Can Type I projects include major infrastructure investments for new equipment, instrumentation or observing systems?
No, acquisition of new major infrastructure is not intended to be covered, although requests for some instrumentation and technique development, as well as deployment of field instrumentation can be included in the project budget. What do you mean by “high-risk, high-return” research? Can you give examples of risks that might be associated with FESD proposals? There can be various kinds of risk associated with a particular proposal. There can be technical risks, for example a crucial new instrument might fail or a new experimental technique may not be successful. There also can be intellectual risks, for example a new idea or hypothesis may ultimately be proven incorrect. Finally, there can be operational risks, for example bad weather may cause a cruise to be canceled or compromise a field experiment. These risks have to be weighed against the possible transformative research that might be accomplished if the project is successful. Research at the frontiers of a field of research is o
