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New information technologies can be envisioned that are based on biological principles and that use biomaterials in the fabrication of devices and components; it is anticipated that these information technologies could enable stored data to be retained for more than 100 years and storage capacity to be 1,000 times greater than current capabilities. These could also facilitate compact computers that will operate with substantially lower power than today's computers. Research in support of these goals can have a significant impact on advanced information processing and storage technologies. This focused solicitation seeks high-risk/high-return interdisciplinary research on novel concepts and enabling technologies that will address the scientific issues and technological challenges associated with the underpinnings of synthetic biology integrated with semiconductor technology. This research will foster interactions among various disciplines including biology, engineering, physics, chemistry, materials science, computer science, and information science that will enable heretofore-unanticipated breakthroughs as well as meet educational goals.

Research Grants are offered to encourage the development of new information that contributes to the understanding of the basic etiology and pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis. In addition, consideration will be given to those projects that provide insight into the development of information that may contribute to the development of new therapies for CF. All proposals must be hypothesis driven, and sufficient preliminary data must be provided to justify CFF support. Information derived from such studies will hopefully lead to submission to other funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Research Grants are offered to encourage the development of new information that contributes to the understanding of the basic etiology and pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis. In addition, consideration will be given to those projects that provide insight into the development of information that may contribute to the development of new therapies for CF. All proposals must be hypothesis driven, and sufficient preliminary data must be provided to justify CFF support. Information derived from such studies will hopefully lead to submission to other funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicits resource grant applications for projects that will bring useful, usable health information to health disparity populations and their health care providers. Access to useful, usable, understandable health information is an important factor when making health decisions. Proposed projects should exploit the capabilities of computer and information technology and health sciences libraries to bring health-related information to consumers and their health care providers.

This program seeks to enhance and expand the national resource of digital data documenting existing vouchered biological and paleontological collections and to advance scientific knowledge by improving access to digitized information (including images) residing in vouchered scientific collections across the United States. The information associated with various collections of organisms, such as geographic, paleogeographic and stratigraphic distribution, environmental habitat data, phenology, information about associated organisms, collector field notes, and tissues and molecular data extracted from the specimens, is a rich resource providing the baseline from which to further biodiversity research and provide critical information about existing gaps in our knowledge of life on earth. The national resource is structured at three levels: a central coordinating organization, a series of thematic networks based on an important research theme, and the physical collections. The national resource builds upon a sizable existing national investment in curation of the physical objects in scientific collections and contributes vitally to scientific research and technology interests in the United States. It will become an invaluable tool in understanding contemporary biological issues and challenges.

On Wednesday, November 4, 2020 and Thursday, November 5, 2020, NSF will host outreach webinars with information about the Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure (Mid-scale RI)-1 funding opportunity (NSF 21-505). The Mid-scale RI Big Idea is intended to provides an agile, Foundation-wide process to fund experimental research capabilities in the mid-scale range ($6 million to $100 million), between the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) and Major Facilities thresholds.  Recently, the solicitation (NSF 21-505) for the Mid-scale RI-1 program (for infrastructure with total project cost of $6 million up until, but not including, $20 million) was published with a deadline of January 7, 2021 for preliminary proposals. Each session will begin at 1:00 p.m. EST and have two parts: a general Mid-scale RI-1 information session (1:00 p.m. -1:40 p.m. EST) with Q&A followed by Directorate-specific breakouts (1:45 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EST) where more technical questions will be addressed. The information presented on Day 1 will be the same as the information presented on Day 2.

The National Vaccine Program Office would like to announce the anticipated availability of funds for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 cooperative agreement awards] under the authority of section 1702(a) of the Public Health Service Act. The FOA will solicit applications for projects conducting research through implementing and evaluating interventions related to fostering informed vaccine decision making by assessing or addressing vaccine confidence or hesitancy, particularly via vaccine education and communication. The work funded by NVPO cannot also be funded by other awards. The 2010 National Vaccine Plan (NVP) recognizes the importance of communication activities that are strategic, science-based, transparent, and culturally appropriate when it comes to utilizing communication to enhance informed vaccine decision making and vaccination acceptance. The National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) collaborates with federal partners to provide strategic direction for the coordination of the vaccine and immunization enterprise for the National Vaccine Plan (NVP) implementation http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/vacc _plan/2010%20Plan/nationalvaccineplan.pdf. NVPO will partner with 2-3 organizations to collaborate on projects that will fall specifically under goal 3 of the NVP (i.e., support communications to enhance informed vaccine decision-making) as well as within the recommendations of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee June 2015 Report: Assessing the State of Vaccine Confidence in the United States: Recommendations from the National Vaccine Advisory Committee. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/nvpo/nvac/reports/nvac-vaccine-confidence-public-health-report-2015.pdf. That report emphasized the importance of developing measurement tools, as well as interventions for supporting healthcare providers, communities, and policies which foster confidence in vaccines.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Divisions of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS), Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB), and Materials Research (DMR) announces a follow-up solicitation on the Semiconductor Synthetic Biology for Information Storage and Retrieval Program (SemiSynBio-II).  Future ultra-low energy storage-based computing systems can be built on principles derived from organic systems that are at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering.  Next-generation information storage technologies can be envisioned that are driven by biological principles and use biomaterials in the fabrication of devices and systems that can store data for more than 100 years with storage capacity 1,000 times more than current storage technologies.  Such a research effort can have a significant impact on the future of information storage and retrieval technologies. This focused solicitation seeks high-risk/high-return interdisciplinary research on novel concepts and enabling technologies that will address the fundamental scientific issues and technological challenges associated with the underpinnings of synthetic biology integrated with semiconductor technology. This research will foster interactions among various disciplines including biology, physics, chemistry, materials science, computer science and engineering that will enable in heretofore unanticipated breakthroughs.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Divisions of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS), Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB), and Materials Research (DMR) announces a follow-up solicitation on the Semiconductor Synthetic Biology for Information Storage and Retrieval Program (SemiSynBio-II). Future ultra-low energy storage-based computing systems can be built on principles derived from organic systems that are at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering. Next-generation information storage technologies can be envisioned that are driven by biological principles and use biomaterials in the fabrication of devices and systems that can store data for more than 100 years with storage capacity 1,000 times more than current storage technologies. Such a research effort can have a significant impact on the future of information storage and retrieval technologies. This focused solicitation seeks high-risk/high-return interdisciplinary research on novel concepts and enabling technologies that will address the fundamental scientific issues and technological challenges associated with the underpinnings of synthetic biology integrated with semiconductor technology. This research will foster interactions among various disciplines including biology, physics, chemistry, materials science, computer science and engineering that will enable in heretofore unanticipated breakthroughs.

The key element of the national HIV/AIDS program is ART scale up contributing towards strategic goals of treatment cascade. This project will build on the successful creation of a HIV medical information system through the ACCESS project by scaling up implementation of the MIS to treatment sites in all 12 PEPFAR focus oblasts, including capacity building of healthcare workers, improving information management, analysis and use. The project will also develop and implement a laboratory information system module. In addition, the project will work with the treatment sites to implement quality improvement and facility index testing activities in coordination with other PEPFAR and Global Fund supported activities. The major expected project results are 1) functional HIV MIS is operated by a GOU affiliated Operator at treatment sites in the 12 PEPFAR priority regions and Vinnitsa; 2) MIS data used by sites, GoU, PEPFAR , and other stakeholders; 3) laboratory module implemented; 3) quality improvement activities are implemented at all supported treatment sites; 4) high coverage facility index testing is performed at supported sites.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Divisions of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS), Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB), and Materials Research (DMR) announces a follow-up solicitation on the Semiconductor Synthetic Biology for Information Storage and Retrieval Program (SemiSynBio-II). Future ultra-low energy storage-based computing systems can be built on principles derived from organic systems that are at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering. Next-generation information storage technologies can be envisioned that are driven by biological principles and use biomaterials in the fabrication of devices and systems that can store data for more than 100 years with storage capacity 1,000 times more than current storage technologies. Such a research effort can have a significant impact on the future of information storage and retrieval technologies. This focused solicitation seeks high-risk/high-return interdisciplinary research on novel concepts and enabling technologies that will address the fundamental scientific issues and technological challenges associated with the underpinnings of synthetic biology integrated with semiconductor technology. This research will foster interactions among various disciplines including biology, physics, chemistry, materials science, computer science and engineering that will enable in heretofore unanticipated breakthroughs.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Divisions of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS), Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB), and Materials Research (DMR) announces a follow-up solicitation on the Semiconductor Synthetic Biology for Information Storage and Retrieval Program (SemiSynBio-II). Future ultra-low energy storage-based computing systems can be built on principles derived from organic systems that are at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering. Next-generation information storage technologies can be envisioned that are driven by biological principles and use biomaterials in the fabrication of devices and systems that can store data for more than 100 years with storage capacity 1,000 times more than current storage technologies. Such a research effort can have a significant impact on the future of information storage and retrieval technologies. This focused solicitation seeks high-risk/high-return interdisciplinary research on novel concepts and enabling technologies that will address the fundamental scientific issues and technological challenges associated with the underpinnings of synthetic biology integrated with semiconductor technology. This research will foster interactions among various disciplines including biology, physics, chemistry, materials science, computer science and engineering that will enable in heretofore unanticipated breakthroughs.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) intends to support a Brain Cell Data Center (BCDC) that will work with other BICCN Centers and interested researchers to establish a web-accessible information system to capture, store, analyze, curate, and display all data and metadata on brain cell types, and their connectivity. The BCDC is expected to: (1) lead the effort to establish spatial and semantic standards for managing heterogeneous brain cell census data types and information; (2) lead the effort to collect and register multimodal brain cell census data to common brain coordinate systems; (3) generate searchable 2D and 3D digital brain atlases for cell census data; and (4) generate a unified and comprehensive brain cell knowledge base that integrates all existing brain cell census data and information across diverse repositories.  A central goal of this and the three companion FOAs is to build a brain cell census resource that can be widely used throughout the research community.

The goal of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to support pilot testing of natural products (i.e., botanicals, dietary supplements, and probiotics), which have a strong scientific premise to justify further clinical testing. Under this FOA, trials must be designed so that results, whether positive or negative, will provide information of high scientific utility and will support decisions about further development or testing of the natural product. This FOA is not intended to support a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the efficacy of the natural product on clinical outcomes.  Rather, the data collected should be used to fill gaps in scientific knowledge and provide the information necessary to develop a competitive full-scale clinical trial.

The goal of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to support pilot testing of natural products (i.e., botanicals, dietary supplements, and probiotics), which have a strong scientific premise to justify further clinical testing. Under this FOA, trials must be designed so that results, whether positive or negative, will provide information of high scientific utility and will support decisions about further development or testing of the natural product. This FOA is not intended to support a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the efficacy of the natural product on clinical outcomes.  Rather, the data collected should be used to fill gaps in scientific knowledge and provide the information necessary to develop a competitive full-scale clinical trial.

The goal of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to support pilot testing of natural products (i.e., botanicals, dietary supplements, and probiotics), which have a strong scientific premise to justify further clinical testing. Under this FOA, trials must be designed so that results, whether positive or negative, will provide information of high scientific utility and will support decisions about further development or testing of the natural product. This FOA is not intended to support a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the efficacy of the natural product on clinical outcomes.  Rather, the data collected should be used to fill gaps in scientific knowledge and provide the information necessary to develop a competitive full-scale clinical trial.

The goal of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to support pilot testing of natural products (i.e., botanicals, dietary supplements, and probiotics), which have a strong scientific premise to justify further clinical testing. Under this FOA, trials must be designed so that results, whether positive or negative, will provide information of high scientific utility and will support decisions about further development or testing of the natural product. This FOA is not intended to support a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the efficacy of the natural product on clinical outcomes.  Rather, the data collected should be used to fill gaps in scientific knowledge and provide the information necessary to develop a competitive full-scale clinical trial.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) offers support for innovative research in biomedical informatics and data science. The scope of NLM's interest in the research domain of informatics is broad and interdisciplinary, developing methods and approaches in biomedical computing, data science and related information fields for application domains of health and biomedicine, including health care delivery, basic biomedical research, clinical and translational research, precision medicine, public health, biosurveillance, health information management in disasters, and similar areas. NLM defines biomedical informatics as the science of optimal representation, organization, management, integration and presentation of information relevant to human health and biology, for purposes of learning, sharing and use.

This FOA encourages Research Project Grant (R01) applications from institutions and organizations proposing research aimed at characterizing animal stem cells and improving existing, and creating new, animal models for human disease conditions.The intent of this initiative is to facilitate the use of stem cell-based therapies for regenerative medicine. The initiative focuses on the following areas: 1) comparative analysis of animal and human stem cells to provide information for selection of the most predictive and informative model systems; 2) development of new technologies for stem cell characterization and transplantation; and 3) improvement of animal disease models for stem cell-based therapeutic applications.

