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A Message from the Assistant Director for NSF’s Geosciences Directorate
Greetings. Summer is a busy time in GEO, as we enter the last quarter of our Fiscal Year and work to finish processing many of the grant proposals we have received. We are looking forward to all the exciting discoveries yet to come from GEO-supported research.
Since our last newsletter in April, we have welcomed many new members to the GEO leadership team. Dr. Jessica Robin is beginning her time as the Acting Division Director for Earth Sciences. Dr. Jim McManus has replaced Dr. Terry Quinn as Division Director for Ocean Sciences. We very much appreciate all of Terry’s contributions during his four years at NSF. We also welcome Dr. Anne Johansen as the new Division Director for the Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Division. We greatly thank Dr. Candace Major for her service as AGS Division Director and wish her luck in her move to the Division of Earth Sciences.
If you are interested in serving in a leadership role or as a program director in GEO, please consider coming to NSF on a rotational assignment. Bringing your perspective and serving as a voice for your home institution enriches our workplace and helps to inform NSF and GEO about trends and challenges in the many research fields supported by NSF. You can browse current job opportunities at NSF’s career webpage Career Opportunities | Beta site for NSF - National Science Foundation
The future of science needs all voices at the table. NSF and GEO are working to broaden participation and to build capacity at emerging institutions. Below we describe some new exciting activities being initiated towards those goals beginning in the next Fiscal Year (October 2022).
GEO has changed the name of our Integrative & Collaborative Education & Research (ICER) Division to the Division of Research, Innovation, Synergies, and Education (RISE). A significant effort in RISE will be to incubate innovative means to initiate and support geoscience education, attract underrepresented groups to careers in the geosciences, foster the interchange of scientific information nationally and internationally, and join with other parts of NSF in major integrative research and education efforts.
Also new for Fiscal Year 2023, the National Science Foundation is developing an initiative called Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Equity and Diversity (GRANTED). GRANTED focuses on addressing systemic barriers within the nation’s research enterprise by improving research support and service capacity at emerging, developing, and underserved research institutions. Funding opportunities through the initiative will focus on partnerships, leveraging existing talent among research support staff at more well-resourced institutions to build capacity at emerging and developing research institutions. I encourage you to explore NSF’s GRANTED web page as the program grows and develops: Broadening Participation in STEM - Introducing GRANTED | Beta site for NSF - National Science Foundation.
To increase support for the innovative research, education, and diversity activities funded in GEO we are always seeking compelling research results, stories from the field, and items of interest that we can use to promote the excellent geoscience research and activities that you all participate in. If you have stories and items of interest that we can use to inspire and tell the GEO story, please send them to your Program Directors. We love to hear and spread the word about all the great work we support!
In addition, NSF has launched a “Science Happens Here” campaign and is inviting YOU – our community – to join us in sharing stories of amazing science, engineering, innovation, STEM education, cutting-edge research facilities, future workforce and more that are powered by NSF. Want to be part of the fun? Share your stories with us by accessing our toolkit for ways to participate on social media, easy-to-use templates and examples for inspiration.
I wish you all the best for the summer and look forward to seeing many of you this fall at professional society conferences and other events!
 Alexandra R. Isern
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