**Funder template:** National Science Foundation · **Opportunity:** PD-26-366Y · closes no deadline stated

**How reviewers read this:** NSF merit review asks two questions of every proposal: Intellectual Merit (the potential to advance knowledge) and Broader Impacts (the potential to benefit society). Both are weighed through five elements: potential to advance knowledge/benefit society; creativity and originality; soundness of the plan and mechanism to assess success; qualifications of the team; adequacy of resources.

**Verify:** Conventions per NSF PAPPG as of mid-2026. Always confirm against the current PAPPG edition and the solicitation, which may override.

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# Project Summary
*Page limit: 1 page (three separate text boxes in Research.gov) — verify against the NOFO.*

## Overview
Explain, in plain language, what fundamental transport-phenomena question you will answer, how you will study it, and why the answer matters for NSF’s basic-research mission. State the vision and the main activities in the first two sentences.
- What is the core transport-phenomena problem in this project, and how does it advance understanding of mass, momentum, energy, or species transport?
- What experimental, theoretical, or computational approach will you use to study the phenomenon?
- How will the work create new knowledge that could inform engineering applications, while remaining fundamentally research-focused?
- [DRAFT] Recast the tornado-warning idea as a transport-phenomena question only if the project is truly about fluid dynamics, atmospheric flow, or message-independent warning propagation; otherwise do not force a fit.
- [DRAFT] Emphasize that the project will generate fundamental insight into the dynamics of a relevant physical system and develop an analytical or modeling technique.

## Intellectual Merit
Show how the project advances knowledge in TP, including any new theory, measurements, models, or methods. Make this box quotable for reviewers.
- What specific gap in transport-phenomena knowledge will the project close?
- Which TP themes does it connect to, such as multiphase flow, interfacial phenomena, thermal transport, or reactive flows?
- What is novel about the method, model, or dataset compared with current state of the art?
- [DRAFT] If the idea remains a social-science warning study, this section should instead explain why it does not belong in TP and whether the project should be redesigned before submission.
- [DRAFT] Describe how linking longitudinal observations with message wording would reveal mechanisms, thresholds, or response dynamics only if the underlying phenomenon is a physical transport process.

## Broader Impacts
Name the beneficiaries and the concrete activities that will produce societal value. Tie impacts to assessable outcomes rather than generic education claims.
- Who will benefit from the project’s outcomes, and in what way?
- What specific outreach, training, data, or partnership activities will extend the results beyond the research team?
- How will you measure whether those broader impacts occur?
- [DRAFT] If adapted to TP, identify an application domain NSF highlights, such as energy, manufacturing, microelectronics, biotechnology, or climate/wildland fire.
- [DRAFT] Specify any resources, open tools, or shared datasets that could help researchers or practitioners use the findings.

# Project Description
*Page limit: 15 pages (solicitation may differ) — verify against the NOFO.*

## Introduction and Objectives
State the research questions and hypotheses crisply on page one, and make clear how they align with TP’s focus on fundamental transport processes.
- What are the central research questions or hypotheses?
- What are the project objectives, stated as testable aims?
- How does the project connect to NSF TP priorities, such as multiphase dynamics, interfacial phenomena, thermal transport, or combustion?
- [DRAFT] If the actual project is about tornado warnings, state clearly that it is not a TP topic unless the work is reframed around atmospheric transport, flow dynamics, or another physical transport mechanism.

## Background and Motivation
Identify the knowledge gap, explain why it matters now, and show how the proposed work builds on and extends the state of the art.
- What is currently known, and what is not known, about the relevant transport process?
- Why is this an important question now for basic science and engineering?
- Which prior studies, models, or measurements define the frontier your project will push?
- [DRAFT] If using the example idea as inspiration only, explain why existing approaches fail to capture the mechanism you propose to study.
- [DRAFT] Identify the physical scales, interfaces, or coupled processes that motivate the work.

## Research Plan
Organize the plan by aim or objective, and specify methods, analysis, timeline, and contingencies. Reviewers need a clear mechanism for judging success.
- What will you do in each aim, and in what order?
- What experiments, simulations, theory, or hybrid methods will you use?
- How will you analyze the results, validate models, and decide whether each aim succeeded?
- What are the likely risks, and what alternative strategies will you use if the primary approach fails?
- [DRAFT] If the project is genuinely TP-related, describe the physical system, governing equations or measurements, and the variables that capture transport behavior.
- [DRAFT] If the project remains a longitudinal survey study, it does not match this program; revise the plan toward a fundamental transport system before submission.

