About the Biodiversity on a Changing Planet Program
The Biodiversity on a Changing Planet program is a cross directorate and international program led by NSF that invites submission of interdisciplinary proposals addressing grand challenges in biodiversity science within the context of unprecedented environmental change. Environmental change takes many forms, including climate change. Biodiversity is one of the most complex features of our planet and is critical for the survival of our species. Current rates of rapid and permanent species loss require new knowledge about how the functional diversity of organisms interacts with, and responds to, environmental change. The program supports a comprehensive and integrative approach to understanding planetary biodiversity from a functional perspective, and it encourages the use of new technology and team science approaches. Research supported by this program will improve modeling and forecasting of the consequences of functional change in biodiversity in response to environmental change. Successful BoCP proposals will test hypotheses about functional biodiversity on a changing planet by integrating cellular, organismal, ecological, evolutionary, geological, and/or paleontological perspectives. While this focus complements several core programs at NSF, it differs by requiring an integrative approach to address the functional role of biodiversity in response to changing environmental conditions.

The program supports both US-only collaborative proposals and proposals with international partnerships with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) of Brazil, and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. International collaborative proposals are to be submitted jointly, with the US PIs submitting to NSF and the collaborating Chinese, Brazilian, or South African PIs submitting to their appropriate national funding agencies. These agreements do not preclude other international collaborations

There are two proposal tracks covered by this solicitation: Design and Implementation.

It is strongly recommended that prospective PIs contact the BoCP Program Officer(s) to ascertain that the focus and budget of their proposed activities are appropriate for this solicitation.

Program guidelines

Award Information

Depending on the quality of proposals, 4-6 awards are estimated to be made for each award track (Design/Implementation).

Anticipated Funding Amount: $14,000,000 to $17,000,000

For the US portion of the budget, up to $500,000 per proposal are available for the Design track, and up to $2.5M per proposal are available for the Implementation track.

These upper limits for proposal budgets do not include the costs of NSF facilities or logistics support.

Funding for Design track US-China collaborative proposals will be at a level of up to ￥1.0M for 3-year projects (Chinese portion of the project). The number of Design track US-China collaborative proposals funded will depend on the quality of the projects submitted. For Implementation track US-China Collaborative Research Proposals the expected funding from NSFC will be at a level of up to ¥4.5M for 5-year projects (Chinese side of the budget). A maximum of three Implementation track projects will be funded, depending on the quality of the submitted proposals and the availability of funds. Please consult the NSFC guidelines for how the funds should be allocated per allowed activities.

The expected funding for the FAPESP portion of US-FAPESP collaborative proposals will be at a level of R$15.5M (Real) for up to five Regular Research Grants with 2 years of postdoctoral fellowship (to match with NSF’s Design track) and up to three awards, in any combination of Thematic Research Grants and Young Investigator Grants (to match with NSF’s Implementation track). Please consult the FAPESP guidelines for how the funds should be allocated per allowed activities.

The expected funding from NRF for the South African portion of US-South Africa collaborative Design proposals will be up to two 3-year at a level of up to R1.8M (Rand), R600k per annum. Up to two 5-year US-South Africa Collaborative Research awards may be funded for Implementation track proposals at a level of up to R10.0M (Rand), R2.0M per annum from NRF. Please consult the NRF guidelines for how the funds should be allocated per allowed activities.

Multilateral collaborative proposals, involving NSF and more than one international partner among NSFC, FAPESP, and NRF will also be considered.

Estimated Number of Awards

8 to 12- Estimated program budget, number of awards and average award size/duration are subject to the availability of funds.

Proposals may only be submitted by certain types of organizations. Please see solicitation for details.

Review full program guidelines and learn how to submit a proposal in the latest solicitation.

The deadline date for full proposal submission is 25th March 2022

For more information on this funding opportunity, kindly visit this page