This FOA encourages Research Project Grant (R01) applications from institutions and organizations proposing research aimed at characterizing animal stem cells and improving existing, and creating new, animal models for human disease conditions.The intent of this initiative is to facilitate the use of stem cell-based therapies for regenerative medicine. The initiative focuses on the following areas: 1) comparative analysis of animal and human stem cells to provide information for selection of the most predictive and informative model systems; 2) development of new technologies for stem cell characterization and transplantation; and 3) improvement of animal disease models for stem cell-based therapeutic applications.

This FOA invites applications for Clinical Centers to carefully characterize the normal course of glycemia over the entire duration of pregnancy and understand the evolution of dysglycemia when it occurs. Clinical Centers will recruit and study pregnant women starting in the first trimester and continuing at least through delivery. A separate FOA (RFA-DK-18-019) will solicit a Biostatistics Research Center. Each Clinical Center applicant will propose a study design and provide detailed information about recruitment capacity. All awardees will form a cooperative research consortium in conjunction with NIDDK to design and implement a uniform protocol. Information obtained from this study is expected to lead to improved approaches for screening for GDM, and inform the timing and approach for future clinical trials to decrease adverse perinatal outcomes and long-term sequelae of dysglycemia during pregnancy in both the mother and offspring.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) supports innovative research and development in biomedical informatics and data science. The scope of NLM's interest in these research domains is broad, with emphasis on new methods and approaches to foster data driven discovery in the biomedical and clinical health sciences as well as domain-independent, reusable approaches to discovery, curation, analysis, organization and management of health-related digital objects. Biomedical informatics and data science draw upon many fields, including mathematics, statistics, information science, computer science and engineering, and social/behavioral sciences. Application domains include health care delivery, basic biomedical research, clinical and translational research, precision medicine, public health, biosurveillance, health information management in disasters, and similar areas. NLM defines biomedical informatics as the science of optimal representation, organization, management, integration and presentation of information relevant to human health and biology. NIH defines data science as the interdisciplinary field of inquiry in which quantitative and analytical approaches, processes, and systems are developed and used to extract knowledge and insights from increasingly large and/or complex sets of data.

Background: Kuenzler's Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus fendleri var. kuenzleri) is a federally listed species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). It shares many similarities with a common species, Fendler's Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus fendleri var. fendleri) and with many intermediates. This has caused confusion for land managers. The BLM management of Kuenzler's Hedgehog Cactus impacts the multiple uses (i.e. public land users) across the landscape as it restricts land management decisions in order to conserve the imperiled species. Currently, there is no information on the genetic differences of the Kuenzler's Hedgehog Cactus, the Fendler's Hedgehog Cactus, and intermediaries. Without this information it is difficult to determine importance of populations in order to prioritize recovery actions to enable the species to be de-listed. The use of the most current genetic methods for defining species, plastome sequencing, microsatellite development and genotyping, and ddRAD sequencing is needed to accurately determine whether the two species and associated intermediates are in fact the same. If studies show there are two different varieties it will be important to understand how the different Kuenzler's Hedgehog Cactus populations are related to each other across the landscape. This information can help the BLM prioritize populations according to rarity of the element occurrences. The objective of this project is to determine the genetic differences and similarities between Kuenzler's Hedgehog Cactus (all known element occurrences), Fendler's Hedgehog Cactus, and associated intermediates as well as the differences in population structure of the element occurrences of Kuenzler Hedgehog Cactus across the landscape in order to assist with land management decisions and potential de-listing of the species.

The illicit sale of fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and other synthetic drugs is incredibly profitable, and their high potency in small quantities presents a low risk to traffickers. To respond to this challenge, the U.S. government's understanding of the production, transit, and sale of these drugs and their precursor chemicals must continually increase. We will support a data analytics provider that can produce reliable information to inform our future capacity building programming efforts to combat transnational organized crime. The combination of technology and investigative research on transnational criminal organizations has various potential applications, such as building partner capacity by giving countries leads on various transnational criminal networks, identifying target cells before problems infiltrate neighboring areas, using network overviews for strategy information, and providing training on a limited basis.