AGENCY: National Science Foundation (NSF)/ Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE)

PROGRAM: New Program Areas within the OISE Portfolio

NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering has issued changes to its programs to ensure that U.S. institutions and scientists are globally engaged and able to more fully advance their research via international collaboration. These changes are designed to capitalize on unique opportunities afforded by international collaboration and enhance broad-based NSF support for international collaborative research. OISE will foster mutually beneficial and sustainable collaborations that will yield high benefits because of the vital and integral nature of the foreign collaboration. Researchers may either include an international dimension in their proposals to the programs listed below, or request supplementary funding to active awards for international activities by contacting the managing program officer for their award. OISE, in partnership with NSF's research directorates, will also continue to support international collaboration across the full range of NSF's disciplinary programs and priority areas.

OISE will no longer accept proposals that request funding for small-scale international collaborative research. The new portfolio of OISE activities will include the following:

1) Planning Visits and Workshops: A new solicitation, International Research and Education Planning Visits and Workshops, invites proposals for workshops and planning visits that are catalytic and may lead to innovative international partnerships, training activities or collaborative research that could be funded by OISE and/or by NSF research directorates.

2) Global Scientists and Engineers: OISE supports a set of activities designed to provide international research and education experience for U.S. students and early-career scientists and engineers. They include: (a) Developing Global Scientists and Engineers, a program which invites proposals to provide international research experiences for small groups of undergraduates and/or graduate students and for enhancement of doctoral dissertation research; (b) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), a program which support international REU Sites or add international dimensions to domestic activities; (c) East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes for U.S. Graduate Students which are 8-week programs that introduces students to East Asia and Pacific science and engineering within a research context and provides personal contacts on which to build future collaborations; (d) Pan-American Advanced Studies Institutes which are 2-4 week courses that disseminate advanced knowledge and stimulate cooperation among researchers of the Americas in engineering and in the mathematical, physical, and biological sciences; and (e) International Research Postdoctoral Fellowships which provide support for post-doctoral researchers or young faculty to conduct international research in any discipline that NSF funds.

3) Partnerships for International Research and Education: This new program, planned to begin in FY2005 and subject to availability of funds, will invite proposals in which long-term international research and educational activities build on institutional strengths to provide an international collaborative experience that can involve U.S. researchers at all levels. Investigators interested in including international collaboration in their research should contact the OISE staff with expertise in the country or region of interest for information about institutions and counterpart agencies. Contacts for cognizant program manager(s) are available from the OISE homepage at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/int/. Complete guidelines detailing the changes made to the OISE program can be accessed via the web at: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04034/nsf04034.htm. FORMATION: