Announcements

VIRGINIA’s CLIMATE FUTURE


Mason faculty, are you looking for an extra credit assignment for your students this term? Have them attend the university's event: “Virginia’s Climate Future: The Path Forward in the Face of Covid-19, Economic Crisis, and Inequality”. Students can submit their questions for the panelists here. Some students will be selected to directly ask their questions of the panelists during the live-streamed session.
Event speakers include: Virginia Clean Economy Act lead sponsor Del. Rip Sullivan, Green New Deal VA’s Karen Campblin, Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw, and Sunrise NoVA’s Colin Nackerman. They will be joined in discussion with Mason’s Prof. Alonso Aguirre, Prof. Jim Kinter, Biruk Haregu & Dasha Maslyukova. For more information, contact Asst. Prof. Karen Akerlof

Patriot Green Fund


The Patriot Green Fund (PGF) is a $100,000 annual sustainability fund provided by Mason Facilities and managed by the Office of Sustainability that is dedicated to making Mason’s campuses more sustainable through infrastructure improvements and student research projects.
Encourage your students to apply and even apply yourself! Interested? Email: pgf@gmu.edu

ISE Faculty Profiles


The ISE faculty directory is a tool for you to find others with complementing expertise and for external and internal audiences to find you! If you haven’t yet submitted your research profile information for the directory, please complete this brief survey.
Upcoming Mason Events

Building Bridges Between CCI and the Arts and Design Communities


The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) is an initiative of the Commonwealth of Virginia to generate economic impact through research at the intersection of cybersecurity, autonomous systems, and data. This workshop bring together CCI researchers and researchers in the Arts and Design in Virginia.
  • Date: Friday, September 11, 2020
  • Time: 11:00am - 12:30pm ET
  • Location: Virtual
  • Registration

8th Annual Mason Nation 9/11 Virtual Day of Service


The 8th Annual Mason Nation 9/11 Virtual Day of Service is scheduled for Friday, September 11, 2020. Although this year’s day of service will be a little different, given the impact of COVID19, the Mason community remains committed to providing service opportunities to make a difference and give back to our community.
A variety of service projects will be available for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members to choose from and participate in. Currently, 22 service projects are available for folks to choose from and engage in virtually. 

Funding Opportunities

NEW: National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes


This program continues and expands a multi-agency effort to establish institute-scale AI research with the potential for long-term payoffs in AI. New to the program this year are contributions from partners in U.S. industry who share in the government’s goal to advance national competitiveness through National AI Research Institutes. This year’s industry partners are Accenture, Amazon, Google, and Intel Corporation. This program solicitation invites proposals for full institutes that have a principal focus in one or more of the following themes: 
  • Theme 1: Human-AI Interaction and Collaboration
  • Theme 2: AI Institute for Advances in Optimization
  • Theme 3: AI and Advanced Cyberinfrastructur
  • Theme 4: Advances in AI and Computer and Network System
  • Theme 5: AI Institute in Dynamic Systems
  • Theme 6: AI-Augmented Learning
  • Theme 7: AI to Advance Biology
  • Theme 8: AI-Driven Innovation in Agriculture and the Food System
Two Internal (Mason) Deadlines:
  • REQUIRED NOTICE OF INTENT: September 15, 2020 -
    • Email Sheila Davis with PI Name(s), Project Title and AI Institute Theme(s) (1-8)
  • INTERAL APPLICATION: September 23, 2020, include the following:
    • Solicitation Name
    • Project title
    • List of investigator(s) AND External Collaborators/Organizations. PLEASE NOTE, this is a highly competitive opportunity and will require extensive collaborations.
    • Project Summary (up to 3 pages). Please consider the review criteria when preparing the project summary and any additional details from a previous submission if applicable.
    • Two-page Biosketch (any style) for Lead PI
  • Submit Internal Application to limited@gmu.edu

Notice of Special Interest: Simulation Modeling and Systems Science to Address Health Disparities


