This monthly newsletter has been created to assist FAS researchers across all domains who are looking for funding opportunities related to "Big Data". In response to the need for new conceptual and computational approaches for big data processing as well as education, sponsors like NSF, DoD, DoE, NIH and private foundations are offering more funding opportunities for Big Data research.

This newsletter will be sent electronically each month. To receive this and other funding opportunity newsletters, please sign up here.  All opportunities will be archived and recipients may unsubscribe at any time.

Funding Opportunities for BIG DATA  

 

Social Science

 (Computer-) Science and Engineering

 

 

Biomedical Science

 

 

Education and Training

 

 

  SOCIAL SCIENCE  
S1
National Science Foundation (NSF)
 
Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR)
Building Community and Capacity in Data Intensive Research in Education (BCC-EHR)
Sponsor Deadline: September 1, 2015
OSP Deadline: August, 25, 2015
Award Information: up to $500,000
 
The Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) seeks to enable research communities to develop visions, teams, and capabilities dedicated to creating new, large-scale, next-generation data resources and relevant analytic techniques to advance fundamental research for EHR areas of research. Successful proposals will outline activities that will have significant impacts across multiple fields by enabling new types of data-intensive research. Investigators should think broadly and create a vision that extends intellectually across multiple disciplines and that includes--but is not necessarily limited to--EHR areas of research. 
 
Additional information:
S2
National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorates for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE)
Dear Colleague Letter: Research on Privacy in Today's Networked World
Sponsor Deadline: Program-dependent, contact program officer Dr. Heng Xu at hxu@nsf.gov
OSP Deadline: 5 business days before sponsor deadline


The directorates for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) invite investigators to submit proposals that address the need to develop new and deeper understandings of privacy in today's networked world. Our interest spans both disciplinary and interdisciplinary research in an array of SBE sciences. Proposals for workshops to explore novel and interdisciplinary SBE and SBE/CISE approaches to privacy are also welcome. This is not a special competition or new program. Proposals in response to this Dear Colleague Letter must meet the requirements and deadlines of the program to which they are submitted. Interested investigators are encouraged to contact Program Officer Dr. Heng Xu (hxu@nsf.gov) with up to a two-page statement explaining the core idea of their projects. Dr. Xu will assist investigators in identifying the most appropriate program(s) to which to submit their proposals.

Additional information:
RDC
National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) 
Restricted-Access Research Data Centers (RDCs)
Sponsor Deadline: September 30, 2015
OSP Deadline: September 23, 2015
Award Information: $100,000 to $300,000

This solicitation invites proposals for the establishment of new Research Data Centers (RDCs). RDCs are secure Census Bureau facilities within which external researchers are given access to confidential micro data in accordance with specific statutory requirements. RDCs are expected to engage researchers from across the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. NSF will provide start-up costs for new RDC facilities. Potential investigators first must contact Census regarding the feasibility of sponsoring an RDC prior to submitting a proposal to NSF. RDC proposals should address the following topics: (1) The cross-disciplinary and/or interdisciplinary potential of the proposed RDC. (2) The fit of the proposed RDC within the existing system. (3) Readiness of the proposed RDC. (4) Governance. (5) Resources available to the RDC.

Additional information:
S3
Alfred P. 
Sloan Foundation
Digital Information Technology - Data and Computational Research
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling, requires letter of inquiry
Award Information: Two types of applications, <$125,000 and >$125,000
 
From the natural sciences to the social sciences to the humanities to the arts, the availability of more data and cheaper computing is transforming research. As costs for sensors, sequencing, and other forms of data collection decline, researchers can generate data at greater and greater scale, relying on parallel increases in computational power to make sense of it all and allowing the investigation of phenomena too large or complex for conventional observation. Grants in the Data and Computational Research sub-program aim to help researchers develop tools, establish norms, and build the institutional and social infrastructure needed to take full advantage of important developments in data-driven, computation-intensive research. Emphasis is placed on projects that encourage access to and sharing of scholarly data, that promote the development of standards and taxonomies necessary for the interoperability of datasets, that enable the replication of computational research, and that investigate models of how researchers might deal with the increasingly central role played by data management and curation.

Grant requests can be made at any time. A brief letter of inquiry is the first step for an applicant.

Additional information:
 (COMPUTER-) SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
CS1
United States Department of Commerce
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Measurement Science and Engineering (MSE)
Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) Grant Program

Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
Award Information: $10,000 - $500,000
 
 
Additional information:
Fusion
United States Department of Defense (DOD)
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Broad Agency Announcement - Science of Information, Computation and Fusion 
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until superseded) 

AROcs
United States Department of Defense (DOD)
Army Research Office (ARO)
Broad Agency Announcement - Computing Science 
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until March 31, 2017 or until superseded) 

Math
United States Department of Defense (DOD)
Army Research Office (ARO)
Broad Agency Announcement - Mathematical Sciences 
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until March 31, 2017 or until superseded) 

Proposals are expected to be for cutting-edge innovative research that could produce discoveries that would have a significant impact on enabling new and improved Army operational capabilities and related technologies. One of ARO's priority research areas is mathematical science, with a particular emphasis on: Probability and Statistics (Statistical Theory and Techniques for Real Time Analysis of Data Stream, and Statistical Analysis of Very Large and Very Small Data Sets); Biomathematics (Multiscale Modeling/Inverse Problems); and Computational Mathematics. 

 

 

Additional information:  

CS5
United States Department of Defense (DOD)
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC)
Broad Agency Announcement - Geospatial Research Laboratory - Big Spatial Data
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until January 31, 2016 or until superseded) 
 
 
Additional information:
CS6
United States Department of Defense (DOD)
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC)
Broad Agency Announcement - Geospatial Research Laboratory - On Demand Complex Spatio-Temporal Information Delivery
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until January 31, 2016 or until superseded) 
 
The GEOSPATIAL RESEARCH LABORATORY's (GRL) mission is to provide the Warfighter with a superior knowledge of the battlefield. GRL's Information Generation and Management Branch invites proposals related to on demand complex spatio-temporal information delivery. With extensive amounts of information available, some spatial, some temporal, some spatial-temporal, some neither, decision makers are surrounded by an unprecedented amount of data inputs when making decisions. When applied to the domain of Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief, information feeds shift even more rapidly. The object of this program is to conduct research and development in the areas of foundational information pre-event, necessary information for decision making during and shortly after an event, and long-term information requirements. Of particular interest is the ability to exploit different decision making paradigms, the relationship of the actors, the physical, social, natural environments, and the event. Additional work to create new spatial-temporal statistics that enhance decision making of social phenomena can be explored. Research is needed in topic areas related to a) spatial-temporal statistics and b) information retrieval for near real-time to real-time decision making; and c) visualization of static and dynamic 3/4/Nth dimension information.

Additional Information:
NRL
United States Department of Defense (DOD)
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
Broad Agency Announcement - Basic and Applied Research in High Temperature Plasmas 
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling 

ONR
United States Department of Defense (DOD)
Office of Naval Research (ONR)
Broad Agency Announcement - Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance 
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until September 30, 2015 or until superseded) 

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is interested in receiving proposals for Long-Range Science and Technology (S&T) Projects which offer potential for advancement and improvement of Navy and Marine Corps operations. ONR's Division of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance invests in areas of science and their applications such as data science, mathematical and computational science, computer and information sciences, quantum information sciences, cyber security, electronics, command and control and combat systems, communications, cyber operations, electronic warfare, sensing and surveillance, and precision timing and navigation. One of this Division's specific thrusts and focused research areas is: Mathematics, Computers and Information Sciences, which sponsors basic and applied research, and advanced technology development efforts in mathematics, computer and information sciences that address Navy and Department of Defense needs in computation, information processing, information operation, information assurance and cybersecurity, decision tools, and command and control with specific focus on enabling rapid, accurate decision making. Specific scientific and technical areas include: a) Applied and computational analysis; b) Command and control; c) Computational methods for decisionmaking; d) Cyber security and complex software systems; e) Machine learning, reasoning, and intelligence; f) Mathematical data science; g) Mathematical optimization and operations research; h) Quantum information sciences.

