A National Repository for Geological Cores Collected in the Polar Regions | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This National Science Foundation (NSF) opportunity (NSF Publication 13-532) seeks a single qualified organization to operate a national repository responsible for the curation and long-term storage of geological core materials collected in the polar regions, with particular emphasis on Antarctic cores gathered on the continent and along its margins. The goal is to ensure that these unique physical samples, which are expensive and difficult to obtain and often irreplaceable, remain professionally preserved, well-documented, and accessible for future scientific study. The NSF’s Antarctic Earth Science Program, within the Division of Polar Programs, is the sponsoring program and is essentially looking to fund an organization to provide the facilities, staff expertise, and user services needed to manage a major core archive as a community resource.

The solicitation is framed around a long-standing existing repository, the Antarctic Marine Geology Research Facility (AMGRF) at Florida State University, which has been serving in this capacity for decades. AMGRF was established in 1963 and operates out of a roughly 10,000 square foot, single-story building on the Florida State University campus. The repository’s holdings described in the announcement include about 21,000 meters of deep-sea sediment cores collected from more than 90 United States Antarctic Program (USAP) research cruises. In addition to cruise-based marine sediment cores, the facility also houses nearly 3,000 meters of core recovered during NSF-supported Antarctic drilling efforts. Specific drilling programs named include the Dry Valleys Drilling Project, the Cape Roberts Project, SHALDRIL 1 and 2, and ANDRILL 1 and 2. Together, these collections represent a substantial record of Antarctic and Southern Ocean geological and climate history and are central to ongoing and future research in paleoclimate, glacial history, sedimentology, tectonics, and related fields.

A key reason this opportunity is being competed is NSF policy requiring that facility awards be re-competed after an appropriate operational period (cited as NSB 08-12 and NSB 08-16). In other words, even though AMGRF is currently fulfilling the role, NSF is opening a competition to select the organization that will provide these national repository services going forward. The selected awardee would be expected to run a core curation facility, maintain the physical integrity of the cores over the long term, manage records and metadata associated with the samples, and provide services that allow the broader research community to discover, request, and use the materials. While the text provided does not list every required task in detail, the emphasis on “curation and long term storage” and “facility and services” signals expectations around professional collection management, controlled storage conditions, tracking systems, and user-oriented access procedures.

The funding instrument is a Cooperative Agreement, which generally indicates that NSF anticipates substantial involvement during the award period compared with a standard grant. The initial operating period is five years, beginning June 1, 2014. NSF also states that a programmatic review will occur before the end of that initial period, and that review will inform whether NSF renews the Cooperative Agreement for an additional five-year period. This structure signals that NSF views the repository as an ongoing national capability that must meet performance expectations over time, with renewal contingent on demonstrated quality of operations, community service, and program alignment.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding within “Science and Technology and other Research and Development.” NSF expects to make one award. The estimated total funding is listed as $350,000, with an award ceiling of $350,000 and an award floor of $275,000, and there is no cost sharing or matching requirement. The CFDA listing provided is 47.078 (Polar Programs). The solicitation was posted January 23, 2013, and the full proposal deadline is April 16, 2013 (also shown as the closing date).

Eligibility includes two main groups. First are non-profit, non-academic organizations in the United States that are tied to educational or research activities, such as independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies, and similar entities. Second are U.S. universities and colleges, including accredited two-year and four-year institutions (including community colleges) with a campus located in the United States, applying on behalf of their faculty. The competition is therefore open to both academic and certain non-academic non-profit organizations capable of operating a specialized national scientific repository.

In practical terms, this solicitation is about sustaining a critical piece of U.S. polar research infrastructure: a centralized, professionally managed home for Antarctic and polar geological cores, along with the service model that lets scientists access those materials for analysis. The repository function supports the long-term value of past NSF investments in Antarctic cruises and drilling campaigns by keeping the cores preserved and available for new methods, new questions, and reanalysis as scientific techniques evolve. For full requirements and official details, the announcement points to NSF Publication 13-532, and it provides NSF Grants.gov support contact information for access issues.

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