## Broader Impacts
Provide a distinctly labeled broader-impacts section with concrete activities, audiences, partners, and evaluation.
- What specific societal or educational activities will you undertake?
- Who is the audience or beneficiary, and how will you reach them?
- What measurable outcomes will demonstrate impact?
- How will you evaluate and refine the activities?
- [DRAFT] If relevant, describe dissemination to an engineering or science audience through open data, code, workshops, or community benchmarks.
- [DRAFT] Tie impacts to NSF-relevant application areas only if they follow naturally from the transport-phenomena research.

## Results from Prior NSF Support
If any PI or co-PI has had NSF support in the past five years, summarize the prior project’s Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts.
- Do any investigators need to report prior NSF support?
- What were the key scientific outcomes of the prior award?
- What broader impacts were achieved, and what evidence supports them?
- [DRAFT] If no prior NSF support exists, state that explicitly and do not leave the section ambiguous.

# References Cited
*Page limit: no page limit — verify against the NOFO.*

## References Cited
Include every work cited in the project description, with full and consistent citations.
- Which papers, books, datasets, or reports are cited in the narrative?
- Are the citations complete and formatted consistently?
- [DRAFT] Ensure the references support a TP-centered fundamental research case, not a social-science warning-response study unless the proposal is substantially re-scoped.

# Budget Justification
*Page limit: 5 pages — verify against the NOFO.*

## Budget Justification
Justify each budget line item by category and tie requested effort and costs to the research plan.
- Why is each personnel request necessary for the aims and timeline?
- What travel, materials, or computational resources are needed to complete the work?
- Are any participant support, equipment, or subcontract costs essential and reasonable?
- How does the budget reflect the program’s emphasis on fundamental research rather than service delivery or commercialization?
- [DRAFT] If the work uses surveys or panel data, justify any participant incentives only if they are essential and allowable; otherwise reconsider fit with TP.
- [DRAFT] Explain how any specialized instrumentation, high-performance computing, or experimental supplies directly enable transport-phenomena measurements or simulations.

# Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources
*Page limit: no page limit — verify against the NOFO.*

## Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources
Describe only the resources available for the project and why they are adequate; omit dollar values and generic institutional boilerplate.
- What laboratory, computational, field, or instrumentation resources are already available?
- What specialized facilities or user centers will support the research?
- What institutional resources, collaborations, or access agreements are relevant?
- [DRAFT] If the project is not truly transport-phenomena research, do not try to force-fit facilities; instead identify the resources needed for a re-scoped physical science project.
- [DRAFT] Name any modeling, experimental, or data infrastructure that will support the proposed fundamental studies.

### Institutional facilities & resources (boilerplate — trim to relevance)

> Maintain approved paragraphs here, one block per unit/resource. Shells
> append this file to facilities documents; the researcher deletes blocks
> that don't apply. Replace the placeholders with ORS-approved language.

**University of Oklahoma (general).** [[FILL IN: one approved paragraph on
OU as an R1 institution, research infrastructure, computing, and libraries]]

**IPPRA.** [[FILL IN: approved paragraph — survey research infrastructure,
M-SISNet panel, secure data enclave (Prometheus 42), staff expertise]]

**OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER).** [[FILL IN:
approved paragraph if applicable]]

**[[Additional units as needed]]**

# Data Management and Sharing Plan
*Page limit: 2 pages — verify against the NOFO.*

## Data Management and Sharing Plan
State what data, code, and other products will be produced, how they will be formatted and shared, and where they will be archived.
- What types of data will the project generate?
- What standards, metadata, and file formats will you use?
- Where will the data and code be shared, and on what timeline?
- How will you protect any sensitive or human-subjects data, if applicable, and what de-identification or IRB steps are needed?
- [DRAFT] If the project is a fundamental TP study, plan to share simulation inputs, processed measurements, and analysis code in a reusable repository.
- [DRAFT] If any human-subjects or survey data are used, note that this plan must include IRB compliance, de-identification, and access controls; however, that would be atypical for this TP program.
- [DRAFT] Specify an archival venue appropriate to the data type, such as a disciplinary repository, institutional repository, or code archive.

# Biographical Sketches (per senior person)
*Page limit: 3 pages each, SciENcv format required — verify against the NOFO.*

## Biographical Sketch
Prepare each senior person’s sketch in SciENcv and ensure it is current, complete, and certification-ready.
- Which senior personnel need biosketches?
- Are their appointments, products, and synergistic activities fully and accurately entered in SciENcv?
- Do their recent and relevant products support the TP topic and methods?
- [DRAFT] If the project remains centered on tornado-warning survey research, the biosketches should demonstrate expertise in a different NSF program area; otherwise, the proposal should be redirected before submission.