NSF Convergence Accelerator Outreach Webinar on DCL 21-012 (Tuesday, October 27)
- Shared screen with speaker view

16:50
Thank you for joining today’s webinar. To download our shareable presentation deck, double-click here. After the webinar, you will also receive the presentation via email.

20:11
Thanks again for joining us. Closed captioning link for those that just joined: https://www.captionedtext.com/client/event.aspx?EventID=4609780&CustomerID=321

22:26
will the recording also be provided via eMail?

23:19
Yup, we will provide the recording afterwards via a thank you email!

28:21
Do you plan to share attendee list so we can network and team?

29:06
What is the Ideation Process timeline?

31:20
What were the tracks under consideration for Cohort 3 (presently in workshop phase)? So that the present ideation process does not overlap.

33:27
How many of the 29 will move on to phase II

33:50
So someone suggested this for me for my efforts in making conscious computing more universal

34:05
I've been working at this since around late 2012

34:56
But this year there have been many epochs which have now placed this well within the realm of reality

35:40
In these systems, cognition can be restricted and in others it can be specialised, so on and so forth.

36:16
Is the RFI request on beta.sam.gov ?

36:42
What do you mean?

36:48
Yes, the RFI is on beta.sam.gov. It was posted there about 2 weeks ago.

37:04
I filled out some form last night and ended up with this zoom link

37:05
Can we participate in the workshops in 2020? From how many ideation proposals did you award 29 teams?

38:21
Thanks DOug

38:29
DCL RFI/21-012 Link: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21012/nsf21012.jsp

39:10
RFI-21-012 beta.sam.gov link: https://beta.sam.gov/opp/d2cc81820d234941aaedbae7181b8f32/view

39:29
a small team of us submitted an idea for the last cycle, without hearing any feedback. should we resubmit for this new cycle?

39:35
Phillip Davis interested in all thing higher education and AI pdavis@delmar.edu

39:45
http://ai2es.org

39:46
Are the workshops Idea labs?

40:03
www.facebook.com/groups/propBitDev - there's also additional specialised chat which focuses on the "rosetta stone" of AI which seeks to make computers conscious/alive!

40:25
Sorry if this is spam

40:31
I'm still a little confused about scope. At this stage, is there any specific focus (e.g., Quantum, etc) or does that somehow "bubble up" through the submissions?

40:43
Can the idea be infrastructure development?

41:25
Are individual submitter companies paired up with "partners" as part of the Workshops as well as Phase I work? In other words, would a Phase I proposal/submission be a collective application or solely from a given entity?

41:59
Can we be provided a list of projects already underway, or where can we find that information?

42:09
Is this a place where your idea can get funding/support to find others to make it a reality?

42:54
What are some of the scopes that NSF is looking for?

43:16
Do the ideas have to support NSF’s mission?

43:21
https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillip-davis-educator/

44:23
May we submit more than one idea, each being in different domains?

45:12
https://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/convergence-accelerator/

45:21
Our website ^

45:22
Can a PI submit to a solicitation if she/he has not participated in the ideation phase?

45:41
When will topics for 2021 announced?

46:38
What are the current "administration priorities"? Do you anticipate these changing if a new administration is elected?

46:39
Thank you for the link and information on Cohort 3

46:41
URL?

47:17
proposal is only two pages

47:22
https://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/convergence-accelerator/

48:20
Can you submit more than 1 proposal ?

48:38
and then how many of 29 will go to Phase II

49:31
we received a PARTIAL award--2 yrs instead of 5 and much less funds--but we have great prelim results. what are the chances we can get a funded extension?

50:26
and, what are the topics you are funding?

50:51
How many members of the team do you anticipate on average?

52:02
You can see all of our recent awards on our website as well.

52:35
Apologies if I missed it… what are the tracks for this RFI?

53:22
Should PIs build their teams before submitting ideas, or are the teams formed during the workshop?

53:39
There are no tracks for the RFI, the purpose of the RFI is to help us determine the tracks for the subsequent solicitation

54:40
Aha! thank you.

54:45
Who can serve as fiscal agent?

56:07
How refined do responses to the RFI need to be? Are we pitching a high-level idea? Or something more detailed?

56:21
Is it necessary for everyone in the team to be US Citizen, any restriction on this ?

58:18
When you say “industry”, do you mean private sector companies, or can it mean various governmental and non-profit organizations working in the field?

58:56
Can you show the timeline slide again for 2021 tracks and when the RFPs are out ?

