(Source).

(...) creation and enhancement of world-class research infrastructure that will support focused research agendas in computer and information science and engineering

Preliminary Proposal Deadline Date: November 8, 2016, 5 pm L.T.

Full Proposal Deadline Date: January 18, 2017

• Institutional Infrastructure (II, for use at the institution): II-NEW, II-EN (enhancement of existing)
• Community Infrastructure (CI, for wide-spread use): planning (CI-P), new (CI-NEW), enhancement (CI-EN), sustainment (CI-SUSTAIN). Each CI award may support the operation of such infrastructure.

(Source)

For collaborative projects, a single preliminary proposal should be submitted by the lead institution only.

The preliminary proposal should consist of three elements: cover sheet, project description, and bio-sketch.

1. Cover Sheet. The PI and all Co-PIs should be indicated. The budget indicated on the Cover Sheet should be the overall project budget total including all collaborative pieces. The Project Title on the Cover Sheet should begin with "CRI Pre-proposal:", followed by the acronym for the CRI project type (II-New, II-EN, CI-P, CI-New, CI-EN, or CI-SUSTAIN), followed by a colon, followed by the project title.
2. Project Description (2-page limit). Start the Project Description with:

• Project title;
• Project type (II-New, II-EN, CI-P, CI-New, CI-EN, or CI-SUSTAIN);
• Collaborative partners: All collaborative partners should be identified, including PIs and Co-PIs of the collaborative partners with their institutional and departmental affiliations;
• CISE (Computer and Information Science and Engineering) core division (CCF -- Computing and Communication Foundations, CNS -- Computer and Network Systems, IIS -- Information and Intelligent Systems) most relevant for the submission – the CISE division the proposal will be submitted to; and
• Three keyword descriptors for the research focus that the requested infrastructure will enable.

The Project Description should then have the following clearly labeled sections:

• A concise description of the infrastructure to be developed, enhanced, or sustained. This includes a description of major equipment needs for the project as well as other significant costs. Projects that involve enhancements to, or sustainment of, existing infrastructures should include information about the existing resources.
• The CISE Research Focus. This section describes the research focus that is enabled by the infrastructure, the importance of the research problems to advancing CISE research frontiers, and the expertise of the research team relative to the focused research thrust. The description should identify the project team and detail each member’s contributions to the project as well as specific expertise relative to the proposed focused research agenda. Note that Big Data and computational science across a variety of disciplines need more specific research focus descriptions including the specific data that are involved and available and the specific research goals that advance computational science, respectively, as opposed to simply employing Big Data and computational science techniques in a broad range of applications.
• Sample research project. A short (2-3 sentences) summary of one potential research project should be included.
• The nature of the community involvement (required for CI-P, CI-New, CI-EN, or CI-SUSTAIN projects). This section demonstrates the community involvement in the creation, enhancement, evaluation, and use of the resource. Describe the research community involved in the project. CI-New projects should show the community involvement and demand for the project as well as indicate the community commitment to establishing and using the infrastructure. CI-EN and CI-SUSTAIN projects should describe community usage of the infrastructure as well as community involvement in enhancement and sustainment efforts.
• The relevance to CISE. This section should include:
• A list of specific CISE researchers who are involved in the leadership of the project and in the development of the infrastructure (including any enhancement or sustainment plan, as appropriate);
• A list of the CISE researchers communities that will benefit from the infrastructure; and
• A list of any prior CISE funding the infrastructure has received (enhancement projects should also include the approximate date when the infrastructure involved was established).

3. Biographical Sketch (2-page limit). A biographical sketch is required for the PI on the proposal or on the lead proposal for collaborative projects.

TL;DR: CI$ >> II$, CI# << II#.

Anticipated Type of Award: Standard Grant or Continuing Grant

Estimated Number of Awards: 25 to 30

With up to 20 Institutional Infrastructure (II) awards and up to 10 Community Infrastructure (CI) awards in each competition. The majority of the II awards will be made in the $200,000 - $750,000 range, though a small number of II awards may be made in the $750,000 - $1,000,000 range. The majority of the CI awards will be made in the $500,000 - $1,000,000 range, though a very small number of CI awards may be made in the $1,000,000 - $2,500,000 range. The majority of the Community Infrastructure Planning (CI-P) awards will be made in the $50,000 - $100,000 range.

Anticipated Funding Amount: $18,000,000

(Source)

For CI-NEW/EN/SUSTAIN, NSF will provide no more than $250,000 per year for operating the infrastructure.

Likewise, the past years have seen the emergence of a number of community resources and testbeds funded through CRI, NSF, and other sources to support CISE research. For example, cloud computing resources such as NSF Future Cloud as well as the collection of cloud resources now available beyond those supported by NSF offer excellent opportunities for investigations and data management that do not require significant additional infrastructure investments. Researchers should first consider use of currently available resources before submitting a CRI proposal. All CRI proposals must clearly demonstrate that the requirements of the proposed research agenda demand the new or enhanced infrastructure requested in the CRI proposal and cannot be accomplished using other existing resources.