1 Introduction

The ESIP Testbed is an environment where technology, standards, services, protocols and best practices can be explored. Projects enter the Testbed through a Request for Proposals (RFP) released by the Products and Services Committee. The Testbed Configuration Board (TCB), a community-led panel, reviews each proposal to determine if it represents innovative research, fosters collaboration among, and provides value to, the Earth science community. The TCB works with project Principal Investigators to refine proposal objectives and decides which projects enter the Testbed.

NOTE: This RFP is aimed at new incubation-style projects only, i.e. this is not a call for current Testbed projects to extend funding.

2 Incubation Projects

Incubation projects lie in the realm of good ideas ready to be tried out and provide proof-of-concept on new approaches to problems identified by the Earth science data community or by application of new technologies to those problems. Potential incubation projects could include, but are not limited to, those that:

Implement demonstration technologies or activities furthering goals of ESIP committees, clusters and working groups.
Provide an opportunity for a student to investigate an interesting problem.
Investigate ideas related to the 2017 ESIP theme, “Strengthening ties between observations and user communities.”

If your project has a relationship to the 2017 ESIP theme, please explain this in your proposal response.

3 Past Testbed Projects

Read about past ESIP Testbed projects on the ESIP wiki or Testbed project site.

4 Eligibility Requirements

Proposals may be submitted by any ESIP member organization, an individual within such an organization or a team of such individuals.
Civil servants are restricted from receiving ESIP funds.
The Principal Investigator has not been funded through the ESIP Testbed in the past year.

5 Resources for your Project

5.1 Funding

ESIP can provide up to $7,000 for incubation-project funding. Your RFP response should outline a budget and budget justification.

5.2 Testbed Portal

The Testbed Portal is the registry of testbed projects, and is available to be used for your project’s documentation, content registration and document sharing. The URL for the Testbed Portal is http://testbed.esipfed.org.

5.3 Testbed Cloud Servers

If you need a location to host your project for development, testing, and/or user feedback, the Testbed can provide cloud server instances for you to use. Include in your proposal a plan for how you will use the cloud server and what it contributes to your project. The cloud instance can remain up for the initial project timeframe, but plans should be made to migrate your project to another environment after the duration of your project in keeping with project lifecycle expectations.

Your proposed budget should include estimated costs and duration for running the cloud server instance, what type of cloud resource you need and the plan for user feedback and access of the resource. Where there is collaborative development, team members can share an instance password.

5.4 ESIP GitHub Repository

Any resultant code for testbed projects should be archived in GitHub and included in the ESIP GitHub organizational account. The ESIP GitHub site is public, but you will need to be a member of the organization to create a repository here. Please contact ESIP ([email protected]) with your GitHub username for access.

5.5 GoToMeeting

If you would like to set up regularly scheduled or group calls, contact ESIP ([email protected]) for GoToMeeting access.

5.6 Meeting Space

ESIP provides breakout session capabilities at its bi-annual meetings that can be used for planning sessions, feedback and presentation of your work, and other project-related meetings. If you are considering a face-to-face meeting or a breakout session at the 2017 Winter Meeting, please submit a placeholder session to the ESIP Commons (instructions) by the October 31 session deadline.

6 Reporting Requirements

Projects chosen for award will be expected to do the following:

Create a project page on the Testbed Portal (http://testbed.esipfed.org) that explains what your project will achieve, your project plan and timeline.
Define when and how your project will be concluded; if longer term sustainability is a goal, please describe why it would be maintained in the Testbed longer than the project duration.
During or at the conclusion of your project, post any resultant code and/or a snapshot of the cloud (e.g. Azure or Amazon) instance to the ESIP GitHub organization repository, and place the link on your project page in the Testbed Portal.
You will be asked to present your project progress on a telecon at its halfway point, and also upon its completion.
Presentations/Posters at ESIP Summer and/or Winter meetings are highly encouraged. Specifically, we encourage participation at the ESIP Summer Meeting.

7 How to Propose

7.1 Document Guidelines

A proposal should be 3 pages in length or fewer and should specify:

Project description, and if applicable, how project relates to the 2017 ESIP theme;
How your project supports the mission of an ESIP collaboration area(s);
The ultimate benefit that your solution brings to the ESIP community;
Project plan, budget, and timeline;
Names and descriptions of roles for team members;
If you plan to use cloud server resources, indicate what kind of instance you need, how you plan to use it, and the estimated cost to run the instance for the duration of your project.

7.2 Submission Instructions

Submit the 3-page proposal, plus a CV for all participants to the ESIP Testbed Configuration Board at [email protected].

7.3 Schedule

Incubation projects are intended to be roughly 6 months in duration. You can conceptualize the project’s scheduling and reporting out as follows; please consider this as you propose your project plan:

Project award about two weeks after close of RFP (Nov. 2016)
Present project plan at 2017 ESIP Winter Meeting (Jan. 2017)
Work on project, report out at intervals (Jan. - Jul. 2017)
Present project results at ESIP Summer Meeting (Jul. 2017)

7.4 Deadlines

Proposals may be submitted up to Nov. 1, 2016 and reviewed thereafter. The ESIP Testbed Configuration Board will alert awardees by Nov. 15th.

2017 October ESIP Testbed Request for Proposals