disciplinary collaboration functions of the ERC and cross-institution communications equipment will effectively encourage and facilitate collaboration.

B. Review and Selection Process

Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation will be reviewed by Ad hoc Review and/or Panel Review, Site Visit Review, or Panel and Site Visit.

Preliminary and full proposals will be reviewed through a combination of ad hoc and panel reviews. A subset of the invited full proposals will receive on-campus site visits. At the conclusion of all the site visits, small teams from each of the site-visited proposed ERCs will brief a review panel at NSF. Based on the information gained from these reviews and recommendations, NSF will select a subset of proposals for award.

Reviewers will be asked to formulate a recommendation to either support or decline each proposal. The Program Officer assigned to manage the proposal's review will consider the advice of reviewers and will formulate a recommendation.

After scientific, technical and programmatic review and consideration of appropriate factors, the NSF Program Officer recommends to the cognizant Division Director whether the proposal should be declined or recommended for award. NSF is striving to be able to tell applicants whether their proposals have been declined or recommended for funding within six months. The time interval begins on the deadline or target date, or receipt date, whichever is later.  The interval ends when the Division Director accepts the Program Officer's recommendation.

A summary rating and accompanying narrative will be completed and submitted by each reviewer. In all cases, reviews are treated as confidential documents. Verbatim copies of reviews, excluding the names of the reviewers, are sent to the Principal Investigator/Project Director by the Program Officer.  In addition, the proposer will receive an explanation of the decision to award or decline funding.

In all cases, after programmatic approval has been obtained, the proposals recommended for funding will be forwarded to the Division of Grants and Agreements for review of business, financial, and policy implications and the processing and issuance of a grant or other agreement. Proposers are cautioned that only a Grants and Agreements Officer may make commitments, obligations or awards on behalf of NSF or authorize the expenditure of funds. No commitment on the part of NSF should be inferred from technical or budgetary discussions with a NSF Program Officer. A Principal Investigator or organization that makes financial or personnel commitments in the absence of a grant or cooperative agreement signed by the NSF Grants and Agreements Officer does so at their own risk.

VII. Award Administration Information

A. Notification of the Award

Notification of the award is made to the submitting organization by a Grants Officer in the Division of Grants and Agreements. Organizations whose proposals are declined will be advised as promptly as possible by the cognizant NSF Program administering the program. Verbatim copies of reviews, not including the identity of the reviewer, will be provided automatically to the Principal Investigator. (See Section VI.B. for additional information on the review process.)

B. Award Conditions

An NSF award consists of: (1) the award letter, which includes any special provisions applicable to the award and any numbered amendments thereto; (2) the budget, which indicates the amounts, by categories of expense, on which NSF has based its support (or otherwise communicates any specific approvals or disapprovals of proposed expenditures); (3) the proposal referenced in the award letter; (4) the applicable award conditions, such as Grant General Conditions (GC-1); * or Research Terms and Conditions * and (5) any announcement or other NSF issuance that may be incorporated by reference in the award letter. Cooperative agreements also are administered in accordance with NSF Cooperative Agreement Financial and Administrative Terms and Conditions (CA-FATC) and the applicable Programmatic Terms and Conditions. NSF awards are electronically signed by an NSF Grants and Agreements Officer and transmitted electronically to the organization via e-mail.

*These documents may be accessed electronically on NSF's Website at https://www.nsf.gov/awards/managing/award_conditions.jsp?org=NSF. Paper copies may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov.

More comprehensive information on NSF Award Conditions and other important information on the administration of NSF awards is contained in the NSF Award & Administration Guide (AAG) Chapter II, available electronically on the NSF Website at https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=aag.

C. Reporting Requirements

For all multi-year grants (including both standard and continuing grants), the Principal Investigator must submit an annual project report to the cognizant Program Officer at least 90 days before the end of the current budget period. (Some programs or awards require more frequent project reports). Within 90 days after expiration of a grant, the PI also is required to submit a final project report.

Failure to provide the required annual or final project reports will delay NSF review and processing of any future funding increments as well as any pending proposals for that PI. PIs should examine the formats of the required reports in advance to assure availability of required data.

