(A) Proposals for Inter-American Materials Collaboration
On July 2, 2002 the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a letter soliciting proposals from U.S. investigators in materials research who are interested in collaborating with their counterparts in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. Research funding agencies in these countries will provide their own funding; hence researchers in these countries should apply to their own agencies. These are: CONICET (Argentina), CNPq (Brazil), NSERC (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), COLCIENCIAS (Columbia), CONACYT (Mexico).
The new funding opportunities have emanated from international workshops held in May 1995 in Saltillo, Mexico, and in June 1998 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in which scientists and engineers from the Americas identified possible areas for mutually beneficial collaborations. The recommendations that emerged from these workshops included: identifying and supporting cooperative research projects that leverage the strengths of each country’s scientific community; the extensive use of electronic communication, information exchanges, and databases to promote and facilitate research collaborations; and educational activities at the international level.
The current NSF announcement deals with two categories of funding. The first category of proposals deal international collaboration in materials research among individual investigators, groups of investigators, or centers from the U.S. and one or more of the other six participating countries; the second category concerns international activities that are at the initial (pre-research) stages of international collaborative research projects and programs, and that can cover the costs associated with organizing workshops, seminars, conferences or symposia, and travel related to the project.
Deadline for proposals to NSF is October 18, 2002. For more information, agency contacts in all countries, please visit:
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02141/nsf02141.htm
(B) Proposals for Cooperative Activities in Materials Research Between U.S. and European Investigators
On June 10, 2002 the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a letter soliciting proposals from U.S. investigators in materials research who are interested in collaborating with their counterparts in European nations. Seventeen nations ranging from Austria to UK are involved, as is the European Science Foundation which is headquartered in France.
The new funding opportunities have emanated from international workshops designed to stimulate enhanced collaboration among materials researchers and create networks linking individuals and centers in participating countries. These workshops identified possible areas for mutually beneficial collaboration, and recommended that extensive use be made of electronic communication, information exchanges, and databases to promote and facilitate research collaboration and educational activities at the international level.
NSF will support the U.S. side of such collaborations, with the expectation that funding or research organizations from the appropriate country or countries will support the costs of the European participants. Proposals to NSF must be linked to a counterpart proposal submitted by a European partner(s) to counterpart organization(s) in Europe, or to an existing project funded by such an organization. Proposals from European investigators should be submitted to the counterpart European funding organization in accordance with the guidelines of that organization.
Deadline for proposals to NSF is September 16, 2002. For additional information, including a listing of the eighteen (18) participating European funding agencies and contact information, may be obtained from the link below.
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02135/nsf02135.htm