A new way to submit proposals for atmosphere and geospace sciences

A deep blue night sky with lightning coming down from bright clouds.

The U.S. National Science Foundation Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (NSF AGS) has reorganized its structure into a new model that allows potential principal investigators to submit proposals to three thematic clusters rather than discipline-specific programs as of Oct. 1, 2024.

The Atmosphere, Geospace and Infrastructure clusters support the same fundamental research as prior programs but provide bigger thematic buckets to simplify the application process.

The change follows community feedback to better support emerging and interdisciplinary science and simplify funding opportunities. "Not only will the new structure provide more straightforward, broad themes for proposal submission, but it will also remove prior programmatic boundaries," said Anne Johansen, division director for NSF AGS.

Division leadership shared the new model with the community in a recent webinar, which covered how to navigate the new structure.

AGS Reorganization Office Hours
Credit: U.S. National Science Foundation

Atmosphere Cluster

The Atmosphere Cluster supports fundamental studies of atmospheric processes from the Earth's surface to the stratosphere, from timescales of nanoseconds to millennia. Core research areas include the chemical, physical and dynamical processes in the atmosphere that impact clouds, weather, climate, air quality and the water cycle. 

For more information, visit the Atmosphere Cluster webpage.

Geospace Cluster

The Geospace Cluster supports fundamental and solutions-oriented research, technology development and education related to the Earth's near-space environment (including the mesosphere, thermosphere, ionosphere, exosphereand magnetosphere) and the inner heliosphere and solar atmosphere. 

For more information, visit the Geospace Cluster webpage.

Infrastructure Cluster

The Infrastructure Cluster (IC)is responsible for the oversight of facilities that enable research in the atmospheric and geospace sciences. The IC primarily oversees the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, but it also supports community-based instrumentation and facilities,as well asdata storage and provisioning. 

For more information, visit the Infrastructure Cluster webpage.

AGS funding opportunities

To see all AGS funding opportunities, visit the NSF Funding Search webpage.

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