The National Science Foundation renewed the $17.5 million grant that funds the operations of the University’s Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics, according to a University press release.
The five-year grant will fund programs, workshops and conferences held at ICERM — a center that pursues research at the intersection of computation and mathematics. The grant is similar to a previous five-year NSF grant awarded to ICERM in 2010, which provided funds for the institute’s founding.
To receive the grant, ICERM had to go through a rigorous review process called a program solicitation, said Nandini Kannan, an NSF program director.
This program solicitation included both an internal review of the workings of the institute and an external review, in which the NSF talked to the surrounding community to determine whether the NSF’s division of mathematics would recommend funding an award, Kannan said.
“These are competitive awards,” said Jill Pipher, professor of mathematics and director of ICERM. Institute administrators created a proposal, presented it to an NSF panel and underwent a three-day on-site investigation, she said.
Receiving the grant required that the institute be deemed “successful” — a standard based on progress made in research and cultivation of a scientific community, Pipher and Kannan both said.
Kannan said the renewal of the grant is due in part to ICERM’s focus on the intersection between computational and experimental mathematics and the fact that the institute has become a “national resource” for this collaboration.
Pipher echoed Kannan’s sentiment, adding that their identification of new mathematical problems and focus on training new researchers help make ICERM a unique research center.
ICERM workshops have the potential to spark new research by fostering collaborative work among researchers and faculty members, said Edgar Costa, a postdoctoral fellow at ICERM. It is rare that researchers have the time to focus solely on this kind of collaboration for an entire semester, Costa said, adding that these collaborations are often limited to email and short conferences.
“We’re very grateful that the NSF has validated our accomplishments to date and our future vision for ICERM,” Pipher said.
NSF grant money is initially divided into funding for staff salaries, research tools and specific programs proposed by ICERM, Pipher said. Since the new grant is the same amount of money as the old one, only one new program — Collaborate at ICERM — will be created under the new grant, she said.
Under this new program, a small group of outside researchers will be able to work out of ICERM’s high-tech research facilities for one week.
Because the NSF is ICERM’s main source of funding, the institute follows the NSF’s goals for the scientific community and is required to complete annual reports about visitors and research, Pipher said. As ICERM receives about 1,000 researchers and speakers per year, this results in a lengthy annual report, she said.
