LIGO Research Support

The Gravitational Physics program supports research at the frontiers of science aimed towards answering questions about the nature of space and time, the gravitational attraction at atomically small and cosmological large distances and the use of gravitational waves to explore the universe.

The LIGO Research Support program oversees the commissioning and operation of the Laser Interferometer Gravity Wave Observatory (LIGO), and provides support for LIGO users and other experimental investigations in gravitational physics and related areas. This includes tasks that range from instrument science, data analysis and detector characterization to source population calculations and the connection between the gravitational waves and the electromagnetic and neutrino signatures of astrophysical events.

In addition, the program supports infrastructure activities such as short- and long-term visitor programs, workshops, and research centers involving the participation of external scientists from universities, national laboratories, and industry, as well as graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

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Proposals to the Physics Division must be submitted through the Division of Physics: Investigator-Initiated Research Projects solicitation.

The solicitation follows most of the requirements in the Grant Proposal Guide, but has additional requirements that relate primarily to proposers who anticipate having multiple sources of support, and proposals involving significant instrumentation development. The solicitation also has deadlines instead of target dates.   All proposals submitted to the Physics Division that are not governed by another solicitation (such as CAREER) should be submitted to this solicitation; otherwise they will be returned without review.