59:44
Industry is referring the private sector, but gov’t and non-profits are encouraged to be engaged as well

01:01:04
Teams must be lead by US orgs but Int’l partners can be part of a team, however a justification is required to explain why that int’l person/org is engaged rather than a US based person/org

01:01:12
RFI calls for concepts/themes that are, in your view, in need of convergence to make significant advances and also ready for acceleration. The input to RFI is distilled and this leads to workshops. The workshops help crystallize these ideas. The output from some of these workshops become the basis for new solicitation.

01:01:47
Who will run the workshops -- the people who submitted the chosen ideas or NSF?

01:02:24
Workshops will be run by the people who submit the proposal for it

01:02:51
what is budget breakdown

01:03:20
@ramesh- can you be more specific

01:03:25
Can anyone submit to the Convergence Research Focus portion of the schedule, even if they don't participate in the Ideation Process?

01:04:13
so is it possible for you to have a proposed Idea selected for workshop. then be chosen to lead the workshop. And then submit for Phase I proposal but be refused at that stage (so never having been funded up to that point), and others get approved for Phase I?

01:04:34
if the idea is accepted, do you have maximum budget

01:04:41
assuming these will be virtual workshops? so will NSF support online platform for workshops? also, does NSF facilitate a PI reaching appropriate partners to workshop an idea?

01:04:41
How are grants decided? Are they based on results? Are there any initial starting grants to get projects running?

01:04:51
the proposal is only meant for US community

01:05:04
Yes Broader impacts and Intellectual Merit?

01:05:34
Does the proposer need to be expert on the field or s/he can submit any burning idea that has greater national scale impact? Will the profile/past experience of the proposer affect the result of this ideation step?

01:05:47
Yes, there will be a maximum budget for workshops

01:06:37
Intellectual Merit and Broader Impact are the bread and butter of NSF, so yes @Phillip, but also assessed on whether the idea is convergent, has clear deliverables, can be accelerated, etc.

01:06:58
@Nick - running a workshop has no direct bearing on being selected for Phase I if the topic of workshop is selected to be a Convergence Accelerator Track

01:08:23
@Lisa - Virtual workshops are likely going to be required, we expect the workshop proposer to have the connections to bring the appropriate people to the event, but NSF will assist in rounding out the attendee list by suggesting people

01:08:27
Can we participate in 2021 convergence areas? C & D

01:08:30
And non-profits, state, federal, and local government agencies, etc.

01:09:34
@prakash - at this point you would need to have a team invite you to join them, the solicitation has closed and awards have been made

01:10:06
Got it, thank you Mike

01:10:20
I know you are talking about the new RFI due NOV 9th- but I am curious about the deadline for submitting solicitations for the DCL/RFI 20-061? I understand that that is the program that is already underway. The one before this one. As per your timeline..

01:11:27
So to clarify, we don’t need to participate in the RFI to apply later. But our voice in the RFI process helps to shape the tracks, which could mean that an area of interest would be included later when we actually propose. Did I get that right?

01:12:09
Can you share insights on IP, who would own it from ideation through development ?

01:12:12
20-061 is closed, the outputs will be used to determine the next topics, we don’t know what the topics will be at this point but it should come from the 12 funded workshops

01:12:50
@sveltana - there is no guarantee your area of interest would be chosen as a topic

01:13:10
Do our stakeholders need to have a financial interest in our idea, or are support in other domains acceptable?

01:14:28
The UIDP has hosted one in the past and we are pleased to answer questions - just reach out to me tony@uidp.net

01:15:33
Is there a sample submission for the RFI to see what length and level of detail should be included for an RFI submission?

01:16:27
@Mario- it’s a survey monkey : https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NSF_CA_RFI

01:18:08
Thank yo, Tony

01:19:52
sorry Tony - you

01:20:30
From the 12 workshops, how many solicitations will be announced? How many projects will be funded?

01:20:33
Got it on IP, thank you Mike

01:21:04
thank you for thoroughly answering all questions!!

01:21:27
@Jing - we typically have selected two separate topics for each solicitation, which you can see by looking at our past solicitations

01:21:41
thank you very much, very informative meeting.

01:22:47
@Mike - Thanks!

01:23:52
Please clarify the expected roles of stakeholders (I.e., financial or other).

01:25:04
Is there any limitations re: DoD team members?

01:28:44
Thank you re: stakeholder roles especially info on government persons, DOD, etc.

01:36:48
https://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/convergence-accelerator/

01:37:08
Lengthy, but a lot of good information there!

01:37:46
THANK YOU NSF. Great Initiative !

01:38:08
Thank you so much for the information!

01:38:26
Thank you!!