The National Science Foundation is working to build a Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering, that is focused on enhancing support for the ongoing NSF-wide Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) investment, where emphasis will be on developing clean energy and sustainability research networks. The CIF21 Campaign is a $117 million endeavor with the goal to:
Develop and deploy comprehensive, integrated, sustainable, and secure cyberinfrastructure (CI) to accelerate research and education and new functional capabilities in computational and data-intensive science and engineering, thereby transforming our ability to effectively address and solve the many complex problems facing science and society.
There are four main areas of focus, including Data-Enabled Science, Community Research Networks, New Computational Infrastructure, and Access and Connections to Cyberinfrastructure Facilities. Within these four frameworks there are allocations for Biological Sciences, Computer & Information Science and Engineering, Engineering, Geosciences, Mathematical & Physical Sciences, Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences, Office of Cyberinfrastructure, Office of Polar Programs and Integrative Activities. The total for the Geosciences portion of the proposed budget is $16 million.
The Geosciences allocation includes:
- the Creating a More Disaster Resilient America (CaMRA) program to improve forecasting and prediction of natural and man-made hazardous events
- funding for the final year of construction of the NCAR- Wyoming supercomputer center
- increased support for operation of the EarthScope facility and services
- geoinformatics – the tools and techniques that facilitate data-enabled geoscience – will be a priority
Read this FY 2012 budget request for more details about the program overall, and this document for a detailed budget on the Geosciences component.
