(This post has been updated; scroll down for the latest.)

As we’ve previously reported in this space, the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently issued a cross-directorate solicitation on Smart Health and Wellbeing (SHB), calling for interdisciplinary proposals addressing “fundamental technical and scientific issues that would support much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on wellbeing rather than disease.” The SHB program, with support from the NSF’s directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE), expands a program first implemented by CISE in spring 2011. Today, the NSF is announcing that it will hold a webinar next Wednesday, Jan. 11 for individuals interested in the new program.

From our colleagues at NSF:

The National Science Foundation Smart Health and Wellbeing Program invites you to attend a webinar regarding its FY 2012 Smart Health and Wellbeing Solicitation (NSF 12-512) [more after the jump].

 

The Smart Health and Wellbeing (SHB) program is an NSF initiative to leverage the basic science research typically funded by the National Science Foundation in engineering, information and communication technology, and behavioral sciences towards improving the nation’s health and wellbeing. SHB seeks proposals anticipating scientific advances that would support the transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on well-being rather than disease. In the past fiscal year the program was advanced from a cross-cutting initiative within CISE to an inter-directorate program of CISE, SBE, and ENG. This webinar is designed to describe the goals and focus of the current solicitation, answer questions about the program, and help investigators understand what constitutes an appropriate proposal for this initiative.

 

The Webinar will be held on January 11, 2012, 2:00-3:00pm EST, and will consist of an informal discussion of the program followed by a longer period of Q&A.

 

Questions can be submitted in advance or during the webinar using the email iis-shb-corr@nsf.gov.

 

The link for participation on January 11 will be posted on the program website by January 9, 2012.

As a reminder, proposers are invited to submit proposals in two project classes:

• Type I: Exploratory Projects (EXP) — $200,000 to $600,000 total budget with durations from two to three years; and
• Type II: Integrative Projects (INT) — $600,001 to $2,000,000 total budget with durations from four to five years.

Full proposals for exploratory projects are due Feb. 6, 2012; the deadline for integrative project proposals is Feb. 21, 2012.

For more details about the SHB program, check out the full solicitation here; see projects funded by the initial CISE program in FY 2011 here; and direct additional questions about the solicitation or the webinar to iis-shb-corr@nsf.gov.

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Updated Monday, Jan. 9 at 11:58am EST: To register for the webinar, click here. Registration is requested by 11:59pm EST on Jan. 10.

And if you can’t make it, we’re told an archived version will be available for streaming a few days after the webinar takes place.

(Contributed by Erwin Gianchandani, CCC Director)