Coastlines and People Hubs for Research and Broadening Participation | 20 567

Opportunity Information: Apply for 20 567

The National Science Foundation (NSF) funding opportunity titled "Coastlines and People Hubs for Research and Broadening Participation" (Funding Opportunity Number 20-567) supports large, collaborative research efforts aimed at improving how the nation understands and manages risks in coastal regions. The core idea is that coastlines are not just physical environments shaped by tides, storms, and sea level rise, but complex systems where natural processes, built infrastructure, and human decisions interact in ways that can either reduce or amplify hazard impacts. Because coastal hazards are often driven by multiple, connected factors (for example, hurricanes interacting with sea level rise, land subsidence, infrastructure placement, and social vulnerability), NSF is emphasizing an Earth systems approach that links environmental science with social, technological, and community dimensions. The program is designed to generate knowledge that improves prediction, response, and long-term mitigation while also strengthening coastal resilience.

A central feature of the solicitation is the creation of Coastal Research Hubs. These hubs are meant to be multi-institution, team-based efforts organized around convergent science, meaning they deliberately integrate expertise across disciplines that are often separated. In practice, this can include coastal and ocean sciences, geosciences, engineering, data and modeling, public health, economics, sociology, risk communication, and decision science, among others. The hubs are expected to sit at the nexus of coastal sustainability, coastal processes, and human dimensions, with the explicit goal of transforming understanding of how natural systems (like shorelines, wetlands, estuaries, and ocean dynamics), human-built systems (like transportation networks, ports, levees, stormwater systems, and housing), and social systems (like governance, resource access, demographic patterns, and community networks) influence one another in populated coastal environments.

The solicitation also clearly ties research ambition to broadening participation. Rather than treating diversity and inclusion as an add-on, the opportunity requires that research hub activities be integrated with goals that expand who participates in coastal research and who benefits from it. That typically means developing meaningful pathways for students, early-career researchers, and institutions that have been historically underrepresented in major federal research initiatives, as well as building partnerships that can connect research outputs to community needs. The underlying intent is to grow a more diverse coastal workforce and research community while ensuring that the science produced is relevant and responsive to the realities faced by different coastal populations, including groups that may experience disproportionate risk.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary NSF grant program in the science and technology and other research and development category. The listing includes multiple CFDA numbers (47.041, 47.050, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.083), reflecting that proposals may align with several NSF directorates or disciplinary programs. The funding opportunity was created on April 22, 2020, with an original closing date of September 9, 2020, and NSF anticipated making around 10 awards. The opportunity references both Focused Hubs and Large-Scale Hubs, indicating that NSF envisioned more than one scale or type of hub structure, though the summary information provided does not specify a fixed award ceiling. Eligibility is labeled broadly as "Others" with additional details expected in the full solicitation, which is typical for NSF programs that allow proposals from a range of U.S. research organizations and partner institutions, often with specific requirements about lead institutions, collaboration plans, and education or participation components.

Overall, the opportunity is aimed at building durable research enterprises that can tackle coastal hazard and resilience problems at the scale they actually occur: across coupled environmental and human systems, across institutions, and across disciplines. The expected outcome is not only better scientific understanding and, where feasible, improved predictive capability, but also stronger translation of that knowledge into resilience-building strategies and a widened pipeline of participants contributing to and shaping coastal science.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Coastlines and People Hubs for Research and Broadening Participation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.050, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.083.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 22, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 09, 2020 Focused Hubs Focused Hubs Large-Scale Hubs Large-Scale Hubs. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 20 567

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