Gen-3 Engineering Research Centers

NSF established the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN) in 2002 at Purdue University as part of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). The NCN was established as a service facility to offer researchers the tools to explore nanoscale phenomena through theory, modeling, and simulation while also developing enhancements to science and engineering education.  Through its cyber platform, nanoHUB.org, NCN has become a powerful resource for the worldwide nanoscience and nanoengineering community and currently serves over 170,000 researchers, educators, students, and other professionals worldwide.  For more information on NCN, please see http://nanohub.org/about#funding

NSF's NCN award expires in September 2012.  Through this solicitation, NSF provides an opportunity for the broader community to compete to reconfigure the NCN.  The configuration of the new Network for Computational Nanotechnology will be restructured as a stand alone Cyber Platform awardee, which will provide computation, simulation and educational services to the nanoscience and engineering communities, including the current nanoHUB tools and educational materials.  This platform will be funded by one award to a single university.  Linked to that platform will be three new Nodes that will develop new tools and content that will be delivered to Cyber Platform for worldwide dissemination.  NSF will fund the Cyber Platform and these new Nodes through four separate awards, which will be joined through their respective cooperative agreements to constitute the new reconfigured NCN.

The goals of the reconfigured NCN will continue to be those of the original NCN to: 1) engage an ever-larger and more diverse cyber community sharing novel, high-quality nanoscale computation and simulation research and educational resources; 2) accelerate the transformation of nanoscience to nanotechnology through the integration of simulation with experimentation; 3) develop open-source software to stimulate data sharing; and 4) inspire and educate the next generation workforce. 

The new content development Nodes will combine theory and experimentation to develop the computation and simulation tools, and educational materials for delivery on the Cyber Platform. The new content development Node areas will be:

• NanoBIO - Create integrated computational tools to simulate biological phenomena across length scales, for the design of devices and systems;
• NanoMFG - Computation and simulation software to address the challenges of scaling up nanoscale in manufacturing;
• Nano-Engineered Electronic Device Simulation Node (NEEDS) - Computation and simulation tools to facilitate the development of nanoelectronic-based circuits, devices, and systems.

Proposals will be accepted only for the Nodes defined above and any proposal for another Node content area will be returned without review.

There will be one award per Node and the configuration of each Node may involve more than one university.   By linking these NCN Nodes to the NCN Cyber Platform, the result will be a comprehensive and integrated service delivery system, which links theory, simulation, and experimentation to continue to strengthen and support nanoscience and nanoengineering research and education.