February 7, 2022
Dear Colleague:
With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and Directorate for Engineering (ENG) wish to notify the community of their intention to support supplemental funding requests for active research awards to conduct United States - India (US-India) Collaborative Research. These supplemental funding requests are anticipated to be up to $100,000 but may not exceed 20% of the original award amount. Funded supplements will provide support for periods of up to one year, but may not exceed the existing award periods.
This collaborative research is coupled with the Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs) supported by the Indian Department of Science and Technology under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems. In particular, this DCL is coupled with the following hubs:
Each of the participating TIHs has a corresponding call for proposals to inform its respective research community of its intention to pursue US-India collaborative research, and these documents are posted at https://usiai.iusstf.org/building-collaborations. Each of the Indian calls for proposals defines eligibility, proposal formats, topical areas, selection criteria and mechanisms for funding the joint work.
For additional guidance on the scope, please email the NSF-India program team at india-collaboration@nsf.gov. There will be a virtual workshop on March 15 and 22, 2022, with presentations from the participating TIHs and opportunities for networking. NSF-funded researchers are encouraged to utilize the information provided at https://usiai.iusstf.org/building-collaborations to learn about specific topics, workshops, and networking opportunities.
The deadline for submission of supplemental funding requests for consideration is within a week of submission of a proposal to the collaborating TIH. NSF-funded PIs are encouraged to submit by the target date of April 25, 2022, though supplemental funding requests will still be considered beyond that date.
Active NSF-funded researchers within NSF's Computer and Network Systems Core; Human-Centered Computing (HCC); Information Integration and Informatics (III); Robust Intelligence (RI); Cyber-Physical Systems; Foundational Research in Robotics; Smart and Connected Communities; Energy, Power, Control, and Networks; and Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems programs may propose, as part of their supplemental funding requests, collaborative projects with their Indian counterparts, where the Indian counterparts apply to one of the six TIH calls for proposals. NSF-funded researchers can identify a potential Indian counterpart via information posted at https://usiai.iusstf.org/building-collaborations. Supplemental funding awarded pursuant to this DCL may be used by the project team to support the time of the NSF principal investigator (PI), co-PIs, other senior personnel, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and/or undergraduate students or for their travel to conduct collaborative research with Indian researchers. Note that NSF funding can apply only to NSF researchers and their travel, not to Indian collaborators.
