Dear Colleague Letter: Request for Information - Integration Institutes for Cross-cutting Biology; March 1, 2019

 

Agency

NSF

 

Description

The National Science Foundation's Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) seeks ideas from the community on fundamental biological research questions and topics that are poised for major advances. Ideally these ideas would span multiple levels of organization in living systems and require expertise from diverse biological subdisciplines. This is a call, not for research proposals, but for high-level ideas. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2019.

 

Biology is unified by the goal of understanding the processes that sustain life and enable biological innovation across all levels of organization, from molecular to global scales. However, the field of biology has become increasingly fragmented into sub-disciplines over the past decades due, in part, to advances that enable deep study of narrowly defined problems. Emerging and mature technologies deliver high-resolution data at every scale, opening new avenues for cross-cutting discoveries in biology but also leading to additional levels of specialization. Creative integration of diverse sub-disciplines at this stage could significantly enhance our ability to tackle ambitious, fundamental biological questions — potentially re-unifying biology.

 

Announcement Number

NSF 19-027

 

Closing Date

March 1, 2019

 

Link to Full Announcement

https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2019/nsf19027/nsf19027.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=click

 

Contact Information

BIO-RFI-II@nsf.gov