August 3, 2023
Dear Colleague:
The Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces a new partnership with:
Estonia: Estonian Research Council (ETAG),
Latvia: Latvian Council of Science (LCS),
Lithuania: Research Council of Lithuania (LMT),
Poland: National Science Centre (NCN) and Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA),
Ukraine: National Research Foundation of Ukraine (NRFU),
USA: National Academy of Sciences (NAS),
USA: Office of Naval Research Global (ONRG).
The goals of the partnership initiative are to: (1) support excellence in science and engineering research, education, and innovation through international collaboration and (2) promote and catalyze integration of Ukrainian researchers in the global research community.
This partnership initiative capitalizes on prior investments, bilateral agreements, and relevant activities and provides for a multilateral arrangement to enable U.S. researchers to submit international collaborative proposals to NSF. The proposals are expected to undergo a single review process at NSF and be jointly funded by participating agencies.
With this initiative, OISE invites visionary, ambitious, high quality collaborative research proposals that address scientific or technical challenges in any field of science, engineering, or education and require an international collaboration. Each proposal must engage researchers from the U.S., Ukraine, and at least one other country involved in this initiative. Priority will be given to projects that propose: (a) creative ways for enhancing efficiency and resiliency of international partnerships; (b) efficient concepts to prepare an internationally engaged research community and technical workforce; and (c) efficient and significant contributions to build a modern, state-of-the-art research, education and innovation ecosystem in Ukraine.
Proposers are advised that all documents submitted to NSF may be shared with the agencies listed above. The collaborative opportunity described in this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) remains in effect until archived and is intended to cover a 3-year pilot phase.
OISE will accept EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) proposals and supplemental funding requests to existing NSF awards. EAGER proposals should leverage international collaboration to support exploratory work in its early stages on untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas or approaches. Principal Investigators (PIs) of existing NSF awards may be eligible to submit a supplemental funding request to expand their project to include collaboration with international researchers. EAGER proposals must be submitted by eligible organizations (see the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) Chapter I.E.1) and must include international collaboration as an integral part of the work. NSF encourages proposals from diverse teams. Proposals from early career investigators are especially welcome.
Scope of Research:
Any field of science, engineering, and education supported by NSF is eligible.
