This is a reminder that the deadline for the Integration Institutes Request for Information is this Friday, March 1. The BIO Directorate is seeking high-level ideas from the community on fundamental biological research questions and topics poised for major advances. For more information, please visit our previous post, visit the Dear Colleague Letter or send an email to BIO-RFI-II@nsf.gov.
Research
#PollinatorWeek has US Buzzing
June 22, 2016
This afternoon the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released the Pollinator Partnership Action Plan (PPAP). The PPAP accompanies the National Strategy to Promote Pollinator Health, released by OSTP in 2015 along with the science-based Pollinator Research Action Plan.
The National Strategy to Promote Pollinator Health has three goals:
- Reduce honey bee colony losses to economically sustainable levels;
- Increase monarch butterfly numbers to protect the annual migration; and
- Restore or enhance millions of acres of land for pollinators through combined public and private action.
To compliment today’s PPAP release, the National Science Foundation (NSF) summarized the agency’s pollinator portfolio (i.e., what the NSF funds in this area). The NSF supports many basic research and education programs and projects relevant to the National Strategy to Promote Pollinator Health. The majority of awards related to pollinators are made through the Directorate for Biological Sciences, but pollinator research is supported throughout the NSF. The NSF Pollinator Portfolio summary can be found here: http://go.usa.gov/xq5QB.
To celebrate #PollinatorWeek, the NSF has also published an article on Medium highlighting NSF-funded research news and discoveries related to pollinator health.
Learn more about the National Strategy to Promote Pollinator Health, the PPAP, and how you can nurture and celebrate pollinators on the OSTP blog.
Brain Awareness Week 2016 #BAW
In honor of Brain Awareness Week (March 14-20, 2016), here is a selection of recent news stories, videos, and other resources about NSF-funded basic research related to the brain.
To learn more about the NSF’s “Understanding the Brain” activities and the NSF’s participation in the White House’s BRAIN Initiative, please visit: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/brain/
Recently, the NSF announced its participation in the National Research Infrastructure for Neuroscience effort: https://nsfbiobuzz.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/brain_observatory/
NSF video series: In 2014, NSF awarded a total of $10.8 million to 36 brain research projects. These awards are called Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER). They are part of NSF’s broader efforts to understand the healthy brain. These six videos provide more detail about some of the exciting EAGER award projects: http://go.usa.gov/cGUse
NSF Radio Documentary: “Explorers of the Brain: Research from the Frontiers of Neuroscience.” This documentary aired on 111 radio stations around the U.S. Listen and access the transcript here: http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.jsp?med_id=78672
NSF/NBC Learn Video Series: “Mysteries of the Brain.” Scientists and engineers have studied the brain for decades, yet there are many mysteries that remain unsolved. New research is underway to develop and use cutting-edge technologies to better understand the brain. Watch this exciting 8-part video series to learn about the brain and the research NSF is funding: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/brain/video/
What can fruit flies teach us about social interactions and the brain? Watch this NSF Science Nation video:
To watch this video with captions, click here.
Neuroscientists have looked inside brain cells as they undergo the intense bursts of neural activity known as “ripples” that are thought to underlie memory formation. Read more from @CalTech: http://www.caltech.edu/news/studying-memorys-ripples-49860
Scientists decode brain signals nearly at speed of perception: Electrodes in patients’ temporal lobes carry information that, when analyzed, enables scientists to predict what object patients are seeing. Read more from @HSNewsBeat: http://hsnewsbeat.uw.edu/story/scientists-decode-brain-signals-nearly-speed-perception
Like air traffic, information flows through major neuron ‘hubs’ in the brain. In many cortical regions, 70 percent of the brain’s information passes through only a fifth of the neurons. Read more from @IUNewsroom: http://news.indiana.edu/releases/iu/2016/01/hub-neurons.shtml
Engineered neural networks show hope for axonal repair in the brain, with minimal disruption to brain tissue. Technology holds potential to benefit patients with damage to brain connections resulting from brain injury or disease. Read more from @PennMedNews: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2016/01/cullen/
Researchers uncover “predictive neuron orchestra” behind looking and reaching movements. Read more from @NYUniversity: http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2016/01/12/researchers-uncover-predictive-neuron-orchestra-behind-looking-and-reaching-movements.html
Researchers develop new method for analyzing synaptic density: High-throughput, machine-learning tool could help researchers better understand synaptic activity in learning and disease. Read more from @CarnegieMellon: http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2015/december/synaptic-density.html
University study shows first evidence for independent working memory systems in animals. Data could inform new pre-clinical research models for Alzheimer’s disease treatment that goes beyond spatial memory. Read more from @IUNewsroom: http://news.indiana.edu/releases/iu/2016/01/working-memory.shtml
In experiments with zoo animals, relative brain size was the best clue to problem-solving ability in carnivores. Read more from NSF here and watch this video from the NY Times’ ScienceTake: http://nyti.ms/1NvP95M
Finally, if you are in the DC/MD area on Tuesday, March 22, 2016, attend the National Museum of Health and Medicine’s Science Café from 6-7pm with NSF Assistant Director for Biological Sciences, Dr. Jim Olds, who will be speaking about “Searching for an Elusive Cure to Brain Diseases.” Read more from @medicalmuseum: http://www.medicalmuseum.mil/index.cfm?p=media.events.2016.03222016
Changes to Graduate Research Fellowship Program Eligibility
(Links updated March 29, 2016)
On March 7, 2016 the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Education and Human Resources issued a Dear Colleague Letter (NSF 16-050) identifying changes in eligibility to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).
