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The Sustained Availability of Biological Infrastructure program (SABI) supports the continued operation of extant infrastructure that will advance basic biological research. Infrastructure supported under this program may include cyberinfrastructure, instrumentation, experimental or observational facilities, biological living stocks which have ongoing costs of operation and maintenance that exceed the reasonable capacity of the host institution. Proposals must make a compelling case that sustained availability of the proposed infrastructure will advance or transform research in biological sciences as supported by the National Science Foundation. While other programs in the Division of Biological Infrastructure focus on research leading to future infrastructure or on the development or implementation of shared infrastructure, this program focuses on awards that ensure the continued availability of mature infrastructure resources critical to sustain the ability of today’s scientific community to conduct leading edge research. Awards made through this program are expected to lead to novel, impactful, and transformative science outcomes through research activities enabled by their use. Infrastructure that demonstrates substantial impact on research supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and its collaborating organizations is eligible for support under this program.

Biological processes at all scales from molecules to ecosystems are determined through the encoding, exchange, and interpretation of information. Advances in the biological sciences are enabled by our capacity to acquire, manage, represent, and analyze biological information through the use of modern instrumentation and computational tools. Developing an integrated understanding of cell function, regulatory systems, or ecological responses to environmental change are just a few examples of biological research areas that involve the acquisition, observation, experiment, and modeling of large amounts of data. Proposals are invited that offer potentially transformative outcomes through the development of informatics tools and resources that (1) offer novel and significant advances in the use of biological data and/or (2) will enable and stimulate advances through their impact on a significant segment of the biological research community supported by the NSF BIO Directorate. Awards in CIBR should produce, or substantially expand a finished product that will have demonstrable impact in advancing biological research. Proposals should convey their likelihood of success through greaterattention touser engagement, design quality, engineering practices, management plan,and dissemination.Budgets and award durationsshould accommodate the iterative process of bringing a proof of concept into a robust, broadly-adopted cyberinfrastructure. Development proposals are more outcome-driven than Innovation awards and are typically assessed on their perceived contribution to a broad portfolio of cyberinfrastructure resources. Synergies with, and leveraging of, other existing and ongoing resources are taken into consideration.

Advances in the biological sciences are enabled by our capacity to acquire, manage, represent, and analyze biological information through the use of modern instrumentation and computational tools. Instrumentation Capacity for Biological Research (ICBR) invites proposals that specifically enable increased access to state of the art instrumentation in support of the biological sciences by (1) increasing access to a community of users through broadening of dissemination of such instrumentation, and (2) broadening access to state-of-the art instrumentation and facilities at a regional or national level. The "Rules of Life" is one of the NSF's ten big ideas for future investment. Understanding these basic "Rules" and how they operate across scales of time, space, and complexity to determine how genes function and interact with the environment will enable us to predict the phenotype, structure, function, and behavior of organisms. Providing scientists with the instrumentation and resources necessary to make these discoveries requires investments in new instrumentation capabilities and extending access to existing instrumentation and experimental facilities. Competitive proposals under ICBR will expand access to new or existing instrumentation that supports a significant segment of the biological research community conducting research in areas supported by the NSF Biological Sciences Directorate (BIO). The program will support activities that (1) enhance the access to and dissemination of innovative instrumentation, and (2) promote and enable access to existing instrumentation facilities (ie. imaging, genomics, proteomics, etc.) at the regional or national level.

The Advances in Biological Informatics (ABI) program seeks to encourage new approaches to the analysis and dissemination of biological knowledge for the benefit of both the scientific community and the broader public. The ABI program is especially interested in the development of informatics tools and resources that have the potential to advance- or transform- research in biology supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation.  The ABI program accepts three major types of proposals: Innovation awards that seek to pioneer new approaches to the application of informatics to biological problems, Development awards that seek to provide robust cyberinfrastructure that will enable transformative biological research, and Sustaining awards that seek to support ongoing operations and maintenance of existing cyberinfrastructure that is critical for continued advancement of priority biological research.      

The Advances in Biological Informatics (ABI) program seeks to encourage new approaches to the analysis and dissemination of biological knowledge for the benefit of both the scientific community and the broader public. The ABI program is especially interested in the development of informatics tools and resources that have the potential to advance- or transform- research in biology supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation. The ABI program accepts three major types of proposals: Innovation awards that seek to pioneer new approaches to the application of informatics to biological problems, Development awards that seek to provide robust cyberinfrastructure that will enable transformative biological research, and Sustaining awards that seek to support ongoing operations and maintenance of existing cyberinfrastructure that is critical for continued advancement of priority biological research.

