The National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued a new solicitation – Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education (INSPIRE) – that aims to address some of the most complicated and pressing scientific problems that lie at the intersection of traditional disciplines. It is intended to encourage investigators to submit bold, exceptional proposals that some may consider to be at a disadvantage in a standard NSF review process, and is appropriate for any proposal that do not fit existing award mechanisms.  Applications are now being sought for Track 1 awards under this solicitation.

Proposals that are responsive to this track will be eligible for awards of up to $1,000,000 without requiring any external peer review. It is required that eligible proposals have the support of two or more program directors from intellectually-distinct research disciplines across the foundation, and yet not fit under any other existing solicitation criteria. Since many inter-disciplinary projects involve computation, communication or information components that are prime territory of the computer science research community, this program is the right venue for sending truly exploratory, risky proposals that might have trouble finding support in other programs.

INSPIRE is open to interdisciplinary proposals on any NSF-supported topic, submitted by invitation only after a preliminary inquiry process initiated by submission of a required Letter of Intent. The deadline for receiving letters of intent is March 29, 2013.

From the solicitation:

INSPIRE Track 1. This is essentially a continuation of the FY 2012 CREATIV mechanism, which was detailed for 2012 in Dear Colleague Letter NSF 12-011. Scientifically and in terms of award specifications, INSPIRE Track 1 is the same; in particular, as described in Section I above, proposals must be interdisciplinary and potentially transformative, the maximum award size is $1,000,000, the maximum duration is five years, and only internal merit review is required. Track 1 awards will generally support an individual PI or a small team. A Track 1 award must be substantially co-funded by two or more intellectually distinct NSF divisions or programs. For two co-funding programs, the maximum total award is $800,000; for three or more co-funding programs, the maximum is $1,000,000.

 

There will be a single deadline (March 29, 2013) for Track 1 Letters of Intent (LOIs), leading to a single round of invitations (April 29, 2013) to submit full proposals by a subsequent deadline (May 29, 2013). Individual principal investigators with appropriate bold, interdisciplinary project ideas, especially individuals at early- to mid-career stages, are encouraged to submit INSPIRE Track 1 LOIs.

For more details, read the INSPIRE solicitation here.