[margins-list] Important News from NSF regarding MARGINS review and next proposal round

[margins-list at nsf-margins.org]

News from NSF: MARGINS’ Decadal Review and Status of the FY10 Budget

MARGINS decadal review committee (DRC) convened by NSF met on February 
2nd and 3rd 2009. They were charged to review the Program’s 
accomplishments, future plans and management structure and make 
recommendations to the Foundation about its continuation. Their work was 
greatly facilitated by the substantive documentation produced by MARGINS 
Steering Committee and the community in preparation for the review. The 
DRC was very appreciative of the hard work and considerable thought that 
went into producing the documentation, especially the nuggets comprising 
summaries of the projects funded under MARGINS umbrella. The final 
review report is still pending at the time of this writing and will be 
disseminated to the community as soon as it is available.

Depending on the outcome of the DRC report, FY 2010 (starting in October 
2009) is seen as a period of transition for the MARGINS Program. During 
the next fiscal year the community at large will have the opportunity to 
reconsider the Program in its entirety and in detail, and produce new 
science plans, if necessary. This could require considerable investment 
of time and energy on the part of the community in brain-storming 
sessions, consultation and planning. Thus, we envision several workshops 
and group meetings that would be necessary to undertake this task 
expediently. Because of this transition, for the next proposal submittal 
deadline (July 1, 2009) MARGINS program at NSF encourages the community 
to submit proposals for workshops and integrative/synthesis activities. 
Proposals for new data collection efforts should be limited to 
short-duration efforts critical to the completion of such integration 
and synthesis goals. In addition to these, there are a number of field 
projects on which funding decisions were made during the last MARGINS 
competition and these would still be partially or wholly funded from FY 
2010 funds. Again, depending on the review results and ensuing science 
planning activities, the transition to a new program is envisioned to be 
complete by the end of 2010.

Bilal U. Haq
For MARGINS Program