NSF Geosciences Multilateral International Opportunities Fund Initiative
Sponsor Pre-Proposal deadline: June 1, 2015
Notification of invitation for Full Proposal: August 3, 2015
Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): October 30, 2015
Notification of Awards: March 2016

The Directorate for Geosciences announces a new Multilateral Research Funding Initiative through the Belmont Forum on Mountains as Sentinels of Change. This partnership will provide international collaborative research opportunities that address the Belmont Challenge: “To deliver knowledge needed for action to mitigate and adapt to detrimental environmental change and extreme hazardous events”. This call of the International Opportunities Fund will focus on addressing issues of climate, environmental and related societal change in mountain regions that are best addressed through a coupled interdisciplinary and multinational approach. This Call seeks to advance research within the following themes utilizing and developing both the relevant information streams and the sustainability science necessary to assess, predict, inform, and communicate resilient pathways.

1. Drivers of change - the variety of natural and anthropogenic drivers that generate the observed and expected environmental changes in the mountains.
2. Ecosystems and Biodiversity - the changes in ecosystem functions in response to drivers and the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services.
3. Water - the mountain water resources and the changes in water availability due to environmental changes related to the different driving factors.
4. Hazards, Vulnerability and Risks - The hazards that affect mountain regions and their impacts; the vulnerability of natural and human systems to drivers of change and impacts on society; the aggregated and cascading effects of multiple hazards.
5. Adaptation and Resilience - the adaptation and mitigation strategies and implications for future generations, economies, and environments.