----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Someone on MAPS-L asked to see this. PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED AT NSF NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 4, 1994 NSF 93-141 (NEW) --More-- Digital Library Initiative, FY 1994 INTRODUCTION The past decade has seen a remarkable expansion in digital networks within the U.S. research and education community from a state where networking was the purview of the privileged few to one where it is considered an essential tool by millions of researcher and educators. Since the mid-1980's with the advent of NSFNET the volume of traffic, the number of interconnected networks and the functionality of the networks has grown and continues to grow exponentially. The entire assemblage of linked networks using the IP communications protocol throughout the world is now referred to as the Internet. It is a network of networks, which within the U.S., links one third of all two year and four year colleges and universities, many primary and secondary schools, public and private institutions, commercial enterprises, individuals in their homes, and foreign institutions in sixty countries. Information sources accessed via the Internet are the ingredients of a digital library. Today, the network connects some information sources that are a mixture of publicly available (with or without charge) information and private information shared by --More--collaborators. They include reference volumes, books, journals, newspapers, national phone directories, sound and voice recordings, images, video clips, scientific data (raw data streams from instruments and processed information), and private information services such as stock market reports and private newsletters. These information sources, when connected electronically through a network, represent important components of an emerging, universally accessable, digital library. To explore the full benefits of such digital libraries, the problem for research and development is not merely how to connect everyone and everything together in the network. Rather, it is to achieve an economically feasible capability to digitize massive corpora of extant and new information from heterogeneous and distributed sources; then store, search, process and retrieve information from them in a user friendly way. Among other things, this will require both fundamental research and the development of "intelligent" software. It is the purpose of this announcement to support such research and development by combining the complementary strengths of the participating agencies in basic research, advanced development and applications, and academic/industry linkage. IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS --More--1. Awards will be made by NSF as Cooperative Agreements for proposals to engage in research, prototype and testbed activities. Awards of up to $1,200,000 a year for up to four years will be made to conduct programs of research and to develop and test elements of a digital library on a significant scale in a distributed environment. It is expected that up to 6 awards will be made under this announcement, depending on the quality of proposals and the availability of funds. 2. Cost sharing of at least 25% is required for all projects submitted in response to this announcement. The proposed cost sharing will be considered in evaluating proposals and will be a condition of any resulting awards (See the Proposal Preparation section, below). 3. Successful proposals will have demonstrated that as part of the research they will digitize a significantly large and important information collection, or use an existing collection, to serve as an experimental platform to demonstrate scale-up potential and as an experimental testbed for the research proposed. These testbeds must also be made accessible for research purposes to individuals who are not part of the proposal team (see Proposal Preparation, 3, below). 4. Each proposal should, as appropriate to the research focus, include the --More--active participation of the following groups, as relevant (these may be separate organizations or parts of a single organization): (1) client groups (e.g., specific research communities or other users of the information encompassed in the proposal); (2) commercial enterprises that would be involved in the commercialization of a digital library system (e.g., publishers, software houses, stock exchanges, equipment manufacturers, communications companies, etc.); (3) archival establishments, either private or governmental (e.g., libraries, data repositories, clearing houses, government or private information or data services); and (4) relevant computer and other science and engineering research groups (e.g., academic departments, supercomputer centers, industrial laboratories). These groups should be involved as sub-contractors to a single primary proposing academic institution. 5. A requirement for all awardees is that all publications, reports, data and other output from awards must be prepared in digital format and meet requirements for storage, indexing, searching and retrieval in a repository to be set up to capture results of these awards. These requirements will be devised jointly by the group of all awardees and the sponsoring agencies. --More--RESEARCH TO BE SUPPORTED It is the purpose of this initiative to provide the funding and leadership for research fundamental to the development of digital libraries. Applicants can propose research in any or all of the following areas: 1-capturing data (and descriptive information about such data) of all forms (text, images, sound, speech, etc.) and categorizing and organizing electronic information in a variety of formats. 