Title: George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation
       Operations (NEES Ops)   FY 2010 - FY2014
Date: 06/26/08

George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation
Operations (NEES Ops)
FY 2010 - FY2014

Program Solicitation
NSF 08-574

[NSF Logo]  National Science Foundation

            Directorate for Engineering
                 Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation

Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local
time):

     September 03, 2008

     In lieu of the Letter of Intent (LOI) FastLane submission
     requirement specified below, LOIs must be emailed to
     jpauschk@nsf.gov by 5:00 p.m. proposer's local time on September
     3, 2008. All other LOI preparation instructions remain unchanged.

Preliminary Proposal Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local
time):

     October 01, 2008

Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):

     February 13, 2009

REVISION NOTES

A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide
(PAPPG) NSF 09-1 was issued on October 1 2008 and is effective for
proposals submitted on or after January 5 2009. Please be advised that the
guidelines contained in NSF 09-1 apply to proposals submitted in response
to this funding opportunity. Proposers who opt to submit prior to January
5th 2009 must also follow the guidelines contained in NSF 09-1.

One of the most significant changes to the PAPPG is implementation of the
mentoring provisions of the America COMPETES Act. Each proposal that
requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include as a
separate section within the 15-page project description a description of
the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals.
Proposals that do not include a separate section on mentoring activities
within the Project Description will be returned without review (see the
PAPP Guide Part I: Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II.C.2.d for further
information).

SUMMARY OF PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

General Information

Program Title:

     George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering
     Simulation Operations FY 2010 - FY 2014  (NEES Ops)

Synopsis of Program:

     The Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation
     (CMMI) in the Directorate for Engineering (ENG) of the National
     Science Foundation (NSF) is soliciting proposals for network-wide
     leadership, management, operations, and maintenance of the George
     E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation
     (NEES) from October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2014.  NEES is
     a NSF-supported shared resource of experimental facilities and
     cyberinfrastructure for research and education to advance
     knowledge discovery and innovation to reduce losses from
     earthquakes.  The NEES experimental infrastructure comprises a
     network of 15 earthquake engineering equipment sites, located at
     universities across the United States, available for testing
     on-site, in the field, or through telepresence.  The NEES
     equipment sites include shake tables, geotechnical centrifuges, a
     tsunami wave basin, unique large-scale testing laboratories, and
     mobile and permanently installed field equipment.  The NEES
     cyberinfrastructure connects the equipment sites, via Internet2,
     and provides data curation and a curated central data repository;
     telepresence; simulation, computational, data visualization, and
     collaborative tools; hybrid (coupled computational and physical)
     simulation and multi-site hybrid simulation capabilities; user
     support services; middleware; and a cybersecurity framework.

     A single award will be made for NEES operations, as a cooperative
     agreement, for a duration of five years from October 1, 2009 to
     September 30, 2014.  The awardee will use this NSF support to
     provide governance, a network-wide management headquarters, and
     subawards to the equipment sites and cyberinfrastructure,
     education, outreach, and other partner organizations based on the
     awardee's strategic plan, policies and procedures, annual goals
     and priorities, and the terms and conditions of the cooperative
     agreement.  The NEES equipment sites are not being competed as
     part of this solicitation and no new equipment sites will be
     added to NEES as a result of this competition.
     Cyberinfrastructure operations and education and outreach
     activities are being competed as part of the award to be made
     under this solicitation and proposers should address these in
     their proposal submission.  The awardee itself will not conduct
     research under this cooperative agreement; NSF separately funds
     researchers and educators to use NEES.

     Informational Meetings and Additional Web-based Information

     NSF welcomes proposals from eligible organizations stated in
     Section IV, "Eligibility Information," of this solicitation and
     will facilitate the development of proposals through posting a
     Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and a draft of the cooperative
     agreement for the award to be made under this solicitation, an
     NSF Town Hall Meeting, and informational facility visit(s).  All
     information about these activities will be posted electronically
     at the NSF web site
     http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=CMMI as it becomes
     available.  NSF will hold a Town Hall Meeting about this program
     solicitation on August 8, 2008, at the National Science
     Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22230.  The Town
     Hall Meeting will be an opportunity for potential proposers to
     acquire information relevant to the development of a proposal and
     the review process.  More information about this meeting will be
     available at
     http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=CMMI.  Proposers interested
     in attending this meeting should send an email to Joy Pauschke
     (jpauschk@nsf.gov) by August 5, 2008, with their name,
     organizational affiliation, and contact information.  In
     addition, NSF staff will facilitate informational facility visits
     to one or more of the NEES equipment sites.  Proposers interested
     in visiting a NEES equipment site must contact Joy Pauschke
     (jpauschk@nsf.gov) by August 15, 2008.  The informational
     facility visits will be public meetings, scheduled based upon
     requests, and announced in advance on the NSF web site
     http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=CMMI.  Proposers are
     responsible for their own expenses to attend these meetings and
     facility visits.

Cognizant Program Officer(s):

   * Joy M. Pauschke, Program Director, Division of Civil, Mechanical and
     Manufacturing Innovation, telephone: (703) 292-7024, email:
     jpauschk@nsf.gov

   * Kevin Thompson, Program Director, Office of Cyberinfrastructure,
     telephone: (703) 292-8962, email: kthompso@nsf.gov

   * Nakita Y. Harris, Grants and Agreements Specialist, Division of
     Acquisition and Cooperative Support, telephone: (703) 292-2182, email:
     nyharris@nsf.gov

Applicable Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s):

   * 47.041 --- Engineering

Award Information

Anticipated Type of Award:  Cooperative Agreement

Estimated Number of Awards:    1

Anticipated Funding Amount:   $105,000,000  estimated total for up to five
years. The amount available under the cooperative agreement will depend
upon the annual budgets of NSF and the performance of the awardee. For the
purpose of writing a proposal, assume that the maximum funding (i.e., total
annual budget) available is $20,000,000 in year one, $20,500,000 in year
two, $21,000,000 in year three, $21,500,000 in year four, and $22,000,000
in year five. As part of the total annual budgets listed above, assume
collective equipment site operations annual budgets to total $14,350,000 in
year one, $14,700,000 in year two, $15,000,000 in year three, $15,400,000
in year four, and $15,700,000 in year five. Also, as part of the total
annual budgets listed above, assume an annual capital replacement budget of
$650,000 in year one, $665,000 in year two, $680,000 in year three,
$695,000 in year four, and $710,000 in year five. The capital replacement
budget provides support for annual major equipment repairs across the NEES
equipment sites. Individual equipment site budgets, annual and cumulative,
are not required and should not be submitted in preliminary and invited
full proposals. The awardee will obtain detailed budgets from each
equipment site after the cooperative agreement is awarded and will propose
the total annual operating budgets to NSF.

Eligibility Information

Organization Limit:

     Proposals may only be submitted by the following:

        * The following organizations may submit preliminary and
          invited full proposals:  (1) Universities and colleges
          located and accredited in the United States, acting on
          behalf of their faculty.  Such organizations are also
          referred to as academic institutions; and (2) Non-profit,
          non-academic organizations located and incorporated within
          the United States that are directly associated with research
          activities or that are a non-profit subsidiary of a college
          or university.

          Preliminary and invited full proposals involving more than
          one organization must be submitted as a single
          administrative package from the lead organization;
          collaborative preliminary proposals and collaborative
          invited full proposals with multiple administrative packages
          will not be accepted.

PI Limit:

     The Principal Investigator (PI) must be a full-time employee of
     the lead (submitting) organization.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization:

     None Specified

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI:

     None Specified

Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

   * Letters of Intent: Submission of Letters of Intent is required. Please
     see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

   * Preliminary Proposals: Submission of Preliminary Proposals is
     required. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further
     information.

   * Full Proposals:

        * Full Proposals submitted via FastLane: NSF Proposal and Award
          Policies and Procedures Guide, Part I: Grant Proposal Guide (GPG)
          Guidelines apply. The complete text of the GPG is available
          electronically on the NSF website at:
          http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg.

        * Full Proposals submitted via Grants.gov: NSF Grants.gov
          Application Guide: A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of
          NSF Applications via Grants.gov Guidelines apply (Note: The NSF
          Grants.gov Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov
          website and on the NSF website at:
          http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/grantsgovguide607.pdf)

B. Budgetary Information

   * Cost Sharing Requirements: Cost Sharing is not required under this
     solicitation.

   * Indirect Cost (F&A) Limitations:  Not Applicable

   * Other Budgetary Limitations: Other budgetary limitations apply. Please
     see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

C. Due Dates

   * Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's
     local time):

          September 03, 2008

          In lieu of the Letter of Intent (LOI) FastLane submission
          requirement specified below, LOIs must be emailed to
          jpauschk@nsf.gov by 5:00 p.m. proposer's local time on September
          3, 2008. All other LOI preparation instructions remain unchanged.

   * Preliminary Proposal Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's
     local time):

          October 01, 2008

   * Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):

          February 13, 2009

Proposal Review Information Criteria

Merit Review Criteria:   National Science Board approved criteria.
Additional merit review considerations apply. Please see the full text of
this solicitation for further information.

Award Administration Information

Award Conditions:   Additional award conditions apply. Please see the full
text of this solicitation for further information.

Reporting Requirements:   Additional reporting requirements apply. Please
see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

     Summary of Program Requirements

  I. Introduction

 II. Program Description

III. Award Information

 IV. Eligibility Information

  V. Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions
       A. Proposal Preparation Instructions
       B. Budgetary Information
       C. Due Dates
       D. FastLane/Grants.gov Requirements

 VI. NSF Proposal Processing and Review Procedures
       A. NSF Merit Review Criteria
       B. Review and Selection Process

VII. Award Administration Information
       A. Notification of the Award
       B. Award Conditions
       C. Reporting Requirements

VIII.Agency Contacts

 IX. Other Information

I. INTRODUCTION

The George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation
(NEES) is the result of more than a decade of planning by the earthquake
engineering community.  In November 1998, the National Science Board (NSB)
approved NEES for construction for $82,000,000.  The National Science
Foundation (NSF) funded construction of NEES through the Major Research
Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) appropriation during
2000-2004.  Construction of 15 experimental facilities at universities
across the United States and cyberinfrastructure was completed on September
30, 2004, and NEES opened for operations on October 1, 2004.  Since 2004,
the NSF Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI),
through annual research program solicitations, has supported over 40
research awards, totaling over $40,000,000, to utilize NEES.  NEES
operations is in its fourth year and is currently managed through a NSF
cooperative agreement with NEES Consortium, Inc. (NEESinc),
(http://www.nees.org), hereafter referred to in this program solicitation
as the "incumbent awardee." The cooperative agreement with the incumbent
awardee was effective on October 1, 2004 and expires on September 30, 2009.

In accordance with the NSB policy on competition (NSB-08-12), this
solicitation invites proposals for the network-wide leadership, management,
operations, and maintenance of NEES for the five-year period from October
1, 2009 through September 30, 2014.  The organization receiving the award
made under this program solicitation is hereafter referred to in this
solicitation as the "awardee."  The awardee is expected to meet the highest
standards for service and delivery of research infrastructure to the
external user community and to demonstrate a proactive, cost-effective, and
efficient approach to performance management.  The awardee will work with
the equipment sites to advance the experimental capabilities of these
facilities that can lead to new research frontiers for NEES.  NEES
cyberinfrastructure has the potential to transform NEES into a global
virtual organization for earthquake research and education.  The awardee
will leverage the NEES infrastructure to broaden participation in NEES,
advance the understanding of earthquake loss reduction by educators and
students at all levels and the public, and build strategic national and
international partnerships to bring additional capabilities and users to
NEES.

II. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

  A. Mission of NEES

     NEES is authorized by the U.S. Congress under the National
     Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP)
     (http://www.nehrp.gov) and the award made under this solicitation
     will contribute to NSF's participation in NEHRP.  As a NEHRP
     facility supported by NSF, NEES serves as an integral and
     enabling resource to facilitate research for knowledge discovery
     and innovation to improve the seismic design and performance of
     the U.S. civil infrastructure.  NEES provides the opportunity for
     investigators to participate in cutting edge research to extend
     theory; computational, simulation, and visualization tools;
     design practice and codes in earthquake engineering; advanced and
     sustainable technologies for design, rehabilitation, and
     remediation; experimental simulation techniques and
     instrumentation; and sensor technology.  As an integrated
     network, NEES offers opportunities for earthquake engineering
     research to enable or enhance the investigation of problems at
     the systems level, in a more systematic way than previously
     possible through use of multiple, independent experimental
     facilities.  The role of NEES in earthquake loss reduction has
     been highlighted in the following documents:

        * Investing in America's Future, Strategic Plan, FY 2006-2011,
          National Science Foundation, September 2006, NSF 06-48,
          http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf0648.
        * Grand Challenges for Disaster Reduction:  Priority
          Interagency Earthquake Implementation Actions, A Report of
          the Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction, National Science and
          Technology Council,
          http://www.sdr.gov/185820_Earthquake_FINAL.pdf.
        * George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering
          Simulation Research (NEESR), NSF Program Solicitation NSF
          08-519,
          http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf08519.
        * Preventing Earthquake Disasters: The Grand Challenge in
          Earthquake Engineering. A Research Agenda for the Network
          for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) (available at
          http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10799), a report
          from a panel organized by the National Research Council of
          the National Academies to develop a long-term agenda for
          earthquake engineering research needs that is well suited to
          investigative techniques involving use of the NEES
          experimental resources.
        * Securing Society against Catastrophic Earthquake Losses: A
          Research and Outreach Plan in Earthquake Engineering
          (available at
          http://www.eeri.org/cds_publications/securing_society.pdf),
          a long term research and outreach agenda for the earthquake
          engineering field prepared by the Earthquake Engineering
          Research Institute.

     Cyberinfrastructure is becoming increasingly integral to the
     conduct of research and education across many fields of science
     and engineering, including earthquake engineering.  Information,
     networking, and communications technology; data technologies;
     simulation, computation, and data visualization capabilities;
     collaborative tools; computing systems; and middleware continue
     to evolve at a rapid rate.  NSF envisions NEES as a leading-edge,
     cyber-enabled initiative.  As such, NSF recognizes there will be
     both challenges and opportunities for the awardee in sustaining a
     robust, state of the art distributed cyber-environment.  The
     awardee will need to balance tasks required for
     cyberinfrastructure development associated with retaining a
     leading edge capability while at the same time providing a
     production quality platform that must adapt to constantly
     evolving user needs.  Proposers may wish to review the following
     resources to help formulate cyberinfrastructure operations in
     their proposal:

        * Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery,
          National Science Foundation, NSF 07-28,
          http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf0728/index.jsp.
        * A Listing of Reports and Workshops about Cyberinfrastructure
          and Its Impacts, Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI),
          National Science Foundation,
          http://www.nsf.gov/od/oci/reports.jsp.
        * Office of Cyberinfrastructure Awards, National Science
          Foundation,
          http://www.nsf.gov/awards/award_links.jsp?org=OCI.
        * NEES cyberinfrastructure: main web site, http://it.nees.org;
          software,
          http://it.nees.org/software/index.php; user support,
          including manuals,
          http://it.nees.org;support/index.php; library,
          http://it.nees.org/library/index.php; and NEEScentral data
          repository, http://central.nees.org.
        * Information Technology within the George E. Brown, Jr.
          Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation: A Vision for
          an Integrated Community, Task Group on Information
          Technology Vision of the Board of Directors of NEES
          Consortium, Inc., April 2007,
          http://it.nees.org/documentation/pdf/TGoITVision.pdf.
        * NEESit Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM),
          http://it.nees.org/documentation/pdf/TN-2007-15_RTM_v1.0.pdf.

     NEES is part of the portfolio of NSF-supported large facilities
     available as shared research infrastructure.  NSF has published
     the Large Facilities Manual, NSF 07-38, which provides
     information about the development, construction, and operations
     of NSF-supported large facilities (available at
     http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf0738).
     The awardee is encouraged to partner with other large research
     facilities to bring additional capabilities to NEES.  For
     example, NEES provides opportunities to partner with another
     NEHRP facility, the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS)
     (http://www.anss.org) operated by the U.S. Geological Survey
     (http://www.usgs.gov), and the NSF-supported EarthScope facility
     (http://www.earthscope.org).

  B. Description of NEES

     NEES is a distributed research and education infrastructure with
     headquarters; equipment sites; and cyberinfrastructure,
     education, and outreach partners located across the United
     States.  The incumbent awardee has its headquarters in Davis, CA,
     is governed by a Board of Directors and led by a Chief Executive
     Officer, receives input from advisory committees and user
     surveys, and has established a number of products, services,
     policies, and procedures that have guided NEES operations since
     October 1, 2004.  Further information on current operations is
     available at
     http://www.nees.org.

     Equipment Sites

     The 15 NEES equipment sites are located at universities across
     the United States.  Each university locally staffs, manages,
     operates, and maintains its equipment site and provides user
     support.  Fourteen of the equipment sites house the permanent and
     mobile field equipment on university property.  The exception is
     the facility operated by the University of California, Santa
     Barbara, which operates a 24/7 permanently installed field
     instrumentation in two remote field sites in southern
     California.  During the MREFC phase, the title to all equipment
     was vested with the 15 universities; therefore, the federal
     government does not retain title to any NEES equipment,
     computers, instrumentation, or sensors.  The primary external
     users of the NEES experimental infrastructure are researchers
     funded by NSF through the annual NEES research program
     solicitations, e.g., NSF 08-519 program solicitation referenced
     above, and other NSF support.  During the past three years, NSF
     support for NEES operations has provided, on the average, six
     months of equipment site personnel support for shared use
     research projects funded primarily through the NEES research
     solicitations.  During the other six months, the equipment site
     can be used by the university for its own faculty's research or
     for research conducted by others funded by other organizations
     such as other federal, state, and local agencies; the private
     sector; and industry trade groups.  Users of the equipment sites
     are responsible for the cost, design, construction, demolition,
     and removal of their test specimens from the equipment site
     premises.  Users are required to have equipment site personnel
     review all stages of the intended experiment(s) for feasibility
     and assignment of roles and responsibilities in order to be
     granted access to the equipment site for testing.

     Table 1 lists for each equipment site: the university that
     operates the equipment site, the type of facility, and the web
     site that provides information about the equipment, capabilities,
     and contacts.

                   Table 1 - Current NEES Equipment Sites

      (Note:  Contact information for each equipment site can be found
     by clicking on the institutional web site below, then clicking on
                      "Contact Us" on the site menu.)

 Location of NEES Equipment
 Site                       Type of Facility     Institutional Web Site
 University at Buffalo, The
 State University of New    Shake Tables         http://nees.buffalo.edu
 York
 University of California,
 San Diego                  Shake Table          http://nees.ucsd.edu
 University of Nevada, Reno Shake Tables         http://nees.unr.edu
 Rensselaer Polytechnic     Geotechnical
 Institute                  Centrifuge           http://nees.rpi.edu
 University of California,  Geotechnical
 Davis                      Centrifuge           http://nees.ucdavis.edu
 Oregon State University    Tsunami Wave Basin   http://nees.orst.edu
 Cornell University         Large-Scale Testing  http://nees.cornell.edu
 Lehigh University          Large-Scale Testing  http://www.nees.lehigh.edu
 University of California,
 Berkeley                   Large-Scale Testing  http://nees.berkeley.edu
 University of Colorado,
 Boulder                    Large-Scale Testing  http://nees.colorado.edu
 University of Illinois,
 Urbana-Champaign           Large-Scale Testing  http://nees.uiuc.edu
 University of Minnesota    Large-Scale Testing  http://nees.umn.edu
 University of California,  Mobile Field Testing
 Los Angeles                Equipment            http://nees.ucla.edu
 University of Texas,       Mobile Field Testing
 Austin                     Equipment            http://nees.utexas.edu
 University of California,  Instrumented Field
 Santa Barbara              Sites                http://nees.ucsb.edu

     Equipment site operations are supported through subawards to the
     universities as part of the NSF cooperative agreement with the
     incumbent awardee.  As part of NEES operations, each university
     hosting an equipment site has the following responsibilities for
     equipment site operations:

        * Develop a productive working partnership with the NEES
          operations awardee and its partner organizations for all
          aspects of operations;
        * Operate as a shared-use facility, available for
          experimentation on-site or in the field and through
          telepresence, for researchers from other organizations.
          This includes providing equipment, instrumentation, and
          sensors; data acquisition; local data storage; technician
          support; information technology; space for specimen
          construction and demolition; and office space for visiting
          faculty and students;
        * Maintain a functioning high performance Internet2
          connection;
        * Work with the NEES operations awardee to develop annual
          equipment site goals, work plan, priorities, and budget, in
          accordance with a work breakdown structure (WBS) and
          dictionary;
        * Hire and supervise the university's equipment site
          personnel.  Staffing at each equipment site typically
          includes a site Principal Investigator, a full-time site
          operations manager, a full-time information technology
          administrator, technician(s), and other technical staff;
        * Assign appropriate proportion of the costs for preventive
          maintenance; calibration; repairs; and equipment,
          instrumentation, and sensor replacement and upgrades to the
          NSF-supported NEES operations award and to the university;
        * Maintain all equipment, instrumentation, sensors, software,
          data acquisition, computers, and documentation developed or
          acquired during the MREFC phase or under the current NEES
          operations cooperative agreement, including routine
          calibrations;
        * Ensure the physical security of all equipment hardware;
        * Maintain an annualized equipment maintenance budget for
          upgrade or replacement of minor equipment, instrumentation,
          computers, and sensors;
        * Maintain a local web site that has current information for
          users;
        * Maintain an inventory of equipment, instrumentation,
          sensors, personnel, documentation, contact information, and
          other information for users in a network-wide equipment site
          database;
        * Participate in education and outreach activities coordinated
          by the NEES operations awardee;
        * Coordinate the scheduling of shared-use research and
          education projects with the NEES operations awardee;
        * Provide periodic equipment site training workshops;
        * Support users during all phases of experimentation, which
          may including planning, instrumentation set-up, testing
          protocols, testing, local data archiving, and centrally
          archiving experimental data (users are responsible for
          curation and permanent data archival in the NEES data
          repository);
        * Assign appropriate user fee structures for academic,
          industry, government, international, and other researchers
          for costs not covered by the subaward;
        * Comply with all university, government, and/or awardee
          required environmental, safety, and health standards,
          regulations, and monitoring requirements, including
          maintaining safety equipment and web-posted safety plans
          that equipment site staff and users must follow.  Users of
          the NEES mobile field equipment are responsible for
          obtaining permits required by the field site and for
          ensuring that their project complies with all environmental
          regulations at that test location;
        * Comply with all university and NEES operations awardee
          cybersecurity requirements; and
        * Provide individual equipment site information and/or
          participation needed for the NEES operations awardee to meet
          the NSF reporting and review requirements listed in section
          II.C, "Awardee Responsibilities - Core Expectations," of
          this solicitation.

     Cyberinfrastructure

     The NEES cyberinfrastructure currently provides data curation and
     a curated data repository (NEEScentral); telepresence; data
     visualization tools; simulation and computational tools; a
     community code repository (NEESforge); collaborative tools for
     facilitating on-line planning, execution, and post-processing of
     experiments; hybrid and multi-site simulation software and
     protocols; a central equipment site inventory database; access to
     high performance computing; user support services; documentation
     library; middleware; and a cybersecurity plan and
     implementation.  The NEES data repository serves as the
     definitive resource that archives data from experiments at the
     NEES equipment sites.  The cyberinfrastructure enables hybrid
     simulation as well as multi-site experimentation via Internet2.
     Documentation, software, and the NEES data repository are
     currently located at the NEES Cyberinfrastructure Center (NEESit)
     at the University of California, San Diego, San Diego
     Supercomputer Center.  Other partner organizations also
     contribute to cyberinfrastructure tools, such as the University
     of California, Berkeley, for the widely used Open System for
     Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSees) software
     (http://opensees.berkeley.edu), and the equipment sites for
     hybrid simulation and data visualization tools.  Further
     information about the NEES cyberinfrastructure is available at
     http://www.nees.org and http://it.nees.org.  The incumbent
     awardee maintains a cybersecurity plan
     (http://it.nees.org/support/security/neesit_sec-plan.pdf) and
     conducts ongoing cybersecurity checks with the equipment sites.

     Education, Outreach, and Training

     Since October 2004, NEES education, outreach, and training
     activities have included the following: (1) one Research
     Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site supported by separate
     NSF grants to the incumbent awardee, which utilizes a subset of
     the equipment sites and NEESit as host locations for the REU
     students; (2) organization and conduct of an annual NEES meeting
     for NEES operations personnel, users, potential users, and
     others; (3) collaborative partnerships with minority-serving
     institutions; (4) annual training on the use of the equipment
     sites, coordinated by the incumbent awardee and conducted by the
     equipment sites; and (5) broader impact activities incorporated
     by the equipment sites into ongoing university activities, e.g.,
     summer camps, and by project teams as part of the separately
     NSF-supported NEES research awards.