Effective as of the 2017 competition (Fall 2016 deadlines), NSF will limit graduate students to only one application to the GRFP, submitted either in the first year or in the second year of graduate school.1 No change is made to the eligibility of undergraduates, of bachelor’s degree holders without any graduate study, or of individuals who have had an interruption in graduate study of at least two consecutive years.2
Read the Dear Colleague Letter and access Frequently Asked Questions (NSF 16-051)
1 First-year graduate students in Fall 2015 who applied to the 2016 GRFP competition will be allowed to apply a second time in Fall 2016, if they are otherwise eligible. All other graduate students are subject to the new eligibility requirements.
2 See the GRFP Program Solicitation: NSF 15-597
Press Release 16-033 (March 29, 2016): NSF awards 2016 Graduate Research Fellowships
NSF Announces Participation in National Research Infrastructure for Neuroscience Effort
In a Dear Colleague Letter dated February 19, 2016, the Directorates of the National Science Foundation announced the NSF’s intention to foster the development of a national research infrastructure for neuroscience to support collaborative and team science for achieving a comprehensive understanding of the brain in action and context.
This multi-directorate effort is part of the NSF’s Understanding the Brain activity, including NSF’s participation in the White House’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative.
Understanding the brain is one of the grand scientific challenges at the intersection of experimental, theoretical, and computational investigation in the biological, physical, social and behavioral sciences, education research, and engineering.
Achieving a comprehensive understanding of the brain requires increased emphasis on systematic, multidisciplinary collaboration and team science to establish quantitative and predictive theories of brain structure and function that span levels of organization, spatial scales of study, and the diversity of species. This challenge necessitates the development of innovative, accessible, and shared capabilities, resources and cyberinfrastructure, along with the eventual organizing of these into a coherent national infrastructure for neuroscience research.
This effort will be realized through a phased approach.
BIO’s FY 2017 Budget Request
On February 9, 2016, the National Science Foundation rolled-out its FY 2017 budget request to Congress.
Information about the NSF’s budget request can be found on nsf.gov, including a summary brochure, a press release, fact sheets, the Director’s presentation slides, and more.
Dr. Jim Olds, NSF Assistant Director for Biological Sciences, rolled-out the budget request for the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO). BIO currently supports 68% of academic basic research in non-medical biology.
The total FY 2017 request for BIO is $790.52 million, a 6.2% increase over the FY 2016 estimate. Of the $790.52 million, $745.73 million is discretionary funding and $44.79 million is new mandatory funding*.
The table below identifies how BIO’s request is distributed across its Divisions.
| FY 2017 Request (millions) | |
| Molecular and Cellular Biosciences | $136.77 |
| Integrative Organismal Systems | $215.40 |
| Environmental Biology | $145.17 |
| Biological Infrastructure | $135.74 |
| Emerging Frontiers | $157.44 (includes mandatory funding) |
| BIO TOTAL |
$790.52 |
BIO’s top priority is core research across biology. Broad support for academic basic research in biology is necessary to produce the knowledge that will address national needs in agriculture, health, the environment, and continuing innovation for the bioeconomy, which has already shown progress in areas such as biofuels, biorenewable chemicals, and nanotechnology.
