New Funding Opportunity Released: Arctic Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (ArcSEES)

A new funding opportunity entitled Arctic Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (ArcSEES) has been released to support investigations focused on understanding resiliency and sustainability in the high north. This solicitation is released under the joint auspices of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France.

ArcSEES is an interagency and international program encompassing a wide array of disciplines including physical, natural, social, computational, and mathematical sciences; and will draw upon the expertise of engineers, managers, and conservationists. The partnership between basic research, management, and foreign agencies allows for a pan-arctic perspective on the rapidly changing arctic system that also bridges the gap between basic research and applied sciences.

In this joint solicitation the agencies welcome research proposals that focus on understanding the complex and often inter-dependent changes in the areas of:

• The living and natural environment - with focus on in-depth understanding of the nonlinear biophysical platform and human-environmental interchanges within the Arctic, and between the Arctic and the rest of the globe;
• The built environment - including housing and transportation structures, energy and communication technologies, climate-resilient materials, and sustainable observing designs;
• Natural resource development - comprising both the potential positive regional-to-global impacts of arctic resource development and related hazards; and
• Governance - addressing the interactions between political, economic, scientific, and cultural organizations that govern arctic futures from the tribal to multi-national scale.

Proposals that are developed in collaboration with communities and make use of the breadth of disciplinary and traditional knowledge available to address one or more of these four thematic areas are encouraged.

All proposals will be submitted in English through the NSF Fastlane system or grants.gov no later than 14 September 2012. To read the full solicitation, please see: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12553/nsf12553.htm. For more information, including a link to the solicitation, please see: http://www.nsf.gov/sees. For specific questions, please send an email to arcsees [at] nsf.gov.