Submit Your Topic Idea for NSF Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation Program

The National Science Foundation released a Dear Colleague Letter soliciting topic ideas for the next round of the Emerging Frontiers in  Research and Innovation Program. Suggestions for EFRI Topic Ideas are currently solicited and vetted every two years. Selected Topic(s) become the focus of research supported by the EFRI Program. Solicitations are announced annually for research proposals that fall under the specified Topic area(s).

The EFRI Program aims to focus the engineering community on important emerging areas in a timely manner. EFRI evaluates, recommends, and funds interdisciplinary initiatives at the emerging frontiers of engineering research and innovation. These transformative opportunities may lead to: new research directions; new industries or capabilities that result in a leadership position for the country; and/or significant progress on a recognized national or societal need, or grand challenge. The EFRI Program is the signature activity of the Office of Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities (EFMA) in the Directorate for Engineering.

EFRI invests in high-risk multidisciplinary opportunities with high-potential payoff. Its role is to support research areas that would not fit within the scope of an existing program. These frontier ideas cannot be pursued by one researcher or within one field of expertise. They are “frontier” because they not only push the limits of knowledge of one field, but are actually at the convergence of multiple fields. The EFRI funding process is designed to both inspire and enable a group of researchers with diverse technical expertise to work together on a single frontier idea.

The EFRI Program continuously gathers information for use in deciding future research topic areas to support. This rolling process ensures input and feedback from the engineering community on promising upcoming research opportunities. Input comes from diverse sources including workshops, advisory committees, proposals and awards, technical meetings, and professional societies, as well as from individual engineering researchers. From this comprehensive input, the EFRI team identifies, evaluates, and prioritizes those frontier topics that best match EFRI criteria.

Through this DCL, the NSF EFRI team is providing a direct opportunity for the research community to offer input on potential topic ideas for FY 2020, by inviting the community to submit emerging frontier Topic Idea suggestions for consideration.

Submit Your Ideas at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/efritopicideasFY2020.

Link to full Dear Colleague Letter: 

https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2018/nsf18105/nsf18105.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=click