BIO funding priorities for FY 2017 include the following:
BIO support for clean energy technology would provide funds for research in areas such as: systems and synthetic biology to streamline and scale the metabolic and energetic potential of living organisms, to produce non-petroleum based sources of important chemicals, materials, feed stocks, and fuels; bioinspired design of new proteins and other complex biomaterials that can transform light into energy; and investigations to assess the impact of fuel and/or bio-renewable chemical production to assess the potential environmental impacts of these technologies.
Understanding the Brain combines support for activities relevant to the the White House’s BRAIN Initiative and continuing NSF support for activities in the areas of cognitive and neuroscience.
Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS) will be stressed in NSF-wide and BIO specific programs, such as Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) and Macrosystems Biology (MSB). Also, a joint solicitation between BIO’s Division of Integrative Organismal Systems and USDA NIFA, called Plant Biotic Interactions (PBI), will be issued in FY 2016, with initial awards funded in FY 2017.
BIO’s budget request includes increased support for microbiome research. Microbiome investments support research on the role of microbes in plant and animal function, productivity, health, and resilience to environmental change, as well as microbes’ role in soil and marine ecosystems. Studies of microbiomes occur on a broad range of scales from metagenomics, which looks at the entirety of collective genomes in microbial communities, to individual community composition and collective metabolic activity. The joint IOS/NIFA solicitation mentioned above will include support for microbiome research.
In FY 2017, as NEON nears completion, BIO will assume full responsibility for NEON operations and oversight. With the need for increased oversight, BIO will transfer program management for NEON operations from Emerging Frontiers (EF) into the Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI), which has long-standing experience managing cooperative agreements and infrastructure, such as Science and Technology Centers (STCs), iPlant (now CyVerse), and other BIO Centers for Analysis and Synthesis. Funding for early NEON science, including continuing support for the MacroSystems Biology (MSB) program, remains a priority. NSF is in the process of evaluating new managing organizations for NEON operations and maintenance.
BIO will sustain support for new mid-scale projects to advance data, software, and collaborative infrastructure in support of several priority areas through the Advances in Biological Informatics (ABI) Program, BIO Synthesis Centers, as well as ongoing solicitations, e.g., Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SI2). In FY 2017, SI2 will begin to focus on software infrastructure for major projects and awards including STCs, iPlant (now CyVerse), and Major Research Facilities and Construction (MREFC) projects.
The NSF-wide BioMaPS investment seeks to discover fundamental new knowledge to enable innovation in national priorities such as clean energy, climate science, and advanced manufacturing. In FY 2017, BIO will sustain support for this activity. One area of emphasis will be synthetic biology, which is a convergent area at the intersection of biology, engineering, and physical sciences that informs our ability to design and build novel biological functions and systems using engineering principles.
Understanding the Rules of Life represents our shared vision for core research. Support for this new emphasis includes research areas such as the genotype to phenotype challenge, plant and microbial sciences, including the study of microbiomes, synthetic biology, origins of life, and developing biological theory as a framework for the rules of life. Quantitative approaches that integrate the mathematical and physical sciences, computer science, and engineering into advancing basic biological understanding underpinning the study of the rules of life will be encouraged.
BIO’s FY 2017 budget request also includes support for early career scientists through enhanced funding for PIs, new efforts to train graduate students, and targeted support for postdoctoral fellows. BIO will participate in the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program. And a BIO Research Training Grant (RTG) Program would provide $6.16 million to improve graduate education.
BIO will participate in the NSF initiative, Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners that have been Underrepresented for Diversity in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES), an effort to increase the preparation, participation, advancement, and potential contributions of those who have been traditionally underserved and/or underrepresented in STEM fields. BIO will also continue participation in the NSF-wide program ADVANCE as part of its ongoing commitment to broaden participation to build strategies and models to increase the participation, retention, and advancement of women in all STEM academic careers.
Finally, in the area of innovation activities, the FY 2017 budget includes support for an Origin of Life Ideas Lab – a partnership between NSF BIO and NASA Astrobiology to stimulate creative thinking and new research on the earliest events leading to life on Earth. Projects resulting from the Ideas Lab would explore plausible pathways for the origin of life that would contribute directly to our understanding of the indispensable properties of life on Earth and inform our search for life on other worlds, and would contribute to a theoretical framework for the “metabolism first” and “RNA first” hypotheses for the origin of life.