PIs are required to use NSF's electronic project-reporting system, available through FastLane, for preparation and submission of annual and final project reports.  Such reports provide information on activities and findings, project participants (individual and organizational) publications; and, other specific products and contributions.  PIs will not be required to re-enter information previously provided, either with a proposal or in earlier updates using the electronic system.  Submission of the report via FastLane constitutes certification by the PI that the contents of the report are accurate and complete.  

NSF requires ERCs to submit annual reports that are more extensive in scope than those required of single investigator awards.  NSF provides guidelines for these reports. NSF also requires ERCs to collect and submit to NSF data on indicators of progress, outcome, impact, and financial management.  NSF provides data definition guidelines and templates for the recording and submission of these data through a securite web site.

VIII. Agency Contacts

General inquiries regarding this program should be made to:

• Lynn Preston, Leader of the Engineering Research Centers Program and Deputy Division Director (Centers), 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-5358, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: lpreston@nsf.gov

• Deborah Jackson, Program Director, 585N, telephone: 703-292-7499, fax: 703-292-9051, email: djackson@nsf.gov

• Barbara Kenny, Program Director, 585, telephone: (703) 292-4667, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: bkenny@nsf.gov

• Bruce Kramer, Program Director, 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-5348, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: bkramer@nsf.gov

• Vilas Mujumdar, Program Director, 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-7262, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: vmujumda@nsf.gov

• Sohi Rastegar, Program Director, 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-5379, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: srastega@nsf.gov

• Mary Poats, Program Manager, 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-5357, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: mpoats@nsf.gov

• Win Aung, Program Director, 585N, telephone: 703-292-5341, fax: 703-292-9051, email: waung@nsf.gov

• Darlene Suggs, Senior Program Assistant, 585N, telephone: 703-292-5361, fax: 703-292-9051, email: dsuggs@nsf.gov

For questions related to the use of FastLane, contact:

• FastLane Help Desk, telephone: 1-800-673-6188; e-mail: fastlane@nsf.gov.

• Esther M. Bolding, 585 N, telephone: (703) 292-5342, fax: (703) 292-9051, email: ebolding@nsf.gov

For questions relating to Grants.gov contact:

• Grants.gov Contact Center: If the Authorized Organizational Representatives (AOR) has not received a confirmation message from Grants.gov within 48 hours of submission of application, please contact via telephone: 1-800-518-4726; e-mail: support@grants.gov.

For information on all aspects of the ERC construct, strategic planning and the solicitation in general, contact Lynn Preston.  For technical guidance contact Deborah Jackson (EEC) for optics, Barbara Kenny for microelectronics, Bruce Kramer for manufacturing and processing, Vilas Mujumdar for infrastructure, and Sohi Rastegar for bioengineering. For university-level education, contact Win Aung. For pre-college education, REUs, RETs, and diversity partnerships contact Mary Poats.   In addition to the ERC Program Directors (PD) above, the following PDs in other Engineering Divisions/Offices are knowledgeable about ERCs by virtue of their participation in site visits to ongoing ERCs, in site visits and panels during previous ERC competitions, or their experience as a current or former lead ERC PD responsible for the oversight of an ERC.  These are: Larry Goldberg (lgoldber@nsf.gov) and Rajinder Khosla (rkhosla@nsf.gov) in the Division of Electrical, Communications, and Cyber Systems; Leon Esterowitz (lesterow@nsf.gov), Bruce Hamilton (bhamilto@nsf.gov), Fred Heineken (fheineke@nsf.gov), and Judy Raper (jraper@nsf.gov) in the Division of Chemical, Biological, Environmental and Transport Systems; George Hazelrigg (ghazelri@nsf.gov), Joy Pauschke (jpauschk@nsf.gov) and Mario Rotea (mrotea@nsf.gov) in the Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation; and Murali Nair (mnair@nsf.gov) and Rose Wesson (rwesson@nsf.gov) in the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships.

