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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

NSF Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Science Research (IBSS)

NSF 12-614

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National Science Foundation

Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
     SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities
     Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
     Division of Social and Economic Sciences
Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):
     January 23, 2013
Full proposal submission deadline
     December 03, 2013
Full proposal submission deadline
     December 02, 2014
Full proposal submission deadline

 Synopsis of Program:
The Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Science Research (IBSS) competition promotes the conduct of interdisciplinary research by teams of investigators in the social and behavioral sciences. Emphasis is placed on support for research that involves researchers from multiple disciplinary fields, that integrates scientific theoretical approaches and methodologies from multiple disciplinary fields, and that is likely to yield generalizable insights and information that will advance basic knowledge and capabilities across multiple disciplinary fields.The Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Science Research (IBSS) competition builds on the definition of interdisciplinary research presented in a 2004 National Academy of Sciences report:
Interdisciplinary research is a mode of research by teams or individuals that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or area of research practice.
A series of recent reports have called attention to the integrative and interdisciplinary nature of research problems in the social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) sciences. "The SBE sciences are focused on human activity at every level -- from an individual's brain, to behavior, to the actions of groups and organizations," the Subcommittee on Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has observed in a 2009 report. SBE scientists conduct innovative and methodologically diverse research that promises to address many of the nation's -- and the world's -- most pressing challenges: such as access to education and healthcare; combating terrorism and crime; and responding to natural disasters.

Unpacking phenomena like the obesity epidemic, global migration, disaster response, global climate change, or urban development defies conventional disciplinary boundaries. Studies like these rely on deep analysis of immediate conditions and also bear on fundamental dimensions of human behavior: How do we make choices? How do different groups understand and respond to information? How do circumstances and experiences in the first six months of life affect behaviors 20 or 30 years later in contexts as different as choosing to engage in civic life and deciding on when to start a family? Such research meets the criteria of the NSF's strategic plan's first strategic goal, Transforming the Frontiers: "The Foundation embraces our unique role in supporting the fundamental, interdisciplinary, high-risk, and potentially transformative research and education that are central to the discovery of emergent properties and structures in physical, living, human, and engineered systems."

 http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12614/nsf12614.htm

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