Microsoft Research
Smart Clients for eScience
Request for Proposals (RFP)

This RFP has been awarded. To view the award recipients, see Smart Clients for eScience 2005 RFP Awards.

Background
As sciences become more data intensive, computational technologies are beginning to transform scientific research. Tools for data gathering, mining, analysis, and visualization are becoming integral to the practice of science, often yielding dramatic productivity gains. This merger is giving rise to the new disciple of Computational Sciences. Examples of work in these areas include TerraService (computational geography) and the National Virtual Observatory (computational astronomy).

Information on the first round of eScience RFP recipients and projects can be found at http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/escience/eScienceRFPAwards.aspx. First year focus was on use of database and web services for exposing data for eScience applications.

Goals & Objectives
Microsoft Research seeks to encourage scientists to incorporate advanced technologies within their research. The explosion of data in the sciences and the need for more data sharing and collaboration is becoming an unmanageable situation the way many projects are currently architected. As more technology becomes available for scientists to utilize, there is also a need to apply it in applications, information, and data in a way that it is easy for scientists to consume—that is, allow the scientists to focus on their research instead of the infrastructures.

With this announcement, Microsoft Research seeks to fund creative projects that have will have an impact and advance the state of the art within their scientific domains by creating domain specific smart client applications. Smart clients are easily deployed and managed client applications that provide an adaptive and interactive experience by leveraging local resources and intelligently connecting to distributed data sources. Smart client applications come in many forms, across many devices, and with varying degrees of functionality and proposals for this RFP are expected to make use of Microsoft Smart Client technologies (.NET Framework, WinForms, DirectX, Microsoft Office, etc) to the extent applicable. Most smart client applications share a common set of capabilities, including:

• Offline Capable
• Intelligent Deployment, Management, and Update
• Connected to various data sources
• High Fidelity User Interface
• Device Flexibility
• Leverage Local Resources, for example CPU, GPU, storage, attached devices

Microsoft Research invites research scientists from disciplines including (but not limited to) astronomy, bioinformatics and computational biology, material sciences, physics, archeology, oceanography, geosciences, and other computational science disciplines to submit proposals that would raise the impact of these technologies within their respective domains.

Expected outcomes would include publicly available client applications that demonstrate the applicability of smart client applications to specific scientific disciplines. Examples of this could be the NASA World Wind application (http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/) or the San Diego Supercomputer Center Notebook Project (http://www.notebookproject.org), as well as RFP projects from the 2004 eScience RFP (http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/escience/eScienceRFPAwards.aspx).

Awards
The total amount available under this request for proposals (RFP) is $400,000. Microsoft Research anticipates making approximately 8–12 awards with a maximum of $50,000 for any single award. All awards will be made in $US as unrestricted gifts to the institution with the understanding that recipients should provide Microsoft Research with suitable progress reports at least twice yearly.

Awards under this program are for one year only, but may be renewable at the sole discretion of Microsoft Research.

Eligibility
Conditions of eligibility listed below will be strictly adhered to, so please read them carefully. Proposals not meeting all these criteria will not be considered.

1. The proposing institution must be an accredited four-year college or university with non-profit status.
2. An institution will be awarded a maximum of one gift per RFP, regardless of the number of proposals submitted from the institution. However, collaborative proposals embracing multiple groups across the organization are encouraged.
3. Proposals that are incomplete, inaccurate, request funds in excess of the maximum award available, or are otherwise not responsive to the terms and conditions of this RFP will, at the sole discretion of Microsoft Research, be excluded from consideration.
4. Proposals from on or behalf of persons participating in the evaluation process for this RFP will not be considered.
5. Proposals should evidence a commitment to make all results arising from a funded project (including all intellectual property in those results) broadly available by either: (i) dedicating such results to the public domain; or (ii) making the results available under a non-restrictive license that allows modification and redistribution without any significant restrictions or conditions, such as the BSD license available at http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html. Proposals should further evidence willingness to contribute any resulting curriculum material to the MSDN Academic Alliance Curriculum Repository at http://msdnaa.net/curriculum.
6. RFP Recipients will attend at least one eScience workshop to present and discuss their project. Funding for travel to be included in the award.