     International Collaborations

     NEES is leveraging and complementing its capabilities through
     connections and collaborations with large testing facilities at
     foreign earthquake-related centers, laboratories, and
     institutions. The Japanese National Research Institute for Earth
     Science and Disaster Prevention's (NIED) 3-D Full-Scale
     Earthquake Testing Facility (E-Defense) in Miki, Japan, the
     world's largest shake table, became operational in 2005. To
     facilitate NEES/E-Defense collaboration, in September 2005, NSF
     and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science,
     and Technology signed a memorandum concerning cooperation in the
     area of disaster prevention research.  To facilitate
     NEES/E-Defense collaboration, the incumbent awardee and NIED
     signed a Memorandum of Understanding in August 2005. Several
     NSF-supported NEES research projects will utilize both NEES
     facilities and E-Defense in the conduct of their projects during
     the 2008-2010 timeframe.

  C. Awardee Responsibilities - Core Expectations

     The awardee is responsible for network-wide leadership and
     management of NEES operations.  To meet the responsibilities
     associated with NEES operations outlined below, the awardee will
     provide an oversight governing body; a management headquarters;
     subawards and oversight to the NEES equipment sites;
     cyberinfrastructure operations; and education, outreach, and
     training activities.  To provide the breadth of activities and
     resources needed for cyberinfrastructure operations and education
     and outreach activities, the lead organization may need to
     partner with other organizations and support these partnerships
     as subawards on the award to be made under this solicitation.

     Specifically, the awardee is responsible for providing the
     following for NEES operations:

     (1) A Network-wide Governing Body, that (a) provides oversight to
     the management headquarters on key directions, strategies,
     priorities, policies, and partnerships; (b) provides annual
     assessments of the project's progress and plans; (c) ensures that
     the awardee operates with transparency and accountability to NSF
     and stakeholders; (d) has membership that avoids conflicts of
     interest, real or perceived, with the awardee and its partner
     organizations and consultants supported by the cooperative
     agreement; and (e) has defined roles, responsibilities, and lines
     of authority between the management headquarters and the
     governing body.

     (2)  A Network-wide Headquarters (facility and staff) that
     provide the day-to-day leadership and management for NEES
     operations.  The headquarters must provide office and meeting
     space, office equipment, Internet and Internet2 connectivities,
     and videoconferencing capabilities.  Headquarters staff will work
     collaboratively with the equipment sites and other partners
     to foster cohesiveness, integration of new ideas, and efficiency
     of effort, and to prioritize activities and budgets to meet
     internal user requirements (e.g., cyberinfrastructure needs of
     the equipment sites) as well as external user requirements (e.g.,
     support for researchers using the equipment sites and
     telepresence).  The specific duties of the headquarters are the
     following:

        * Provide Qualified Headquarters Staffing:  The headquarters
          must have the capability to administer an award of this
          scope, complexity, budget, and number of subawards.  The
          headquarters will serve as the U.S. focal point for all NEES
          activities.  The headquarters may be a stand alone
          non-profit organization or may be led from a unit within the
          awardee's organization.  Regardless of its position within
          the awardee's organization, the headquarters must have its
          own organizational structure, with staff roles,
          responsibilities, lines of authority, and accountability
          clearly defined, and must be led by the Principal
          Investigator (PI).  The PI must be a full-time employee of
          the lead organization.  The PI is responsible for leading
          and managing the headquarters, administering the award in
          accordance with the terms and conditions of the cooperative
          agreement, serving as the primary point of contact with NSF
          program staff, and developing a responsive and cooperative
          interface with the governing body.  The PI may be assisted
          by a Deputy or Associate Director(s), who shares the
          leadership and management responsibilities.  Personnel
          responsible for equipment site operations,
          cyberinfrastructure operations, education and outreach
          activities, and strategic partnerships must be able to work
          in a distributed environment and have expertise and
          demonstrate prior successful activities in these areas
          during their careers.  Education and outreach staff must
          have credentials appropriate for the educational level to be
          impacted.  Many of the key management positions at
          headquarters should be full-time positions.  The
          headquarters should have at least one full-time staff member
          responsible for overall financial administration, with
          experience in financial management, audit control, subaward
          management, and procurement.  Additional staffing should be
          provided to carry out the detailed headquarters
          responsibilities described below;
        * Promote an Active User Base for NEES, through (a)
          stakeholder participation that recognizes both external
          (broader earthquake engineering, computer and information
          science and engineering, and related communities and
          practitioners) and internal (equipment sites) groups to
          ensure that NEES resources, services, products, and
          activities best reflect their evolving needs and priorities;
          (b) strategic partnerships with other U.S. and international
          organizations that bring complementary capabilities and
          users to NEES; and (c) interactions with earthquake hazard
          reduction programs at the federal, state, and local
          government levels and national laboratories;
        * Provide Network-wide Leadership to develop a vision,
          mission, goals, and strategic plan for all aspects of NEES
          operations, informed by stakeholders and updated annually as
          needed; and
        * Provide Network-wide Management to implement the strategic
          plan, to include:
             * A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Dictionary that
               define and organize all NEES operations resources,
               services, products, and activities and are used
               annually to allocate resources (budget and personnel);
             * Development, Review, and Approval Process for Annual
               Work Plans and Budgets, for headquarters and all
               subawards, based on past performance, goals and
               priorities, WBS, risk management, resource usage, and
               availability of NSF support;
             * Published Operating Procedures for all aspects of
               operations;
             * Financial Management and Audit Control, to ensure
               appropriate support of NEES' mission and goals,
               including procurement and subaward management;
             * A Network-wide Performance Management System and
               Performance Metrics, for all aspects of NEES
               operations, implemented by the awardee, all
               subawardees, and consultants. The performance
               management system should include performance metrics
               and annual performance assessments for all aspects of
               NEES operations. This would include, but not be limited
               to, annual self and external assessments; external user
               satisfaction surveys; equipment site and
               cyberinfrastructure performance and usage assessment;
               assessment of the quality of products and services;
               education and outreach assessments; budget expenditures
               tracked against planned budgets; user base and
               demographics data; and documentation of discoveries,
               innovations, and publications enabled by the use of
               NEES;
             * Network-wide Equipment Site Operations and Subaward
               Management, as described in item (3) below;
             * Network-wide Cyberinfrastructure Operations, as
               described in item (4) below;
             * Network-wide Education, Outreach and Training, as
               described in item (5) below;
             * National Science Foundation Reporting and Reviews, as
               described in item (6) below;
             * Inventory (database) of all infrastructure operated
               (facilities, software, and databases);
             * Formal Document Management System, for document version
               control for all project documents such as strategic
               plan, policies and operating procedures, WBS and
               dictionary, annual work plans, inventories and
               databases, network-wide maintenance plan, and user
               manuals;
             * Risk Management System, for all aspects of operations;
               and
             * User Services, to assist researchers and educators to
               discover and use NEES resources during proposal
               preparation, pre-award review process for project
               feasibility, post-award access to equipment sites and
               planning, experimentation, and post-experiment phases,
               including information on how to start and conduct a
               project using NEES resources.

     (3)  Network-wide Equipment Site Operations and Subaward
     Management, to include:

     Through subawards, the awardee will provide support to the
     equipment sites to meet the equipment site responsibilities
     outlined in Section II.B, "Description of NEES," of this
     solicitation.  However, the level of shared use at each equipment
     site may vary annually, based on the level of research supported
     by NSF and other funding sources to utilize each equipment site
     in any given year.  Therefore, a flexible approach to equipment
     site operations is needed to provide baseline preventive
     maintenance, calibration, repair, and replacement or upgrade of
     minor equipment for each equipment site, while at the same time
     balancing annual fluctuations in site usage.  The awardee is
     responsible for the following activities:

        * Develop Annual Goals, Priorities, Work Plans, and Resource
          Allocations for network-wide and individual equipment site
          operations.  Work plan development should take a multi-tier
          approach to accommodate baseline readiness support at each
          equipment site early in the federal fiscal year (that starts
          on October 1) and follow-on site support to assist its users
          after annual NEES research awards have been made by NSF;
        * Facilitate Linkages and Cooperation among the individual
          equipment sites so that they operate as a cohesive national
          network, collectively advance experimental capabilities,
          take advantage of economies of scale, and avoid duplication;
        * Maintain Published Policies and Procedures for equipment
          site operations and shared facility usage, including a
          Network-wide Annual Capital Replacement Budget and Policy;
        * Implement Network-wide Solutions for maintenance,
          calibration, repair, software, hybrid simulation, technology
          replacement and upgrades, and new sensor technologies that
          lead to efficiencies and cost-effectiveness, including a
          Network-wide Prioritized Long Range Maintenance Plan,
          updated annually;
        * Track Expenditures by each equipment site, including
          annualized equipment maintenance and capital replacement
          budgets;
        * Coordinate Scheduling of research and education activities
          at the equipment sites, including prioritization and
          rescheduling due to delays or equipment damage;
        * Promote a Network-wide Safety Culture;
        * Implement a Network-wide Cybersecurity Plan with the
          equipment sites; and
        * Provide Oversight, through headquarter site visit protocols
          and visits to each equipment site on a regular basis to
          ensure that equipment sites provide the resources, products,
          services, activities, and compliance with the items listed
          in Section II.B, "Description of NEES," in this
          solicitation.

     (4)  Network-wide Cyberinfrastructure Operations, to include:

     The NEES cyberinfrastructure must support documented user
     requirements, be of production quality software and
     documentation, reflect best practices, maximize the use of
     commercial off the shelf (COTS) and open source software,
     leverage investments made by NSF and others in campus and/or
     national computing resources and cyberinfrastructure tools, and
     utilize the current NEES cyberinfrastructure where feasible.
     Cyberinfrastructure partners may include academic institutions;
     non-profit, non-academic organizations; and for profit
     organizations.  For cyberinfrastructure operations, the awardee
     must provide the following:

        * A Baseline Definition of NEES Cyberinfrastructure, updated
          annually;
        * A System Architecture that is cost-effective, efficient,
          reflects best practices, integrates NEES into an efficient
          and cohesive system for end users, and provides end-to-end
          workflow solutions;
        * Documented User Requirements, Process for Prioritizing User
          Requirements, and a Requirements Traceability Matrix,
          including a plan to engage the equipment sites, user
          community, and other stakeholders to ensure that the
          cyberinfrastructure addresses user needs and requirements on
          an ongoing basis;
        * Policies and Procedures for software development,
          deployment, testing, operations, maintenance, quality
          assurance, usability, and use;
        * Production Quality Cyberinfrastructure, i.e., resources,
          products, tools, services, software, and documentation that
          are responsive to user requirements, to include, but not
          limited to: (1) a state of the art, publicly accessible,
          searchable, and secured curated repository for research
          data, as well as metadata, data archiving and sharing
          policies, data curation, and protocols for accessing,
          searching, and retrieving data from the repository and
          assistance to researchers in using the repository; (2)
          telepresence; (3) data visualization tools; (4) tools for
          hybrid and multi-site hybrid simulation; (5) simulation and
          computational tools appropriate for earthquake engineering
          research and education; (6) web-based collaborative tools
          for all stages of implementing a project using NEES; (7)
          facilitated access to and use of campus and/or national
          computing resources, where appropriate; (8) user support
          services;  (9) software and documentation version control;
          (10) policies and procedures for cyberinfrastructure
          operations; and (11) middleware;
        * Network-wide Cybersecurity Plan and Implementation; and
        * Qualified Cyberinfrastructure Partners, with demonstrated
          expertise to develop, deploy and operate
          cyberinfrastructure, to include use of equipment site
          personnel to contribute to the development of network-wide
          cyberinfrastructure.

     (5)  Network-wide Education, Outreach, and Training, to include:

     NEES provides a unique set of experimental and
     cyberinfrastructure resources for education and outreach to learn
     how to reduce the impacts of earthquakes on the built environment
     and society.  A subset of the NEES equipment sites have strong
     interest and in-house expertise in educational delivery to be
     designated as "core education nodes" for NEES.  The awardee
     should also partner with other NSF-supported research facilities
     and other NSF-supported earth science, engineering,
     cyberinfrastructure, and education projects for education and
     outreach to avoid duplication of effort and to extend the
     continuum of scientific and engineering literacy about reducing
     losses from earthquakes to citizenry of all ages.  The awardee is
     responsible for the following:

        * Providing Core Activities that leverage the NEES equipment
          sites and cyberinfrastructure, and other NSF-supported and
          earthquake-related activities;
        * Qualified Education and Outreach Partners, with expertise
          and national accomplishments in formal (K-12, college, and
          university) and informal science and engineering education;
        * Developing a Broadly Inclusive Science and Engineering
          Workforce in all project staffing and activities;
        * Partnering with non-traditional institutions and non-profit
          organizations, such as Historically Black Colleges and
          Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Indian Tribally
          Controlled Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native-Serving
          Institutions, Native-Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and
          museums;
        * Coordinating and Publicizing Equipment Site and
          Cyberinfrastructure Training Workshops;
        * Organizing and Conducting the Annual National NEES Meeting,
          which brings together NEES operations personnel, users,
          potential users, and other stakeholders; and
        * Maintaining an Informational and Dissemination
          Infrastructure, to include:
             o Publications about significant discoveries,
               innovations, and technologies that have been enabled by
               research utilizing NEES resources, both in printed and
               web-based formats;
             o Informational Publications about NEES operations, both
               in printed and web-based formats; and
             o Interactive Web Site for operations that serves as the
               definitive source of dissemination of information for
               all activities, is frequently updated, provides a
               community calendar, and is linked to the individual
               equipment site web sites.

