Dimensions of Biodiversity | 18 512

Opportunity Information: Apply for 18 512

The National Science Foundation (NSF) grant opportunity "Dimensions of Biodiversity" (Funding Opportunity Number 18-512) supports research aimed at significantly improving how scientists discover, describe, and explain life on Earth in the face of accelerating biodiversity loss. The central motivation is that, even after centuries of biological exploration, a large share of the planet's species and biological variation is still undocumented, and many of those unknown forms of life may disappear before they are ever studied. NSF frames this effort as a coordinated campaign to change, in a major way, how biodiversity is characterized and understood, with an emphasis on producing breakthroughs that close the biggest knowledge gaps rather than incremental advances.

A defining feature of this program is its requirement for genuinely integrative work across three dimensions of biodiversity: genetic diversity (variation within and among populations at the DNA level), phylogenetic diversity (evolutionary relationships and the breadth of the tree of life represented in a system), and functional diversity (traits and ecological roles that influence how organisms interact with each other and their environments). Proposals are expected to address these three dimensions together, not as parallel add-ons, but in ways that reveal how they interact and feed back on one another. The goal is to understand the combined, synergistic effects of these dimensions in major ecological and evolutionary processes, especially the mechanisms that generate biodiversity (origins), keep it in place over time (maintenance), and determine what it does in ecosystems (functional roles).

NSF notes that this program complements core activities within its Biological Sciences Directorate (BIO), but it is distinct because it explicitly pushes researchers to link multiple biodiversity dimensions simultaneously and to do so using novel approaches. Competitive projects, in other words, should move beyond single-axis inventories or isolated genetic/trait/evolutionary analyses and instead build integrated frameworks that explain why biodiversity looks the way it does and how it affects ecosystems, resilience, and change. While the solicitation text provided does not list specific required methods, the emphasis on novelty and integration implies that strong submissions often combine multiple data streams (for example, molecular data, trait measurements, ecological observations, and evolutionary modeling) in a cohesive design that can answer cross-cutting questions.

In fiscal year 2018, the program also included international partnership pathways involving the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) in Brazil, and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. This signals NSF interest in enabling coordinated or complementary international research efforts where appropriate, particularly for biodiversity questions that are inherently global, span continents, or require access to diverse ecosystems and biotas.

Administrative details from the opportunity include that it is a discretionary NSF grant in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category (CFDA 47.074). Eligibility is listed as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full announcement. For this specific cycle, the original closing date was February 28, 2018. NSF anticipated making about 10 awards, with an award ceiling of $2,000,000 per award.

For investigators who are unsure whether a prospective project is a good fit, NSF encouraged early contact by emailing a brief project summary and contact information to Dimensions@nsf.gov. This pre-submission inquiry route is intended to help teams align with the program's core expectation: integrated, innovative research that jointly advances genetic, phylogenetic, and functional perspectives to explain the origins, persistence, and ecological consequences of biodiversity.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Dimensions of Biodiversity" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.074.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 03, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 28, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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