Coastlines and People Hubs for Research and Broadening Participation | 21 613

Opportunity Information: Apply for 21 613

Coastlines and People Hubs for Research and Broadening Participation (Funding Opportunity No. 21-613) is a National Science Foundation grant opportunity designed to strengthen scientific understanding of coastal regions where dense human populations, built infrastructure, and dynamic natural processes intersect. The core motivation is that coastal hazards and stresses are becoming more consequential and harder to manage, and that meaningful progress depends on studying coastlines as complex, coupled Earth systems. Rather than treating coastal change as only a physical science problem, the solicitation emphasizes an integrated approach that connects natural processes (like storms, flooding, erosion, sea level rise, sediment dynamics, and ecological change) with social systems (governance, behavior, demographics, equity, risk perception, and community decision-making) and technological or engineered systems (infrastructure, protective measures, monitoring networks, and other built interventions). The overall aim is to improve understanding and, when feasible, prediction of how these interconnected systems behave under stress, so communities can better anticipate impacts and improve resilience.

The solicitation supports the creation of Coastal Research Hubs, which are meant to be multi-institution, team-based efforts organized around convergent science. In practice, that means proposals are expected to go beyond parallel disciplinary contributions and instead build a tightly integrated research program where methods, data, and theory from multiple fields are combined to address shared questions. The hubs are intended to sit at the nexus of three themes: coastal sustainability, human dimensions, and coastal processes. Projects should focus on populated coastal environments and generate transformative insights into interactions among natural systems, human-built systems, and social systems. A key expectation is that the work will be grounded in real coastal contexts where hazards and human vulnerability are pressing, and that the hub structure will enable sustained collaboration, shared infrastructure or data resources, and coordinated research and participation activities.

A defining feature of this opportunity is that research goals must be integrated with broadening participation goals. The Coastlines and People program specifically calls for diverse and innovative collaborations and places value on efforts that expand who participates in coastal science and who benefits from it. Broadening participation is not framed as an add-on; it is part of the overall design of the hub. This typically implies intentional strategies to build pathways for students and early-career researchers, strengthen partnerships that bring in underrepresented groups or institutions, and create inclusive training, mentoring, and workforce development opportunities tied directly to the hub's research activities and outcomes.

From an administrative standpoint, the award mechanism is a discretionary grant issued by NSF under its science and technology research and development mission. The opportunity lists CFDA numbers 47.041, 47.050, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, and 47.083, reflecting NSF programs that can support components of the work across different scientific domains. The award ceiling is $4,000,000, and NSF anticipated making about 8 awards under this solicitation, signaling relatively large, hub-scale projects rather than small single-investigator studies. The posting shows a creation date of September 8, 2021, with an original closing date of December 6, 2021. Eligibility is described as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," which indicates that applicants needed to consult the full solicitation for specifics about what organizations or collaborative structures NSF would accept.

In short, this funding opportunity is aimed at building major, collaborative research hubs that can tackle coastal hazard and sustainability challenges through a holistic Earth systems lens, while simultaneously advancing broadening participation in the coastal research enterprise. The intended result is not only better science and better predictive understanding of coastal risks, but also stronger, more inclusive networks of researchers and practitioners equipped to improve resilience in coastal communities.

• 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 Sep 08, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 06, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $4,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 8 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 21 613

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: