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Call for Proposals: Unidata Community Equipment Awards

Undersponsorship of the National Science Foundation, the Unidata Program Center (UPC) announces its 2003 Unidata Community Equipment Awards, described below along with the proposal submission requirements. The deadline for submitting proposals to be considered for funding in FY 2003 is May 5, 2003. Notification of award status will be made by mid-July, 2003. A total of $200,000 is available for awards in fiscal year 2003, and we anticipate funding between five and twelve awards from $5,000 to $25,000.

1. Description of Unidata Community Equipment Awards
2. Proposal Review Criteria
3. Proposal Format
4. Submission, Notification, and Accountability

1. Description of Program

The primary purpose of the Unidata Community Equipment Awards is to encourage new members (from diverse scientific backgrounds) to join the Unidata community and for existing members to continue their active paritipation so as to enhance the community process. We will accept equipment proposals from academic institutions engaged in teaching and research in the geosciences for the deployment of Unidata-supported systems. (System definition assistance is available by contacting the Unidata Program Center [UPC] at egrants@unidata.ucar.edu.) Small institutions, institutions that have not previously submitted proposals and institutions outside Unidata's traditional atmospheric community are encouraged to apply.

It is the intent of this award program to assist institutions wishing to participate actively in the Unidata community; to assist those who have participated actively in the past but need system upgrades to meet the standards currently recommended for deploying Unidata systems; and to assist organization from disciplines outside of the atmospheric community who can provide important and relevant datasets and tools to the Unidata community at no cost.

Unidata will accept proposals for purchasing hardware and software that will enhance an institution's participation in the Internet Data Delivery (IDD) system and those wishing to provide data sets for access through the Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Servers (THREDDS) initiative.

2. Proposal Review Criteria:

• Intellectual merit of the proposed work. The importance of the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within the Earth sciences.
• Contribution to Unidata Community Capabilities. Equipment will be used to develop concepts and software that contribute to the enhancement of the community capability.
• Commitment to participate in Unidata's community-based support efforts. Including but not limited to enhancing or augmenting the IDD system or running a THREDDS server.
• Broader impacts of the proposed activity. The activity makes available tools or datasets which would be meaningful to the current Unidata community from multiple scientific disciplines, or disciplines outside of Atmospheric Sciences.
• Contributes to the Advancement of Technology. Proposal shows emphasis toward a particular technological advancement that it is working to deploy. For example, a successful proposal could be one that allows users to better access data from community servers using a given methodology such as remote data access methodologies embodied in THREDDS servers.
• Contribution to Education. The activity contributes to local and/orcommunity education efforts in the Earth sciences by providing new approaches to classroom and individual instruction.
• Contribution to Research. The equipment request encompasses an activity that shows potential for enhancing and contributing to local and/or community-based research programs, or the equipment supports innovative and significant research.
• System Management Competence (Mandatory). The equipment request is technically sound with respect to equipment selection and integration with existing local systems. Faculty and staff involved in managing the hardware and Unidata systems are committed to obtaining, managing, and maintaining the proposed equipment and Unidata-supported tools.

3. Proposal Format:

Including all of the sections below, Community Equipment Award proposals are typically 5-10 pages. Proposals must contain all components listed below and be assembled in the order listed:

A. Cover Page: Signed by the appropriate university official, for example the department's Dean or the contracts officer.

B. Abstract: A brief discription of the proposers intent to use equipment funded through this award program.

C. Project Description:

• Describe what equipment is requested, and what part it will play in meeting at least three of the criteria listed above.
• Describe how equipment requested will help to meet the goals of the larger project.
• Discuss the benefits to research and/or education, and the added value that this project will bring to the Unidata community at-large.
• Discuss the relationship of the proposed system to the existing computing facilities, both departmental and institutional;
• Discuss the percentage of the departmental computing resources that the proposed system comprises; and
• the relationship of the proposed equipment to the departmental five-year strategic plan for computing capabilities.

D. Budget:

• Provide a short explanation of the budget (budget justification). Describe any university contributions to the project (such as PI time, system administrative time, co-sponsorship, computer time, or partial or total waiver of indirect costs).
• In a line item budget, show all key elements of cost as well as line-item detail for proposed purchases.
• Proposals should be for a minimum of $5,000, but no more than $25,000.

E. Project Milestones:

• Provide information about how soon equipment will be purchased after award, when it will be deployed as part of the broader project objective.
• Describe any dependencies that may alter the project goals and deadlines (for example, new space must be aquired or altered before a system can be installed).

4. Submission, Notification and Accountability

Please submit ten copies of your proposal no later than May 4, 2003. To ensure fairness, late proposals will not be accepted for any reason. Please ensure that proposals are mailed on time to received by this date. Please ensure that all materials are included. Failure to comply with these instructions or submission of an incpomplete proposal may result in the rejection of the proposal.

Proposals will be evaluated by a panel of community members and Unidata Staff. Final selection will be made by community members serving on the panel. Once decisions are made, the Unidata Director will notify all applicants of the success or failure of their proposals. Reviewers' comments will be distributed to successful and unsuccessful proposals alike. Funds will be distributed to successful applicants by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) via a sub-contract award process, and recipients will be responsible for purchasing the equipment described in their proposals.

Within a year of receiving equipment funds, recipients will be required to submit an article to the UPC on how they have used the equipment toward their Unidata-related needs and applications for publication either in the Unidata newsletter, or on the Unidata website (at our discretion). The intent is to encourage others to participate in the Unidata community and the Equipment Awards program by showing the benefits of participating, as well as ensuring compliance with the original intent of the awards. Failure to submit the requested article will result in ineligibility for future funding from Unidata's Community Equipment Awards.

Any information in the proposal that is considered to be trade secrets, commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential or of a personal nature should be specifically marked and identified as such. UPC will not pay any expense incurred in the preparation or submission of any proposal submitted in response to this Call for Proposals.

Please send ten paper copies and one electronic copy (3.5" disk or CD in PDF format) of your proposal to to:

Unidata Program Center
ATTN: Community Equipment Awards
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307

Please call or email us with any questions or comments: (303) 497-8643, or egrants@unidata.ucar.edu

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