The Center for Nanoscale Science is participating in the 2025 NSF MRSEC renewal/re-competition cycle. As part of this process, we are holding an internal downselect competition to identify three Interdisciplinary Research Groups for inclusion in the preproposal to NSF (due at NSF on June 23, 2025). Two Town Halls were held in January to explain the process. A video of the second Town Hall is available upon request to sarahboehm@psu.edu.
If they have not already, teams interested in submitting white papers should send a brief email to vhc2@psu.edu (and cc sarahboehm@psu.edu) to inform us of your plans and to request a meeting to discuss and develop your IRG concept.
White papers are due on April 28 at 9:00am, via email to vhc2@psu.edu and cc'g sarahboehm@psu.edu. The white paper format is as follows:
- Main text: Four pages following standard NSF guidelines on margin and font. PDF format only.
- Additional items that do not count towards the page limit:
- List of references (any length)
- List of participants (include departmental affiliations and job titles (e.g. Full/Associate/Assistant Professor, Research Professor, etc.)).
- No budget is required, but if there are unusual budget items such as major equipment, include an additional sheet with budget estimates of the unusual items. For orientation, the overall budget per IRG is anticipated to be approximately 1.5 million per year.
- A list of at least 5 suggested reviewers, all external to Penn State. Do not contact the reviewers.
Faculty participants need not all be from Penn State, but the core of the effort should be at Penn State. It is recommended to have no more than 12 faculty participants in an IRG white paper.
The outcome of the downselection is anticipated to be available in late May.