The purpose of this Notice of Special Interest is to support investigative and collaborative research focused on developing and evaluating simulation modeling and systems science to understand and address minority health and health disparities.
  • Funding source: National Institutes of Health
  • Deadline: October 5, 2020
  • ContactRada Dagher

Early Career Grant


The National Geographic Society offers Early Career Grants which are designed to offer less experienced individuals an opportunity to lead a project. Projects must align with one of three focus areas: wildlife; human journey; or, changing planet. Grants will be awarded for projects up to one year in length and will not exceed US $10,000. 
  • Funding Source: The National Geographic Society
  • Amount: Up to $10,000
  • Deadline: October 21, 2020
  • Contact: NGS grants

NEW: Collaborative Research Action on Transdisciplinary Research for Pathways to Sustainability


The Belmont Forum, in collaboration with Future Earthis pleased to announce the launch of a collaborative research networking call on the theme: Transdisciplinary Research for Pathways to Sustainability. The goal of this Collaborative Research Action (CRA) is to provide a science base for achieving sustainability goals. The CRA will support 1-2 years of collaborative research networking activities that focus on integrated qualitative and quantitative approaches to develop Earth-system-based transformation pathways for sustainable development.
  • Funding Source: Belmont Forum
  • Proposals Due: October, 31 2020
  • Contact: Belmont Forum

NSF/VMware Partnership on the Next Generation of Sustainable Digital Infrastructure

The goal of this joint solicitation between NSF and VMware is to foster novel, transformative research in fundamental and systematic approaches that bring dramatic increases in the environmental sustainability of the Digital Infrastructure leading to practical methodologies and tools. The Digital Infrastructure is broadly defined as the totality of software, hardware, and the methods for managing them for the purpose of efficient computation. This research includes, but is not limited to, computer software and systems; management of distributed software, the Digital Infrastructure, and data center power sourcing; and resource allocation and scheduling.
  • Funding source: National Science Foundation 
  • Anticipated funding amount: $6,000,000
  • Anticipated number of awards: 2
  • Deadline: November 4, 2020
  • Contact: Erik Brunvand

NEW: Center for Early Lifestage Vulnerabilities to Environmental Stressors


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking applications to support a Center for Early Lifestage Vulnerabilities to Environmental Stressors. EPA is interested in supporting a transdisciplinary research center to better understand potential causal relationships among cumulative exposures to chemicals and non-chemical environmental stressors during early lifestages and modifying factors that result in adverse developmental health effects.

Congratulations!

Funding Announcements, Awards, and Accomplishments

Public-School Security Simulation Experiment (SIMEX)

PI: Kathryn Laskey, Volgenau School of Engineering
Funding source: The MITRE Corporation & US Department of Homeland Security

Maricopa County Risk-Need-Responsivity FY21

PI: Amy Murphy, College Humanities & Social Sciences
Funding source: Maricopa County & Bureau of Justice Assistance

George Mason University Elementary Professional Development School (PDS) Internship Program – Loudoun County Public Schools

PI: Audra Parker, College of Education & Human Development
Funding source: Loudoun County Public Schools

Other Upcoming Events

STEM Futures Project


The STEM Futures Project aims to improve society's capacity to adequately address the economic, environmental, and societal disruptions that accompany the advancement of global civilization and technology. The citizens of tomorrow must be better able to understand, discover, develop, and implement innovative and principled solutions to complex, STEM-infused problems in a rapidly changing environment. In this context, the STEM Futures Project has been organized to enable participants to delve deeply into this knowledge framework through a series of speakers and discussions.
The Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE) aims to connect members of the Mason community with others across the Mason community–and with other communities, policy-makers, businesses and organizations–so that, together, we can more effectively address the world’s pressing sustainability and resilience challenges.

The ISE Newsletter provides up-to-date information on conferences, funding opportunities, and research pertaining to environmental science and sustainability. The biweekly newsletter aims to facilitate information sharing among researchers, practitioners, and relevant local, national, and international organization.
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