Research Coordination Networks (RCN) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Coordination Networks (RCN) program is a grant opportunity designed to help groups of investigators build and sustain strong research and education communities. Instead of primarily funding individual research projects, RCN supports the coordination and communication structures that let researchers, educators, and trainees work together more effectively across institutional, disciplinary, geographic, and even international boundaries. The central idea is that well-organized networks can accelerate progress in a field, help define shared research agendas, spread new methods and tools, improve training pipelines, and open up new directions that would be difficult for isolated teams to pursue.

At its core, the program aims to advance an existing field or spark entirely new research or education directions by backing innovative networking strategies. Proposals are expected to be organized around a unifying theme that gives the network coherence. That theme might be a broad scientific question, an emerging technology, a common data or infrastructure challenge, or a shared set of approaches that multiple communities need to develop together. Typical network activities can include workshops and conferences, coordinated working groups, cross-site training efforts, shared resources such as databases or protocols, community roadmapping and standards development, student and early-career mentoring structures, and other mechanisms that improve collaboration and reduce duplication. NSF highlights that novel and creative networking approaches are especially encouraged, which signals that applicants should not treat the network as a routine meeting series but as a thoughtfully designed system for collaboration and community-building.

The opportunity includes a general RCN pathway and targeted tracks. For the general RCN program, NSF coordinates review through participating NSF core programs and directorates listed in the solicitation, with one important exception: proposals that centrally involve Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) are not handled through the general mechanism described here. Instead, proposals involving mathematical and physical scientists are directed to a specific targeted track focused on the physical/life science interface. NSF also uses targeted tracks to promote linkages across selected directorates, essentially encouraging networks that bridge communities that do not typically collaborate.

Two targeted tracks are explicitly described. The RCN UBE (Undergraduate Biology Education) track supports networks focused on improving undergraduate biology education. Projects in this track can address topics likely to increase participation in undergraduate biology, strengthen learning outcomes, or improve assessment practices. The emphasis is on building a community that can coordinate evidence-based educational improvements, share effective curriculum and assessment tools, and align efforts across institutions. The RCN PLS (Physical/Life Science Interface) track focuses on research and training topics at the interface of biology and either the mathematical sciences or the physical sciences. This track is intended for cross-disciplinary communities working on problems where progress depends on integrating biological questions with methods or concepts from physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, or related areas.

From a funding and award perspective, this opportunity (NSF Publication 10-566; Funding Opportunity Number 10-566) is a discretionary grant program in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category. NSF anticipated around 35 awards, with an estimated total program funding level of about $17.5 million. Individual awards were expected to range from $50,000 (floor) to $500,000 (ceiling). There is no cost sharing or matching requirement stated for this opportunity, which generally lowers the barrier for institutions that do not have substantial non-federal resources to contribute.

Eligibility is geared toward U.S.-based organizations that can credibly convene and support a network. Eligible applicants include accredited U.S. universities and colleges (including community colleges) acting on behalf of their faculty, as well as certain U.S. non-profit, non-academic organizations such as independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies, and similar entities associated with educational or research activities. This reflects the program’s community-building orientation: a strong RCN often benefits from being anchored by an institution or organization that can manage events, communications, and shared resources and can serve as a stable hub for a distributed collaboration.

The solicitation ties to multiple NSF program areas as reflected in the CFDA numbers listed (including Biological Sciences, Geosciences, Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, Education and Human Resources, Polar Programs, International Science and Engineering, and Cyberinfrastructure, among others). This wide coverage reinforces that RCN is not confined to a single discipline; it is meant to enable cross-cutting communities where coordination itself is a key lever for progress. In practice, competitive proposals typically make a clear case that the network will produce outcomes greater than the sum of individual efforts, such as establishing shared research priorities, enabling data interoperability or shared platforms, improving training pathways, or creating durable collaborations that persist beyond the award.

Administratively, the opportunity was originally posted May 21, 2010, later archived and replaced by a subsequent solicitation (noted as replaced by 11-531), with an archive date of March 17, 2011 in the provided record. The general (non-targeted) RCN proposals followed the due dates of the NSF program receiving the proposal, while targeted tracks like RCN PLS and RCN UBE had specific recurring due dates (e.g., annual deadlines around early July in the years listed). For applicant support related to accessing the announcement through Grants.gov, the listing directs users to NSF Grants.gov support at grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov.

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