National Science Foundation Fostering Grant Success

1. National Science Foundation Fostering Grant Success 2007 Joint Statistical Meetings Salt Lake City Grace Yang, Program Director Div. Of Mathematical Sciences

2. Introduction of the Division of Mathematical Sciences The Statistics & Probability Program Funding opportunities Some research highlights in statistics Proposal writing tips

3. . . . DMS in a Nutshell Directorate Division Core Program Algebra & Number Theory BIO AST Analysis CISE ENG Applied Math CHE GEO Computational Math NSF MPS DMS Geometric Analysis/Topology/ Foundations SBE DMR Infrastructure EHR PHY Math Biology Statistics & Probability

4. Division of Mathematical Sciences • Supports a lion share of the mathematics research in the US • Supports 50% of the research in statistics in the US • Typical support: 1-2 months of summer salary, some graduate student support.

5. The Statistics Program Upcoming deadline for submitting proposals • Window of opportunities Oct. 23—Nov.7 Supports the development of innovative, cutting edge research in statistical theory and methods Supports conferences, workshops, catalytic activities Single Principal Investigator Focused Research Group Interdisciplinary Research Integration of Research and Education International Collaboration

6. Statistics Program Proposals are reviewed by the panel. If necessary, mail reviews are used. • Statistics Program Contacts: • Rong Chenrchen@nsf.gov (leaving) • Gabor Szekley gszekley@nsf.gov • Yazhen Wang Incoming • Grace Yanggyang@nsf.gov

7. The Probability Program • Supports research on the theory and applications of probability, subfields include: • Discrete probability • Stochastic processes • Interacting particle systems • Stochastic differential and partial differential equations • Markov processes • Limit theory • Program Contacts: • Dean Evasius devasius@nsf.gov

8. Funding Opportunities • Beyond the core programs • Golden time for statistics

9. Career Program • Goal: Encourage young investigators to develop a research and teaching-oriented career in academia. • 5-year 400k (min) awards. Division-wide competition, funding from the division and individual programs.

10. CAREER (cont) • PI must be a PhD, untenured, in a tenure-track position; no previous CAREER award • Highly competitive, prestigious award • Proposals must include plan both for innovative research, and innovative educationprograms. Integrate research and education. • International dimensionsencouraged • Research partners cannot be co-PI’s • Deadline in July (check the NSF website for update)

11. Cross-cutting topics on stochastic systems (known as AMC-SS) • The Mathematical Science Priority Area (MSPA) • Computational Science Training for Undergraduates in the Mathematical Sciences (CSUMS) • National Institutes in the Mathematical Sciences

12. Broad Themes of MSPA Interdisciplinary Research Focus Primarily on Three Scientific Themes: • mathematical and statistical challenges posed by massive data sets • managing and stochastic modeling of uncertainty • modeling complex nonlinear systems

13. MSPA Overview - continued MSPA Specific Competitions: Collaborations in the Mathematical Geosciences (CMG) Joint NSF/NIGMS Initiative on Mathematical Biology Upcoming Proposal Due Date: Oct 1, 2007 Interactions between Mathematical Sciences and Computer Science (MCS) Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences (UBM) MSPA Interactions DMS and Engineering DMS and Physical Sciences

14. National Institutes in Mathematical Sciences • DMS currently supports seven math science institutes: • IMA, IPAM, MSRI • ARCC (AIM Research Conference Center), IAS, MBI, SAMSI (resulting from 2001-2002 competition) • Check out what’s happening at those institutes • http://www.mathinstitutes.org/

15. CSUMSComputational Science Training for Undergraduates in Mathematical Sciences • New DMS-DUE program that came to existence in June 2006 (NSF 06-559) • Future Proposal due dates: October 17, 2006; October 17, 2007 October 17, 2008; October 17, 2009 • Enhance computational aspects of the education and training of undergraduate students in mathematics and statistics • Better prepare undergrad students for fields that require background in math/stat and computation • Expand and broaden undergraduate research experiences • Strengthen research/education culture of institutions, create models with broad influence

16. Research Training Groups • Next Proposal Deadline • June 5, 2007 • Solicitation: NSF 05-595 (EMSW21) • Supports research vertically integrated research groups • Focused on a major research theme • At least three faculty members • Involve undergrads, grads, and postdocs • Students and postdocs must be US citizens or nationals • Awards • Duration: 3-5 years • Amount: Up to $500,000 per year • Number: 3-5 awards per year

17. International Collaborations • Division of Mathematical Sciences encourages international collaborations • Supports international conferences, travel grants for foreign investigators who are conducting collaborative researches with the US researchers • Examples: Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) has started a program supporting US students to study in Beijing NSF-NSFC program supporting US mathematicians/statisticians to conduct research in China

18. Award Examples

19. Phenomenon of subdiffusion Conformation fluctuation of biomolecules does not agree with Brownian diffusion (Samuel Kou, Yale)

20. Chunming Zhang: New statistical tools for studying brain function. Event-related (efMRI). Goal is to locate specific regions in human brains when specific tasks are performed. Better estimate of HRF is obtained by using nonparametric statistical method with spatial information over the entire brain.

21. Monthly global temp (dg C, relative to the 1961-60 mean), Jan.56-Dec.90Green curve is the estimated trend under monotone constraint. Purple line is outside the conf.band suggesting nonlinear increasing pattern

22. How do we get these pictures? • Statistics Program Directors send you e-mail request for submission of highlights of your NSF sponsored research. Instructions for submission are provided • Some of these get selected and posted on the NSF website as highlights • Need your help to increase the response rate!

23. Proposal Submission and writing tips

24. Important Changes • Submission window: Oct 23 – Nov 7 • Proposal will be returned without review if received after Nov 7 • Full panel review • Only a small number of proposals will be mail reviewed

25. Warning: grants.gov is coming • May be enforced for all FY07 proposals • May be difficult to use • Your SRO may not know how to handle it • Treat Oct 23 as your deadline so you will have two weeks to fight with grants.gov • Do not wait until the last minute to submit • Don’t ask us about questions relating to FastLane. Call FastLane. • Read the solicitation carefully and follow it to the letter. -- We do check compliances

26. NSF (07-140) • New Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide: A Proposal must conform to: • Black font color and fort size of 10 points or larger • Only use the type faces: • Window: Arial, Helvetica, Palatino Linotype or Georgia • Macintosh: Arial, Helvetica, Palatino or Georgia • TeX: Computer Modern

27. Don’t • Don’t use small fonts or narrow margins (don’t annoy reviewers) • Don’t use less than 15 pages • Don’t jam in too many ideas or problems • Don’t have typos (show respect) • Don’t be discouraged if you fail for a couple of times. Keep trying …

28. Broader Impact • At least half page • Societal impact • Education: course development • Training: Graduate and undergraduate, under represented groups • Dissemination: publications, talks, making software available to public, e.g. R code • Be innovative

29. Don’t blame us if you don’t get an award (Not enough money to fund all the meritous proposals)

30. Check the NSF website regularly • Need your help to increase to the response rate for submission of highlights and serving on the panel

31. Thank You Grace Yang gyang@nsf.gov