National Science Foundation Solicits Advice on Future Research Directions

September 30, 2010

The National Science Foundation Directorate for the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) is currently soliciting advice from the scientific community about future directions for research, and invites individuals and groups to contribute white papers outlining grand challenge questions for the agency as part of its plan to frame innovative research for the year 2020 and beyond.

SBE is seeking gain insight regarding:

• The substance of future research;
• The capacities to pursue said research; and
• The infrastructure to enable increasingly interdisciplinary investigations with multiple perspectives and intellectual frameworks, with diverse approaches and methodologies.

Submissions must:

• Explain the challenge question, capability to be created, or scientific strategy;
• provide context in terms of recent research results and standing questions in the field;
• suggest the range of disciplines that may contribute, and
• indicate the implications for future research within and across disciplines.

Limit the white paper to 2,000 words with a 200-word maximum abstract and up to 3 references to relevant readings.

Include a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (click here) so that the material may be made widely available through the web.