NSF Briefing on
Sustainability Programs
Presentation at
INFOCOM 2010
Monday, March 17, 2010
Krishna Kant
Program Director
National Science Foundation (NSF)
CISE/CNS/CSR
kkant@nsf.gov
NSB-NSF 2009 Study on Sustainability
•
Finding 1: … A comprehensive
coordinated Federal strategy is required …
•
Finding 2: … Private and Federal support
… of R&D is inadequate.
•
Finding 3: … The U.S. energy economy …
does not adequately value the environment
...
•
Finding 4: Human capital development in
the sustainable energy sector is vital.
•
Finding 5: … Limited international
engagement and collaboration inhibits
progress …
•
Finding 6: … Strong public consensus and
support … are needed to achieve a national
transformation …
… & corresponding recommendations
•
NSF Environment Advisory
Committee Report
• Increase support of interdisciplinary
environmental research and coupled
human and natural systems.
• Lead in developing sensor networks that
monitor environmental variables & human
activities with environmental
consequences.
• Redouble efforts promoting environmental
education & public engagement.
• Help policymakers utilize knowledge of
environmental/socio-economic systems,
complexities & tipping points.
• Encourage a greater role for "citizen
scientists.”
caveats abound; the form of the
function more important than the
precise values
Search done by exact match
from public NSF Awards DB (DHF, 1/13/10)
NSF Funding for Sustainability
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
1960
2009 is incomplete
Total NSF
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020
Year of submission
“Climate Change over
the Polar Ocean”,
McGill University, $37,000
Award #670A765
Douglas H. Fisher (NSF)
Computing and Environment
• Growing ecological footprint of IT
– Power/energy consumption & challenges (Moore’s law, cost).
– Electronic junk, toxic chemicals, water usage, …
• Direct reduction
– Low power design, intelligent energy management, …
– Science of power management (energy complexity)
– Enhancing life-times, modular design, improved manufacturing,
…
• IT as a helper in reducing footprint
– Reduce energy use via smarter control
– Remote access (telework, tele-surgery, …)
– Instrumentation, monitoring & modeling (climate, species, …)
• Drive policy & actions
CISE Funding for Environment
FY10:
Climate Research
Initiative (CRI)
($10.0M)
Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI)
– total of $50.0M
Science and Engineering Beyond Moore’s Law (SEBML) 15.0 million).
http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2011/index.jsp
Expeditions
in
Computing
(CISE)
Computational Sustainability
Lead PI: Carla Gomes, Cornell University
Goal for Sustainability
To inject computational thinking
into Sustainability,
• establishing computational
sustainability as a new field
• bringing new insights to
sustainability challenges
• preparing a new generation to
grapple with long-term
sustainability
Dynamical
Models
Constraint
Reasoning
& Optimization
Resource Economics,
Environmental
Sciences & Engr.
Balancing Environmental
&
Socioeconomic Needs
Transformative
Synthesis
Vision: Computer scientists can — and should —play a key role in increasing the efficiency and
effectiveness of the way we manage and allocate our natural resources, while enriching and
transforming Computer Science.
Data
& Machine
Learning
Climate Research Initiative
• Starting in FY10
• Expected to continue & strengthened
• Umbrella program w/ 5 solicitations
–
–
–
–
–
Earth System modeling (EaSM)
Dimensions of Biodiversity
Water Sustainability and Climate (WSC)
Ocean Acidification
Climate Change Education, Phase I
• Direct CISE participation in EaSM, but CISE
researchers should consider others as well.
Earth System Modeling
• Goals
– Comprehensive, reliable global and regional predictions at
decadal scale.
– Quantify impacts of climate change on ecological, agricultural &
human systems, and vice-versa.
– Effective up & down-scaling of available observational/model
data.
– Translate model results/uncertainties into adaptation actions.
• Solicitation
– $45-$50M, LoI: May 24, 2010, Deadline: June 25, 2010
–
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10554/nsf10554.htm
• Proposal types
– Type 1: Up to $300K/yr for community and capability building.
– Type 2: Larger. Intended for Pis already involved in climate research.
CISE Relevant Areas in EaSM
• Innovative ways of dealing with complexity and
uncertainty
– Instrumentation & networking for data collection.
– Uncertainties in understanding, representation and calibration of
various processes
– Effective management of massive amounts of data, including
file/storage systems.
– Exascale computing architecture, algorithms, middleware, etc.
• Integration of numerous processes operating at
different temporal & spatial granularities
– Multi-level modeling, abstraction methods, symbolic modeling, …
– Uneven fidelity, granularity and availability of initialization and
validation data over time & space.
