In case you missed our post about Microsoft teaming with NSF to offer free access to research computing, there is also supplemental and EAGER funding available. From the NSF CISE announcement:
CISE and OCI will offer funding for researchers to explore the use of the Microsoft Windows Azure platform via three mechanisms: supplemental grants to existing awards, EAGER grants, and a forthcoming new solicitation. All of these mechanisms will be used to support any kind of computing research and software development for any type of application associated with the Windows Azure platform, perhaps in combination with the use of other platforms.
Researchers may immediately submit supplemental proposals to any existing NSF award to the CCF division or to OCI via the Grant Proposal Guide, prefixing the title with “CiC: Supplement:”. Supplemental proposals may request extension of an existing NSF award for an additional year. Supplemental proposals should be submitted no later than April 15, 2010 to ensure consideration in the current fiscal year. PIs are cautioned that the existing award must still be open at the time the supplement is awarded (not submitted); awards that have concluded before the supplement is awarded will not be reopened.
Researchers may also immediately submit EAGER proposals to the CCF division or to OCI via the Grant Proposal Guide and prefix the title with “CiC: EAGER: “. Please note that an EAGER submission should satisfy the EAGER submission guidelines as described in Section II.D.2 of the Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) and is limited to a total budget of $300K for a maximum of two years. Such proposals should be submitted no later than April 15, 2010 to ensure consideration in the current fiscal year.
CISE and OCI (and possibly other NSF Directorates and Offices) also anticipate releasing a new solicitation on “Computing in the Cloud (CiC)” to support larger, longer duration projects that will exploit the Windows Azure platform. We are hopeful that this solicitation will be released shortly and posted on NSF’s web site. PIs will have 90 days to respond.
If you are interested in pursuing this, please contact Dr. Katherine Lawrence <kathla@umich.edu> Traci Ruthkoski, the new Microsoft Compute Cloud liaison in ORCI <truthkos@umich.edu>. We may have modest internal funds to support this as well.
