I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Dena Smith-Nufio as Division Director for the Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) effective January 15, 2023. This is a career Senior Executive Service position. 

 Dr. Smith-Nufio came to NSF in 2016 as Lead Program Director in the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Program in EAR. Dr. Smith-Nufio was Acting Section Head for the Disciplinary Programs from June 2019 to March 2020 and from June 2020 to November 2020 she served as Acting Division Director in EAR. Dr. Smith-Nufio is dedicated to advancing early career geoscience researchers and developing innovative approaches to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the geosciences. She has the experience and vision that will enable her to provide effective leadership and direction to EAR in the future and she will be a valued member of the GEO senior leadership team.  

 Dr. Smith-Nufio is a respected and established researcher with over 20 years of experience. Prior to her appointment at NSF, she served as Executive Director of Sedimentary Geology, Time, Paleontology, Paleoclimatology, Energy at the Geological Society of America. She also was also a museum curator and faculty member in the geosciences department at the University of Colorado at Boulder and served as the Executive Director of a U.S.-based Earth Sciences Consortium. She holds a PhD in Geosciences with a minor in Entomology from the University of Arizona. 

 I also want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Dr. Jessica Robin for her service as Acting EAR Division Director over the past eight months. She is an exceptional leader and during her tenure she made significant contributions both to EAR and the Geosciences Directorate. 

 Alexandra R. Isern

Assistant Director 

Frontier Research in Earth Sciences (FRES) 

NSF 20-509 

Supports research on Earth systems, from the core to the critical zone, with a focus on surface, continental lithospheric and deeper Earth systems over the entire range of temporal and spatial scales. 

Deadline is February 06, 2023 

Mid-Career Advancement (MCA) 

NSF 22-603 

Supports opportunities for scientists and engineers at the associate professor rank (or equivalent) to substantively enhance and advance their research program through synergistic partnerships. 

Deadline is March 01, 2023 

Civic Innovation Challenge

NSF 22-565 

 A research and action competition driven by community priorities Supports planning and implementation of community-university partnerships with the potential for significant near-term community impact in one of two focus areas: communities and mobility, or resilience to natural disasters. 

Deadline is March 01, 2023

Biodiversity on a Changing Planet (BoCP) 

NSF 23-542 

The BoCP program is a cross directorate and international program led by NSF that invites submission of interdisciplinary proposals addressing grand challenges in biodiversity science within the context of unprecedented environmental change, including climate change.  

Deadline is March 29, 2023 

Geoscience Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity (GOLD-EN) 

PD 21-178Y 

Supports creating a network of professionals to implement evidence-based best practices and resources that improve diversity, equity and inclusion within the geosciences. 

Target deadline is April 28, 2023  

Dear Colleague Letter: Non-Academic Research Internships for Graduate Students in Geothermal Energy Supplemental Funding Opportunity (Geothermal INTERN) NSF 23-024: 

The U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, through its Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or EERE, have initiated a joint training opportunity in the area of geothermal energy through NSF's INTERN program. 

This opportunity allows NSF PIs to request supplemental support (related to any NSF project) for Graduate Student funding for internships at a variety of industry/private/government partners. 

Dear Colleague Letter: Research Internships for Graduate Students at Air Force Research Laboratory (NSF-AFRL INTERN) Supplemental Funding Opportunity NSF 21-029: 

The NSF and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) have entered into a partnership to support the training of graduate students to meet both the NSF's strategic workforce development objectives as well as the AFRL's mission to lead the discovery, development and delivery of new technologies for our air, space and cyberspace forces. 

Geosciences Open Science Ecosystem (GEO OSE)  

NSF 23-534 

In alignment with the 2023 Federal Year of Open Science, the NSF Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) recently announced a new funding opportunity, the Geosciences Open Science Ecosystem (GEO OSE). The GEO OSE program seeks to support sustainable and networked open science activities to foster an ecosystem of inclusive access to data, physical collections, software, advanced computing, and other resources toward advancing research and education in the geosciences. The purpose of this support is to broadly enable geoscientists to leverage expanding information resources and computing capabilities to address interdisciplinary grand challenge research questions at the forefront of the geosciences. 

Two tracks of support are available based on the size and scope of expected efforts. Track 1 will support smaller-scale activities to advance early stage GEO OSE activities, with funding provided for 2 years with a maximum budget size of $400,000 per project. Track 2 will support larger-scale activities, with funding provided for 3 years with budget size commensurate with the size and scope of the project up to about $1,600,000. 

Proposals to the GEO OSE program solicitation are due March 16, 2023.