 

Additional information:  

DOEASCR
United States Department of Energy (DOE)
FY 2015 Continuation of Solicitation for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program - Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) 
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current solicitation is active until September 30, 2015 or until superseded) 

The Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program's mission is to advance applied mathematics and computer science; deliver, in partnership with disciplinary science, the most advanced computational scientific applications; advance computing and networking capabilities; and develop, in partnership with the research community, including U.S. industry, future generations of computing hardware and tools for science. The strategy to accomplish this has two thrusts: developing and maintaining world-class computing and network facilities for science; and research in applied mathematics, computer science and advanced networking.

 

The priority areas for ASCR include the following:

  1. Develop mathematical models, methods and algorithms to accurately describe and predict the behavior of complex systems involving processes that span vastly different time and/or length scales.
  2. Advance key areas of computer science that enable the design and development of extreme scale computing systems and their effective use in the path to scientific discoveries; and transform extreme scale data from experiments and simulations into scientific insight.
  3. Advance key areas of computational science and discovery that support the missions of the Office of Science through mutually beneficial partnerships.
  4. Develop and deliver forefront computational, networking and collaboration tools and facilities that enable scientists worldwide to work together to extend the frontiers of science.

 

Additional information:  

ABI
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) 
Advances in Biological Informatics (ABI) 
Sponsor Deadline: September 22, 2015 
OSP Deadline: September 15, 2015 
 

The Advances in Biological Informatics (ABI) program seeks to encourage new approaches to the analysis and dissemination of biological knowledge for the benefit of both the scientific community and the broader public. The ABI program is especially interested in the development of informatics tools and resources that have the potential to advance- or transform- research in biology supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation. The ABI program accepts three major types of proposals: Innovation awards that seek to pioneer new approaches to the application of informatics to biological problems, Development awards that seek to provide robust cyberinfrastructure that will enable transformative biological research, and Sustaining awards that seek to support ongoing operations and maintenance of existing cyberinfrastructure that is critical for continued advancement of priority biological research. 


 Additional information:

CS7
National Science Foundation (NSF) 
Directorate for Geosciences (GEO)
Climate and Large-Scale Dynamics (CLD)
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
 
The goals of the Program are to: (i) advance knowledge about the processes that force and regulate the atmosphere's synoptic and planetary circulation, weather and climate, and (ii) sustain the pool of human resources 
required for excellence in synoptic and global atmospheric dynamics and climate research. 
Research topics include theoretical, observational and modeling studies of the general circulation of the stratosphere and troposphere; synoptic scale weather phenomena; processes that govern climate; the causes of climate variability and change; methods to predict climate variations; extended weather and climate predictability; development and testing of parameterization of physical processes; numerical methods for use in large-scale weather and climate models; the assembly and analysis of instrumental and/or modeled weather and climate data; data assimilation studies; development and use of climate models to diagnose and simulate climate and its variations and change.


Additional information
:
CDSE
National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS)
Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (CDS&E-MSS)
Sponsor Deadline: December 9, 2015
OSP Deadline: December 2, 2015
 
 
Additional information:
CCF
National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE)
Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF): Core Programs 
Sponsor Deadline: September 16, 2015 (Medium), September 24, 2015 (Large), November 18, 2015 (Small)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days before sponsor deadline
 
CS9
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Digital Information Technology - Data and Computational Research
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling, requires "letter of inquiry"
Award Information: Two types of applications, <$125,000 and >$125,000

From the natural sciences to the social sciences to the humanities to the arts, the availability of more data and cheaper computing is transforming research. As costs for sensors, sequencing, and other forms of data collection decline, researchers can generate data at greater and greater scale, relying on parallel increases in computational power to make sense of it all and allowing the investigation of phenomena too large or complex for conventional observation. Grants in the Data and Computational Research sub-program aim to help researchers develop tools, establish norms, and build the institutional and social infrastructure needed to take full advantage of important developments in data-driven, computation-intensive research. Emphasis is placed on projects that encourage access to and sharing of scholarly data, that promote the development of standards and taxonomies necessary for the interoperability of datasets, that enable the replication of computational research, and that investigate models of how researchers might deal with the increasingly central role played by data management and curation.