     (6)  National Science Foundation Reporting and Reviews, to
     include:

     As an NSF-supported large facility, the awardee is responsible
     for complying with the terms and conditions of the cooperative
     agreement, which include providing reports to NSF on time, and
     participating in NSF-organized merit reviews.  The following
     reporting and review requirements will be the responsibility of
     the awardee:

        * Annual Work Plans, for all aspects of NEES operations
          (headquarters, each equipment site, cyberinfrastructure,
          education, outreach, and training) that, with the Annual
          Report and annual budget formulation, serve as the request
          to NSF for continued annual support;
        * Quarterly and Annual Reporting, with quarterly reports
          (submitted to NSF within one month after the end of the
          quarter) and annual reports (submitted to NSF at least six
          weeks before the annual review), using the NSF FastLane
          project-reporting system.  The awardee will work with NSF
          and its partner organizations to streamline the reporting
          process.  Quarterly reports must include the following
          information: key activities and workshops during the past
          quarter and planned for the next quarter; changes in key
          personnel or their level of effort across the project;
          equipment site usage during the past quarter and planned for
          next quarter; list of active research projects at each
          equipment site and the status of each project (e.g.,
          planning phase, specimen construction, testing, etc.);
          number of days that each equipment site was used for
          research projects, maintenance and calibration, workshops,
          and education and outreach activities; cyberinfrastructure
          usage; minutes from governance and advisory committee
          meetings; and budget expenditures for the past quarter and
          cumulative against the planned budget for the reporting
          year.  The annual report shall be submitted in lieu of a
          fourth quarter report and will be a comprehensive summary of
          the information provided in the quarterly reports. The
          annual report will include an assessment of performance
          against goals and metrics; major accomplishments in
          advancing earthquake loss reduction, new experimental
          techniques and cyberinfrastructure; summary of budget
          expenditures for the past year and anticipated unobligated
          funds at the end of the reporting year; summary of the
          results of internal and external evaluations and corrective
          actions; and goals, priorities, and budget for the upcoming
          year;
        * Facilities Reporting, providing estimates and actual
          information about user units data in FastLane in accordance
          with the NSF Facilities Reporting under the Government
          Performance and Results Act (GPRA);
        * Notifications to NSF, as they occur, of environmental,
          safety, health, equipment damage/failure, and cybersecurity
          incidents;
        * Participation in Annual Operations Merit Review Site Visits,
          organized by NSF, with external reviewers, to assess
          fulfillment of annual goals; performance; staffing; upcoming
          annual and longer term maintenance and operating plans; and
          compliance with university, government, and/or awardee
          environmental, health, safety, and cybersecurity
          requirements;
        * Participation in Merit Review Site Visits of Equipment Site
          Operations, organized by NSF, with external reviewers, at
          individual equipment site universities, approximately three
          annually, to assess fulfillment of annual goals;
          performance; staffing; annual and longer term maintenance
          and operating plans; and compliance with university,
          government, and/or awardee environmental, health, safety,
          and cybersecurity requirements; and
        * Participation in Business Systems Review, conducted by NSF
          staff, typically once during a five-year award period, with
          the review to be conducted within the first two years of the
          award date.

     The awardee must collectively demonstrate, in its staffing across
     the project (exclusive of the locally operated equipment sites),
     breadth of expertise and prior accomplishments in (1) earthquake
     engineering research and education; (2) management of complex
     projects involving a distributed and diverse infrastructure and
     multiple subawards; (3) strategic planning; (4) business
     planning, financial administration, procurement, subaward
     management, and audit control; (5) project management (WBS,
     annual work plans, resource allocation, performance management
     and metrics, and schedule); (6) experimental facility operations
     and maintenance; (7) production quality cyberinfrastructure
     operations; (8) education and outreach to K-12, college, and
     university faculty and students, and informal education; (9)
     responsiveness to a governing body and stakeholders; (10)
     interactive web site design, deployment, and maintenance; (11)
     development and implementation of strategic national and
     international partnerships; and (12) human resource management.

     The incumbent awardee has developed a number of policies,
     procedures, annual work plans, documents, software, and services
     for operations.  These are available at the incumbent's web site
     at http://www.nees.org and http://it.nees.org.   Proposers should
     review this information to identify what may be adopted or
     adapted for operations, where feasible, during 2010 - 2014.  The
     incumbent awardee will cooperate with the awardee to the extent
     necessary to facilitate uninterrupted support for the equipment
     sites and cyberinfrastructure operations during the awardee's
     start-up period and will provide transfer of legal rights to
     relevant property and equipment, excluding the NEES equipment
     sites.

  D. NEES Operations beyond September 30, 2014

     During 2011, NSF intends to support an independent assessment of
     (1) the accomplishments of NEES operations and NEES research to
     advance earthquake loss reduction, experimental techniques, and
     cyberinfrastructure; (2) the viability of NEES equipment sites
     (on a site by site basis) and cyberinfrastructure to continue to
     provide state of the art infrastructure beyond September 30,
     2014; (3) needed equipment and cyberinfrastructure upgrades;
     environmental, safety, health, and cybersecurity issues that need
     to be addressed; and their associated costs to maintain NEES as a
     state of the art infrastructure beyond September 30, 2014; and
     (4) earthquake engineering experimental capabilities
     worldwide.  Upon completion of that assessment and based on the
     awardee's performance, NSF will make a decision whether to
     upgrade NEES (equipment sites and cyberinfrastructure), renew the
     cooperative agreement award made under this solicitation for an
     additional award period, recompete NEES operations, or terminate
     NEES operations.

III. AWARD INFORMATION

Anticipated funding is estimated to be $105,000,000 total for up to five
years. The amount available under the cooperative agreement will depend
upon the annual budgets of NSF and the performance of the awardee. For the
purpose of writing a proposal, assume that the maximum funding (i.e., total
annual budget) available is $20,000,000 in year one, $20,500,000 in year
two, $21,000,000 in year three, $21,500,000 in year four, and $22,000,000
in year five. As part of the total annual budgets listed above, assume
collective equipment site operations annual budgets to total $14,350,000 in
year one, $14,700,000 in year two, $15,000,000 in year three, $15,400,000
in year four, and $15,700,000 in year five. Also, as part of the total
annual budgets listed above, assume an annual capital replacement budget of
$650,000 in year one, $665,000 in year two, $680,000 in year three,
$695,000 in year four, and $710,000 in year five. The capital replacement
budget provides support for annual major equipment repairs across the NEES
equipment sites. Individual equipment site budgets, annual and cumulative,
are not required and should not be submitted in preliminary and invited
full proposals. The awardee will obtain detailed budgets from each
equipment site after the cooperative agreement is awarded and will propose
the total annual operating budgets to NSF.

IV. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

Organization Limit:

     Proposals may only be submitted by the following:

        * The following organizations may submit preliminary and
          invited full proposals:  (1) Universities and colleges
          located and accredited in the United States, acting on
          behalf of their faculty.  Such organizations are also
          referred to as academic institutions; and (2) Non-profit,
          non-academic organizations located and incorporated within
          the United States that are directly associated with research
          activities or that are a non-profit subsidiary of a college
          or university.

          Preliminary and invited full proposals involving more than
          one organization must be submitted as a single
          administrative package from the lead organization;
          collaborative preliminary proposals and collaborative
          invited full proposals with multiple administrative packages
          will not be accepted.

PI Limit:

     The Principal Investigator (PI) must be a full-time employee of
     the lead (submitting) organization.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization:

     None Specified

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI:

     None Specified

V. PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

Letters of Intent(required):

In lieu of the Letter of Intent (LOI) FastLane submission requirement
specified below, LOIs must be emailed to jpauschk@nsf.gov by 5:00 p.m.
proposer's local time on September 3, 2008. All other LOI preparation
instructions specified below remain unchanged.

A Letter of Intent, maximum two pages, is required to facilitate the NSF
review process.  All Principal Investigators or organizations planning to
submit a preliminary proposal must submit a Letter of Intent.  The letter
must be submitted via FastLane no later than the date specified in this
solicitation.  Each letter should include the following:

  1. Names and locations of the lead and partner organizations, excluding
     the NEES equipment site academic institutions and locations, unless
     the academic institution is a partner for aspects of NEES operations
     in addition to local equipment site operations.
  2. Names of the Principal Investigator, co-Principal Investigators,
     Deputy or Associate Director(s), and other key management staff,
     including their organizational and departmental or unit affiliations
     and locations, excluding NEES equipment site personnel whose only role
     is for local equipment site operations.
  3. Principal Investigator's email address and phone number.
  4. Proposed location of NEES operations headquarters, if different from
     the location of the lead organization.

NSF will use the Letters of Intent only to prepare for the proposal review
process.  NSF will provide via email to the Principal Investigator an
acknowledgment of receipt of the Letter of Intent.

Letter of Intent Preparation Instructions:

When submitting a Letter of Intent through FastLane in response to this
Program Solicitation please note the conditions outlined below:

   * Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) Submission is not required when
     submitting Letters of Intent
   * Submission of multiple Letters of Intent is not allowed

Preliminary Proposals (required): Preliminary proposals are required and
must be submitted via the NSF FastLane system, even if full proposals will
be submitted via Grants.gov.

                                  Table 2

 Summary of Proposal Preparation Instructions for Preliminary Proposals and
                           Invited Full Proposals

 (See Proposal Preparation Instructions below for preliminary proposals and
 invited full proposals for more detailed submission requirements; specific
    information about the individual equipment sites and equipment site
  personnel whose only role in NEES operations is for local equipment site
              operations at the university is not requested.)

 Proposal Requirement      Preliminary Proposal    Invited Full Proposal

 FastLane or Grants.gov                            Either FastLane or
 Submission                FastLane required       Grants.gov may be used
                                                   (FastLane recommended)
 Cover Sheet               Required                Required
                           Required title: "NEES   Required title: "NEES
 Title of Proposed Project Operations: FY 2010-FY  Operations: FY 2010-FY
                           2014"                   2014"
 Project Summary,
 addressing Intellectual   Required                Required
 Merit and Broader Impacts
 Table of Contents         Required                Required
 Project Description Page  40-page limit, with     80-page limit, with
 Length                    pagination              pagination
                           Required - List         Required - List
                           personnel receiving two personnel receiving one
 Project Description,      or more months of       or more months of
 Section 1, Project        support in year one,    support in year one,
 Personnel                 exclusive of equipment  exclusive of equipment
                           site personnel and      site personnel and
                           governing body and othergoverning body and
                           committee members       other committee members
 Project Description,
 Section 2, Work Breakdown Required - WBS and      Required - WBS and
 Structure (WBS) and       budget allocations to   budget allocations to
 Budget                    level 3                 level 3
 Project Description,
 Section 3, Role of NEES
 in Advancing Knowledge
 and Innovation for                                Required - Five-page
 Earthquake Loss           Required - Three-page   maximum and provide
 Reduction, Earthquake     maximum                 examples of performance
 Engineering                                       metrics
 Experimentation, and
 Cyberinfrastructure and
 Broadening Participation
                           Required - Provide
 Project Description,      strategy and preliminaryRequired - Provide
 Section 4, Awardee        operating plans to      strategy and detailed
 Responsibilities - Core   address awardee         operating plans to
 Expectations              responsibilities. Do notaddress awardee
                           address NSF Reporting   responsibilities
                           and Reviews
 Project Description,
 Section 5, Summary of the
 Value Added by the        Required                Required
 Proposed Strategy for
 NEES Operations

 Project Description,      Required for Principal  Required for Principal
 Section 6, Results from   Investigator and        Investigators and
 Prior NSF Support         co-Principal            co-Principal
                           Investigators           Investigators

 Project Description,      Required - Evidence of  Optional - Other
 Section 7                 Lead Organization       Supporting Information
                           Capability
                           Required only for       Required for all
                           Principal Investigator, personnel who will
 Biographical Sketches     co-Principal            receive one or more
                           Investigators, and key  months of support in
                           management personnel    year one
                                                   Required - Budget forms
                                                   for lead and all
 Budget                    Not required; insert    partner organizations
                           place holder budget
                                                   receiving $250,000 or
                                                   more annually
                           Required for Principal
                           Investigator,           Required for all
 Current and Pending       co-Principal            personnel who will
 Support                   Investigators, and key  receive one or more
                           management personnel    months of support in
                           only                    year one
 Facilities, Equipment and Not required; do not    Not required; do not
 Other Resources           include                 include
                                                   Only letters from
 Special Information and   Only letters from       partner organizations
 Supplementary             partner organizations   and consultants and
 Documentation             and consultants and onlyonly five appendices
                           two appendices permitted
                                                   permitted

Proposal Preparation Instructions for the Preliminary Proposal

The Preliminary Proposal shall conform to the guidelines specified in the
NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) and the preliminary proposal preparation
instructions provided below. The complete text of the GPG is available
electronically on the NSF website at
http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg. The preliminary
proposal preparation instructions below include deviations from the GPG in
terms of required proposal sections, project description length, and two
allowed appendices.

