Announcements of Opportunity     The Most Recent MRI Solicitation is: NSF 04-511       MRI 2003 Engineering Directorate Home Page Our easy-to-remember shortcut URL is:   www.eng.nsf.gov/mri/ |     MRI Program Introduction     |     MRI Program Goals     |     MRI Program Scope     | |     MRI ENG FY 2003 Summary     |     Instrument Development     |     MRI Award Grants     | |     Questions ?     | MRI Program Introduction   The Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program is designed to increase the scientific and engineering equipment for research and research training in our Nation's academic institutions, and supports large-scale instrumentation investment.  This program seeks to improve the quality and expand the scope of research and research training in science and engineering, and to foster the integration of research and education by providing instrumentation for research-intensive learning environments.  The range for the MRI program awards is between $70,000 and $1,400,000.  This is not to be confused with the MRE (Major Research Equipment) Account, which provides grants with a range of several tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. MRI Program Goals   The goals of the MRI Program are to: • Support the acquisition, through purchase, upgrade, or development, of major state-of-the-art instrumentation for research, research training, and integrated research / education activities at U.S. institutions; • Foster the development of the next generation of major instrumentation for research and research training; • Improve access to and increase use of modern research and research training instrumentation by scientists, engineers, and graduate and undergraduate students; • Enable academic departments or cross-departmental units to create well-equipped learning environments that integrate research with education; and • Promote partnerships between academic researchers and private sector instrument developers. MRI Program Scope   The MRI Program assists in the acquisition or development of major research instrumentation by U.S. institutions that is, in general, too costly for support through other NSF programs.  The maintenance and technical support associated with these instruments is also supported.  Proposals may be for a single instrument, a large system of instruments, or multiple instruments that share a common or specific research focus.  Computer systems, clusters of advanced workstations, networks, and other information infrastructure components necessary for research use are encouraged. MRI Engineering Directorate FY 2003 Summary   In FY 2003, the Engineering Directorate received 164 MRI proposals.  Of these, 58 were awarded, for an overall success rate of 35%.  Distribution of the MRI proposals went into one of two separate categories -- based on whether the applicant institution was classified as a "large," PhD-granting school, or as a "small" school, with relatively small or non-existent PhD programs as defined by the Carnegie Institution classification system.  The rationale for separating schools in this fashion was because the NSF MRI program received an additional $25 million (as was the case also in FY 2001 and FY 2002) beyond the normal funding for FY 2003, for the express purpose of broadening the national reach of the program.  A summary of proposal and funding distribution follows.   Large Institutions Small Institutions Total   Proposals Received 116 47 163   Grants Awarded 37 21 58   Dollars Awarded $11.6 Million $4.3 Million $15.9 Million   Total Acquisition Proposals Awarded 48   Total Development Proposals Awarded 10 Instrument Development   NSF is stimulating the development of the next generation of research instrumentation by encouraging institutions to submit proposals that target instrument development.  Individual investigators and teams of researchers are encouraged to apply for instrument development support.   The academic research enterprise relies on and produces new generations of sophisticated research instrumentation and software simulations thereof.  The right design, development, and manufacturing processes can yield new instruments that are more widely used, open up new areas of research and research training, and have potential as commercial products.  This competition seeks to expand the research community's capabilities by supporting the development of new instruments (or their software simulations) with enhanced performance.  "Performance" includes accuracy; reliability; resolving power; throughput speed; sample capacity; flexibility of operation; breadth of application; user-friendliness; and cost of acquisition, operation, and maintenance. Engineering Directorate MRI Award Grants   Information on past MRI competition activities, related to the Engineering Directorate, is provided below. Fiscal Year     |  2001  |  2002  |  2003  | Questions ?   Please feel free to contact Dr. Robert Wellek, at: < rwellek@nsf.gov >, the Engineering Directorate MRI Coordinator, if you have any general questions concerning the Engineering Directorate MRI Program.  Questions about specific technical areas, for the FY 2003 program, should be addressed to the NSF Division Coordinators listed below: NSF Engineering Directorate FY 2003 MRI Program Coordinators Bioengineering and Environmental Systems Division - BES   Leon Esterowitz       lesterow@nsf.gov Civil and Mechanical Systems Division - CMS   Perumalsamy Balaguru      pbalagur@nsf.gov Richard Fragaszy                rfragasz@nsf.gov Chemical and Transport Systems Division - CTS   Michael Plesniak      mplesnia@nsf.gov Glenn Schrader       gschrade@nsf.gov Design, Manufacturing, and Industrial Innovation Division - DMII   George Hazelrigg     ghazelri@nsf.gov Electrical and Communications Systems Division - ECS   Kishan Baheti         rbaheti@nsf.gov Rajinder Khosla     rkhosla@nsf.gov This page has been created with Notepad++. 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