Grant requests can be made at any time. A brief letter of inquiry is the first step for an applicant.

Additional information:
BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
BM1 
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Early Stage Development of Technologies in Biomedical Computing, Informatics, and Big Data Science (R01)
Sponsor Deadline:  October 5, 2015 (Standard NIH application dates)
OSP Deadline: September 28, 2015
Award Information: up to $900,000

The NIH is interested in promoting a broad base of research and development of technologies in biomedical computing, informatics, and Big Data Science that will support rapid progress in areas of scientific opportunity in biomedical research. It is expected that this research and development is conducted in the context of important biomedical and behavioral research problems. As such, applications are intended to develop enabling technologies that could apply to the interests of most NIH Institutes and Centers and range from basic biomedicine and including research to all relevant organ systems and diseases. Major themes of research include collaborative environments; data integration; analysis and modeling methodologies; and novel computer science and statistical approaches.
 
Additional information:
BM2
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Extended Development, Hardening and Dissemination of Technologies in Biomedical Computing, Informatics and Big Data Science (R01)
Sponsor Deadline: October 5, 2015 (Standard NIH application dates)
OSP Deadline: September 28, 2015
 
The goal of this program announcement is to support the extended development, maintenance, testing, evaluation, hardening and dissemination of existing biomedical software. The NIH is interested in promoting a broadbase of research and development of technologies in biomedical computing, informatics, and Big Data Science that will support rapid progress in areas of scientific opportunity in biomedical research. It is expected that this research and development is conducted in the context of important biomedical and behavioral research problems and that domain researchers are consulted to make sure that the software is relevant to users. As such, applications are intended to develop enabling technologies that could apply to the interests of most NIH Institutes and Centers and range from basic biomedicine and including research to all relevant organ systems and diseases. Major themes of research include collaborative environments; data integration; analysis and modeling methodologies; and novel computer science and statistical approaches. New opportunities are also emerging as large and complex data sets are becoming increasingly available to the research community. The proposed work should apply best practices and proven methods for software design, construction, and implementation to extend the applicability of existing technologies in biomedical computing, informatics and big data science to a broader biomedical research community.
 
Additional information:
BM3
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Harnessing Big Data to Halt HIV (R01)
Sponsor Deadline: September 7, 2015
OSP Deadline: August 28, 2015
 
The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement is to promote research that transforms understanding of HIV transmission, the HIV care continuum, and HIV comorbidities using Big Data Science. These approaches should include projects to assemble big data sources, conduct robust and reproducible analyses, and create meaningful visualization of big data. Participating Institutes include National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
 
Additional information:
BM4
National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Eye Institute (NEI)
NEI Research Grant for Secondary Analysis (R21)
Sponsor Deadline: October 16, 2015
OSP Deadline: October 9, 2015
Award Information: Up to $275,000 for two years
 
This FOA issued by the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), encourages applications from institutions/organizations that propose to conduct secondary data analyses utilizing existing database resources. Applications may be related to, but must be distinct from, the specific aims of the original data collection. The NEI supports an extensive portfolio of clinical trials and large-scale epidemiologic research projects, wherein numerous data collection activities are required to meet each project's specific aims. The resultant wealth of data generated by these studies often provides unique, cost-effective opportunities to investigate additional research questions or develop new analytical approaches secondary to a project's originally-intended purpose. Data are not limited to those collected under NEI support but such data are of the highest programmatic interest. The R21 may be used to develop new statistical methodologies or to test hypotheses using existing data, but this FOA may not be used to support the collection of new data
 