The following information is required for the Preliminary Proposal:

Cover Sheet. A cover sheet must be submitted and electronically signed by
an Authorized Organizational Representative for all preliminary proposals.
Select the NEES Operations program solicitation from the pull down list.
The "preliminary proposal" check box must be selected.

Title of Proposed Project. The title of the proposal must be NEES
Operations: FY 2010-FY 2014. Do not use any other title for the proposed
project.

Project Summary. This should provide a summary, not more than one page in
length, of the key points of the proposal and should be understandable to a
scientifically or technically literate lay reader. The project summary
should follow the NSF GPG guidelines and must clearly address in separate
statements (within the one-page summary), the intellectual merit of the
proposed activity and the broader impacts resulting from the proposed
activity.

Table of Contents will be automatically generated by FastLane.

Project Description. The project description should describe the lead
organization's strategy and preliminary operating plans for year one
of NEES operations to meet the responsibilities outlined in Section II.C,
"Awardee Responsibilities - Core Expectations." The project description is
limited to 40 pages and should contain the following sections, in the order
listed below. Where noted below, additionally requested material may be
included separately in an Appendix to the proposal. Material in the
Appendices is not subject to, or included in, the 40-page limit.

     Section 1. Project Personnel

     At the start of the project description, provide a table that
     lists for all personnel with two or more months of anticipated
     support in year one, the following information: name,
     professional title, organizational (and departmental, where
     applicable) affiliation, project title and role, and allocated
     annual full-time equivalent (FTE) effort. If the name of an
     individual filling a position is not known at the time of
     proposal submission, enter "To Be Determined" in the
     table and the date when that position is expected to be filled.
     Do not include in the table the names of secretarial staff or
     personnel from the equipment site subawardees whose only role
     will be for local operations of the equipment site; these names
     will be provided to NSF by the awardee after the cooperative
     agreement is awarded by NSF. Do not include the names of the
     governing body, advisory committee, or other committee members
     who will receive less than one month of support in year one or
     who will only receive travel reimbursement to attend meetings;
     these members are to be selected by the awardee after the award
     is made by NSF.

     Section 2. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Budget

     Present a preliminary baseline WBS and estimated budget
     allocations to level 3 for year one operations when the project
     is at full operations and has exited from the start-up and
     transition phase. Greater refinement of the WBS is not needed for
     the preliminary proposal. Include the associated dictionary for
     the WBS to level 3 in Appendix A. The complete WBS, dictionary,
     and budget will be provided in the invited full proposal. For the
     purpose of the preliminary proposal, assume the annual total
     operations budget, annual collective equipment site operations
     budget, and annual capital replacement budget to be those listed
     under Section III, "Award Information," of this solicitation. The
     WBS, dictionary, and estimated budget allocations are not
     required for the individual equipment site operations at this
     time; this information for the equipment sites will be provided
     to NSF by the awardee after the cooperative agreement is awarded
     by NSF.

     Section 3. Role of NEES in Advancing Knowledge and Innovation for
     Earthquake Loss Reduction, Earthquake Engineering
     Experimentation, and Cyberinfrastructure and Broadening
     Participation (three pages maximum)

     Provide examples of key discoveries and innovations for
     earthquake loss reduction, earthquake engineering
     experimentation, and cyberinfrastructure and key core activities
     to broaden participation in research and education that could be
     enabled by the proposed strategy for NEES operations.

     Section 4. Awardee Responsibilities - Core Expectations

     Provide the strategy and preliminary operating plans to meet the
     following responsibilities outlined in Section II.C, "Awardee
     Responsibilities - Core Expectations," of this solicitation:

       1. Network-wide Governing Body
       2. Network-wide Headquarters
       3. Network-wide Equipment Site Operations and Subaward
          Management
       4. Network-wide Cyberinfrastructure Operations
       5. Network-wide Education, Outreach, and Training

     For each of these five major responsibilities, identify existing
     products (e.g., documents, publications, and software), policies,
     procedures, and services that could be adopted or adapted from
     the incumbent awardee, where feasible, and discuss the strategy
     for involving the equipment sites, as appropriate. If invited to
     submit a full proposal, proposers will develop the strategy and
     preliminary operating plans in more detail in the full proposal.
     For the preliminary proposal, proposers are not required to
     address the awardee responsibilities in Section II.C, for
     "National Science Foundation Reporting and Reviews."

     Section 5. Summary of the Value Added by the Proposed Strategy
     for NEES Operations

     Summarize the value added by the proposed strategy for NEES
     operations in terms of national and international leadership;
     network-wide management headquarters structure and staffing;
     network-wide cohesiveness, synergies, efficiencies, and
     cost-effectiveness for equipment site and cyberinfrastructure
     operations; and education, outreach, and training.

     Section 6. Results from Prior NSF Support, for the Principal
     Investigator and co-Principal Investigators only, in accordance
     with the NSF GPG.

     Section 7. Evidence of Lead Organization Capability (three pages
     maximum)

     This section provides documentation of the lead organization's
     internal business, financial, and human resources capability to
     manage NEES operations within the lead organization.

        * Describe the role of NEES operations within the lead
          organization and the reporting lines of authority of the
          Principal Investigator within the lead organization.
          Describe how these lines of authority will be used to
          provide internal oversight of the cooperative agreement with
          NSF.
        * Discuss the lead organization's business, financial,
          and internal control systems that would be pertinent to the
          implementation of the cooperative agreement, including prior
          evidence of ability related to (a) leading, executing, and
          monitoring a complex project with 15 or more subawards and
          (b) submitting reports on time to NSF.
        * Describe the human resource system(s) that will be used by
          the lead organization for staffing and evaluation of its
          employees' performance on this project.
        * Conflict of Interest of Lead Organization. If the lead
          organization is one of the universities operating a NEES
          equipment site or will receive $200,000 or more annually
          from the award for cyberinfrastructure, education, and
          outreach, describe the process that the lead organization
          will use obtain annual independent assessments of its own
          project performance, plans, and budgets for these
          activities.

References Cited.

Biographical Sketches. Biographical sketches (biosketches) should be
provided for the Principal Investigator, co-Principal Investigators, and
key management personnel identified in the Project Description, Section 1,
"Project Personnel." Key management personnel are personnel who receive
four or more months of support in year one. Do not include the biosketches
of any personnel at the NEES equipment sites whose only role will be for
local operations of the equipment site. Proposals that are not compliant
with the format and information required for biosketches in the NSF GPG
will be returned without review.

Budget. While no budgetary information other than the estimated budget
allocations in the Project Description, Section 2, "Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS) and Budget," will be required at the preliminary proposal
stage, proposers must complete the required budget form in FastLane by
inserting $1 per year as the place-holder. FastLane will automatically
provide a cumulative budget.

Current and Pending Support. Include Current and Pending Support for the
Principal Investigator, co-Principal Investigators, and key management
personnel only.

Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources. This form is not required as the
information is asked to be included in the Project Description section of
the preliminary proposal. Proposers do not need to include this form to
describe the NEES equipment sites and national and/or campus computing
resources.

Special Information and Supplementary Documentation. The only documents
permitted in this section are letters of commitment specific to this
proposal from individuals or from partner organizations on behalf of their
employees who are explicitly named in the Project Description, Section 1,
"Project Personnel," of the preliminary proposal and the appendices noted
below. Any other letters, letters of endorsement, or other information not
requested are not to be included.

Appendix A. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Dictionary

In support of the information provided in the proposal in the Project
Description, Section 2, "Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Budget,"
provide in this Appendix the WBS dictionary to level 3 only, exclusive of
the WBS dictionary for individual equipment site operations.

Appendix B. Conflict of Interest List

Provide a list, in a single alphabetized table, alphabetized by last name,
of the first and last names and institutional affiliations of all
individuals with conflicts of interest for all project personnel who are
including biosketches in the preliminary proposal. Conflicts to be
identified are the following: (1) Ph.D. thesis advisors and advisees; (2)
collaborators on a project or co-authors of a book, article, report, or
paper within the last 48 months; (3) co-editors of a journal, compendium,
or conference proceeding within the last 24 months; and (4) any other
individuals or institutions with which project personnel has a business or
professional partnership (please specify type).

No other appendices are allowed in preliminary proposals.

Note that when the preliminary proposal is submitted, FastLane will perform
a check for all of the standard sections of the proposal. Proposers will
receive warning messages that the Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources
section has not been completed or uploaded. Proposers should disregard
these messages, since this solicitation does not require submission of this
section in the preliminary proposal.

Full Proposal Preparation Instructions: Proposers may opt to submit
proposals in response to this Program Solicitation via Grants.gov or via
the NSF FastLane system.

   * Full proposals submitted via FastLane: Proposals submitted in response
     to this program solicitation should be prepared and submitted in
     accordance with the general guidelines contained in the NSF Grant
     Proposal Guide (GPG). The complete text of the GPG is available
     electronically on the NSF website at:
     http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg. Paper copies
     of the GPG may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse,
     telephone (703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov. Proposers are
     reminded to identify this program solicitation number in the program
     solicitation block on the NSF Cover Sheet For Proposal to the National
     Science Foundation. Compliance with this requirement is critical to
     determining the relevant proposal processing guidelines. Failure to
     submit this information may delay processing.

   * Full proposals submitted via Grants.gov: Proposals submitted in
     response to this program solicitation via Grants.gov should be
     prepared and submitted in accordance with the NSF Grants.gov
     Application Guide: A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF
     Applications via Grants.gov. The complete text of the NSF Grants.gov
     Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov website and on the
     NSF website at:
     (http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/docs/grantsgovguide.pdf). To
     obtain copies of the Application Guide and Application Forms Package,
     click on the Apply tab on the Grants.gov site, then click on the Apply
     Step 1: Download a Grant Application Package and Application
     Instructions link and enter the funding opportunity number, (the
     program solicitation number without the NSF prefix) and press the
     Download Package button. Paper copies of the Grants.gov Application
     Guide also may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse,
     telephone (703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov.

Full proposals may be submitted only by those organizations who have
submitted a preliminary proposal and subsequently been invited by NSF to
submit a full proposal.  Full proposals submitted from other organizations
that have not received an invitation from NSF to submit a full
proposal will be returned without review. Due to the complexity of the
proposals being submitted, use of FastLane to prepare and submit invited
full proposals is strongly encouraged.

The invited full proposal must conform to the guidelines specified in the
NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) or the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide (as
discussed above), and the invited full proposal instructions detailed
below.  The invited full proposal preparation instructions below include
deviations from the NSF GPG and the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide in
terms of required proposal sections, project description length, and five
allowed appendices.

If the invited full proposal contains proprietary or privileged
information, then proposers are reminded to review the procedures in the
NSF GPG or the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide for indicating that the
proposal contains proprietary or privileged information on the proposal
Cover Sheet.

The following information is required for the invited full proposal:

Cover Sheet.  A cover sheet must be submitted and electronically signed by
an Authorized Organizational Representative for all invited full
proposals.  Select the NEES Operations program solicitation from the pull
down list.

Title of Proposed Project.  The title of the proposal must be NEES
Operations:  FY 2010-FY 2014.  Do not use any other title for the proposed
project.

Project Summary.  This should provide a summary, not more than one page in
length, of the key points of the proposal and should be understandable to a
scientifically or technically literate lay reader.  This should follow the
NSF GPG or NSF Grants.gov Application Guide guidelines and must clearly
address in separate statements (within the one-page summary), the
intellectual merit of the proposed activity and the broader impacts
resulting from the proposed activity.

