Title : NSF 93-19 RESEARCH ON HUMAN LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY Type : Program Guideline NSF Org: CISE / IRI Date : March 2, 1993 File : nsf9319 ****************************************************************************** This File has been updated 10/31/96 to reflect the proper address of the: National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA 22230 For more information call: (703)306-1234 ****************************************************************************** RESEARCH ON HUMAN LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY _______________ Joint Initiative Announcement _______________ Deadline for Receiving Proposals: May 17, 1993 NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING Division of Information, Robotics and Intelligent Systems AND DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY SOFTWARE AND INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY OFFICE ANNOUNCEMENT No. NSF-93-19 INTRODUCTION Beginning in 1993, the Information, Robotics and Intelligent Systems Division of the Computer, Information Science and Engineering Directorate of NSF and the Software and Intelligent Systems Technology Office of DARPA will support jointly innovative, multi-disciplinary, research projects in the general area of human language technology. The motivation for this initiative is the favorable research environment provided by continuing advances in computer technology. This was recognized and encouraged in the 1992 report of the NSF-sponsored ~Workshop on Spoken Language Understanding.~ Computing systems now available and affordable for research are proving adequate to support major advances in natural language understanding, speech recognition, machine translation, and other human language technologies. It is now becoming possible to create realistic computer models of human language mechanisms. We also take account of the synergistic advantage of the combined common research interests of NSF and DARPA in artificial intelligence and human language technology. Therefore, the time is ripe for accelerating efforts in these areas of artificial intelligence. This NSF/DARPA joint research initiative has the following objectives: 1) To support the long-term goal of achieving effective, general, human-computer communication through the medium of human language. 2) To accelerate progress in the development of the scientific and technical foundations of automatic human language processing by computer. 3) To broaden the scope of research on human language technology by including novel ideas and approaches beyond those now being pursued in ongoing research programs. 4) To facilitate technology transfer by building on NSF's interest in basic science and DARPA's interest in technology and system-level functionality. To this end, industrial/university collaboration is required in the proposed research. Proposals should be submitted to NSF~s Interactive Systems Program. The selection of projects for funding will be made through the normal NSF merit review process with DARPA~s participation. Successful proposals will receive support for a three-year period. AREAS OF INTEREST This initiative is dedicated to the general area of human language technology and, in particular, to aspects of human language understanding. There is special interest on fundamental issues common to different languages and to different communication modalities, and on both language production and language recognition/comprehension. Projects with general technical applicability across various languages and modalities are encouraged. Human language is an area of empirical study, and carefully designed corpora for research play a key role in the success of a project. Since the creation of such corpora is a costly endeavor we anticipate that prospective investigators needing such data will make full use of existing corpora. The Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC, 441 Williams Hall, U. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 215/898-0464, e-mail ehodas@unagi.cis.upenn.edu) is a good source of available corpora supporting research on human language. SCOPE OF SUPPORT This is a one-time solicitation that extends over a three year effort and is expected to provide funding up to $2 million per year. The number and size of awards is contingent on the quality of proposals and the availability of funds. An upper limit of $300,000 per year for three years for research teams of 2-3 researchers is suggested. Awards under this initiative may provide support for principal investigators, graduate students, postdoctoral research associates, specialized equipment and software and databases necessary for the research proposed. Industrial participation is required and collaborative cost-sharing is encouraged. Cost-sharing arrangements must be clearly described in the proposal. PROPOSAL EVALUATION AND AWARD Proposal evaluation and selection will be carried out in a two- stage process. First, proposals will be subject to the usual NSF merit review process. Criteria by which the proposals will be judged are the intrinsic merit of the research, the technical soundness and innovation of the approach, the capability of the investigators, the impact of the proposed research on the infrastructure of science and engineering, and, additionally, by its technology transfer potential. Those proposals identified as being most promising will then be evaluated by a panel of reviewers from the research community for relevance to the objectives of this announcement as listed in the INTRODUCTION and to the areas of interest described under AREAS OF INTEREST. NSF and DARPA will jointly make the final selection, considering the recommendations of the external reviewers. Awards to successful projects will be made through NSF from funding provided by both agencies. INQUIRIES Proposals should be submitted to NSF following the guidelines of the publication NSF 92-89, Grants for Research and Education in Science and Engineering: An Application Guide. For technical information, prospective applicants may contact either NSF or DARPA program office: NSF: Dr. Oscar N. Garcia: (202)-357-9554; ogarcia@nsf.gov; Fax: (202)-357-0320. DARPA: Dr. George R. Doddington: (703)-696-2259; doddington@darpa.mil; Fax: (703)-696-2202. Recent DARPA and NSF publications related to this initiative, including information on existing corpora developed under NSF or DARPA sponsorship, will be provided upon request by contacting the NSF Interactive Systems Program Assistant at (202)-357-9554. WHEN AND WHERE TO APPLY Fifteen (15) copies of the proposal must be addressed to: ANNOUNCEMENT NO. NSF-93-19 NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION - PPU 1800 G STREET NW ROOM 233 WASHINGTON DC 20550-0002 and must be received following the guidelines of the publication NSF 92-89 mentioned above by the deadline of May 17, 1993. The cover sheet (NSF Form 1207) must show the Interactive Systems Program as the NSF Organizational Unit to consider the proposal, and the Program Announcement No. NSF-93-19. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH: The Foundation 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 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 subject to discrimination under, any program or activity receiving financial assistance from the National Science Foundation. The Telephonic Device for the Deaf number is (202) 357-7492. 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. See the program announcement, or contact the program coordinator in the Director for Education and Human Resources. ELECTRONIC DISSEMINATION: Information can be obtained rapidly through STIS (Science and Technology Information System), NSF's on- line publishing system, described in NSF 91-10, "STIS flyer". To get a paper copy of the flyer, call the NSF Publications Section at (202) 357-7861. For an electronic copy, send an e-mail message to stisfly@nsf.gov (Internet) or stisfly@nsf (BITNET). ORDERING BY ELECTRONIC MAIL OR BY FAX: If you are a user of electronic mail and have access to either BITNET or Internet, you may order publications electronically. BITNET users should address requests to ~pubs@nsf~ and Internet users to ~pubs@nsf.gov~. In your request include the NSF publication number and title, number of copies, your name and a complete mailing address. Printed publications may be ordered by FAX (703/644-4278). Publications should be received within 3 weeks after receipt of request. NATIONAL SECURITY, PRIVACY ACT and PUBLIC BURDEN : The Foundation does not have original classification authority and does not normally support classified projects. It therefore does not anticipate supporting research projects that would be classifiable. Information requested on NSF application material 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/Proposal File and Associated Records~ 56 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 aspects of this collection of information to: Herman G. Fleming, Reports Clearance Officer, Division of Human Resource Management, NSF, Washington, DC 20550; and to Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (3145-0058), Washington, DC, 20503. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance #47.070, Computer and Information Science and Engineering. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION Washington, DC 20550 ________________________ OFFICIAL BUSINESS PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE $300 RETURN THIS COVER SHEET TO ROOM 233 IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO RECEIVE THIS MATERIAL ~, OR IF CHANGE OF ADDRESS IS NEEDED ~, INDICATE CHANGE INCLUDING ZIP CODE ON THE LABEL. (DO NOT REMOVE LABEL.) OMB: 3145-0058 PT: 34 KW: 1004000