Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems | 18 545

Opportunity Information: Apply for 18 545

Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS) is a National Science Foundation grant program, run in partnership with USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA/NIFA), focused on one core problem: modern society is straining the interconnected systems that supply food, energy, and water, and these pressures are growing. The opportunity is built around the idea that food, energy, and water cannot be managed well in isolation because each depends on and reshapes the others. Population growth and migration, land use change, climate variability, uneven resource distribution, and governance challenges all compound these stresses, making it increasingly important to understand the FEW "system of systems" and to develop practical ways to improve resilience and sustainability while meeting near-term demand.

The program is looking for convergent, well-integrated research that treats the FEW Nexus broadly and realistically. That means projects should bring together multiple dimensions of the problem, including social and behavioral processes (like decision-making, institutions, and governance), physical and built systems (infrastructure, engineered systems, and technologies that improve efficiency), natural processes (hydrologic and biogeochemical cycles), biological processes (agroecosystem structure, productivity, and related dynamics), and cyber-components (sensing, networking, computation, data systems, modeling, and visualization). A key theme is that important discoveries and usable solutions can emerge only when these pieces are studied together, because the most serious constraints and tradeoffs often happen at the interfaces between food, energy, and water rather than inside any single sector.

INFEWS lays out four major goals that proposals are expected to advance in some clear way. First, it aims to significantly improve quantitative and predictive understanding of FEW systems through modeling and computation, including the cyberinfrastructure needed to support those efforts. Second, it emphasizes real-time, cyber-enabled interfaces that help people understand FEW system behavior and strengthen decision support, essentially translating complex data and models into tools that can guide choices. Third, it seeks innovative, integrated solutions that span social, engineering, physical, and natural systems approaches to address critical FEW problems, not just incremental improvements in one domain. Fourth, it explicitly wants to build the workforce capable of studying and managing FEW systems, encouraging education and professional development components that help train researchers and practitioners who can operate across disciplines.

A distinguishing feature of this solicitation is interagency coordination. NSF and USDA/NIFA are combining resources to fund the strongest and highest-impact projects while reducing duplicated effort and encouraging collaboration among the research communities each agency serves. The opportunity also supports international engagement when it genuinely improves the work, for example by adding unique expertise, facilities, data, or field sites that are not available domestically. International collaborations are encouraged, but the expectation is that non-US partners generally bring their own funding from non-NSF sources, with some specific structured partnership options available through NSF's international collaboration mechanisms.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number 18-545) created March 1, 2018, with an original closing date of September 26, 2018. The award ceiling listed is $2,500,000, with an anticipated 30 awards. Eligibility is listed broadly as "Others" with additional eligibility details referenced in the full solicitation text. The sponsoring agency is the National Science Foundation, and questions about proposal submission are directed to INFEWSquestions@nsf.gov or the program officers associated with the solicitation.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.310, 47.041, 47.049, 47.050, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.079, 47.083.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 01, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 26, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 30 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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