Project Description section of the invited full proposal should contain the
information specified below, in the order listed, and must not exceed 80
pages.  Where noted below, additionally requested material may be included
separately in an Appendix to the proposal.  Material in the Appendices is
not subject to, or included in, the 80-page limit.

     Section 1.  Project Personnel

     At the start of the project description, provide a table that
     lists for all personnel with one or more months of support in
     year one, the following information:  name, professional title,
     organizational (and departmental, where applicable) affiliation,
     project title and role, and allocated annual full-time equivalent
     (FTE) effort.  If the name of an individual filling a position is
     not known at the time of proposal submission, enter "To Be
     Determined" in the table and the date when that position is
     expected to be filled.  Do not include in the table the names of
     secretarial staff or personnel from the equipment site
     subawardees whose only role will be for local operations of the
     equipment site; these names will be provided to NSF by the
     awardee after the cooperative agreement is awarded by NSF.  Do
     not include the names of the governing body, advisory committee,
     or other committee members who will receive less than one month
     of support in year one or who will only receive travel
     reimbursement to attend meetings; these members are to be
     selected by the awardee after the award is made by NSF.

     Section 2.  Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Budget

     Present the baseline WBS and budget allocations to level 3 for
     year one operations when the project is at full operations and
     has exited from the start-up and transition phase.  The complete
     WBS, dictionary, and budget allocations for year one at full
     operations should be provided in Appendix A.  The dictionary
     should fully define the scope of the project, with the exception
     of the local equipment site operations at the universities.
     Using the WBS, provide in Appendix A the budget allocation for
     each WBS element, rolling up the budget at each level.  For the
     purpose of the invited full proposal, assume the year one total
     operations budget, year one collective equipment site operations
     budget, and year one capital replacement budget to be those
     listed under Section III, "Award Information," of this
     solicitation.  The WBS, dictionary, and budget are not required
     for the individual equipment site operations at this time; this
     information for individual equipment site operations will be
     provided to NSF by the awardee after the award is made.

     Section 3.  Role of NEES in Advancing Knowledge and Innovation in
     Earthquake Loss Reduction, Earthquake Engineering
     Experimentation, and Cyberinfrastructure and Broadening
     Participation (five pages maximum)

     Provide examples of key discoveries and innovations for
     earthquake loss reduction, earthquake engineering
     experimentation, and cyberinfrastructure and key core activities
     to broaden participation in research and education that could be
     enabled by the proposed strategy for NEES operations. Provide
     examples of performance metrics to be implemented by the awardee
     that could provide information to develop a compelling basis for
     continued operations beyond September 30, 2014, in the event that
     NSF makes a decision for support beyond 2014, as discussed in
     Section II.D, "NEES Operations beyond September 30, 2014."

     Section 4.  Awardee Responsibilities - Core Expectations

     Provide the strategy and detailed operating plans to meet the
     following responsibilities outlined in Section II.C, "Awardee
     Responsibilities - Core Expectations," of this solicitation:

       1. Network-wide Governing Body
       2. Network-wide Headquarters
       3. Network-wide Equipment Site Operations and Subaward
          Management
       4. Network-wide Cyberinfrastructure Operations
       5. Network-wide Education, Outreach, and Training
       6. National Science Foundation Reporting and Reviews

     For each of these six major responsibilities, identify existing
     products (e.g., documents, publications, and software), policies,
     procedures, and services that could be adopted or adapted from
     the incumbent awardee, where feasible, and discuss the strategy
     for involving the equipment sites, as appropriate.

     Section 5.  Summary of Value Added by the Proposed Strategy for
     NEES Operations

     Summarize the value added by the proposed strategy for NEES
     operations in terms of national and international leadership;
     network-wide management headquarters structure and staffing;
     network-wide cohesiveness, synergies, efficiencies, and
     cost-effectiveness for equipment site and cyberinfrastructure
     operations; and education, outreach, and training.

     Section 6.  Results from Prior NSF Support, for the Principal
     Investigator and co-Principal Investigators only, in accordance
     with the NSF GPG or NSF Grants.gov Application Guide.

     Section 7.  Other Supporting Information (optional)

     Provide any additional information that the lead organization
     believes will be of assistance in evaluating the proposal but
     does not fit into any of the sections defined above.

References Cited.

Biographical Sketches.  Biographical sketches (biosketches) should be
provided for the Principal Investigator, co-Principal Investigators, and
each individual named on the project in the Project Description, Section 1,
"Project Personnel," exclusive of secretarial personnel.  Do not include
biosketches for personnel at the NEES equipment sites whose only role will
be for local operations of the equipment site.  Proposals that are not
compliant with the format and information required for biosketches in the
NSF GPG or the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide will be returned without
review.

Budget.  Provide a budget for each year of requested support.  FastLane or
Grants.gov will automatically provide a cumulative budget.  Proposers
should refer to Section V.B, "Budgetary Information," of this solicitation
and the NSF GPG or the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide when preparing
their budgets.  Additional budget justification, up to ten pages maximum,
may optionally be included in Appendix E, "Additional Budget
Justification."

Current and Pending Support.   Include Current and Pending Support for the
Principal Investigator, co-Principal Investigators, key management
personnel, and all other personnel who will receive one or more months of
support in year one.  Do not include Current and Pending Support
information for personnel at the NEES equipment sites whose only role will
be for local operations of the equipment site.

Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources.  This form is not required as
the information is asked to be included in the Project Description section
of the invited full proposal.  Proposers do not need to include this form
to describe the NEES equipment sites and national and/or campus computing
resources.

Special Information and Supplementary Documentation.  The only items
permitted in this section are letters of commitment to this proposal from
individuals or from partner organizations on behalf of their employees who
are explicitly named in the Project Description, Section 1, "Project
Personnel" and the appendices noted below.  Any other letters, letters of
endorsement, or other information not requested are not to be included. The
following five Appendices are permitted in invited full proposals.  No
other Appendices are permitted in the proposal, other than the five listed
below.

Appendix A.  Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Dictionary, and Budget
Allocations

In support of the information provided in the invited full proposal in the
Project Description, Section 2, "Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and
Budget," provide in this Appendix the complete WBS, WBS dictionary, and
budget allocated to each WBS element.  Provide the budget rolled up at each
WBS level.

Appendix B.  Start-up and Transition Plan (fifteen pages maximum)

The year-one budget must include all costs required by the lead and its
partner organizations to implement a start-up plan for the period from
October 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010, accounting for a six-month
transitional overlap in responsibility from the incumbent awardee during
this time period.  NSF will provide separate funds to the incumbent awardee
for this transition period.  The transition plan must include the
following:

   * Activities, with schedule and budget, to be accomplished within the
     first six months.  A high priority activity must be execution of
     subawards to partner organizations.  The start-up plan must include
     the following deliverables by the deadlines indicated:
        o By November 1, 2009, the year one operating budget proposed to
          NSF, including budgets for the equipment site subawards and all
          other subawards;
        o By December 1, 2009, network-wide policies for cybersecurity and
          safety submitted to NSF;
        o By January 1, 2010, list of all equipment site personnel
          submitted to NSF;
        o By March 1, 2010, submission to NSF of (a) documented user
          requirements and requirements traceability matrix and (b)
          Performance Management System and Performance Metrics for the
          entire project for review and approval by NSF and implementation
          by the awardee by April 1, 2010; and
        o By March 31, 2010, submission to NSF of the Risk Management
          System for the entire project for review and approval by NSF and
          implementation by the awardee by May 1, 2010;
   * Plans for recruitment, orientation, and training of staff members,
     including the schedule for completing recruitment of all project
     personnel, exclusive of equipment site personnel at the universities;
   * Plans for initial interaction with the NEES equipment sites to
     establish working relationships, subcontracts, policies, and
     procedures;
   * A plan to acquire office infrastructure (if necessary);
   * Management plan for the transfer of inventory, current and previous
     annual work plans, data repository, software, web site content,
     maintenance agreements, and other documents from the incumbent
     awardee.  This would include plans for the transfer of
     responsibilities for operation of the NEES cyberinfrastructure; and
   * Criteria that will be used to report to NSF the exit from start-up to
     full staffing and full operations.

Appendix C.  Evidence of Awardee Organization Capability

This Appendix provides documentation of the lead organization's internal
business, financial, and human resources capability to manage NEES
operations within the lead organization and the subawards to partner
organizations.

   * Lines of Authority.  Describe the role of NEES operations and the
     reporting lines of authority of the Principal Investigator within the
     lead organization.   Describe how these lines of authority will be
     used to provide awardee oversight of all aspects of the project.
   * Business and Internal Control Systems.  Provide a detailed structure
     and plan for implementing and monitoring business systems and internal
     controls for financial management, accounting, property standards,
     equipment standards, procurement standards, reporting, and records.
     Include prior evidence of ability to (a) execute and monitor a complex
     project with multiple subawards and (b) submit quarterly and annual
     reports on time to NSF.
   * Compensation.  If the lead organization is a non-profit organization,
     provide the total compensation plan setting forth proposed salaries
     and fringe benefits for professional employees, with supporting
     information such as recognized national and regional compensation
     surveys, and studies of professional, public, and private
     organizations used in establishing the total compensation structure.
   * Financial Statements.  If available, provide the lead organization's
     annual audited financial statements, (e.g., Balance Sheet, Profit and
     Loss Statement and Annual Report) for the three most recent fiscal
     years and/or other documentation to explain its current financial
     strength and resource capability.
   * Indirect Cost Rate and Supporting Financial Data. If the lead
     organization is not an academic institution and its indirect cost
     rates have been approved by another federal agency, provide a copy of
     such agreements.
   * Human Resource Systems.  Describe the human resource system(s) that
     will be used by the lead organization for recruiting project
     personnel, evaluation of its employees on the project, and evaluation
     of the subawardees' performance under this award.  Describe the
     strategy for the recruitment of project staff from underrepresented
     groups, including persons with disabilities, and the promotion of
     diversity within the workforce.  Describe any existing barriers to
     achieving a strong candidate pool for staffing all positions for the
     project, exclusive of equipment site operations, and how those
     barriers will be overcome in the recruiting process.  Provide the lead
     organization's minimum qualifications for selection of all key
     managerial positions that will receive two or more months of annual
     support, exclusive of the equipment site staffing, and regardless of
     the employer of that project position.  For those key managerial
     positions that have staff identified at the time of full proposal
     submission, demonstrate how those staff meet the minimum
     qualifications.  Provide an assessment, from independent sources, of
     the availability of a robust and qualified workforce for staffing the
     project within the lead organization's or proposed headquarters office
     locality.
   * Current Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB) Disclosure Statement,
     if applicable.

Appendix D.  Conflict of Interest List

     Provide a list, in a single alphabetized table, alphabetized by
     last name, of the first and last names and institutional
     affiliations of all individuals with conflicts of interest for
     all project personnel who are including biosketches in the
     preliminary proposal.  Conflicts to be identified are the
     following:  (1) Ph.D. thesis advisors and advisees; (2)
     collaborators on a project or co-authors of a book, article,
     report, or paper within the last 48 months; (3) co-editors of a
     journal, compendium, or conference proceeding within the last 24
     months; and (4) any other individuals or institutions with which
     project personnel has a business or professional partnership
     (please specify type).

Appendix E.  Additional Budget Justification (optional, ten pages maximum)

     This Appendix may be used to provide additional budget
     justification, as needed.

No other appendices are allowed in invited full proposals.

Note that when the invited full proposal is submitted, FastLane or
Grants.gov will perform a check for all of the standard sections of the
proposal.  Proposers will receive warning messages that the Facilities,
Equipment and Other Resources section has not been completed or uploaded.
Proposers should disregard these messages, since this solicitation does not
require submission of this section in the invited full proposal.

B. Budgetary Information

Cost Sharing:   Cost sharing is not required under this solicitation.

Other Budgetary Limitations:  Proposers should note the following budgetary
limitations:

  1. The year one operations budget must include all costs required by the
     lead and its partner organizations to provide start-up and transition
     for the period from October 1, 2009  through March 31, 2010,
     accounting for the six-month transitional overlap in responsibility
     from the incumbent awardee.  NSF will provide separate funds to the
     incumbent awardee for this transition period.

  2. Annual budgets may include a budget for participant support costs, not
     to exceed $100,000 annually, to provide travel support for potential
     users to attend equipment site and cyberinfrastructure training
     workshops.

  3. Funds from this award cannot be used to provide severance, retention,
     or bonus packages for any project personnel supported by this award.

Budget Preparation Instructions:  The invited full proposal must include a
budget for each of the five years.  FastLane and Grants.gov will
automatically provide a cumulative budget.