– Provenance tracking, robustness and repeatability of results
Dimensions of Biodiversity
• Topic Areas
– Integrated roles of genetic, taxonomic & functional biodiversity in
community/ecosystem resilience, sustainability, or productivity;
– Taxonomic and functional diversity influence ecological response
to anthropogenic disturbances, including rapid climate change;
• CISE Relevant Areas
– Computational methods or technology (e.g., informatics,
instrumentation, imaging, analysis) specific to integrative
biodiversity studies.
• Solicitation
– $20M in FY2010, LoI: May 7, Full prop: June 8, 2010
– http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10548/nsf10548.htm?WT.mc_id=USNSF_179
Water Sustainability and Climate
• Goals:
– Potential changes in water budgets in response to climate
change, and human activity, and its impact.
– Theoretical frameworks/models incorporating linkages/feedbacks
among various processes that allow adaptive management of
water resources.
– Determining how built water systems can be made reliable,
resilient and sustainable.
• CISE Relevant Areas:
– Advances in modeling to handle complexity & uncertainty
– Tools and infrastructure for informed decisions on adaptation
and mitigation
• Solicitation: $16M in FY2010, Proposals due April 15.
–
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503452&org=GEO&from=home
Ocean Acidification
• Goals
– Understand chemistry and physical chemistry of ocean
acidification.
– Understand how processes at the organismal level impact the
structure and function of ecosystems, e.g. through life histories,
food webs, biogeochemical cycling, and other interactions;
– Understand how earth system history impacts effects of ocean
acidification on present day ocean.
• CISE Relevant areas
– Instrumentation & possibly underwater communication
– Data collection, fusion and processing.
• Solicitation:
– $15M in FY2010, LoI March 29, Full proposal: April 26
–
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503477&org=GEO&from=home
Climate Change Education
• Goals
– Preparing a new generation of climate scientists, engineers, and
technicians to provide innovative and creative approaches to
understanding global climate change and to mitigate its impact;
– Preparing today's U.S. citizens to understand global climate change and
its implications in ways that can lead to informed, evidence-based
responses and solutions.
• Focus
– Best theoretical approaches for teaching such a complex topic, and
practical means to reach intended learner audience(s).
– Should be organized around either geographic regions w/ similar
climate change impacts, or major themes (e.g., sea-level rise).
• Solicitation
– http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10542/nsf10542.htm
– Total $20M in FY10&11m LoI due April 23, Full proposals: May 24
Science, Engineering and Education
for Sustainability (SEES)
• Understanding & predicting change in natural,
social, and built environment through:
– Short/long term observations and observational networks;
– Advanced computation, data analysis, modeling, simulation and
intelligent decision-making;
– Research at the climate-energy-society nexus;
– Innovative strategies for energy production, distribution & use;
– Societal factors (e.g., vulnerability, resilience, adaptation, etc.)
• Emphasis Areas
– Smart adaptation and mitigation,
– Earth-friendly and energy-efficient technologies,
– Workforce development for economic, energy & environmental
sustainability.
FY 2011 NSF Budget Request ($M)
Request to congress: not approved budget
Directorate/Office
FY2010
FY2011
Biological Sciences
121
126
CISE
17
29.4
Engineering
108
120
Geosciences
196
231
Math & Physical sciences
87
111
Social, beh. & Economic Sciences
20.8
28
OCI
5.5
5.0
OISE
2.5
8.2
OPP
65.3
69.3
OIA
26.5
26.5
EHR
11.5
12
Total
661
766
http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2011/index.jsp
Conclusions
• Significant upcoming funding opportunities
related to Climate Change, Energy and
other Sustainability issues.
• CISE researchers have a significant role to
play.
• Start building inter-disciplinary alliances to
contribute to this exciting and crucial area
of research
For more info, please contact:
Krishna Kant kkant@nsf.gov (CNS)
John Cozzens jcozzens@nsf.gov (CCF)
Doug Fisher dhfisher@nsf.gov (IIS)
Computing in the Clouds (CiC)
• FY10 program using Microsoft Azure
cluster
• Will accept:
– Supplements & EAGERs – due June 15
– New submissions: LoI: April 15, Proposals:
June 15
• Contact points:
–
–
–
–
Chita Das das@nsf.gov (CCF)
Krishna Kant kkant@nsf.gov (CNS)
Frank Olken folken@nsf.gov (IIS)
Manish Parashar mparashar@nsf.gov (OCI)