Additional information:
QuBBD
National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS)
Dear Colleague Letter: Unsolicited Proposals for Quantitative Approaches to Biomedical Big Data (QuBBD) 
Sponsor Deadline: August 6, 2015
OSP Deadline: July 30, 2015
Award Information: Up to $100,000 for one year planning grants
 

Achieving the goal of precision medicine will require combining data across multiple formats and developing novel, sophisticated mathematical, statistical, and computational methods that facilitate high-confidence predictions for individuals. These challenges will require inter- and cross-disciplinary teams that include mathematicians, statisticians, and biomedical researchers and engineers to develop models, methods, and approaches that can lead to new insights and lay the groundwork for future advances in precision medicine. Through this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), NSF's Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS), Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, aims to foster inter- and multi-disciplinary, exploratory collaborations leading to new research directions and contributing to the enhancement of the mathematical sciences infrastructure. Proposals should explain how this new collaboration will address a biomedical challenge and describe the use of large-scale publicly available biomedical datasets to illustrate the proposed models and methodology. Data science topics of interest in this context include, but are not limited to, network analysis, causal analysis, and machine learning. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), through the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Initiative, will be participating in this effort and plans to jointly sponsor these grants. The planning grants are intended to stimulate and facilitate collaborations that may lead to the development of full submissions to the funding agencies.

 
Additional information:
RWJF
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Data Across Sectors for Health: Empowering Communities through Shared Data and Information 
Sponsor Deadline for Preliminary Proposals: July 29, 2015
OSP Deadline: July 16, 2015
Award Information: Up to $200,000 for 12 or 18 months
 

Through this effort, DASH will propel grantees forward as they strengthen and extend their data and information sharing initiatives for assessment, planning, program development, advocacy, monitoring, and setting and acting on community priorities. The DASH coordinating office will also initiate a learning collaboration through which they will create and share models, and document barriers, solutions, lessons learned, best practices, promising innovations, sustainable examples, and opportunities for replication. Within this learning collaboration, grantees will begin to define the body of knowledge to move this emerging field toward common action, by engaging with each other, the DASH advisory group, thought leaders, researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders. The proposed projects in response to this CFP can support sharing, linking and combining data, or efforts to create, maintain or expand an existing implementation of health information technology that leverages clinical encounter data. Projects should be designed to improve some measurable aspect of community health and well-being; the project benefits or outcomes should be realized across the collaboration. It is possible, and even preferred, that a well-designed project will result in benefits at the individual, family, and community levels. 

 
Additional information:
EDUCATION AND TRAINING 
NIHSkills
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Courses for Skills Development in Biomedical Big Data Science (R25)
Sponsor Deadline: September 18, 2015
OSP Deadline: September 11, 2015
Award Information: $450,000 ($150,000 per year for three years, 4-6 grants anticipated)
 
The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The goal of this Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation's biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs in Big Data Science. To this end, this FOA encourages the development of creative educational activities with a primary focus on Courses for Skills Development.
 
Additional information:
E2 
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Open Educational Resources for Biomedical Big Data (R25)
Sponsor Deadline: September 18, 2015
OSP Deadline: September 11, 2015
Award Information: $600,000 ($200,000 of direct cost per year for three years, 4-5 grants per year anticipated)
 
The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The goal of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation's biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research needs in utilizing 'Big Data.'  To this end, this funding opportunity announcement encourages the development of creative educational activities with a primary focus on Curriculum or Methods Development. In particular, this Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) FOA encourages R25 applications proposing the development of open educational resources (OER) for use by large numbers of learners at all career levels that enhance the ability of the workforce to use and analyze biomedical Big Data.
 
Additional information:
Contact Us:
Questions about this announcement or proposal submission may be directed to Jennifer Corby
(jcorby@fas.harvard.edu, 617-495-1590) or Susan Gomes (sgomes@fas.harvard.edu 617-496-9448).

 

For Research Development Support (Finding Funding, Proposal Development Resources), go to research.fas.harvard.edu/research-development-support