For the purpose of writing a proposal, assume that the maximum funding
available is $20,000,000 in year one, $20,500,000 in year two, $21,000,000
in year three, $21,500,000 in year four, and $22,000,000 in year five.
Under this scenario, the maximum total funding provided under this
cooperative agreement would be $105,000,000 for the five years.  As part of
the annual budgets listed above, assume collective equipment site
operations budget to total $14,350,000 in year one, $14,700,000 in year
two, $15,000,000 in year three, $15,400,000 in year four, and $15,700,000
in year five.  Also, as part of the annual budgets listed above, assume a
capital replacement budget of $650,000 in year one, $665,000 in year two,
$680,000 in year three, $695,000 in year four, and $710,000 in year five.
The capital replacement budget provides support for annual major equipment
repairs across the NEES equipment sites.  The awardee will obtain detailed
budgets from each equipment site after the cooperative agreement is awarded
and will propose the total annual operating budgets to NSF.  The assumed
budgets for equipment site operations and capital replacement budgets
should be included as part of the total level of subcontract support on
line G5, subawards, of the FastLane budget or line F5 of the R&R Budget
Form in Grants.gov.  If the lead organization is one of the universities
hosting a NEES equipment site, then subtract out the average equipment site
budget from the assumed annual budget for collective equipment site
operations from the subaward line and include that average cost as part of
the lead organization's budget.

The annual budgets should include the costs for the Principal Investigator
and key management personnel to participate in the CMMI Division grantee
meetings, held approximately every 18 months.

Excluding the assumed collective equipment site budgets and the assumed
capital replacement budget noted above, include separate FastLane budgets
for subawards/subcontracts that are $250,000 or greater annually.  For
subawards/subcontracts less than $250,000 annually, include the costs
aggregated on the subaward line of the annual budget.  In the budget
justification, provide a list of all organizations who will receive less
than $250,000 annually and the annual support provided to each
organization.

Submitting organizations that have not previously received NSF awards
should review the NSF 05-29 Prospective New Awardee Guide available at
http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=pnag for additional
guidance in preparing their budget submission.

C. Due Dates

   * Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's
     local time):

          September 03, 2008

          In lieu of the Letter of Intent (LOI) FastLane submission
          requirement specified below, LOIs must be emailed to
          jpauschk@nsf.gov by 5:00 p.m. proposer's local time on September
          3, 2008. All other LOI preparation instructions remain unchanged.

   * Preliminary Proposal Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's
     local time):

          October 01, 2008

   * Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):

          February 13, 2009

D. FastLane/Grants.gov Requirements

   * For Proposals Submitted Via FastLane:

     Detailed technical instructions regarding the technical aspects of
     preparation and submission via FastLane are available at:
     https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a1/newstan.htm. For FastLane user
     support, call the FastLane Help Desk at 1-800-673-6188 or e-mail
     fastlane@nsf.gov. The FastLane Help Desk answers general technical
     questions related to the use of the FastLane system. Specific
     questions related to this program solicitation should be referred to
     the NSF program staff contact(s) listed in Section VIII of this
     funding opportunity.

     Submission of Electronically Signed Cover Sheets. The Authorized
     Organizational Representative (AOR) must electronically sign the
     proposal Cover Sheet to submit the required proposal certifications
     (see Chapter II, Section C of the Grant Proposal Guide for a listing
     of the certifications). The AOR must provide the required electronic
     certifications within five working days following the electronic
     submission of the proposal. Further instructions regarding this
     process are available on the FastLane Website at:
     https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp.

   * For Proposals Submitted Via Grants.gov:

     Before using Grants.gov for the first time, each organization must
     register to create an institutional profile. Once registered, the
     applicant's organization can then apply for any federal grant on the
     Grants.gov website. The Grants.gov's Grant Community User Guide is a
     comprehensive reference document that provides technical information
     about Grants.gov. Proposers can download the User Guide as a Microsoft
     Word document or as a PDF document. The Grants.gov User Guide is
     available at:
     http://www.grants.gov/CustomerSupport. In addition, the NSF Grants.gov
     Application Guide provides additional technical guidance regarding
     preparation of proposals via Grants.gov. For Grants.gov user support,
     contact the Grants.gov Contact Center at 1-800-518-4726 or by email:
     support@grants.gov. The Grants.gov Contact Center answers general
     technical questions related to the use of Grants.gov. Specific
     questions related to this program solicitation should be referred to
     the NSF program staff contact(s) listed in Section VIII of this
     solicitation.

     Submitting the Proposal: Once all documents have been completed, the
     Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must submit the
     application to Grants.gov and verify the desired funding opportunity
     and agency to which the application is submitted. The AOR must then
     sign and submit the application to Grants.gov. The completed
     application will be transferred to the NSF FastLane system for further
     processing.

VI. NSF PROPOSAL PROCESSING AND REVIEW PROCEDURES

Proposals received by NSF are assigned to the appropriate NSF program where
they will be reviewed if they meet NSF proposal preparation requirements.
All proposals are carefully reviewed by a scientist, engineer, or educator
serving as an NSF Program Officer, and usually by three to ten other
persons outside NSF who are experts in the particular fields represented by
the proposal. These reviewers are selected by Program Officers charged with
the oversight of the review process. Proposers are invited to suggest names
of persons they believe are especially well qualified to review the
proposal and/or persons they would prefer not review the proposal. These
suggestions may serve as one source in the reviewer selection process at
the Program Officer's discretion. Submission of such names, however, is
optional. Care is taken to ensure that reviewers have no conflicts of
interest with the proposal.

A. NSF Merit Review Criteria

All NSF proposals are evaluated through use of the two National Science
Board (NSB)-approved merit review criteria: intellectual merit and the
broader impacts of the proposed effort. In some instances, however, NSF
will employ additional criteria as required to highlight the specific
objectives of certain programs and activities.

The two NSB-approved merit review criteria are listed below. The criteria
include considerations that help define them. These considerations are
suggestions and not all will apply to any given proposal. While proposers
must address both merit review criteria, reviewers will be asked to address
only those considerations that are relevant to the proposal being
considered and for which the reviewer is qualified to make judgements.

     What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?
     How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and
     understanding within its own field or across different fields?
     How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to
     conduct the project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment
     on the quality of the prior work.) To what extent does the
     proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original, or
     potentially transformative concepts? How well conceived and
     organized is the proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to
     resources?

     What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?
     How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding
     while promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does
     the proposed activity broaden the participation of
     underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability,
     geographic, etc.)? To what extent will it enhance the
     infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities,
     instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? Will the results be
     disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological
     understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed activity
     to society?

Examples illustrating activities likely to demonstrate broader impacts are
available electronically on the NSF website at:
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/gpg/broaderimpacts.pdf.

NSF staff also will give careful consideration to the following in making
funding decisions:

     Integration of Research and Education
     One of the principal strategies in support of NSF's goals is to
     foster integration of research and education through the
     programs, projects, and activities it supports at academic and
     research institutions. These institutions provide abundant
     opportunities where individuals may concurrently assume
     responsibilities as researchers, educators, and students and
     where all can engage in joint efforts that infuse education with
     the excitement of discovery and enrich research through the
     diversity of learning perspectives.

     Integrating Diversity into NSF Programs, Projects, and Activities
     Broadening opportunities and enabling the participation of all
     citizens -- women and men, underrepresented minorities, and
     persons with disabilities -- is essential to the health and
     vitality of science and engineering. NSF is committed to this
     principle of diversity and deems it central to the programs,
     projects, and activities it considers and supports.

     Additional Review Criteria:

     For both preliminary proposals and invited full proposals, reviewers
     will be asked to identify and analyze the following:

        * Strengths of the proposed strategy and operating plans.
        * Weaknesses of the proposed strategy and operating plans.
        * Opportunities that could strengthen the proposed strategy and
          operating plans.
        * Risks to the future success of NEES operations in the proposed
          strategy and operating plans that are not identified or not
          satisfactorily addressed.
        * Capability of the lead organization to lead and manage NEES
          operations.
        * Likelihood that the project personnel (at the lead and partner
          organizations and consultants) can conduct NEES operations as
          outlined in section II.C., "Awardee Responsibilities - Core
          Expectations" of this solicitation, based on project personnel
          qualifications, evidence of prior accomplishments, level of
          effort allocated, and comprehensiveness of breadth of expertise
          provided.
        * Extent to which the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and dictionary
          define all activities for NEES operations, as outlined in section
          II.C, "Awardee Responsibilities - Core Expectations," of this
          solicitation.
        * Appropriateness of the budget allocated to the WBS elements.
        * Quality of prior accomplishments in cyberinfrastructure
          operations and demonstrated ability to develop and maintain an
          active cyberinfrastructure user base.
        * Likelihood that the project personnel will be able to provide
          cyberinfrastructure for NEES operations that is responsive to
          user requirements and the user community.
        * Value added by the proposed strategy for NEES operations in terms
          of national and international leadership; network-wide management
          headquarters structure and staffing; and network-wide
          cohesiveness, synergies, efficiencies, and cost-effectiveness,
          with respect to
             * A high level of synergy and leveraging among the
               headquarters, equipment sites, cyberinfrastructure
               operations, and education and outreach activities;
             * Network-wide strategies and solutions; and
             * Adoption or adaptation, where feasible, of the products,
               policies, procedures, software, documents, and services
               developed by the incumbent awardee.

     For preliminary proposals, reviewers will be asked to evaluate the
     quality of and the extent to which the strategy and preliminary
     operating plans provided in the proposal address the following awardee
     responsibilities that are outlined in Section II.C, "Awardee
     Responsibilities - Core Expectations" of this solicitation,
     incorporating the NSB-approved merit review criteria of intellectual
     merit and broader impacts:

       1. Network-wide Governing Body
       2. Network-wide Headquarters
       3. Network-wide Equipment Site Operations and Subaward Management
       4. Network-wide Cyberinfrastructure Operations
       5. Network-wide Education, Outreach, and Training

     For invited full proposals, reviewers will be asked to evaluate the
     quality of and the extent to which the strategy and detailed operating
     plans provided in the proposal address the following awardee
     responsibilities that are outlined in Section II.C, "Awardee
     Responsibilities - Core Expectations," of this solicitation,
     incorporating the NSB-approved merit review criteria of intellectual
     merit and broader impacts:

       1. Network-wide Governing Body
       2. Network-wide Headquarters
       3. Network-wide Equipment Site Operation and Subaward Management
       4. Network-wide Cyberinfrastructure Operations
       5. Network-wide Education, Outreach, and Training
       6. National Science Foundation Reporting and Reviews

     For invited full proposals, reviewers will be asked to evaluate the
     lead organization's ability to assume full responsibility for the
     leadership and management of NEES operations upon completion of the
     six-month start-up and transition period without degradation of high
     quality services.

B. Review and Selection Process

Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation will be
reviewed by Ad hoc Review and/or Panel Review, Site Visit Review, or
Reverse Site Review.

First, preliminary proposals will undergo a panel merit review, with ad hoc
mail reviews as needed. The panel reviews will make recommendations for
invitations for full proposals.  NSF staff will review these
recommendations and select a shortlist of preliminary proposals to be
invited by NSF for full proposals.  Second, invited full proposals will be
evaluated, with additional ad hoc reviews, by a panel and/or either a
reverse site visit briefing to a panel at NSF or a site visit to the
location of the proposed headquarters or lead organization.  NSF will
notify the Principal Investigators of all invited full proposals of this
second step of the review process with the full proposal invitation.  The
full proposal invitation will be sent electronically to the Principal
Investigator's email address on the preliminary proposal cover sheet.
Proposers should plan their schedules to be available for this second step
of the merit review process in case they are selected. Site visit dates
will not be rescheduled. Any travel and other costs to the site visit by
proposers will be the responsibility of the proposers.  Third, if needed,
NSF may convene a panel for final recommendations.  Principal Investigators
should make sure that the email address specified for themselves on the
cover sheets of the preliminary proposal and invited full proposal are
correct and able to receive incoming electronic correspondence.

Reviewers will be asked to formulate a recommendation to either support or
decline each proposal. The Program Officer assigned to manage the
proposal's review will consider the advice of reviewers and will formulate
a recommendation.

After scientific, technical and programmatic review and consideration of
appropriate factors, the NSF Program Officer recommends to the cognizant
Division Director whether the proposal should be declined or recommended
for award. NSF is striving to be able to tell applicants whether their
proposals have been declined or recommended for funding within six months.
The time interval begins on the deadline or target date, or receipt date,
whichever is later.  The interval ends when the Division Director accepts
the Program Officer's recommendation.

