NSF 17-526 Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SSE, SSI, S2I2)

Each organization may only submit one S2I2 Conceptualization proposal within the calendar year. If you are interested, send an abstract and budget to esoto2@iit.edu by Monday February 6.

Synopsis of Program:

Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SI2) is a bold and long-term investment that maintains a sustained focus on realizing the Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21), which envisions a highly reusable and interoperable cyberinfrastructure architecture that integrates large-scale computing, high-speed networks, massive data archives, instruments and major facilities, observatories, experiments, and embedded sensors and actuators, across the nation and the world, to help make great strides towards revolutionizing virtually every science and engineering discipline.

Software is a primary modality through which CIF21 innovation and discovery has been realized. Software permeates all aspects and layers of cyberinfrastructure (from application codes and frameworks, programming systems, libraries and system software, to middleware, operating systems, networking and the low-level drivers), and catalyzes new thinking, paradigms and practices in science and engineering. Software, in fact, is a cyberinfrastructure in itself.

This software cyberinfrastructure requires a robust, agile architecture and a highly usable and reusable service model, one that allows evolution in order to address increasing scale and complexity, accommodate disruptive hardware trends, allow ever-increasing data volumes, complex application structures and workflows, and emerging considerations such as security, reproducibility, fault tolerance and energy efficiency. Additionally, software must support new scientific and engineering frontiers and their computational methodologies. Education is an important element needed to sustain this vision. SI2 contributes to an able workforce capable of exploiting the full capability of the cyberinfrastructure and the promise for innovation in science and engineering.

The SI2 program focuses on supporting robust, reliable and sustainable software that will support and advance sustained scientific innovation and discovery. Thus, proposals are strongly encouraged to describe their approach to quality software development through a defined software engineering process that includes software testing, the appropriate use of analysis tools and capabilities such as those made available through the Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP), and collaborations with resources such as Software Carpentry and the Center for Trustworthy Scientific Cyberinfrastructure (CTSC), in order to gain access to expertise where needed, such as in software design and engineering, as well as in cybersecurity.

The Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (CISE/ACI) partners with directorates and offices across the Foundation to support SI2, a long-term comprehensive program focused on realizing a sustained software infrastructure that is an integral part of CIF21. The goal of this program is to catalyze and nurture the interdisciplinary processes required to support the entire software lifecycle, and result in the development of sustainable community software elements and reusable components at all levels of the software stack. The program addresses all aspects of cyberinfrastructure, from embedded sensor systems and instruments, to desktops and high-end data and computing systems, to major instruments and facilities.

The SI2 program aspires to support vibrant partnerships among academia, government, and industry researchers, including international entities, for the development and stewardship of a sustainable software infrastructure that can enhance productivity and accelerate innovation in science and engineering.

For 2017, and in addition to regular SI2 proposals, the SI2 solicitation welcomes proposals that advance the objectives of the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI), an effort aimed at sustaining and enhancing the U.S. scientific, technological, and economic leadership position in high-performance computing (HPC) research, development, and deployment. Information about the NSCI together with the strategic plans, results of community workshops, background studies and other relevant resources, which suggest priority areas in both the domain sciences and the HPC and software infrastructure, are available here. Proposers are encouraged to review these materials for priority areas identified by the research community.

This funding opportunity announcement is from the Illinois Tech Fund Searching Services Team (FSST).

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Per Illinois Tech policy, all grant applications (federal and non-federal) must be reviewed, signed and submitted by the Office of Sponsored Research and Programs regardless of the amount of the request. Complete your routing sheet as soon as possible via Cayuse SP. The Cayuse SP link is found under the Research Tab in the myIIT portal. Contact osrp@iit.edu or call 312.567.3035 for more information on submitting a proposal.