Infrastructure Innovation for Biological Research | 21 502

Opportunity Information: Apply for 21 502

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Infrastructure Innovation for Biological Research program (often referred to as "Innovation") is a discretionary grant opportunity that funds the creation and advancement of research infrastructure that can noticeably push modern biological research forward. The central aim is to support work that designs brand-new tools, methods, or platforms, or that delivers major improvements to existing ones, in ways that help biologists better study living systems. Rather than funding a narrowly tailored tool meant for only one lab, this program is built around infrastructure that can be broadly useful across a wider community of researchers and can meaningfully contribute to answering biological science questions supported by NSF's Directorate for Biological Sciences.

A key feature of the opportunity is its focus on enabling capabilities: the kinds of innovations that improve scientists' ability to manipulate, control, analyze, or measure important aspects of biological systems. In practice, that can include technologies or methodological frameworks that make experiments possible that were previously too difficult, too slow, too expensive, or too imprecise. The program is explicitly interested in infrastructure that unlocks new kinds of biological understanding by expanding what researchers can reliably observe and quantify, or by giving them improved ways to probe mechanisms and test hypotheses in complex biological contexts.

Proposals are organized under three main programmatic areas: Bioinformatics, Instrumentation, and Research Methods. While the solicitation points applicants to the individual area descriptions for the most specific guidance, the overall intent is clear: projects should deliver infrastructure that is broadly applicable to biological research, not just incremental tweaks. Across these areas, an application can advance or transform biology in one of three ways: by developing entirely novel infrastructure, by significantly redesigning existing infrastructure to achieve major improvements, or by adapting existing infrastructure in a genuinely new way that extends its usefulness into new settings, scales, or types of biological questions.

The program also emphasizes connection to real biological problems. Even though the main deliverable is infrastructure, proposals are expected to demonstrate significant application to one or more biological science questions. That means applicants should be able to show how the proposed tool or method would be used in practice to address important research questions, and why the infrastructure is likely to matter beyond a single demonstration. A competitive project, based on the description provided, would clearly articulate who the broader user community is, how that community would adopt or benefit from the infrastructure, and what kinds of biological advances become feasible because of it.

From an administrative standpoint, this opportunity is run by NSF under Funding Opportunity Number 21-502 and is categorized under science and technology and other research and development (CFDA 47.074). It uses the grant funding instrument and has an award ceiling of $800,000. NSF anticipates making about 40 awards. Proposals are accepted at any time, which suggests there is no single annual deadline listed in the provided data, though applicants typically still need to follow NSF's submission rules and any guidance in the full solicitation. Eligibility is listed as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," indicating that applicants should check the official solicitation language for who may apply (for example, which types of institutions or organizations qualify).

Overall, the Infrastructure Innovation for Biological Research program is best understood as NSF support for high-impact, broadly enabling infrastructure that strengthens the toolkit of contemporary biology. It targets innovations that materially change what biologists can do, and it prioritizes designs that can spread beyond one research group to benefit a wider research community.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Infrastructure Innovation for Biological Research" 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 Oct 02, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Proposals accepted anytime. (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 $800,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 40 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 21 502

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