2-advanced software and algorithms for browsing, searching, filtering, abstracting, summarizing and combining large volumes of data, imagery, and all kinds of information; and 3-the utilization of networked databases distributed around the nation and around the world. The types of research related to the above three areas are shown below. The examples are not meant to be exclusive but are meant to be illustrative: Area 1 - - New research on systems for capturing data of all forms For example: --More--* OCR page layout, segmentation and analysis software * Speech recognition, audio segmentation and analysis software * File conversion into editable, processable representations * Broadcast capture & digitization (to generate multimedia data bases) * Graphics understanding (image, drawing, graph recognition) * Quality, fidelity maintenance - - New research on how to categorize and organize electronic information in a variety of formats For example * Indexing, interpretation, classification and cataloging * Multi-lingual indexing on content and citations * Hypermedia structuring and linking of documents * Graphical interfaces for knowledge representation * Browsing technology for large knowledge spaces, news grazing Area 2 - - New Research fundamental to the development of advanced software for searching, filtering, and summarizing large volumes of data, imagery, and all kinds of information --More--For example: * Retrieval theories and models for data, metadata, information, knowledge bases, evaluation methods * Formal structures of documents and texts, query languages * Intelligent text processing and document management * Feature-based image analysis and classification, pattern recognition * Multi-pass retrieval algorithms (progressive refinement, feedback) * Updatable indexing systems * Spatial-temporal feature indexing of video * Filtering, routing, alerting, selective dissemination of information * Clustering, summarization, abstracting * Natural language analysis for data extraction or representation * Natural language generation systems * Lexicon, thesaurus, concept space generation * Adaptive/learning systems: connectionist, neural networks * Context based pattern matching and retrieval of multimedia data * Robust matching with noisy data, uncertainty, imprecision * Fast search, query optimization - - Research on visualization and other interactive technology for quickly browsing large volumes of imagery --More-- For example: * Pictorial feature recognition, image classification * Human perception (visual, auditory) * Multi-scale displays, zooming * Data visualization (e.g., airflow, human genome) * Interactive visualization control * Use of simulation to improve visualization/description * Navigation, hypermedia, retaining serendipity, guides/paths/tours * Developing metaphors, usable virtual reality environment: suites of objects (peripherals, information types, relations, properties, views) that work together for each domain * Sustaining rapid performance with regard to moving and manipulating large digital imagery data sets. Area 3 - - Research on networking protocols and standards needed to insure the ability of the digital network to accommodate the high volume, bandwidth and switching requirements of a digital library. For example: * Network security * Protocol design --More--* Data compression * Ensuring scalability for large orders of magnitude increases in the number of simultaneous users - - New research leading to simplifying the utilization of networked databases distributed around the nation and around the world For example: * Knowbots/agents/mediators, intelligent gatekeepers * Federated heterogeneous distributed object-oriented data and information base systems * Personalized interactive news, magazine, and journal services * Adaptable systems and services for disabled users, human augmentation * Authentication, authorization * Modeling, simulating usage, economics of access * Collaboration technology with multimedia information interchange, multi-user editing, drawing, storage, retrieval, display, annotation, shared objects - - Research on individual and group behavioral, social and economic issues in digital libraries --More--For example: * Intellectual property rights * Privacy and security * Impact of digital libraries on the conduct of science * Publishing in a digital environment * Charging mechanisms for copyrighted documents PROPOSAL PREPARATION The proposals must be marked DIGITAL LIBRARIES in the top left hand box, "Program Announcement", on the cover sheet (NSF Form 1207). Proposals must be prepared according to the instructions given in Grants for Research and Education in Science and Engineering (GRESE: NSF 92-89) except that the following sections are also required. 1. A section following the Project Summary to be entitled, "Executive Summary". This section is limited to five pages. It will form an important first step in the review process and it should therefore be a careful abstraction of the key aspects of the proposal. 2. The Project Description section may not exceed 40 pages. It should be --More--prepared as indicated on Page 4 of GRESE, making sure to explain the specific research and experiments to be conducted. These must be described in sufficient detail to allow merit review of the scientific content of the proposed research and its chance of success. 3. A section of the Project Description, entitled "Testbed Facility", describing the purpose and operation of the experimental testbed platform: its design; development; and management. This should include an explanation of how experiments and tests proposed by individuals or groups who are not part of the proposal will be solicited, evaluated and accommodated. (It is the intention of the National Science Foundation to encourage applications for supplemental funding in years 2 through 4 to help fund the research of successful individual applicants.) 4. A section of the Project Description entitled, "Expected Accomplishments". This should be a statement and enumeration of the expected accomplishments and the measures you propose for evaluating progress annually for each year of the award duration. 5. A section separate from the Project Description entitled "Organizational Roles". This section should describe the nature of each organization's participation in the proposal with a description of its cost sharing, and --More--the overall management plan for the project. 