Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Context: In my role as division director of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) at NSF, I’m sending out a short message to the IIS mailing list on the Second Tuesday Every Month (STEM). This is the installment for August 2024. It’s a little late this month. You know, summer hours.
First, I wanted to say a little bit about NSF’s EPSCoR program. It’s something I first learned about when I moved from Rutgers (not EPSCoR) to Brown (EPSCoR) in 2012. The program is going to be changing in important ways over the next few years so it seems like something worth knowing about.
The program is called Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (usually written "EPSCoR" and pronounced "EHP-score"). The tagline on the NSF program page (https://new.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/epscor) is "Advancing Geographic Diversity in STEM". That is to say, it’s essentially an effort to boost science research in the parts of the US that are less engaged in the science research enterprise.
NSF created EPSCoR in 1979. Initially, the "e" meant "experimental", but eventually (2017) it matured into "established". The EPSCoR concept also spread to other federal agencies---it's not just an NSF thing anymore.
The current twenty-eight EPSCoR jurisdictions (basically states, but also entities like Puerto Rico) are: AL, AK, AR, DE, GU, HI, IA, ID, KS, KY, LA, ME, MS, MT, NE, NH, NM, ND, NV, OK, PR, RI, SC, SD, VI, VT, WV, and WY.
To a first approximation, membership in the EPSCoR club requires bringing in 0.75% or less of the funds NSF distributes. For context, this number is within a factor of three of what you'd get if funds were distributed uniformly across the jurisdictions.
“EPSCoR” refers to this set of jurisdictions, but it is also a program. The EPSCoR program within NSF does several things, but the one most visible to me as a division director is that it has a set of resources that can help other programs (like IIS’s Robust Intelligence, Human-Centered Computing, and Information Integration and Informatics programs) by co-funding projects that are submitted with PIs from an EPSCoR jurisdiction. Program officers like to request co-funding because it can help them support a broader set of projects than their program budgets would otherwise allow.
Last year’s Chips and Science Act introduced a phased plan that requires NSF to increase its funding to EPSCoR jurisdictions. It gives minimum funding levels (expressed as percent of NSF’s distributed funding) for the next few years:
(i) 15.5 percent in fiscal year 2023,
(ii) 16 percent in fiscal year 2024,
(iii) 16.5 percent in fiscal year 2025,
(iv) 17 percent in fiscal year 2026,
(v) 18 percent in fiscal year 2027,
(vi) 19 percent in fiscal year 2028, and
(vii) 20 percent in fiscal year 2029.
(Fun fact: By my calculations, the EPSCoR jurisdictions cover slightly less than 20% of the US population.)
The upshot here is that the amount of money going to EPSCoR jurisdictions (at least as a fraction of what NSF awards) will be going up over the next few years.
Some links for more background information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-117publ167/pdf/PLAW-117publ167.pdf
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44689/5
https://new.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/epscor/epscor-criteria-eligibility
Next, here’s an end-of-summer puzzle. I have an empty, sealed, cubical one-gallon water jug from Wegman’s (the closest supermarket to NSF HQ). Its sides are rigid, but the top and bottom are quite flexible, allowing the jug to skew. The container (filled with air) was at room temperature when I put it in the fridge, which is 37 degrees (Fahrenheit). After the container chilled completely, I took it out and observed that it collapsed a bit and became a rhomboid prism (rhombus on the top and bottom, square sides). Amazingly, one of the internal angles of the rhombus, in degrees, exactly matched the room temperature, in degrees. How warm is NSF (to within a tenth of a degree)?
Finally, there’s a job opening at the bottom of this message that I’d love to see filled by a member of the IIS community! Roughly, it’s an opportunity to be a part of the NAIRR team, piloting resources that will support the AI research community nationwide.
-Michael
Career Opportunities
IPA Opportunity within the NSF NAIRR Pilot Program Management Office
NAIRR Pilot. This new program supports the deployment of the NAIRR pilot aimed at connecting the research and education communities to the computing, data, model, software, and user training and support resources to advance AI research and innovation.
The positions will be filled under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) appointment option. Individuals eligible for an IPA assignment with a federal agency include employees of state and local government agencies or institutions of higher education, Indian tribal governments, and other eligible organizations in instances where such assignments would be of mutual benefit to the organizations involved. Initial assignments under IPA provisions may be made for a period up to two years, with a possible extension for up to an additional two-year period. The individual remains an employee of the home institution and NSF provides the negotiated funding toward the assignee's salary and benefits. Initial IPA assignments are made for a one-year period and may be extended by mutual agreement.
Applications should be submitted electronically and must include contact information, a current CV, a letter briefly describing the candidate's background that specifically relates to the appropriate program objectives, availability time frame, and a list of references.
Formal consideration of applications will continue until selections are made.
Please make electronic submissions to OACcandidates@nsf.gov.