The Infrastructure Capacity for Biology (ICB) supports the development, expansion, or improvement of infrastructure that will enable fundamental research within the biological sciences. Infrastructure supported under thissolicitation may include cyberinfrastructure, instrumentation, biological collections, living stocks, field stations, marine labs, or other resources that are shared and openly accessible. Proposals submitted to the ICB solicitation must make a compelling case that the proposed infrastructure will advance or transform research in areas of science that are supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) at the National Science Foundation. While other programs in the Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI) focus on innovative research leading to new infrastructure or sustained operation of mature infrastructure, thissolicitation focuses on supporting projects that seek to deliver, enable access to, or substantially improve infrastructure that will advance the capacity oftoday's scientific community to conduct leading edge research. The impacts of the activities funded by awards made through this solicitation will be reflected not just in the quality of their products, but by the novel and transformative science outcomes that will be achieved by the users of these resources. Infrastructure projects that will advance any field of research supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences are eligible for support under this program. Please refer to the individual program descriptions for detailed guidance on what is supported through this solicitation:

The Division of Mathematical Sciences in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health plan to support research in mathematics and statistics on questions in the biological and biomedical sciences. Both agencies recognize the need and urgency for promoting research at the interface between the mathematical sciences and the life sciences. This program is designed to encourage new collaborations, as well as to support existing ones.

The Division of Mathematical Sciences in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health plan to support research in mathematics and statistics on questions in the biological and biomedical sciences. Both agencies recognize the need and urgency for promoting research at the interface between the mathematical sciences and the life sciences. This program is designed to encourage new collaborations, as well as to support existing ones.

Collections in Support of Biological Research (CSBR) provides for enhancements that secure and improve existing research collections, improve the accessibility of collection-related data, develop capacity for curation and collection management, and to transfer ownership of collections that are significant to the NSF BIO-funded research community. Requests should demonstrate a clear and urgent need to secure or improve the collection, and the proposed activities should address that need. Types of biological collections that are supported include established living stock/culture collections, established natural history voucher collections, and jointly-curated ancillary collections such as preserved tissues and libraries of genetic and genomic materials. Biological research collections support essential research activities in the biological sciences. Collections are used to document biodiversity, identify species, understand organismal systems, recognize environmental shifts, explore alternate energy sources, understand evolutionary patterns, and improve agricultural, biomedical, and manufacturing applications. Natural history collections contain records of life on earth that are unique and irreplaceable, including specimens of extinct species and temporal information on changes in the ranges of native and introduced species. Many collections also house voucher-linked ancillary research materials (including DNA and frozen tissue samples, digital images, audio and video files). Living collections play a key role in the advancement and preservation of biological knowledge by providing well-characterized and documented experimental organisms to researchers at modest cost.

The Sustained Availability of Biological Infrastructure program (SABI) supports the continued operation of extant infrastructure that will advance basic biological research. Infrastructure supported under this program may include cyberinfrastructure, instrumentation, experimental or observational facilities, biological living stocks which have ongoing costs of operation and maintenance that exceed the reasonable capacity of the host institution. Proposals must make a compelling case that sustained availability of the proposed infrastructure will advance or transform research in biological sciences as supported by the National Science Foundation.

The Infrastructure Innovation for Biological Research (IIBR) solicitation supports new and innovative research in biological informatics, instrumentation and associated methods, as well as multidisciplinary approaches to these broad themes that address needs in basic biological research. These awards support pioneering approaches that develop de novo infrastructure, significantly redesign existing infrastructure, or apply existing infrastructure in novel ways. Activities must demonstrate the potential to advance or transform research in biology as supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation (https://nsf.gov/bio).

The Infrastructure Innovation for Biological Research (IIBR) solicitation supports new and innovative research in biological informatics, instrumentation and associated methods, as well as multidisciplinary approaches to these broad themes that address needs in basic biological research. These awards support pioneering approaches that develop de novo infrastructure, significantly redesign existing infrastructure, or apply existing infrastructure in novel ways. Activities must demonstrate the potential to advance or transform research in biology as supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation (http://nsf.gov/bio).

The Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB) supports quantitative, mechanistic, predictive, and theory-driven fundamental research designed to promote understanding of complex living systems at the molecular, subcellular, and cellular levels. While recognizing the need for thorough and accurate descriptions of biological complexes and pathways, the priority of the Division is to support work that advances the field by capturing the predictive power of mechanistic, quantitative, and evolutionary approaches. Two funding tracks will be available. Core Program Track proposals are solicited to support research relevant to the four MCB core clusters: o Cellular Dynamics and Function o Genetic Mechanisms o Molecular Biophysics o Systems and Synthetic Biology Rules of Life Track proposals that integrate across the scales in biological sciences are solicited to support research that spans from the molecular and cellular levels normally funded by MCB to organismal and ecosystem scales typically funded by other divisions in the Biological Sciences. This track provides new opportunities to advance our understanding of the Rules of Life by new mechanisms for review and funding of proposals that would not ordinarily fit well within one division in the Biological Sciences Directorate.

The Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) has long had the mission to improve social and living conditions in the United States. It pursues this goal by supporting outstanding research in the social sciences that explores how social, economic, and political factors affect the lives of Americans and their children. Support of such research remains the Foundation's core focus. RSF also has a long history of encouraging new scientific advances to strengthen the methods, data, and theoretical core of the social sciences. Two recent intellectual developments have prompted RSF to launch a special research initiative that integrates knowledge from the biological and social sciences. First, there has been a paradigm shift in the life sciences, spurred by the realization that many biological processes, rather than being fixed, immutable mechanisms that consign people to particular life outcomes, are instead fluid, dynamic responses to features of the social and physical environments humans inhabit. Second, this shift led researchers to launch interdisciplinary studies that seek to integrate approaches from the social and biological sciences, recognizing the potential for a deeper understanding of how social inequalities are initiated, maintained, and transmitted from one generation to the next.

The Biological Anthropology Program supports basic research in areas related to human evolution and contemporary human biological variation. Research areas supported by the program include, but are not limited to, human genetic variation, human adaptation, human osteology and bone biology, human and nonhuman primate paleontology, functional anatomy, and primate socioecology. Grants supported in these areas are united by an underlying evolutionary framework, and often a consideration of adaptation as a central theoretical theme. Many proposals also have a biocultural orientation. The program frequently serves as a bridge within NSF between the social and behavioral sciences and the natural and physical sciences, and proposals are commonly jointly reviewed and funded with other programs.

The Biological Anthropology Program supports basic research in areas related to human evolution and contemporary human biological variation. Research areas supported by the program include, but are not limited to, human genetic variation, human adaptation, human osteology and bone biology, human and nonhuman primate paleontology, functional anatomy, and primate socioecology. Grants supported in these areas are united by an underlying evolutionary framework, and often a consideration of adaptation as a central theoretical theme. Many proposals also have a biocultural orientation. The program frequently serves as a bridge within NSF between the social and behavioral sciences and the natural and physical sciences, and proposals are commonly jointly reviewed and funded with other programs.

The purpose of the NSF-Simons Research Centers for Mathematics of Complex Biological Systems (MathBioSys) is to enable innovative collaborative research at the intersection of mathematics and molecular, cellular and organismal biology, to establish new connections between these two disciplines, and to promote interdisciplinary education and workforce training. The National Science Foundation Directorates for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and for Biological Sciences (BIO) and the Simons Foundation Division of Mathematics and the Physical Sciences (MPS) and Division of Life Sciences shall jointly sponsor up to three new research centers to facilitate collaborations among groups of mathematicians, statisticians, and biologists.

The purpose of the NSF-Simons Research Centers for Mathematics of Complex Biological Systems (MathBioSys) is to enable innovative collaborative research at the intersection of mathematics and molecular, cellular and organismal biology, to establish new connections between these two disciplines, and to promote interdisciplinary education and workforce training. The National Science Foundation Directorates for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and for Biological Sciences (BIO) and the Simons Foundation Division of Mathematics and the Physical Sciences (MPS) and Division of Life Sciences shall jointly sponsor up to three new research centers to facilitate collaborations among groups of mathematicians, statisticians, and biologists.

The Division of Mathematical Sciences in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health plan to support research in mathematics and statistics on questions in the biological and biomedical sciences. Both agencies recognize the need and urgency for promoting research at the interface between the mathematical sciences and the life sciences. This competition is designed to encourage new collaborations, as well as to support existing ones.

The Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) plan to support research in mathematics and statistics on questions in the biological and biomedical sciences. Both agencies recognize the need for promoting research at the interface between the mathematical sciences and the life sciences. This program is designed to encourage new collaborations, as well as to support existing ones.

The Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) plan to support research in mathematics and statistics on questions in the biological and biomedical sciences. Both agencies recognize the need for promoting research at the interface between the mathematical sciences and the life sciences. This program is designed to encourage new collaborations, as well as to support existing ones.

The purpose of the NSF-Simons Research Centers for Mathematics of Complex Biological Systems (MathBioSys) is to enable innovative collaborative research at the intersection of mathematics and molecular, cellular and organismal biology, to establish new connections between these two disciplines, and to promote interdisciplinary education and workforce training. The National Science Foundation Directorates for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and for Biological Sciences (BIO) and the Simons Foundation Division of Mathematics and the Physical Sciences (MPS) and Division of Life Sciences shall jointly sponsor up to three new research centers to facilitate collaborations among groups of mathematicians, statisticians, and biologists.