A summary rating and accompanying narrative will be completed and submitted
by each reviewer. In all cases, reviews are treated as confidential
documents. Verbatim copies of reviews, excluding the names of the
reviewers, are sent to the Principal Investigator/Project Director by the
Program Officer.  In addition, the proposer will receive an explanation of
the decision to award or decline funding.

In all cases, after programmatic approval has been obtained, the proposals
recommended for funding will be forwarded to the Division of Acquisition
and Cooperative Support for review of business, financial, and policy
implications and the processing and issuance of a grant or other agreement.
Proposers are cautioned that only a Grants and Agreements Officer may make
commitments, obligations or awards on behalf of NSF or authorize the
expenditure of funds. No commitment on the part of NSF should be inferred
from technical or budgetary discussions with a NSF Program Officer. A
Principal Investigator or organization that makes financial or personnel
commitments in the absence of a grant or cooperative agreement signed by
the NSF Grants and Agreements Officer does so at their own risk.

VII. AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

A. Notification of the Award

Notification of the award is made to the submitting organization by a
Grants Officer in the Division of Acquisition and Cooperative Support.
Organizations whose proposals are declined will be advised as promptly as
possible by the cognizant NSF Program administering the program. Verbatim
copies of reviews, not including the identity of the reviewer, will be
provided automatically to the Principal Investigator. (See Section VI.B.
for additional information on the review process.)

B. Award Conditions

An NSF award consists of: (1) the award letter, which includes any special
provisions applicable to the award and any numbered amendments thereto; (2)
the budget, which indicates the amounts, by categories of expense, on which
NSF has based its support (or otherwise communicates any specific approvals
or disapprovals of proposed expenditures); (3) the proposal referenced in
the award letter; (4) the applicable award conditions, such as Grant
General Conditions (GC-1); * or Research Terms and Conditions * and (5) any
announcement or other NSF issuance that may be incorporated by reference in
the award letter. Cooperative agreements also are administered in
accordance with NSF Cooperative Agreement Financial and Administrative
Terms and Conditions (CA-FATC) and the applicable Programmatic Terms and
Conditions. NSF awards are electronically signed by an NSF Grants and
Agreements Officer and transmitted electronically to the organization via
e-mail.

*These documents may be accessed electronically on NSF's Website at
http://www.nsf.gov/awards/managing/award_conditions.jsp?org=NSF. Paper
copies may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone
(703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov.

More comprehensive information on NSF Award Conditions and other important
information on the administration of NSF awards is contained in the NSF
Award & Administration Guide (AAG) Chapter II, available electronically on
the NSF Website at
http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=aag.

Special Award Conditions:

Programmatic Terms and Conditions:  Cooperative Agreement Administration

The cooperative agreement awarded as a result of this competition will be
administered by the CMMI Division in the Directorate for Engineering and
the Division of Acquisition and Cooperative Support in the Office of
Budget, Finance, and Award Management.

A draft cooperative agreement for the award to be made as the outcome of
this program solicitation will be posted at the NSF web site
http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=CMMI.

The following measures will be used by NSF in providing oversight for this
cooperative agreement:

   * Review and approval of initial staffing of all key management
     personnel, including the Principal Investigator, Deputy and/or
     Associate Director(s), Directors(s) of Equipment Site Operations,
     Director(s) of Cyberinfrastructure/Information Technology Operations,
     and Director(s) of Education, Outreach, and Training.
   * Review and approval of Annual Work Plans and NSF-required Reports
     described in Section II.C, "Awardee Responsibilities - Core
     Expectations" under item (6) "National Science Foundation Reporting
     and Reviews."
   * Review and approval of the Performance Management System and
     Performance Metrics, and Risk Management System.
   * Review and, if required, approval of notifications to NSF about
     incidents related to environmental, health, and safety requirements;
     equipment damage/failure; and cybersecurity.
   * Annual Operations Merit Review Site Visits, organized by NSF, with
     external reviewers, to assess fulfillment of annual goals;
     performance; staffing; upcoming annual and longer term maintenance and
     operating plans; and compliance with university, government, and/or
     awardee environmental, health, safety, and cybersecurity
     requirements.
   * Merit Review Site Visits of Equipment Site Operations, organized by
     NSF, with external reviewers, at individual equipment site
     universities, approximately three annually, to assess fulfillment of
     annual goals; performance; staffing; upcoming annual and longer term
     maintenance and operating plans; and compliance with university,
     government, and/or awardee environmental, health, safety, and
     cybersecurity requirements.
   * Business Systems Review, typically scheduled once during the five-year
     award period, with the review to be conducted within the first two
     years of the award date.

In addition, NSF will review and, if necessary, approve the following:

   * Awardee-proposed national and international partnerships that require
     awardee signature on a Memorandum of Understanding or similar
     documents; and
   * NSF approval for changes in key management positions and equipment
     site Principal Investigators, rebudgeting of $100,000 or greater by
     the awardee or a subaward, and use of unobligated carryover not
     intended to be applied to the next year's annual operating budget.

Program-specific terms and conditions not listed above will be negotiated
at the time of award.

C. Reporting Requirements

For all multi-year grants (including both standard and continuing grants),
the Principal Investigator must submit an annual project report to the
cognizant Program Officer at least 90 days before the end of the current
budget period. (Some programs or awards require more frequent project
reports). Within 90 days after expiration of a grant, the PI also is
required to submit a final project report.

Failure to provide the required annual or final project reports will delay
NSF review and processing of any future funding increments as well as any
pending proposals for that PI. PIs should examine the formats of the
required reports in advance to assure availability of required data.

PIs are required to use NSF's electronic project-reporting system,
available through FastLane, for preparation and submission of annual and
final project reports. Such reports provide information on activities and
findings, project participants (individual and organizational)
publications; and, other specific products and contributions. PIs will not
be required to re-enter information previously provided, either with a
proposal or in earlier updates using the electronic system. Submission of
the report via FastLane constitutes certification by the PI that the
contents of the report are accurate and complete.

Awardee responsibilities to the National Science Foundation with respect to
reporting requirements are outlined in Section II.C, "Awardee
Responsibilities - Core Expectations," of this program solicitation.
Proposers should refer to Section II.C for reporting requirements.

VIII. AGENCY CONTACTS

General inquiries regarding this program should be made to:

   * Joy M. Pauschke, Program Director, Division of Civil, Mechanical and
     Manufacturing Innovation, telephone: (703) 292-7024, email:
     jpauschk@nsf.gov

   * Kevin Thompson, Program Director, Office of Cyberinfrastructure,
     telephone: (703) 292-8962, email: kthompso@nsf.gov

   * Nakita Y. Harris, Grants and Agreements Specialist, Division of
     Acquisition and Cooperative Support, telephone: (703) 292-2182, email:
     nyharris@nsf.gov

For questions related to the use of FastLane, contact:

   * FastLane Help Desk, telephone: 1-800-673-6188; e-mail:
     fastlane@nsf.gov.

For questions relating to Grants.gov contact:

   * Grants.gov Contact Center: If the Authorized Organizational
     Representatives (AOR) has not received a confirmation message from
     Grants.gov within 48 hours of submission of application, please
     contact via telephone: 1-800-518-4726; e-mail: support@grants.gov.

IX. OTHER INFORMATION

The NSF Website provides the most comprehensive source of information on
NSF Directorates (including contact information), programs and funding
opportunities. Use of this Website by potential proposers is strongly
encouraged. In addition, MyNSF (formerly the Custom News Service) is an
information-delivery system designed to keep potential proposers and other
interested parties apprised of new NSF funding opportunities and
publications, important changes in proposal and award policies and
procedures, and upcoming NSF Regional Grants Conferences. Subscribers are
informed through e-mail or the user's Web browser each time new
publications are issued that match their identified interests. MyNSF also
is available on NSF's Website at
http://www.nsf.gov/mynsf/.

Grants.gov provides an additional electronic capability to search for
Federal government-wide grant opportunities. NSF funding opportunities may
be accessed via this new mechanism. Further information on Grants.gov may
be obtained at http://www.grants.gov.

     Additional suggested sources of information, in addition to those
     provided in the program solicitation above, which may be helpful
     to proposers (not an exhaustive list):

     Current NEES Operations Web Sites, http://www.nees.org and
     http://it.nees.org

     Digital Library for Earth System Education, http://www.dlese.org

     nanoHUB, http://www.nanohub.org

     National Science Digital Library, http://nsdl.org/

     National Science Foundation, Directorate for Engineering,
     http://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=ENG

     National Science Foundation, Division of Civil, Mechanical and
     Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI),
     http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=CMMI

     National Science Foundation, Office of Cyberinfrastructure,
     http://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=OCI

     Network for Computational Nanotechnology,
     http://www.ncn.purdue.edu/

     NMI Build and Test Lab, http://nmi.cs.wisc.edu

     Open Science Grid, http://www.opensciencegrid.org/

     Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University,
     http://www.sei.cmu.edu

ABOUT THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent Federal agency
created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (42 USC
1861-75). The Act states the purpose of the NSF is "to promote the progress
of science; [and] to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare
by supporting research and education in all fields of science and
engineering."

NSF funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering.
It does this through grants and cooperative agreements to more than 2,000
colleges, universities, K-12 school systems, businesses, informal science
organizations and other research organizations throughout the US. The
Foundation accounts for about one-fourth of Federal support to academic
institutions for basic research.

NSF receives approximately 40,000 proposals each year for research,
education and training projects, of which approximately 11,000 are funded.
In addition, the Foundation receives several thousand applications for
graduate and postdoctoral fellowships. The agency operates no laboratories
itself but does support National Research Centers, user facilities, certain
oceanographic vessels and Antarctic research stations. The Foundation also
supports cooperative research between universities and industry, US
participation in international scientific and engineering efforts, and
educational activities at every academic level.

Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities provide
funding for special assistance or equipment to enable persons with
disabilities to work on NSF-supported projects. See Grant Proposal Guide
Chapter II, Section D.2 for instructions regarding preparation of these
types of proposals.

The National Science Foundation has Telephonic Device for the Deaf (TDD)
and Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) capabilities that enable
individuals with hearing impairments to communicate with the Foundation
about NSF programs, employment or general information. TDD may be accessed
at (703) 292-5090 and (800) 281-8749, FIRS at (800) 877-8339.

The National Science Foundation Information Center may be reached at (703)
292-5111.

 The National Science Foundation promotes and advances scientific
 progress in the United States by competitively awarding grants and
 cooperative agreements for research and education in the sciences,
 mathematics, and engineering.

 To get the latest information about program deadlines, to download
 copies of NSF publications, and to access abstracts of awards, visit the
 NSF Website at http://www.nsf.gov

        * Location:                       4201 Wilson Blvd. Arlington,
                                          VA 22230
        * For General Information         (703) 292-5111
          (NSF Information Center):
        * TDD (for the hearing-impaired): (703) 292-5090

        * To Order Publications or Forms:

              Send an e-mail to:          pubs@nsf.gov

                 or telephone:            (703) 292-7827

        * To Locate NSF Employees:        (703) 292-5111

PRIVACY ACT AND PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENTS

The information requested on proposal forms and project reports is
solicited under the authority of the National Science Foundation Act of
1950, as amended. The information on proposal forms will be used in
connection with the selection of qualified proposals; and project reports
submitted by awardees will be used for program evaluation and reporting
within the Executive Branch and to Congress. The information requested may
be disclosed to qualified reviewers and staff assistants as part of the
proposal review process; to proposer institutions/grantees to provide or
obtain data regarding the proposal review process, award decisions, or the
administration of awards; to government contractors, experts, volunteers
and researchers and educators as necessary to complete assigned work; to
other government agencies or other entities needing information regarding
applicants or nominees as part of a joint application review process, or in
order to coordinate programs or policy; and to another Federal agency,
court, or party in a court or Federal administrative proceeding if the
government is a party. Information about Principal Investigators may be
added to the Reviewer file and used to select potential candidates to serve
as peer reviewers or advisory committee members. See Systems of Records,
NSF-50, "Principal Investigator/Proposal File and Associated Records," 69
Federal Register 26410 (May 12, 2004), and NSF-51, "Reviewer/Proposal File
and Associated Records, " 69 Federal Register 26410 (May 12, 2004).
Submission of the information is voluntary. Failure to provide full and
complete information, however, may reduce the possibility of receiving an
award.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to
respond to, an information collection unless it displays a valid Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) control number. The OMB control number for this
collection is 3145-0058. Public reporting burden for this collection of
information is estimated to average 120 hours per response, including the
time for reviewing instructions. Send comments regarding the burden
estimate and any other aspect of this collection of information, including
suggestions for reducing this burden, to:

Suzanne H. Plimpton
Reports Clearance Officer
Division of Administrative Services
National Science Foundation
Arlington, VA 22230

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