IX. Other Information

The NSF Website provides the most comprehensive source of information on NSF Directorates (including contact information), programs and funding opportunities. Use of this Website by potential proposers is strongly encouraged. In addition, MyNSF (formerly the Custom News Service) is an information-delivery system designed to keep potential proposers and other interested parties apprised of new NSF funding opportunities and publications, important changes in proposal and award policies and procedures, and upcoming NSF Regional Grants Conferences. Subscribers are informed through e-mail or the user's Web browser each time new publications are issued that match their identified interests. MyNSF also is available on NSF's Website at https://www.nsf.gov/mynsf/.

Grants.gov provides an additional electronic capability to search for Federal government-wide grant opportunities. NSF funding opportunities may be accessed via this new mechanism. Further information on Grants.gov may be obtained at http://www.grants.gov.

About The National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent Federal agency created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (42 USC 1861-75). The Act states the purpose of the NSF is "to promote the progress of science; [and] to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare by supporting research and education in all fields of science and engineering."

NSF funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering. It does this through grants and cooperative agreements to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, K-12 school systems, businesses, informal science organizations and other research organizations throughout the US. The Foundation accounts for about one-fourth of Federal support to academic institutions for basic research.

NSF receives approximately 40,000 proposals each year for research, education and training projects, of which approximately 11,000 are funded. In addition, the Foundation receives several thousand applications for graduate and postdoctoral fellowships. The agency operates no laboratories itself but does support National Research Centers, user facilities, certain oceanographic vessels and Antarctic research stations. The Foundation also supports cooperative research between universities and industry, US participation in international scientific and engineering efforts, and educational activities at every academic level.

Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities provide funding for special assistance or equipment to enable persons with disabilities to work on NSF-supported projects. See Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II, Section D.2 for instructions regarding preparation of these types of proposals.

The National Science Foundation has Telephonic Device for the Deaf (TDD) and Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) capabilities that enable individuals with hearing impairments to communicate with the Foundation about NSF programs, employment or general information. TDD may be accessed at (703) 292-5090 and (800) 281-8749, FIRS at (800) 877-8339.

The National Science Foundation Information Center may be reached at (703) 292-5111.

The National Science Foundation promotes and advances scientific progress in the United States by competitively awarding grants and cooperative agreements for research and education in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. To get the latest information about program deadlines, to download copies of NSF publications, and to access abstracts of awards, visit the NSF Website at https://www.nsf.gov Location: 4201 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA 22230 For General Information (NSF Information Center): (703) 292-5111 TDD (for the hearing-impaired): (703) 292-5090 To Order Publications or Forms: Send an e-mail to: pubs@nsf.gov or telephone: (703) 292-7827 To Locate NSF Employees: (703) 292-5111

Privacy Act And Public Burden Statements

The information requested on proposal forms and project reports is solicited under the authority of the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended. The information on proposal forms will be used in connection with the selection of qualified proposals; and project reports submitted by awardees will be used for program evaluation and reporting within the Executive Branch and to Congress. The information requested may be disclosed to qualified reviewers and staff assistants as part of the proposal review process; to proposer institutions/grantees to provide or obtain data regarding the proposal review process, award decisions, or the administration of awards; to government contractors, experts, volunteers and researchers and educators as necessary to complete assigned work; to other government agencies or other entities needing information regarding applicants or nominees as part of a joint application review process, or in order to coordinate programs or policy; and to another Federal agency, court, or party in a court or Federal administrative proceeding if the government is a party. Information about Principal Investigators may be added to the Reviewer file and used to select potential candidates to serve as peer reviewers or advisory committee members. See Systems of Records, NSF-50, "Principal Investigator/Proposal File and Associated Records," 69 Federal Register 26410 (May 12, 2004), and NSF-51, "Reviewer/Proposal File and Associated Records, " 69 Federal Register 26410 (May 12, 2004). Submission of the information is voluntary. Failure to provide full and complete information, however, may reduce the possibility of receiving an award.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. The OMB control number for this collection is 3145-0058. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 120 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions. Send comments regarding the burden estimate and any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to:

Suzanne H. Plimpton
Reports Clearance Officer
Division of Administrative Services
National Science Foundation
Arlington, VA 22230