Solicitation for Proposals: New Interagency program Will Generate NEON-like Tools to Study Climate Change

On Monday, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Departments of Energy (DOE) and Agriculture (USDA) announced they were teaming up to financially to support the development of new computer models that will generate predictions of climate change and its impacts regionally and over shorter time periods than have previously been possible. This project is seen as one of the largest increases in support for interdisciplinary climate change research by NSF and its partner agencies.

The agencies will invest almost $50M in the new project, called Decadal and Regional Climate Prediction Using Earth System Models (EaSM).

The joint solicitation for EaSM proposals enables the three agencies to combine resources and fund the highest-impact projects without duplicating efforts. The FY 2010 EaSM solicitation will be supported via the following funding levels: (1) approximately $30 million from NSF; (2) approximately $10 million from DOE; and (3) approximately $9 million from USDA. Funding recipients will create models to study climate change impacts or suggest mitigation processes, such as regional average temperature change, management planning for food and water supplies, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, and the sustainability of soils and water as well as the impacts of invasive species on food production and human health. EaSM encourages innovative interdisciplinary approaches to address climate change impacts.

The EaSM program will run from FY 2010 to FY 2014. Submitted proposals will be reviewed through NSF's peer review process, and awards will be funded by all three partner agencies. About 20 NSF grants under EaSM are expected to be awarded.