*Mandatory funding, also known as “direct spending,” is a different category of Federal spending than NSF typically sees. It is most commonly associated with entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) and is not subject to discretionary caps. In FY 2017, the Administration is seeking legislation to provide mandatory funding for NSF and other R&D agencies on a one-time basis.
Meeting NSF’s Technical Reporting Requirements
PIs must use Research.gov to meet all NSF technical reporting requirements, including submission of annual, final, and project outcomes reports.
- What is Required?
NSF requires that all Principal Investigators (PIs) submit annual reports during the course of an award and a final report no later than 120 days following expiration of an award. Each report is reviewed by the award’s managing Program Officer; the reporting requirement is met only after the Program Officer has reviewed and approved the report.
NSF also requires…
Revised Grant Proposal Guide for 2016
A revision of the Grant Proposal Guide will be in effect on January 25, 2016. Note – the revisions apply to all proposals due on or after January 25th.
You can access the 2016 GPG here: go.usa.gov/3SrTB
Read about the changes & clarifications to the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (which includes the GPG) here: go.usa.gov/cKP92
Remember, when the instructions in a solicitation differ from the GPG, the solicitation is what you should follow. If you have any questions regarding what guidelines to follow, don’t hesitate to contact the Program Director/Officer for the program to which you are applying. Contact information is always listed on the Program Summary page.
Digitizing Biodiversity Draws a Crowd: iDigBio Summit V Highlights
The fifth annual iDigBio Summit was held on November 4-6, 2015, at the Hilton Hotel, Arlington, Virginia.
General information about the Summit, the agenda, and recordings of the event can be found on the iDigBio wiki: https://www.idigbio.org/wiki/index.php/IDigBio_Summit_2015
One hundred thirty six scientists and students from 60 institutions representing 33 national and international biodiversity digitization initiatives participated.
A highlight of the summit was when the 15 Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs) supported by the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program presented their reports. The reports underscored digitization progress, data accessibility and research accomplishments.
This year’s summit also engaged the participants in discussions focused on increasing mobilization of data, data use in research, long-term sustainability of the networks, products and cyberinfrastructure associated with digitization, and coalescing education and outreach efforts across ADBC-funded projects and the wider biodiversity collections community.
Here are some additional highlights as shared by participants on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/NSF_BIO/status/662728102972252160
Related NSF Press Releases:
NSF awards fifth round of grants to enhance America’s biodiversity collections (PR 15-092)
NSF Awards Third Round of Grants to Advance Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (PR 13-135)
NSF Awards Second Round of Grants to Advance Digitization of Biological Collections (PR 12-082)
NSF Awards Grants to Advance Digitization of Biological Collections (PR 11-136)
Related media coverage:
Museum Specimens Find New Life Online, The New York Times Science, Oct. 19, 2015
Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology
On October 13, 2015, BIO hosted an informative webcast about Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB). The deadline for PRFB proposals (for Fiscal Year 2016 funding) is November 3, 2015.
The webcast was lead by NSF staff from BIO’s Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems.
BIO makes PRFB awards to recent recipients of the doctoral degree for research and training in selected areas* supported by BIO and with special goals for human resource development in biology (awards are not made to institutions). The fellowships encourage independence at an early stage of the research career to permit Fellows to pursue their research and training goals in the most appropriate research locations, regardless of the availability of funding for the Fellows at that site.
*For FY 2016 and beyond, the areas are:
- Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology
- Research Using Biological Collections, and
- National Plant Genome Initiative (NPGI) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships.
The webcast provides information for potential applicants regarding when and how to apply and common pitfalls and problems to avoid.
To download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation used by BIO staff or to view the archived webcast, visit http://www.tvworldwide.com/events/nsf/151013/. To view the webcast, you must register with your email address (registration is free).
As of October 21, more than 120 participants registered for and participated in or watched the archived version of the webcast.
A later webcast, planned for 2016, will target graduate advisors of future applicants and established scientists interested in serving as sponsoring scientists to NSF Fellows in the future.
The postdoctoral research experience represents a critically important career transition for future leaders in biology. If you have questions about the PRFB Program, contact the Program Officers listed on the Program Summary web page (note, inquiries for program areas 1 and 2 should be sent to bio-dbi-prfb[at]nsf[dot]gov and for area 3, the NPGI PRF, inquiries should be sent to dbipgr[at]nsf[dot]gov).
BIO BUZZ 