Submission Process
Proposals will be accepted in electronic form only at http://microsoft.redwhale.com. Proposals submitted to Microsoft will not be returned. Microsoft cannot assume responsibility for the confidentiality of information in submitted proposals. Therefore, proposals should not contain information that is confidential, restricted or sensitive. Microsoft reserves the right to make public proposals that receive awards, except those portions containing budgetary or personally identifiable information.

The submission process includes two parts.

1. Brief summary and contact information. Applicants must provide full contact information for principal investigators, amount requested and a brief abstract. This information will be submitted through a web form as part of the submission process.
2. Complete proposal containing full detail on the proposed project. 7 pages maximum, 10pt. font or larger, double-spaced, in either Microsoft Word or PDF format.

Proposals should fully address each of the items listed below under separate numbered headings.

1. Problem Statement. What is the problem or curriculum area addressed by the proposal and why is it important? What is the potential contribution to the field of the project if successful? Cite relevant work in the field as appropriate.
2. Expected outcomes: What tangible assets, if any, will be created or produced as a result of the proposed project? How will the results of this project be disseminated to others?
3. Schedule. When is the project to be completed? What milestones will be used to measure progress of the project and when will they be completed? (If the project described is part of a larger ongoing research program, estimate the time for completion of this project only).
4. Use of Funds: Provide a high-level budget ($US) describing how the award will be used, including purchases of hardware or software, salaries, and other costs.
5. Dissemination and Evaluation. How will the results of this project be evaluated (if appropriate), and how will they be disseminated to others? Under what general license terms will the results be made available?
6. Other Support: Including other contributions to this project (cash, goods or services), if any, but not including such things as use of university facilities otherwise provided on an ongoing basis. Please note: authors of winning proposals will be required to submit an original letter on department letterhead certifying the commitment of any additional or matching support described in the proposal.
7. Qualifications of Principal Investigator: Include a brief description of any relevant prior research, teaching, publication or other professional experience. A detailed vita or list of publications is not required.

Selection Process and Criteria
All proposals received will be reviewed by Microsoft Research and eligible proposals will be evaluated by a panel of subject-matter experts chosen by Microsoft Research. All evaluations will be conducted anonymously. Based on evaluations by the review panel, Microsoft Research will select the most worthy proposals for funding. Microsoft Research reserves the right to fund winning proposals at an amount greater or less than the amount requested, up to the stated maximum amount for individual awards. Due to the volume of submissions, Microsoft Research cannot provide individual feedback on proposals that are not funded.

All proposals will be evaluated based upon the following criteria:

1. Well-defined goals and objectives that, if achieved, have the potential to have a significant impact on a specific scientific problem or domain.
2. Proposals for this RFP are expected to make use of Microsoft Smart Client technologies (.NET Framework, WinForms, DirectX, Microsoft Office, etc) to the extent applicable; however for functionality not covered by the Microsoft toolsets, proposals should list those limitations and describe their solution.
3. Potential for wide dissemination and use of intellectual property created, including specific plans for publications, conference presentations, distance learning, etc., as well as plans to distribute content in multiple formats or languages.
4. Ability to complete the project , including the adequacy of resources available, reasonableness of timelines, and number and qualifications of identified contributors.
5. Qualifications of principal investigator, including previous history of work in their scientific/computing area, successful completion of previous funded projects, teaching awards, books published, etc.

Schedule and Deadlines

Additional Resources

MSDN Smart Client Developer Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient

Smart Client Platform Architectural Guidance
http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/understanding/essentials/pag/default.aspx

.NET Framework Developer Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/

.NET Compact Framework
http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/understanding/netcf/

Microsoft Office Developer Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/

Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vsto

NASA World Wind Client Application
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

SDSC Notebook Project
http://www.notebookproject.org

eScience 2004 RFP projects
http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/escience/eScienceRFPAwards.aspx
 

Please address any questions to urinq@microsoft.com. Please put “Smart Client - eScience” in the subject line of your e-mail message to ensure a prompt and proper response.
 

Microsoft Word version of this document