6. A section entitled, "Cost Sharing". The amount of cost sharing must be shown in the proposal in enough detail to allow NSF to determine its impact on the proposed project. Documentation of availability of cost sharing must be included in the proposal. Only items which would be allowable under the applicable cost principles, if charged to the project, may be made from any non-Federal source, including non-Federal grants or contracts. Contributions from non-Federal sources may be counted as cost sharing toward Federal projects only once. PROPOSAL EVALUATION Proposals will be evaluated by panels of experts. Supplementary mail reviews will be solicited as feasible and necessary to achieve a fair and accurate review of all proposals. Some potentially successful submissions may receive site visits if the panel deems this desirable in order to properly evaluate the proposals. Selection of awards will be made jointly by the sponsoring agencies from the group of proposals receiving the highest ratings from the panel of experts. Evaluation criteria which are applied to all NSF proposals are those listed --More--in Grants for Research and Education in Science and Engineering, NSF 92-89, October, 1992. Additional criteria for this announcement are: - inter-institutional aspects which would provide a positive stimulus to the design, development and commercialization of digital libraries; - a commitment to and plan for operating an experimental testbed platform (see Proposal Preparation, 3, above); - the extent to which the proposed research is likely to produce results generalizable to other digital libraries. - cost sharing of at least 25% will be a specific evaluation criterion. SCHEDULE Organizations interested in submitting proposals should send an electronic mail message with the following statement: "I am interested in submitting a proposal to the Digital Libraries Initiative in Areas ___(1,2,3)." Name Title --More--Organization Mailing address email address Address the email to: [log in to unmask] cc: [log in to unmask] If email on the internet is not available to you then send a postcard with the same information to: Up to October 25, 1993 Gwendolyn Barber Room 310 National Science Foundation 1800 G Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20550 As of October 25, 1993 Gwendolyn Barber National Science Foundation --More--4201 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA 22230 This information will be used to notify you of special regional briefings that will be held for this announcement. These briefings will be designed to answer your questions and to help you find potential partners for research consortia under this announcement. It is anticipated that these briefings will occur during November/December, 1993. IN ORDER TO BE CONSIDERED UNDER THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY NSF NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 4, 1994 SUCCESSFUL PROPOSERS WILL RECEIVE NOTIFICATION IN JUNE/JULY, 1994. OTHER The National Science Foundation (NSF) provides awards for research in the sciences and engineering. The awardee is wholly responsible for the conduct of such research and preparation of the results for publication. The Foundation, therefore, does not assume responsibility for such findings or their interpretation. The Foundation welcomes proposals on behalf of all qualified scientists and --More--engineers, and strongly encourages women, minorities, and persons with disabilities to compete fully in any of the research and research related programs described in this document. In accordance with Federal statutes and regulations and NSF policies, no person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving financial assistance from the National Science Foundation. Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities provides funding for special assistance or equipment to enable persons with disabilities (investigators and other staff, including student research assistants) to work on an NSF project. Contact the program coordinator in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources. The telephone number is (202) 357-7562. The Foundation has TDD (Telephonic Device for the Deaf) capability, which enables individuals with hearing impairment to communicate with the NSF Information Center about NSF programs, employment, or general information. The telephone number is (202) 357-7492. --More--This program is described in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance category 47.070 Copies of NSF publication, Grants for Research and Education in Science and Engineering (GRESE: NSF 92-89) are available at no cost from: National Science Foundation Forms and Publications, Room 232 Washington, DC 20550 Telephone number: (202) 357-7963 or Fax number: (703) 644-4278. Publications may also be ordered electronically using the Science and Technology Information System (STIS). The full text can be searched on-line, and copied from the system. Instructions for the use of the system are in NSF 91-10 "STIS Flyer". The printed copy is available from the Forms and Publications Unit. An electronic copy may be requested by sending a message to "stis@nsf" (bitnet) or "[log in to unmask]" (Internet). Technical questions about this announcement may be addressed to: Laurence C. Rosenberg --More--Deputy Division Director Information, Robotics & Intelligent Systems Division National Science Foundation 1800 G Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20550 Starting October 25, 1993 4201 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA 22230 Electronic Mail address: [log in to unmask] Telephone: (202) 357-9592 Fax: (202) 357-0320 Privacy Act and Public Burden Statements The information requested on the application materials is solicited under the authority of the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended. It will be used in connection with the selection of qualified proposals and may be used and disclosed to qualified reviewers and staff assistants as part of the review process and to other government agencies. See System of Records, NSF-50, Principal Investigator/Principal File and Associated Records and NSF-51, Reviewer/Proposals File and Associated Records, 56 --More--Federal Register 54907 (October 23, 1991). Submission of the information is voluntary. Failure to provide full and complete information, however, may reduce the possibility of your receiving an award. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 120 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to: Herman G. Fleming Reports Clearance Officer Division of Contracts Policy and Oversight National Science Foundation Washington, DC 20550 and to: Office of Management and Budget Paperwork Reduction Project (3145-0058) & Judy Buys National Wetlands Reseach Center Library Lafayette, LA